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Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

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Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#631

Post by ziml77 »

glenarma wrote: post #139
allwein wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and if Visual Studio ran on Mac I'd probably switch my PC out also Not sure if it supports all the features you need, but it exists. https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/mac/

That’s just a rebranded Xamarin IDE - but for .NET development on Mac, I’ve found JetBrains Rider does most of what the full Visual Studio package does

Seconding Rider if you're on macOS. It shares its analysis code with ReSharper, so it's extremely featureful. In fact, it's usually faster than VS + ReSharper because it isn't running two code analysis engines at once and it doesn't have to run the analysis out-of-process.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#632

Post by ziml77 »

deckard1 wrote: post #607
microtonal wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an AMD Ryzen ThinkPad. It has all the same issues with modern sleep. The solution is to enable S3 sleep in the firmware. Unfortunately, even in S3 sleep, the battery would drain in a day. I am now back to a MacBook Air (M1) and sleep works perfectly. Life is to short to deal with the terrible state of sleep on Windows/Linux laptops.

I'm fairly certain that your Macbook is actually hibernating, and not merely suspending. This seems to be the case with my 2015 Macbook. Suspend alone will drain your battery. I have a Ryzen ThinkPad p14s with Linux. What you do is turn on S3 mode (they call it "Linux") in BIOS as you did. Then in /etc/systemd/sleep.conf you enable AllowSuspendThenHibernate. You can adjust the time. I have mine set to 30 minutes. I a…

I wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't notice that their MacBook was hibernating. Apple tries to hide it by showing you the login screen immediately, but that period where you can't interact is the device resuming from hibernation. It's a similar trick to what they do on iOS. When you open up an application that was suspended, it shows an image while reloading the saved state to make it seem like the app never closed. (As documented here: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicatio... )

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#633

Post by ziml77 »

jakub_g wrote: post #485
formerly_proven wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's hibernation though, so it takes way longer to wake up and also does a lot of I/O on the probably not replaceable SSD. (Also, why does your post show as being made on the 2021-10-14 when this "Ask HN" is from today? Wat)

Anecdata but my 5-year ThinkPad and 3-year Dell are doing fine (also a 10-year Asus). I've been always hibernating for the night. 16GB RAM, takes at most few seconds. I don't get this allergy to hibernation, is it such a killer to wait a few seconds when I know I won't be using device for hours/days?

Takes seconds to resume and saves a lot of battery since the machine is truly powered off.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#634

Post by ziml77 »

tentacleuno wrote: post #254
Smithalicious wrote: post #166

0. Linux compatibility, I am not super picky about getting everything to work perfectly but I should be able to trust that the software I prefer to use will run and my laptop will connect to wifi and play audio properly and so on. 1. IPS screen (mostly a given nowadays, but this wasn't always so) 2. Trackpoint, I hate trackpads. Pretty rare option so I could possibly be convinced otherwise if the trackpad is particul…

> I could possibly be convinced otherwise if the trackpad is particularly good. Genuine question: what about Macbook trackpads? We have a MBP 2013, and it runs leaps and bounds over my Windows laptop which came out in the same year. I'm not sure if other laptops have caught up with Apple yet, but Macbook trackpads are commonly referred to as the best in the business.

Apple leapt ahead of other laptops again with their trackpad that uses haptics instead of an actually button. It takes consistent pressure across the whole trackpad instead of being more difficult to press as you get closer to the hinge. It feels ridiculously convincing that you're actually pushing a button and even has a cool feature where you have a second action by pushing harder. And it really does feel like you've pushed a button deeper.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#635

Post by nikau »

sgc wrote: post #625
shawnz wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am just talking about the battery. I don't see any privacy issue there.

Sometimes you really need to make sure there is no power flowing through your device, which you can't be sure of using software when you are trying to fix software problems. Of course I should have said recording devices and networking, rather than just cameras. Also, true power off guarantees nobody is remotely activating eavesdropping on your device.

Lenovo have a battery disconnect bios option specifically for doing service work.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#636

Post by ziml77 »

klelatti wrote: post #601
Leherenn wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is ARM really the reason the M1 is so much better than the current x86 CPUs? If you have a look at the competition (Qualcomm), it sounds to me that it's Apple expertise at designing a SoC and using a more advanced node that makes it such a good CPU, not really the architecture. Said another way, I highly doubt we will see a non-Apple ARM CPU outclass the x86 competition in such a way anytime soon, so saying "never x8…

Agreed that architecture is only a (possibly small) part but Arm’s business model and the other things that Arm brings to the table are also relevant. For example the small / large core approach that Apple uses hasn’t previously been an x86 feature (although clearly that is changing). Also non Apple Arm CPUs do outclass x86 in a huge segment of the cpu marketplace - on smartphones and tablets. I’d don’t think that an…

I'm curious to see how Alder Lake's clone of the ARM big.LITTLE design performs. I wouldn't be surprised if at the very least it lets Intel beat out AMD in the mobile CPU space. (Which would be great simply because Ryzen 4000 laptops are near impossible to get)

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#637

Post by pxc »

Oddskar wrote: post #558
harshitaneja wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the important ones like package managers, containers, not calling home etc are mentioned by the others. So I will mention things I don't think are discussed enough by linux switchers. The one I didn't think I would yearn for but am really reminded of everyday are- desktop environments and window managers. My friends couldn't stop praising the UX but even after a long time trying to get used to it I still am a…

My friends couldn't stop praising the UX but even after a long time trying to get used to it I still am annoyed by the application switching keyboard shortcuts, lack of ability to set system wide shortcuts for launching basic things like terminal. Hammerspoon is the answer to all of these. The common solution is to rebind caps lock (using Karabiner Elements) to be “hyper” (cmd + alt + shift + ctrl) and then bind glob…

If someone were complaining about inability to configure keyboard shortcuts on Linux and you recommended a solution like Hammerspoon, it'd invite an onslaught of ‘this is why Linux is too overcomplicated and annoying for normal people’ comments.

Setting global keyboard shortcuts on Linux doesn't require you to learn a whole-ass LUA API. It's just there, for all the popular DEs.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#638

Post by nikau »

motoboi wrote: post #540
nikau wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your battery is likely worn from keeping it charged at 100% constantly, lenovo have an option to limit max charge to something like 80% which will greatly reduce battery wear, you just have to turn it off if you are actually planning to run it without AC for as long as possible.

His battery is likely worn by recharging cycles. As the computer is being discharged more often.

Nope, its from charging to 100% constantly which accelerates wear massively.

I've had my Lenovo carbon x1 for a few years set to 80% max charge and its battery life is still good.

Battery stats report 480 charging cycles, capacity has dropped only 8 percent from rated.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#639

Post by pxc »

baybal2 wrote: post #232
hiisukun wrote: post #27

1. S3 Standby/suspend support. If your laptop supports that, you can close the lid and it will power ~everything except the RAM down (sometimes a USB port still charges). In 'new' laptops, including almost everything Tiger lake and Intel, S3 is being phased out for Microsoft's "Modern Standby", known as S0ix (or sometimes InstantGo). This is much more like a mobile phone, where it stays on but attempts to use as litt…

> 1. S3 Standby/suspend support. Intel diasabled S3 in Tiger Lake

What is the reason for this decision? Idgi

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#640

Post by pxc »

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #629
grandpoobah wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was going to post the same thing (albeit far more poorly explained). Isn't Microsoft embarrassed about this? This has been an issue for my last two laptops over the last 5 years. How is it acceptable for this problem to still exist? My Lenovo supports S3 sleep, but I didn't discover it until probably a year into having bought it, so at that point my battery's ability to hold charge had already been sufficiently degra…

> Visual Studio ran on Mac Visual Studio Code does. Is that the same? Even has native M1 support.

It's not the same at all. Visual Studio is an IDE (like Eclipse) and Visual Studio Code is an extensible text editor (like Emacs).

It is pretty good though. It's enjoying a big surge in popularity lately and seems to deserve it.

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