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Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

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Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#41

Post by anonymouz »

blrgeek wrote: post #28
batgaijin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1). Depends on ACPI support 2). Depends on the hardware, but surprisingly yes. Even the free Nouveau drivers do pretty decent 3d support. 3). Yep, configure it to suspend on closing the lid. 4). Depends on the wm you want. 5). Usually yes. 6). Pretty good, in fact you can enable the two finger scroll pretty easily. 7). More configurable. If you are considering a switch, I'd recommend installing Fedora or Ubuntu, they…

Actually - no offense - I'm looking for specific info on the drivers on this system than a generic response. I've heard far too often 'depends on driver/acpi support' to go down that road again :) Which specific system are you basing your answers on? Can you be more specific on (6) - how many points does the multitouch support?

For Thinkpads what you list under 2) will usually work without hiccups.

Generally, Intel is very good with its driver support, so try to pick a laptop with Intel WiFi & GPU. Depending on your needs you may want an nVidia or ATI GPU though.

Can't say anything on multitouch with the Touchpad, since I don't use it.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#42

Post by jlgreco »

macco wrote: post #39
eckyptang wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything Lenovo usually does. I've got a T61 and an X220 tablet here which everything in Ubuntu 12.04 works fine. The only problem I've had was connecting to an SSTP VPN but that was resolved easily with an ssh tunnel.

Anything Lenovo based in Intel preferable with internal graphics.

I have heard that Intel Atoms with internal graphics should be avoided since the graphics on those is not actually Intel's doing, though my eeepc with an Atom/internal graphics works fine.. maybe I got lucky.

I wouldn't recommend getting a Lenovo with an Atom anyway though, if they even sell anything with Atoms (mostly just from a "If you are going to spend money, spend some money" standpoint.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#43

Post by blrgeek »

unhammer wrote: post #35
blrgeek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fingerprinter - same questions for you on the Lenovo x220 you use 1. What's the battery life like? 2. Are all devices supported with drivers - Bluetooth, 3D, graphics, sleep/wake, 802.11n, webcam, internal mike, ... 3. Does it do instant sleep/wake like a Mac - 100s of times without crashing/rebooting? 4. How does it handle external displays? Plug and play like a Mac? Does it handle display rotate? The internal displ…

I've got Xubuntu on an X220. 1. About 5 hrs of web browsing (though I've gotten more once I was on a cabin w/o electricity and turned off wifi etc, there's a nice hardware switch to turn off all radio on the X220). About a year ago, there was this famous Linux Power Regression, where you had to append some stuff to your grub command line and worry about crashes. I tried it, and never got the crashes, and then they fi…

(4) Display rotate might be sw thing - change your external display from portrait to landscape by rotating it 90° physically and in software - helps to see a whole page doc for instance.

(6) The 'clit' mouse rocks :)

This is definitely tempting! Only 'downside' would be lack of MS Office, but I can go back to OpenOffice for that.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#45

Post by Moto7451 »

blrgeek wrote: post #19
fingerprinter wrote: post #12

I have a Lenovo x220 running Ubuntu 12.04. Aesthetics of the machine aside, it is the best setup I've ever used for a development machine. Ubuntu is by far (we're talking leaps and bounds) better than OSX for dev work and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the keyboard on the x220. I don't have a XPS 13, but I can see any reasonable machine loaded with Ubuntu being a developers dream. Honestly, any machine loaded with Ubuntu these d…

Fingerprinter - same questions for you on the Lenovo x220 you use 1. What's the battery life like? 2. Are all devices supported with drivers - Bluetooth, 3D, graphics, sleep/wake, 802.11n, webcam, internal mike, ... 3. Does it do instant sleep/wake like a Mac - 100s of times without crashing/rebooting? 4. How does it handle external displays? Plug and play like a Mac? Does it handle display rotate? The internal displ…

We use the x220 & x230 in our office and while I don't use one as my main machine, I can answer some of them in case that commenter doesn't come back.

2. Graphics, Sleep wake, wireless, all yes. Not sure about the others listed but there is nothing that would cause a problem as a work machine.

3. Yes

4. Yes but not sure about display rotation. Displays attached to the laptop dock work as well (everyone at work uses one) including sleeping the laptop removing the laptop, and all the windows taking care of themselves.

6. Fine but its smaller than I'd like (spoiled by my air).

7. Solid but I'm not much of a keyboard snob. I can type just fine on my Sager's Mac knockoff chiclet keys or a cheap membrane keyboard.

In terms of battery life, we seem to always have our machines plugged in but no one has ever complained about poor battery life.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#46

Post by abrahamsen »

perfunctory wrote: post #27

"I spend 70% of my time in a terminal, and 30% of my time in a web browser" One didn't have to wait till 2012 to be able to do that.

He was also a Linux user in 1998.

The main difference seems to be that he now uses Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office, and thus spends more time in the browser.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#47

Post by macco »

jlgreco wrote: post #42
macco wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything Lenovo based in Intel preferable with internal graphics.

I have heard that Intel Atoms with internal graphics should be avoided since the graphics on those is not actually Intel's doing, though my eeepc with an Atom/internal graphics works fine.. maybe I got lucky. I wouldn't recommend getting a Lenovo with an Atom anyway though, if they even sell anything with Atoms (mostly just from a "If you are going to spend money, spend some money" standpoint.

This could be true, I was referring to iCore chips.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#48

Post by dredmorbius »

perfunctory wrote: post #27

"I spend 70% of my time in a terminal, and 30% of my time in a web browser" One didn't have to wait till 2012 to be able to do that.

There was a period there in the early-mid 2000s in which an unfortunate number of websites, and rather more corporate / enterprise web-based tools (intranet or external portal) were very highly MSIE dependent. There were workarounds, and some of us stayed largely independent (absent a few VMs or Windows Terminal Server sessions), but it was fairly ugly.

The embrace of Web standards by major players (thank you Google, and I don't say this often, Facebook) and availability of cross-platform standards-compliant browsers (thank you Mozilla and Google), and even the resurgence of Macs (thank you, Apple) have helped.

That and the fact that proprietary application format usage for standard desktop functions (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation) has dwindled dramatically. I won't say it's gone by any stretch, but even Microsoft touts open standards, and far more often you'll encounter Wikis, Google Docs, or git.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#49

Post by macco »

ifmw wrote: post #16

I'm glad to hear sleep and hibernate are improving on Linux laptops and I really hope more manufacturers will follow suit with their own initiatives like this. However, will any portable laptop get 7 hours of battery life on Linux with wifi on like the 13" Macbook Airs do?

Depends on the laptop :) But it's possible with low powered laptops.

Re: Thanks Mr. Jobs, But it Seems I Can Use a Linux Laptop Now

#50

Post by rz2k »

mxxx wrote: post #30
ars wrote: post #11

Why are people voting up this article? There is nothing interesting in it. I'm genuinely curious about what people are finding interesting here.

agreed. the guy barely even mentions why he decided to move to linux, just that he did. or do people just like the sentiment?

I could imagine some interesting discussion about the relative merits between tcsh and bash given the stated history, but this has little if anything to do with crazy abstractions like graphical interfaces.
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