the negative and aggressive attitude in this thread is depressing. :-(
Maybe Dell should have consulted their target market first.
Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
101–110 of 199 posts
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like thinkpads did ... the ivy bridge models soon to be announced use a new layout. While the chicklet keyboards are largely an improvement (I've tried an E420 for a few moments and love the wider spacing), losing that row will take some getting used to.
I think I must be the only person out there that can't stand chiclet keyboards. One of the many reasons I'm interested in the upcoming Vizio thin+light notebooks is because they're not using chiclets.
Yes, the old-school ThinkPad keyboards were the best you could get on a laptop. Chiclet keyboards are made for non-touch typists, the kind of people who need to hunt and peck with big fat fingers. My fave keyboard is my Unicomp Linux model, with the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys swapped...but best of all, with positive keyclick and actual mechanical switches under each key instead of dopey, squishy foam like what you get with modern, cheap keyboards.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#103I fully expect it to be $140 cheaper than a comparable machine running Windows 7 Pro.
I think dell gets subsidies from installing all that crapware, so I would expect it to be offset by that.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thinkpad (T60) has a great keyboard, good feedback. I don't use the mousepad, I like the little red pointer thingy it has and has 1400x1050 resolution display. It also a mate display (not the glare type). It is bulkier than other laptops and by now its processor is behind the latest i7 and i5's. Also as soon as I got I installed Ubuntu on it. Ubuntu lets me re-map caps lock to a control for my emacs usage. And most o…
What I really miss from the T60-era laptops is the 4:3 (non-widescreen) display. Widescreen is fine for watching movies, but a taller display can be really nice for reading, writing, and coding.
Yep. The T40 series had those too. I did a lot of programming on ThinkPads.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#105So their target audience is developers that are incapable of installing their own tools and that are cool with the cheap look and flimsy build quality of Dell laptops.
Unfortunately, that market actually exists, and nine out of ten times that lack of caring for quality is reflected in their work.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#106The worst part for me is that the XPS13 only allows a MAXIMUM of 4GB of RAM. This is ridiculous for a dev box, especially when I want to run a VM or two.
The 4GB is (obv) the limit of the Macbook Air as well.
I agree, running a VM leaves you at the redline. Running 2? Good luck.
I do run with a single Ubutnu VM nearly 100% of the time, but I skimp on it and only allocate 384MB usually. Sometimes I'll bump it up depending on what I'm doing in it.
All that said, I do wish that I could have 8 GB in my Air. But, with the extremely fast SSD, it's not essential. I use this machine as my daily driver (for mostly web-based Python, PHP and Go development) and love it. It's honestly my favorite development machine ever. I've never enjoyed developing on-the-go more, and at home plugged into a Cinema display it's a real joy to use.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think I must be the only person out there that can't stand chiclet keyboards. One of the many reasons I'm interested in the upcoming Vizio thin+light notebooks is because they're not using chiclets.
Yes, the old-school ThinkPad keyboards were the best you could get on a laptop. Chiclet keyboards are made for non-touch typists, the kind of people who need to hunt and peck with big fat fingers. My fave keyboard is my Unicomp Linux model, with the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys swapped...but best of all, with positive keyclick and actual mechanical switches under each key instead of dopey, squishy foam like what you get w…
I thought this for a while as well, but I wouldn't put it past manufacturers to have done some comprehensive testing before just moving to island-style keyboards.
I prefer the thinkpad keyboards myself and use a mechanical keyboard on my desktop (one which I consider to have the best tactile feedback available: a Topre Realforce).
However, as a dvorak touch-typist I was curious to find out just how well different keyboards performed, so a while back I did a 1 minute random word test on each and got (approximately) the following results:
#1) Topre Realforce: ~110wpm random, ~140wpm non-random
#2) White macbook (island style): ~98wpm random , ~120wpm non-random
#3) Thinkpad T420: ~90wpm random, ~110wpm non-random
I used this site to do the comparisons: http://speedtest.10fastfingers.com/
Would be interested to see what other people get.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#108How about a laptop with a better key board, slim figure, larger special character keys and more feedback for keys? Then shove a great processor, a mouse pad that's not accidentally click able while typing, and a high resolution screen. That's a developer laptop. Ill install my own software, Thank you very much.
It looks like Dell has set up a "storm session" where they'll take our feedback/suggestions, here: http://www.ideastorm.com/Idea2SessionIdea?v=1336432210237...
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#109The worst part for me is that the XPS13 only allows a MAXIMUM of 4GB of RAM. This is ridiculous for a dev box, especially when I want to run a VM or two.
They all say that - I'm 99% sure you can install at least 6 GB, if not more...
Aren't the ram chips usually soldered to the mobo on ultrabooks? Crucial indicates they can't upgrade ram on the XPS13. And a little googling says soldered RAM... Nothing on the Dell website suggests they can upgrade past 4.
Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers
#110So their target audience is developers that are incapable of installing their own tools and that are cool with the cheap look and flimsy build quality of Dell laptops. Unfortunately, that market actually exists, and nine out of ten times that lack of caring for quality is reflected in their work.
Official driver support matters.
You won't run the risk of buying a notebook, install Linux, find that driver xyz doesn't work, then find the store won't take it back because reinstalling the os voids warranty. And waste money. This is a big risk when shopping for Linux laptops. Specially for cheaper brands that you can't easily find online reports about whether it works or not.
Official support makes shopping much easier.