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Best Ultrabook for Linux?

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Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#151

Post by count »

pudquick wrote: post #127
lordlarm wrote: post #95

I see a lot of comments here recommending a Macbook Air and I wanted to inform you, just so you are perfectly aware, that this computer does not even have an ethernet input. Perhaps not a game changer, but it gives a picture of what kind of features Apple has scraped away in order to reduce it's size. Personally I would choose a Thinkpad, were I you.

In addition, most non-OS X operating systems boot on Intel Macs using their EFI BIOS emulation layer, which doesn't quite give you the native hardware control that booting straight EFI does. I work with enterprise deployed Macs and I'll tell you that most Linux distributions, when booting Macs via EFI BIOS emulation, do not properly control CPU and GPU power and tend to run them at full tilt. Apple's Bootcamp drivers…

There are still linux distributions that don't do EFI? Arch and Ubuntu, at least, run fine on intel macs, without the whole crazy power problem issues you're talking about.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#152

Post by count »

lordlarm wrote: post #95

I see a lot of comments here recommending a Macbook Air and I wanted to inform you, just so you are perfectly aware, that this computer does not even have an ethernet input. Perhaps not a game changer, but it gives a picture of what kind of features Apple has scraped away in order to reduce it's size. Personally I would choose a Thinkpad, were I you.

When was the last time you connected a laptop to something with a wired ethernet port? I honestly can't remember...

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#153

Post by batista »

ciupicri wrote: post #56
batista wrote: post #16

This, guy, Linus Torwalds, uses a MacBook Air for Linux. He even says on his Google+ page that he couldn't find anything better, and that even Lenovo stuff is crap. Just sayin'.

The MacBook Air was for his kids: "if you have anything to do with security in a distro, and think that my kids (replace "my kids" with "sales people on the road" if you think your main customers are businesses)...". P.S. Out of curiosity, could someone explain me why I'm being downvoted?

No, it's one he uses. He talked about it several times. Here's a photo of his desktop: http://micro.dentarg.net/post/18516355410/linus-torvalds-has...

And here's a quote of his in his G+ blog: "Point me to a better laptop. Trust me, I tried. They don't exist. It's sad. They are all big and clunky." (Someone suggesting Lenovo) "no, Lenovo doesn't. I have the Lenovo X1. It's bigger, plasticky, and has worse battery life."

(As for above, probably he has one for his kids too or his kids also use his --or he just mentioned it in the example above to refer to a usability issue for the "common user").

In the past he also had a G5 (Linux) as his desktop machine, and an iBook with OS X for writing his autobiography.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#154

Post by rbanffy »

akkartik wrote: post #147
rbanffy wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been running Linux on laptops since 2004 or so. Used Debian, then Ubuntu and never had any bad hardware issues. The worst issues would require connecting the ethernet cable and downloading missing modules (that couldn't be distributed on the CD). I just got myself a Dell Vostro v131 n-series that came with Linux preinstalled. I updated it to the latest Ubuntu and everything works flawlessly. Just about any avera…

I've been running a T420s with LMDE for 4 months now, and the one issue that's been bugging me is battery life. Boot up the windows partition: 6.5 hours. Linux partition: 1.5 hours.

That's weird. Can you run a power metering tool to find out what is using so much energy? What the GPU it uses?

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#155

Post by olalonde »

olalonde wrote: post #106
moe wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboard is fine but the lack of home/end/pgup/pgdn is indeed a royal pain in the ass. After 3 years of running OSX on my Macbooks one would think I should be used to it by now. But it still annoys me enough so that I use an external keyboard for any programming work.

What do you guys use those keys for? I never had to use them before.

Not sure why I was down voted, it was a genuine question. I'm currently on my friend's MacBook so I can't try them out...

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#156

Post by akkartik »

rbanffy wrote: post #154
akkartik wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been running a T420s with LMDE for 4 months now, and the one issue that's been bugging me is battery life. Boot up the windows partition: 6.5 hours. Linux partition: 1.5 hours.

That's weird. Can you run a power metering tool to find out what is using so much energy? What the GPU it uses?

I'd love to try that. You mean a hardware metering tool?

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#158

Post by balac »

asdfpoiu wrote: post #52
balac wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using a zenbook and with the 3.2 kernal (included in ubuntu 12.04beta) almost everything is working great. There is a small change that is needed to enable suspend, but otherwise everything works out of the box with no extra drivers needed (including wifi, two finger right click, camera, 3d graphics, etc.).

Can you tell us how the battery life is?

Under linux (normal web browsing, coding, etc.) I get around 5 1/2 hours. With windows that goes up to around 7 hours. I think much of the windows battery saving comes from the very low power mode it switches into automatically when you unplug the laptop. This mode can be a little annoying though as it powers down the cpu and you can't do basic stuff like watching a high quality video smoothly, etc. As far as I can tell under Linux the power saving mode is much more conservative.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#159

Post by balac »

wickedchicken wrote: post #74
spindritf wrote: post #12

I'm not aware of any fully supported ultrabook. Something always seems to be unsupported or not fully supported but usually inessential, like a fingerprint scanner, or an accelerometer. A friend of mine is using a Zenbook but it takes some serious efforts to get it to run properly https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AsusZenbook It's also a matter of what you consider an ultrabook. I have a Dell V131. It's a laptop IMHO…

The touchpad on the Zenbook is absurdly bad, nearly unusable. I was hoping they would stick with the Elantech found on the Eees (these are rather well supported) but instead it's a 'Sentelic.'

Actually Zenbooks ship with two different touchpads, mine has the Elantech and works OK.

Re: Best Ultrabook for Linux?

#160

Post by aeeeee »

maxs wrote: post #125
aeeeee wrote: post #15

Last December I bought a ASUS U31 (U31SD-A1 Intel Core i3 2310M 2.10GHz 13.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M) and I absolutely love it. I don't know if the same model is available but I would definitely look into it if you can find it. For Linux I use Mint and you although it uses the Optimus stuff for video bumblebee works great. You don't need to run in NVidia mode to get 3D effects either I only use b…

Another vote for ASUS U31SD!!! (I am also excited like a teenage girl about this laptop!) I bought it for $650 from Amazon almost a year ago. It is not really an Ultrabook. But, I think it is perfect. The screen size is a 13", it is incredibly light, yet still has a full-size keyboard, all ports you will ever need, and quite A LOT of power (4Gb RAM expandable to 8Gb, 2 cores, 4 hardware threads). I use Ubuntu with Un…

Nice! Happy to hear that there is another person running Linux. I honestly get a good 10 hours (or at least that's what the power manager reports). It boots so fast with SSD I don't think I'll ever go back :)
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