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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

#131

Post by Riesling »

nicpottier wrote: post #74

Ironically the biggest reason for me to stick with OS X is Microsoft Office. If you are working with other organizations, they will use Office. Excel seems to run the world and is used for accounting, specifications, I've even seen customers give us mockups they have made of the website they want in Excel. The various tools on Linux or the web for reading Word docs have come a long way and I'd say are mostly good eno…

You might want to try PlayOnLinux. I used it to install Photoshop on Ubuntu recently and the process was painless. Office is also supported.

http://www.playonlinux.com/en/

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

#132

Post by Tmmrn »

exDM69 wrote: post #120
lloeki wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed one, critical: - does it handle GPU switching (Optimus&al) without piles of hacks?

I think everyone knows the answer to that question, and it is: not yet. Future support has been announced but it's not there yet.

Theoretically it is.

Practically it segfaults or hangs X (I tried on a notebook with optimus and a computer with sperate intel onboard and nvidia cards).

Give it some time, even nvidia announced to probably support optimus with the prime/dma-buf stuff in their proprietary driver.

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

#133

Post by peterwwillis »

ricardobeat wrote: post #71

So, if he spends 70% of his time in a terminal, and 30% in a browser, what is the advantage of the Linux laptop? It probably has worse battery life, is heavier and clunkier, has a shitty trackpad... And those patches will bite you in the ass on the first OS update (or when they are abandoned 6 months on). Other than it being cheaper, am I missing something?

Probably cost.

His past 10 years were on Mac, which i'm sure worked nicely for him, but (i'll bet) was on average 1.5x to 2x more expensive. He's realizing that the old Penguin can finally give him what he needs for less.

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

#134

Post by peterwwillis »

eddy_chan wrote: post #110
bryanlarsen wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of little answers to that question. For instance brew is a third party addition to OS X whereas its equivalents in Linux-land are integrated into the main OS. Brew does a surprisingly good job, but it still has to work around the fact that the main OS wasn't installed with brew. But there are two big meta-reasons: The first one is that since much of Open Source in general is done to "scratch ones on it…

Totally agree with this post, I make CRUD-dy web apps and my dev box is a mirror of my production stack (nginx, apache, postgres, python/django + associated tools) with the desktop stuff like browsers, chat clients bolted on. Having a desktop like this means I get to practice all the intricacies of sys-admining (nginx configs etc) just by turning my machine on and running my apps on localhost and it shows when I comp…

The big tools like Nginx probably compile on Mac. The edge you'll get from using Linux every day is troubleshooting tiny problems and picking up details about Linux's guts.

Questions like "Is my webserver going to perform well under load?" would be answered if you knew what epoll() was and if your server had it enabled, but you wouldn't really learn that until you messed with it on Linux. Plus it's just fun to tinker with your app's performance and Linux lets you do that in spades.

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

#135

Post by sp332 »

esolyt wrote: post #91
blrgeek wrote: post #17

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 display is only 1366x768 ? 5. Does it detect a headphone and switch fro…

If you like the hardware, try Linux on a Macbook. Ubuntu works perfect on the latest Macbook Air, even better than OSX in some ways.

It doesn't work so well on the retina MBP though, and it might take months to get the drivers to work with the weird things Apple did to the Thunderbolt firmware.

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

#137

Post by mironathetin »

blrgeek wrote: post #101
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.

It's the story of my life - I got Apple initially because I wanted a 'Unix' laptop without the hassle of dealing with Linux drivers for laptops. The Powerbook G4 was awesome for this. Now if Linux drivers for laptops have finally settled down after 11 years, I can see myself move back to Linux. That's an interesting alternative if the hardware is as good as Apple hardware and less expensive.

I agree. I also got a Mac back in 1998 because linux on a Notebook was a pain.

But since Apple started to take their developers as hostages (app store) and consumers too (closed systems like iPhone, iPad), I honestly think about linux on a Thinkpad again - or a Vaio. If we could only get Photoshop for linux...

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

#138

Post by AncientPC »

gpapilion wrote: post #33
blrgeek wrote: post #17

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 display is only 1366x768 ? 5. Does it detect a headphone and switch fro…

So, specifically: 1. 4 hours depending on workload(sort of an air form factor with a core-i7). 2. Yes, all supported, and still using my apple magic mouse. Used Skype, Vidyo, and Google Hangouts. 3. Can't say for sure, no reboots so far, wakes just fine. 4. Using an external monitor at work with my apple display port -> dvi adapter, so pretty much worked no problem. I was worried about the display being lower res tha…

Just to add another data point, Arch Linux on X220:

1. 4-6 hrs with 6 cell battery.

2. Yes, Intel everything (HD4000, wireless, etc).

3. Yes, 1 resume crash total this year.

4. Yes, attached to external monitor via DisplayPort -> DVI right now.

5. Never tested.

6. Small, crappy. I'm one of those guys who disables the touch pad in favor of TrackPoint though.

7. Much better IMO, not a fan of chiclet style and Apple's "mushy" keyboards.

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

#140

Post by expralitemonk »

antiterra wrote: post #123
expralitemonk wrote: post #73

I go to a coffee shop often and among other things, I notice people's machines and how they interact with them. Two observations: 1. People with non-Mac machines always plug their laptop into AC power before starting work (unless it's a netbook). My previous Windows laptop had battery life of about 2 hours while my Macbook Pro has about 5 hours. 2. People with non-Mac machines have to be very careful where they sit,…

#2 also applies to most Macs, which is why I paid extra for a matte display on my Macbook Pro.

Hmmm...I live in Florida so our outside glare is pretty bad. I have a one year old MacBook Pro and have never had a problem (even outside in the shade in the summertime).

I'm sure there are very good Windows laptops. As the previous poster wrote, if you do your research, you can find one. I don't want to do research.* I want to walk into a store and say "I'll take that one," and have it work.

* Useful, accurate online information on laptop battery life and other performance statistics is pretty much nonexistent. The only trustworthy information source is to ask strangers "How do you like your laptop?"

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