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System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

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Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#221

Post by patrickthebold »

layer8 wrote: post #156
chrisseaton wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't a wide aspect ratio let you put two code listings next to each other?

16:10 or 3:2 screens usually are not reduced in width (compared to 16:9), but extended in height. For example, the 16:10 counterpart of FHD is not 1728x1080, but 1920x1200. (Historically, it’s actually the other way around: When 16:9 displays were introduced, those were cut-down versions of existing 16:10 resolutions, with the same horizontal but less vertical resolution.) If you’re used to the extra height, even ult…

So what's your opinion of a 4k UHD display? It's 16:9 but twice as many vertical pixels as this laptop.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#222

Post by viraptor »

ayushnix wrote: post #135
cupofjoakim wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard disagree. On a 15.6" 1080p really is sufficient. The upsides of not wasting battery and just performance of not having to push more pixels makes it worth it. Even gaming channels like LTT talk about this a bit. That being said - if you're coming from the macbooks retina it's definitely a downgrade. My guess however is that this device won't have a screen that is that good either way though.

> Hard disagree. On a 15.6" 1080p really is sufficient. Considering what I've recently learned about the fractional scaling mess, I would only buy laptops with a 1440p or 4K display because they don't need fractional scaling. I really wish there were more 24 inch 4K or 27 inch 5K monitors on the market and not the 27 inch 4K mess we're getting. I'm not sure what monitor manufacturers are thinking.

What do you mean by "need fractional scaling"? This really depends on what you prefer, but I'm on 15" with 100% scale and enjoy it.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#223

Post by georgewsinger »

make3 wrote: post #134
georgewsinger wrote: post #110

If you're into "Linux-first" computing, you might also be interested in SimulaVR's "Linux-first" portable VR headset: www.simulavr.com It will run with an 11th gen Intel compute pack (x86 ), and have premium specs (roughly double the resolution of the Valve Index). Turning it on will boot you into SimulaVR's VR window manager (built over the Godot game engine) with hand tracking. All open source. It's intended to be…

"10x more productivity" ...

It depends on what you're comparing VR to (small laptop, larger/multi-screen rig, etc), and how you use it (e.g. https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2016/05/18/immersive-single-...).

Working in VR provides an enormous virtual space for immersive work, and can for the right person be actually 10x more productive.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#224

Post by toastal »

There's no mention of the color gamut on that display. Necessary 1080p complaints aside, I couldn't buy a Linux laptop last year because all of the displays are trash. If you're lucky you can find 100% sRGB, but I and many others need 100% DCI-P3 and it's just not on offer. My 2-year-old $450 phone has P3 coverage, but almost nothing in the laptop space does.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#225

Post by chrismorgan »

ayushnix wrote: post #135
cupofjoakim wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard disagree. On a 15.6" 1080p really is sufficient. The upsides of not wasting battery and just performance of not having to push more pixels makes it worth it. Even gaming channels like LTT talk about this a bit. That being said - if you're coming from the macbooks retina it's definitely a downgrade. My guess however is that this device won't have a screen that is that good either way though.

> Hard disagree. On a 15.6" 1080p really is sufficient. Considering what I've recently learned about the fractional scaling mess, I would only buy laptops with a 1440p or 4K display because they don't need fractional scaling. I really wish there were more 24 inch 4K or 27 inch 5K monitors on the market and not the 27 inch 4K mess we're getting. I'm not sure what monitor manufacturers are thinking.

15.6″ 1366×768: 100ppi. It could be improved by 90% scaling, but that doesn’t tend to work quite so well. Basically everyone uses it at 1×.

15.6″ 1920×1080 (1080p): 141ppi. Generally comfortable at 1–1.25×, most will use at 1×.

15.6″ 2560×1440 (1440p): 188ppi. Generally comfortable at 1.33–1.75×, most will use at 1.5×. Definitely uncomfortable at both 1× and 2×. If you don’t like fractional scaling, you don’t want 1440p.

15.6″ 3840×2160 (4K): 282ppi. Generally comfortable at 2–2.5×, most will use at 2×.

These figures I’m suggesting are aiming for about 110–140dpi. I have a 15.6″ 2560×1440 screen, and 1.5× scaling mostly works very well, basically perfectly under Windows which I never use and with only minor issues under Linux/Sway with high-DPI XWayland patches once I’ve manually intervened to fix a few variously broken things.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#227

Post by ImprovedSilence »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #60
caslon wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Southpaw here! I'd never buy a laptop without a number pad. The track pad being off-center is also good. Gaming? 78462 make for the best movement, and the number pad also has seven non-numerical buttons to bind things to. It also puts your index finger right next to lENTER, which is so useful for games that make use of it. Programming? Bind the buttons to commonly-used UNIX programs to make for a better IDE than an I…

Yes the numpad comes in useful when I’m calculating all day

I have a nice ten-keyless mech keyboard that I love to use for programming. However I really do miss having a number pad more than I thought I would.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#228

Post by lmm »

jagger27 wrote: post #177
chrisseaton wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that argument circular? Wide screen - great but add a little height so you can see more rows. Now you have a tall screen - great but add a little width so you can see more columns.

See layer8’s comment above. Let’s say there’s a sweet spot somewhere between ultrawide and square. Why would 16:9 be ideal? The golden ratio is pretty close to 16:10, which is the basis of A4 (etc.) paper.

> Why would 16:9 be ideal? The golden ratio is pretty close to 16:10, which is the basis of A4 (etc.) paper.

No it isn't. A4 paper is roughly 7:5 (actually sqrt-2). The fact that people consistently get this wrong suggests that the golden ratio isn't actually all it's cracked up to be (IME the golden ratio makes for things that are too wide. My laptop has a 3:2 screen that I'm very happy with)

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#229

Post by layer8 »

patrickthebold wrote: post #221
layer8 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16:10 or 3:2 screens usually are not reduced in width (compared to 16:9), but extended in height. For example, the 16:10 counterpart of FHD is not 1728x1080, but 1920x1200. (Historically, it’s actually the other way around: When 16:9 displays were introduced, those were cut-down versions of existing 16:10 resolutions, with the same horizontal but less vertical resolution.) If you’re used to the extra height, even ult…

So what's your opinion of a 4k UHD display? It's 16:9 but twice as many vertical pixels as this laptop.

It doesn’t really matter, if the diagonal is roughly the same and you use 200% scaling. The corresponding 16:10 or 3:2 would still be preferable (or even 4:3, which was once the standard aspect ratio for laptops). For a given notebook width, you basically want as much height as possible.

For desktop monitors, it can be more of a personal preference regarding FOV and window layout. For me personally, I think a ~30" 16:11 [sic] would be close to ideal.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#230

Post by m00x »

zumu wrote: post #198
tempest_ wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the quality of the pangolin or the HP but I can tell you that lenovos consumer level laptops are pretty trash quality wise. The thinkpads (at least the X,T and P models) tend to be a different story but even that is changing in recent years

> The thinkpads (at least the X,T and P models) tend to be a different story but even that is changing in recent years Maybe relative to Thinkpads of yesteryear, but in comparison to the field of professional laptops, they are still best in class.

I bought a consumer-grade Lenovo (Flex 15") for about $1200 CAD.

While it has amazing components like the AMD Ryzen, Radeon GPU, etc. The quality of the rest of the components is trash.

The trackpad keeps disconnecting, the screen is very poorly backlit, the speakers sound like headphones that came with 1990 Walkmans. It's not a good laptop even if it looks good on paper.

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