Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introducing Surface Laptop

blogs.windows.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

431–440 of 613 posts

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#431

Post by dm319 »

city41 wrote: post #302
lorenzhs wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The model supported by coreboot is the first generation X1 Carbon, which is 4-5 years old now. I'm talking about the 5th generation, which has only been available for a few months.

Any idea if the trackpad is better? I have three Thinkpads (including the previous Carbon), all running Linux, and the trackpads are just terrible. I'm spoiled because I'm used to the MacBook trackpad.

the 5th gen uses the microsoft precision standard (i.e. sends the raw input to the OS to interpret) - reported to be as good as the surface book, and close to macbook.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#432

Post by 72deluxe »

cm2187 wrote: post #267
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pricing is one thing I don't understand. If you're asking a customer to pay the same price as a MacBook air, which comes with productivity apps and a basic cloud service for free, why don't you let them use O365 for free, in perpetuity, at least on that machine? The other thing I don't understand is the overarching message. The line we've been fed from Microsoft's marketing team is that the "convertibility" of th…

I heard from a surface book user that he never use the tablet mode in practice, outside sometimes to make it a tablet in a plane. I owned a surface pro myself, and I tend to agree. It's a terrible device as a tablet. Slow to wake up, buggy, low battery life, not really the kind of device you can carry around and check something on it quickly. And if you use it as a laptop, it's better to have a proper laptop with mor…

Yep for me the lack of self-supporting screen has meant I hate using it - can't use it on my lap properly, can't use it on a desk because the screen is so physically tiny whilst the resolution is insanely high, causing me to run everything at 200% scaling (as supported by Windows 10, even for non-scaling older applications which then appear blurry), thereby defeating having a high-res screen.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#433

Post by jodrellblank »

andrepd wrote: post #203
FireBeyond wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to what? Surface i5, 8/256 $1299, MBP $1499 or $1799 depending on the i5 processor. Surface i7, 8/256 $1599, MBP $2099 Surface i7, 16/512 $2199, MBP $2499. So not sure how you're saying this is on the expensive end.

Xiaomi Mi Air 13, i5 8/256 $690. Aluminum unibody, smaller and lighter than MBP 13. Stop buying overpriced crap and start supporting companies that charge fair prices and maybe MS and Apple will release products that aren't 2-3x as pricey as the competition.

Xiaomi Mi Air, plus VAT/duty, ships with Chinese only Windows license, unlicensed for English, without CE marking for Europe, and with minimal Western country warranty to speak of.

By the time you add all that up, it's approximately the same pride as any other similar spec non-Apple/non-Microsoft/non-Dell Win home laptop.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#434

Post by Fiahil »

natch wrote: post #360
opportune wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the point. Children don't need to worry about breaking AdSense rules and getting their accounts blocked, especially if they have accounts dedicated for school. Children also will have internet at school.

My child lost her firstname.lastname gmail/Google account for life for a one-time childish mistake. So, I guess you are mistaken.

Google is notoriously famous for their automated and permanent /kickban. It's literally the first law when using their products : "Don't trust them and never put important stuff in one single place".

It doesn't surprise me that your child could trigger accidentally one of those super ban. At least it's not that bad, they could have banned your account too.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#435

Post by 72deluxe »

uranian wrote: post #257

The bad news is they're targeting students. Who wants to see his children being locked into MS Windows software by school? Besides, we just found out Windows 10 has almost complete control over your system and calls home, now sending your kids private data as a bonus! I would never accept my kids using a device like this on school. Schools are just ignorant and stupid if they make a deal for these laptops with MS. Sc…

Out of interest, how is it more educational? I had a fun time educating myself back in the day as I tried to get X to work with my video card. I jest!

In all truth I suspect there are millions of system administrators who have never even used 'Lye-nucks' so attempting to get students (who need support) to use Linux devices will probably never happen (unless the admin/IT staff is extremely pro-Linux) or the school wishes to spend money retraining their staff.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#436

Post by SiVal »

krzyk wrote: post #293
opportune wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing the point. Children don't need to worry about breaking AdSense rules and getting their accounts blocked, especially if they have accounts dedicated for school. Children also will have internet at school.

I didn't know that there are special accounts, I assumed they are reusing their own. If it is like a corporate accounts in other places then yes, no need to worry about blocking the account.

But your complaint is still valid in the larger sense that you don't want to allow Google to have any say in the matter.

What we need is for Google's school/office apps and their storage to become open-source commodities that are self-hosted. "Self-hosted" can then involve any balance of self/outsource you or your organization would like.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#437

Post by ocdtrekkie »

kyriakos wrote: post #309
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that Google Chrome was previously available with a "Metro app version" during Win 8 but they retired it.

Google will release one if they expect a market share for Windows S. They are offering the browser as a gateway to their services after all.

Yup. Same for the Firefox version. Both can do it, but as long as almost everyone on Windows can support the standard Win32 version and a large number can't use the UWP version, it makes no sense to expend a lot of effort on this.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#438

Post by 72deluxe »

mrweasel wrote: post #141
eugeniub wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with 16:9?

When was the last time you saw a web page or application that was actually designed with 16:9 in mind? It's a wonderful format if you have a huge screen/high resolution where you're able to fit multiple applications or windows side by side. For small screen you just get a lot of scrolling.

I tend to use native applications. They resize fine to a 16:9 screen - I think it is the web apps that insist on a certain layout (e.g. text in a column, huge areas of whitespace etc)?

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#439

Post by lottin »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #418
lottin wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people do care, especially if they're used to using Google.

After working with non-techies for many years in various support roles I am unconvinced. The majority I helped, where they had to show me or ask me something about their web browser, didn't even know what Google was beyond a search box and sometimes an email that a grandson setup for them. I'm not sure if there are good statistics out there (especially one that proper controls) but I'd bet a good amount of money that…

Even if often times they don't know exactly what Google is, they generally notice if the search results page they're looking at isn't Google's. And in my experience they tend perceive this as something being wrong with their computer that needs to be fixed.

Re: Introducing Surface Laptop

#440

Post by wfunction »

komali2 wrote: post #396
Mtinie wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very real concern. As a parent I think about things like that all the time. My son has a personal Chromebook and both my son and daughter use Google school accounts. The alternative, in this case using a Microsoft Surface Laptop instead, should raise many of the same concerns. With the tight coupling of online services and single account sign-on options that Microsoft offers, similarly extensive advertising…

Why do you worry about this? Do you believe targeted ads are more harmful to your child than non-targeted?

If ads were the only issue I'd be pretty happy and willing to give advertisers all my information.

Trouble is companies and law enforcement frequently abuse information, and even when they don't, they get hacked by other people who do.

Post reply on HN