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A small notebook for a system administrator

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Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#171

Post by miles »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #19

I just want a company to keep making the previous generation MacBook Air. Keep the ports. Keep the MagSafe. Don’t screw with the keyboard. More memory and disk space would be nice, but it’s not a deal-breaker. I don’t mind going for a walk or enjoying a cup of coffee while I wait for GHC to compile. It’s a good machine. Now leave it alone.

Despite releasing the 2018 model some months ago, Apple is still selling the 2017 MacBook Air: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/1.8ghz-dual-c...

I put together a table comparing it with Apple's other laptop offerings: https://tinyapps.org/blog/mac/201811190015_last_decent_macbo...

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#172

Post by linkmotif »

chrisseaton wrote: post #116
linkmotif wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because it’s much easier to post pictures on Instagram than to be a sysadmin? Or requires different hardware (in the author’s opinion, anyway, not mine, I don’t get why you need any of this to admin a system). Do you think that being a social media person is equally valuable to being a sysadmin? If so, why do sysadmins get paid more? It’s because fewer people have those skills, and everyone and their mother…

The original comment didn't say it was worth less - they said it wasn't real work at all. If someone's willing to pay you for it then it's real work. So saying it pays less is irrelevant. It's not a competition to see how can look down on whom. And it's not just Instagram. They said that the MacBook Air wasn't suitable for work, and just gave Instagram as one example of what it is suitable for. I could do my job (pro…

Yes, I agree it is inane. I think he’s trying to set up a vibe wherein this whole thing is separate from the “Mac people” scene. Doesn’t that make sense? The author is trying to establish his or her audience. He does this snidely, but I think that’s the goal: to exclude a certain cohort and to cozy up with another. I mean MacBook Air people wouldn’t find this compelling, and the author clearly doesn’t find the MacBook Air compelling, so he or she just nukes the whole platform to establish a niche.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#173

Post by munificent »

criddell wrote: post #38

> Such notebook is suitable for posting photos on Instagram, but not for work. There's something about that statement that put me off the entire article. Maybe the author truly is 3l337, but it just comes off as condescending. Plus, who uses a notebook for Instagram? The author managed to be simultaneously derisive and clueless.

I also like how he referred to me as not a "real user" because I don't need a pile of antiquated ports to do my job:

> I thought about how a notebook would turn out if it were developed not with design, but the needs of real users in mind.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#175

Post by lazyasciiart »

stephenr wrote: post #154
kingofhdds wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the text? The goal is not a portable SSH client, but a sort of traveling admin's Swiss army knife device, hence relatively small size (but large enough to host a keyboard), and a lot of ports. Isn't it obvious that iPad cannot conform to the requirements?

Did you read the post I replied to? > And since your battery won't be large enough to support compiling LLVM in reasonable time anyway, it's better to just get used to do CPU-heavy stuff by ssh-ing to a rackmount somewhere use the laptop for terminal-ish tasks.

Nothing about that comment says anything to support your arbitrary narrowing of the device purpose.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#176

Post by teachrdan »

> The notebook has 2 webcams. The front-facing one is 8MP (4K / UltraHD), while the “selfie” one is 2MP (FullHD).

Naive question from a software engineer: What does a sysadmin need a forward-facing camera for? I personally only ever use my laptop camera for Zoom meetings.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#178

Post by mschuster91 »

teachrdan wrote: post #176

> The notebook has 2 webcams. The front-facing one is 8MP (4K / UltraHD), while the “selfie” one is 2MP (FullHD). Naive question from a software engineer: What does a sysadmin need a forward-facing camera for? I personally only ever use my laptop camera for Zoom meetings.

> What does a sysadmin need a forward-facing camera for?

Photographing server racks for documentation comes to my mind.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#179

Post by linsomniac »

This design reminds me of the original OLPC XO with the hand crank generator. One of the OLPC people gave a talk to our Linux Users Group and told the story:

We realized that the hand crank put a lot of stress on the chassis of the XO. The materials design people came to us and said "We can totally solve this! We just machine this part of the chassis out of titanium!" And we were like "Thanks guys, but that's not even close to being in budget."

Thinking about the tripod mount: That seems like it's going to create a lot of stress on the body of the laptop.

Some of the ideas of this Admin Book remind me of that: sure you could probably make it happen, but the cost would probably be eye-watering. Like top of the line MacBook Pro pricing. He says he is interested in doing a Kickstarter but doesn't know how, I think there's a reality check that needs to go into it as the first step.

It's an interesting idea, and something I would have liked in the past for on-call EDC. But in the end I decided on a ThinkPad T520 and just carried it with me in a bag if I was using it, or in the car if I was not working. I kept looking at those Sony Vaio P laptops, but never ended up buying one.

Re: A small notebook for a system administrator

#180

Post by stephenr »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #175
stephenr wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the post I replied to? > And since your battery won't be large enough to support compiling LLVM in reasonable time anyway, it's better to just get used to do CPU-heavy stuff by ssh-ing to a rackmount somewhere use the laptop for terminal-ish tasks.

Nothing about that comment says anything to support your arbitrary narrowing of the device purpose.

Well, it does, and my comment does start with IF your goal is....

If your goal IS NOT that, then clearly what I suggested isn't going to be applicable is it?

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