Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival • Hacker News Board

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#221

Post by JustSomeNobody » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:34 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #205

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #202

Macbook Air is more than just hardware. It's hardware and software working together to make the experience. I doubt a $540 machine running Windows will match it. I very much dislike Windows, but I realize that's just me. Linux on this machine would be awesome.

I dislike Windows but I dislike OSX even more, so software is indifferent for me, seeing as I will be installing Linux anyway. I suspect there are many people who think like me.

OS X nudges past Linux for me because it is much more efficient (this is what I was alluding to in my statement about hardware and software working together). If Linux could work out some way of being just as efficient with the battery as OS X, I would put Linux on my laptop instead of keeping it only on my server.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#222

Post by clmckinley » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:36 PM UTC

hcal wrote: post #192

nailer wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux (as in Linux/glibc/X/whatever) doesn't have a lot of native apps. Android though would rock.

Is that a troll? Linux has tons of native applications in just about every category. It is absolutely packed with alternatives. I don't use Linux daily anymore, but I almost never had an issue finding programs for what ever task I wanted to accomplish. More often then not the problem was a glut of choices.

Yes lots of alternatives, you can argue that there is an alternative for virtually everything that is available if you are willing and know how to find it.

This is the same argument that Windows Phone (ironically) make, but most people want the same programs that all of their friends run. Computers and most other electronics are appliances to most people they just want them to work without any thought.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#223

Post by izzydata » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:38 PM UTC

Why does it need to be so thin? I don't really understand this fad of making every so thin that battery life suffers.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#224

Post by nailer » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:39 PM UTC

hcal wrote: post #192

nailer wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux (as in Linux/glibc/X/whatever) doesn't have a lot of native apps. Android though would rock.

Is that a troll? Linux has tons of native applications in just about every category. It is absolutely packed with alternatives. I don't use Linux daily anymore, but I almost never had an issue finding programs for what ever task I wanted to accomplish. More often then not the problem was a glut of choices.

> Linux has tons of native applications in just about every category.

Cool. Where's Word, Tinder, Instagram, Google Maps, Google Mail, Outlook and WhatsApp?

I think there's a Linux Spotify, so you've got that.

I love Linux (I'm ex Red Hat and IBM's Linux team) but Linux (as mentioned, Linux/glibc/X/whatever) lacks apps.

> Is that a troll?

Seriously?

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#225

Post by damien » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

FuNe wrote: post #165

Why windows? Won't that add to the price? Why not a linux "version" for 100$ less?

I've heard OEMs make more money from pre-installing adware/spyware/trialware than what they pay for the Windows license.

You can always decline the EULA and try to get a refund for the bundled Windows license. In Europe it is supposedly easy to get a refund due to a European Union directive on unfair commercial practices: http://no.more.racketware.info/en/europe

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#226

Post by andrepd » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

oldmanjay wrote: post #185

kolinko wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoted for the speech style. "You're one of those online fanboys...". Read up on nonviolent communication, man!

Calling someone a fanboy is now considered violence? What sort of rhetorical genius convinced you of that?

Ad hominem attacks have no place in a civilised discussion forum.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#227

Post by jimrandomh » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

When looking at laptop specs, the first thing I look at (almost the only thing) is the screen resolution. This is yet another 1920x1080 laptop, which puts it somewhere between "undifferentiated and uninteresting" and "outright disqualified".

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#228

Post by pjc50 » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

ungzd wrote: post #103

chj wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Installed Ubuntu once, I can't help to notice that it tries too much to be macosx. I would rather keep using macbook, or use plain debian instead if installing wifi driver weren't a pain in the ass.

It tries to be NextStep.

I rather like GNUstep, or at least its window manager, but it's been kind of neglected.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#229

Post by Keyframe » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

I've been looking for a new laptop recently, but I can't seem to find a good.

My primary concerns are:

- not to have open it up and clean from dust. That's what all of my laptops, except Air, suffered from. They get dust inside and then get hot and loud. I move around a lot and it's inevitable. I don't want noise and I want as little heat as possible.

- Multitouch Trackpad like on Macbook Air. It's wonderful!

- Long battery life with moderate to high power cpu.

- Great 13" monitor that you can see what's going on in direct sunlight.

- As much as possible of internal fast storage.

- Lots of RAM.

- Great typing experience. I'm fine with chiklet on Air. It's just fine. I write a lot, more than typical programmers - treatments, instructions, screenplays on a daily basis.

Currently, only Air fits the bill, but it's getting old.

So, a high(er)-powered Air 13" with longer battery life and more RAM and disk space and better screen with updated CPU and graphics would be great. I haven't found one. I don't care which OS it runs. They're all the same these days.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#230

Post by kccqzy » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 2:44 PM UTC

tinco wrote: post #142

mtgx wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $540 version uses Core M3, which basically has 15% lower performance than the latest iPad, so I doubt it's going to be too great of a dev machine (just because the iPad seems fast with 1 app per screen, doesn't mean the same performance will be enough for 20 tabs and 5 other programs running at the same time): http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/221881-apples-a9x-goes-hea...

What kind of development would we be talking about? I still use my 2009 MBP for day to day development. It's ~10% slower than a Core M3, I usually do webdev on it, but it's also fine for AOT things like Rust, Haskell and even some C here and there (I recently compiled RethinkDB, no biggy). Things that really hurt are short battery life which is ~1.45hrs, and that it misses the modern CPU extensions which will obsolet…

I'm surprised you find Rust and Haskell bearable. Because for both languages slow compilation is a pretty well known problem[1][2]. On my old laptop (2011 MBP) compiling and interpreting (ghci/ghcid) took so long that it was distracting. This isn't even a big project; just a medium-sized one with a little over a hundred Haskell modules.

[1]: https://m.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/45q90s/is_anything_b... [2]: https://m.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/2uxt46/rust_vs_c_inc_co...