This seems to heavily dilute the Surface brand. Until now, you could get a Surface device and know you were getting a useful, independent writing/touch surface and a good-to-great keyboard/trackpad to attach. Now we're given a laptop with no convertibility whatsoever; not even a 360 degree hinge like many similar-spec laptops?
Introducing Surface Laptop
181–190 of 613 posts
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Given the target market (schools) I think not being able to install downloaded software is only a good thing. Except that giving kids unfettered access to their computers allows them to flourish. See: BBC Micro, Raspberry Pi, Apple ][, the list goes on.
A minute fraction of kids will use the ability to install downloaded software to flourish. The vast majority of children will just download games, malware, and porn. Society should be more honest with itself about the simple reality that the vast majority of children are not and will not ever be special.
Maybe controversial, but I first got internet access in 1999 as a 15-year old. And yes, that meant games, malware, and porn. But I did flourish, not despite all that, but also because of all that.
Games are now a rich part of our culture. They can tell great stories, and are not "better" or "worse" then a book per se. If you enjoy them in moderation, and go outside enough, games are a great thing. And LAN parties were a great pastime.
Malware, hacking tools, warez were one gateway for me into serious programming. I downloaded Visual Basic or Visual Studio and proceeded to write a trojan, to make friends' CD tray open and close on LAN parties.
And porn? Grown ups and parents don't like to hear it, but as a teen I of course enjoyed that there was porn on the internet. It didn't hurt me, and I've had healthy, normal relationships in my life.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#183I know windows 10s is supposed to be lean, but 4GB of ram in a 999$ laptop seems stingy. Even apple gives you more RAM for 999$
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#184"When the work is done and it’s time to relax, you can watch 14 episodes of your favorite TV show in one sitting, without ever plugging in."
I'm glad I'm not the only one...
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#185This seems to heavily dilute the Surface brand. Until now, you could get a Surface device and know you were getting a useful, independent writing/touch surface and a good-to-great keyboard/trackpad to attach. Now we're given a laptop with no convertibility whatsoever; not even a 360 degree hinge like many similar-spec laptops?
It started as a table. Moved to a tablet. Then a laptop.
Brand dilution doesn't seem like a priority for Microsoft.
Wish they had more sensible and less confusing naming. This is not fun to explain when people ask. (Same can be said of Google and a bunch of other tech companies too though.)
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As one of the kids who was lucky enough to get a BBC Micro, I had zero support. No-one else in my family even knew how to turn it on. No teacher at my school could support me because none of them knew how it worked either. If I broke it, I had to fix it. And no Stack Overflow, so no code to copy-paste. I had to go back to first principles every time and work out what went wrong and how I could make it go right. Wha…
They same reason we teach them basic math that a calculator can easily do. The primary reason for schools it to learn. Learning to type "8 * 7 =" is different then learning what it means to multiple 8 by 7
These are two entirely different things. Is the goal to get them to troubleshoot a computer, or are they being issued laptops to enable their education? If it's the former, then I can kind of understand. Trial by fire and all that good stuff. However you just said yourself:
> we teach them basic math
Keyword here is teach. We do not give them a math book and tell them to figure out what 8 * 7 means. We break down the concept of multiplication into its constituent parts. In that same vein, we should enable the child to learn how to troubleshoot the system.
Like I said: I think we can put Timmy's time to better use.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Faster than a MacBook Pro What's their basis for that? I'd have thought at the very best it'd be about the same speed as a 13" (assuming you're not doing anything that uses much RAM; the 4GB would really cripple it there). I'll be interested to see what CPU it has, exactly, but I'd be surprised if it has the HD540/640 graphics. EDIT: Specs here: https://i.imgur.com/Kc1fQ52.png The expensive ones use an Iris 640, so…
This look fairly expensive for the config isn't it?
Compared to what?
Surface i5, 8/256 $1299, MBP $1499 or $1799 depending on the i5 processor.
Surface i7, 8/256 $1599, MBP $2099
Surface i7, 16/512 $2199, MBP $2499.
So not sure how you're saying this is on the expensive end.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#188They're now demoing the Surface Laptop. Thinner than a MacBook Air. Faster than a MacBook Pro. Longer battery life than either. The downside? "Windows 10 S", which only runs apps from the Windows Store. The upside over Windows RT from the Windows 8 era? You can port Win32 apps to the Store today, don't think you could back then. Edit: You can upgrade Windows 10 S to ordinary Windows 10 Pro for $50. Laptops that run W…
> You can upgrade Windows 10 S to ordinary Windows 10 Pro for $50. While the Home to Pro upgrade costs double that? Strange.
Or for free for all of 2017.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#189I wonder how well Linux will run on this?
Likely, poorly to "kind of OK".
Almost 3 years after release, SP3 is at the "kind of OK" status, on the bleeding edge kernel (4.11-rc8).
Situation improves if you're willing to using an old, pre-patched kernel, or you can patch by yourself.
Re: Introducing Surface Laptop
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Surface Laptop is thinner than both.
That's remarkable. How did they get the USB-A port in there? The MacBook Pro body is thinner than the type A receptacle. Edit: Looking at this picture https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/surfa... and there's even substantial space around the type A receptacle. I honestly don't understand how it can be thinner than the MBP. I look forwards to seeing one in person.
https://images.apple.com/v/macbook-pro/l/images/overview/thu...
It becomes a lot easier to see it when you look at this.
I think this (the Mac) is Photoshopped 'deceptively'. Look at how the top of the shell and the base don't have concrete edges but are faded into white, too.
https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/ - look at most of the photography, not shot side on, so it looks like just the vertical edge of the MBP is the entirety of it's "depth", which is not accurate.