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Introducing Surface Book 2

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#511

Post by stcredzero »

komali2 wrote: post #500
stcredzero wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But when it comes to actually coding, it's much less "easy" than on a MBP. Some people swear by powershell but I just did not jive with having to do that when everyone else is using bash - so I'm using WSL, which has... difficulties. I tried that, then went back to using VirtualBox in seamless mode with Lubuntu. I was very disappointed. I'm still more productive on my 2012 Macbook Pro than I am on my 2017 Windows lap…

I've gone down that road as well, worked "ok" but as soon as the external monitor gets involved, forget about it.

Long after I posted my other reply, I discovered someone's solution to multiple monitors in VirtualBox!

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#513

Post by skinnymuch »

kpxxx wrote: post #493
skinnymuch wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can expect negative comments for every OS in existence. You seem to dislike Windows quite a bit. To the point where it seems personal or you have a vendetta against it. Yes things like settings are silly in modern Windows. But they aren't make or break stuff. There's major positives to be seen from Windows too. They are the only major player trying to get touch working on desktop. That's not easy to do. You don't…

> You seem to dislike Windows quite a bit. To the point where it seems personal or you have a vendetta against it. I have better things to do then have a "vendetta" against either a corporation or a piece of equipment (I don't know which you were insinuating). At the same time I have no reason to defend commercial entities that should do better. Like I said, I use the goddamn thing (SP3) as a daily driver for mobile…

Too bad I won't be getting a response from you.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#514

Post by seabrookmx »

amadeusw wrote: post #438
seabrookmx wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting the Dell Precision 5520, which uses the same chassis as the XPS 15. It comes in a few different configurations that aren't available in the XPS. Mine is the last-gen 5510 (same chassis but with an i7-6820HQ), and I was able to get a 1080p screen (for battery life and to avoid scaling issues) and 32gb of RAM only in the Precision, not the XPS.

I never considered the Precision line. I just saw that I can customize pretty much everything about it - cool! I'm considering getting it. How is it in your experience? Are there any bios or driver issues? Did you try installing linux? (I have twitter link in my profile for DM)

So far so good. I have not installed Linux on the machine itself (I tend to run one or two Ubuntu VMs in VMWare), but I have not noticed any throttling as the other user mentions. The CPU does feature Intel turbo-boost like all modern Intel CPU's and seems to be working as intended. My only gripe is that the webcam is on the bottom of the screen. Its not very.. flattering.. as it looks up at your face.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#515

Post by deno »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #271
deno wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a mobile device one big plus of USB-C is USB-PD and the ecosystem of fast chargers and power banks it brings/will-bring. You can also use one charger for both your phone and laptop, which is useful even if you can’t charge both at the same time. Ignore everything else and it’s a nice upgrade just for this.

My Surface Pro charger (the same one that comes with the Surface Book IIRC) has a USB port for charging phones as well, and unlike a USB-C charger, charges both at the same time. While I lament non-standard implementations, much like Apple's old MagSafe adapter and the Surface connector, sometimes the non-standard version is vastly superior.

That still leaves out issue of powerbanks, more devices and probably fast-charging.

Still a USB charging port on a regular charges seems mighty convenient and I’m certainly jealous!

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#516

Post by velobro »

3131s wrote: post #223
shams93 wrote: post #165

Yeah ultimately the os itself has it's limitations, I get more done on a Thinkpad 420 I picked up refurbed for $300 with Ubuntu instead of windows 10 pro. I can run systemd daemons on Ubuntu but trying to run services like postgresql on windows subsystem for Linux is painful with no daemon support it's like a crippled Linux.

Yep, I have no problems with the 600$ Asus I bought 3 years ago. I would literally quit programming and find something new if I had to use MacOS or Windows -- totally uninterested in developing on platforms that could fall out from under me at any time, whether by ceasing to exist or through some legal BS.

You sound like a reasonable person

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#517

Post by smnplk »

elbrian wrote: post #238
jozzz wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this for software development (assuming yes since we're on HN)? I'm currently in the process of making this choice. Looking at Lenovo T470p/Dell XPS 13/15. If I'm doing linux development is it worth even thinking about the surface laptop?

I run an XPS 13 with Ubuntu 16.04 and do software development for a living (so I use the laptop for 10+ hours a day). Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll be happy to answer... but long story-short, this is the best laptop I've ever touched or owned.

How is your coil whine ?

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#518

Post by 3131s »

velobro wrote: post #516
3131s wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I have no problems with the 600$ Asus I bought 3 years ago. I would literally quit programming and find something new if I had to use MacOS or Windows -- totally uninterested in developing on platforms that could fall out from under me at any time, whether by ceasing to exist or through some legal BS.

You sound like a reasonable person

Open source is a huge part of what makes programming appealing to me. I like to build things that will last, and that I own completely. I don't think that Microsoft or Apple have a positive influence on society and prefer not to support them. You can call that unreasonable all you want, but already my approach has paid huge dividends as far as picking technologies that have staying power and are continually gaining traction.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#519

Post by scholia »

pfranz wrote: post #433
scholia wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) Superfish isn't a Chinese company -- it was founded in Tel Aviv and moved to Palo Alto; (2) Superfish wasn't installed on ThinkPads; (3) it wasn't on Lenovo laptops for long: they uninstalled it and apologised.

You sure they weren't referring to Lenovo Service Engine or Lenovo Accelerator? Sure, they may not have installed these things on all of their laptops, but they've been caught quite a few times recently and it seems like a bad trend. The UEFI stuff that installs on a vanilla Windows install is super sketchy.

How likely is it that someone would describe Lenovo Service Engine or Lenovo Accelerator as Chinese spyware?

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#520

Post by pfranz »

scholia wrote: post #519
pfranz wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sure they weren't referring to Lenovo Service Engine or Lenovo Accelerator? Sure, they may not have installed these things on all of their laptops, but they've been caught quite a few times recently and it seems like a bad trend. The UEFI stuff that installs on a vanilla Windows install is super sketchy.

How likely is it that someone would describe Lenovo Service Engine or Lenovo Accelerator as Chinese spyware?

How would you describe it? Lenovo is a Chinese multinational company and Lenovo Service Engine phoned home with personal information. How do you describe spyware?

I get that companies may not have bad motives. It's difficult to survey users real-life use cases. But companies have abused users with pre-installed software that's slow, poorly written, creates new vectors for exploit, shares "anonymous" information that often isn't a) secured properly or b) still personally identifiable.

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