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Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

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Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#141

Post by rbanffy »

If I'm allowed to design my dream laptop, I'd make it have

- a 13 inch 1080x1920 screen

- two video outputs (for when its docked)

- an SSD for the OS and my tools

- an average hard disk for my data

- a good keyboard

- enough memory

- a camera and audio

- 3G data (or better)

- Bluetooth for the keyboard and trackpad when it's docked.

And the rest of it would be a humongous battery. And power it with an Atom-class processor so that the battery lasts a day. Leave the software alone.

Make it pretty.

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#142

Post by andrewflnr »

kamechan wrote: post #63
sophacles wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, I will never consider switching away from my Macbook until the following things are true: * battery will last several hours (macbook still at 4+ hrs on full charge and it is 1.5 yrs old) * very good (open) acpi support - if I can't 100% trust closing and opening to just suspend and resume correctly, I won't use it for anything other than toy purposes. (and open because I will be using my own kernel, o…

Thinkpad already has both problems solved. Getting 12-14 hours on my thinkpad T420 with a 9 cell and a power script written to make all the items found "bad" by powertop2 turn to "good". Switched from x220 (which was getting roughly the same battery life) because its 1366x768 screen wasn't quite enough for on-the-go work. As for the lid opening and closing doing what it's supposed to, it does. Coincidentally, the ACP…

Is it possible to get powertop2 on Linux Mint? I can't even find a source download; their alleged source repo at git.moblin.org seems to be down. Going to that domain gives me a "502 Bad Gateway" error.

Edit: ah, "git clone git://git.moblin.org/powertop powertop2" works.

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#143

Post by kamechan »

BadassFractal wrote: post #132
kamechan wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 key…

Realforce completely spoiled all the other keyboards for me. Totally worth the $400 pricetag.

if you don't mind having a 10-key you can get a realforce 103 for $235 from elite keyboards. The switches supposedly have a 30 million press lifecycle, significantly higher than most keyboards, so it should last many years.

I bought both an 87UB (the $400 one) and a 103UB, and kept the 103UB because I both prefer the feeling of it over the 87, and also discovered that I like having a 10-key again. Had pretty much abandoned them.

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#144

Post by kijin »

vibrunazo wrote: post #110
rickmb wrote: post #105

So 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 e…

> reinstalling the os voids warranty

That's why you should make a disk image before you wipe Windows. Plug in a Linux Live USB, use dd + gzip to create a bit-for-bit copy of your hard drive (it should compress well because there's no data on the machine), keep the copy in an external hard drive, and then wipe the internal hard drive. Nobody at Best Buy will know what you did.

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#145

Post by nikatwork »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #135
gbog wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody is praising Apple keyboards here. Strange thing is at my work place many have a "real" keyboard beside their MBA or MB.

Why? Do they use it when the laptop is closed? Did they miss a numpad? Did all their keys pop off and the devices are out of warranty? Is it about the "click" feeling? I haven't seen this so I am curious. The biggest bummer for me about Apple is the lack of a USB external trackpad.

Is this what you're looking for? http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#146

Post by joneil »

there wrote: post #57
xaa wrote: post #34

People can develop on 13" screens?

I develop on an 11" screen.

My laptop is in for repair and is taking a disturbingly long time, but my friend lent me his out-of-use EeePC with a 10" inch screen.

I'm amazed at how much work I have actually managed to get done. When I'm in the office I dock it to a keyboard/mouse/monitor, but even on the road I've found myself able to use it, once I adjusted to the keyboard.

If you run light-weight ubuntu (lubuntu for me), have your browser/editor/terminal in fullscreen, and you can get back to work. The slow processor does struggle with our companies rails app though...

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#148

Post by goatslacker »

mbrubeck wrote: post #94
rdtsc wrote: post #82

Earlier 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.

I actually like the widescreen displays for coding. I keep my line counts to 80 columns and now I can have two files side by side. Or a file open and a browser open side by side.

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#149

Post by goatslacker »

ntkachov wrote: post #6

How 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.

I will trade in most of that for just a matte screen. I read code all day and I like my terminal black. Most laptops nowadays function as mirrors instead of laptops.

Re: Dell Announces A Linux Laptop Designed For Developers

#150

Post by pirateking »

xaa wrote: post #34

People can develop on 13" screens?

My 13" Macbook Air serves me well as my primary development and design workstation. For purely development, I would love to use an 11" Air, but Photoshop is a bit too cramped on it.

My 27" display gets used for watching movies mostly these days. I do go through phases though, and will probably try using the large screen for work again eventually. For now, I find the smaller screen less distracting.

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