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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#211

Post by canthonytucci »

I feel compelled to bring up how cheap, modular and abundant bad-ass second-hand thinkpads are. Not to mention that even the new-generation keyboards are amazing, and put the shallow crap on my macbook pro to shame.

The money you'd spend on even a 'cheap' macbook pro will get you something solidly built with a nice screen that's plenty fast for devlopment work AND money left over for an extra battery or 2 + a brand new fat SSD + 16 GB brand new RAM + a nice dinner (maybe even with a date).

Just be careful not to get one from the awkward phase recently where they didn't have individual clicky-butons and this strange ceramic trackpad.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#212

Post by joonoro »

The new ThinkPads are indeed awful, get the X220 aka the last good one. That should do you well until something worthwhile comes to replace it (maybe HP?)

- Last old-style ThinkPad with great build quality

- Last one with the classic keyboard

- Small form factor

- Sandy bridge i7, still kicks butt because it's not undervolted (check the benchmarks)

- up to 16 GB memory

- 10 hours of battery with a new 9-cell battery (+ tlp package on linux)

- Linux or Windows works great

Re: We Need a Better PC

#213

Post by sbuk »

The declining software quality is nothing more than a meme. None of you you seem to remember the horror that was 10.0. Or 10.1. Or 10.2 Or...

Re: We Need a Better PC

#215

Post by sreenadh »

I am surprised that the author did not consider Dell. I T410i user, but I will not be buying another thinkpad based on the current line up. Plus I have many issues with Linux drivers. Windows is no more reliable and I am forced to move on. Mac is great but the inability to modify is bugging me. I have a MBP also.

Of course, nothing beats a PC but its tough while travelling or when you just want to move around while working.

Micheal Dell making the company private will be good if he planning to focus on making quality hardware like Dell Developer Edition XPS + Project Sputnik, which is an interesting project. But still needs to mature.

So if I have to buy a machine today, I am lost. There is a need for quality machine for developers as we spend long time with it. It needs to be durable, light, matte screen(its very tough to get that now a days), low heat, good keyboard (mechanical like old thinkpads), good driver support for Linux, decent battery. PLUS have a higher score on iFixit. I like the rating of XPS 13 @ https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+13+Teardown/36157

Re: We Need a Better PC

#216

Post by ne01 »

I love my ThinkPad X220 and highly recommend ThinkPad X series.

I remember the day UPS delivered it. I had a flash drive with a Debian 6 image ready to be installed, didn't even boot up the windows to check if everything was OK.

~2.5 years after using it for about 10 hours per day USB ports started to randomly disconnect and reconnect it was very annoying.

I had no idea that ThinkPad X series has 3 years of warranty and still cannot believe that Lenovo sent someone to my house (3 days after I contacted them!) and changed the motherboard it's basically a brand new laptop. FYI, bought it directly from lenove's outlet website for ~$700.

My thinker is ~4 years old and it's still one of my most beloved objects in this world.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#217

Post by alfiedotwtf »

voltagex_ wrote: post #9
jitl wrote: post #6

Did you look at Dell's line of XPS ultrabooks? I don't own one myself, but the ultra narrow bezels and industrial design look quite nice.

I looked at the 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Skylake variant of the XPS 13. Amazing looking machine, fits my filter criteria of "has service manual available to mortals" except for one problem - Dell won't sell me one, and neither will Microsoft (Signature Edition). They only seem to be available in the US and even if I was willing to spend the nearly $4000AUD to import one they won't ship to a non-US address.

I got my XPS 15 from two weeks ago from JB HiFi on Elizabeth street (Melbourne), and $1000 cheaper that what you've been quoted ($2999). It's an awesome machine and everyone in the office is envious - to the point that we'll probably get more soon.

At the moment, the only thing that doesn't work yet in Debian Testing is the wifi... but I'm happy to wait - currently on a Ethernet-to-USB dongle.

Edit: oh, just noticed you were after the 13". It's nice, but I'm pretty damn happy with the 15"

Re: We Need a Better PC

#218

Post by tushar-r »

sreenadh wrote: post #215

I am surprised that the author did not consider Dell. I T410i user, but I will not be buying another thinkpad based on the current line up. Plus I have many issues with Linux drivers. Windows is no more reliable and I am forced to move on. Mac is great but the inability to modify is bugging me. I have a MBP also. Of course, nothing beats a PC but its tough while travelling or when you just want to move around while w…

|Plus I have many issues with Linux drivers.

Which is unfortunate, since Thinkpads used to have the best support for Linux in earlier generations :-(

Re: We Need a Better PC

#219

Post by kenrikm »

sreenadh wrote: post #215

I am surprised that the author did not consider Dell. I T410i user, but I will not be buying another thinkpad based on the current line up. Plus I have many issues with Linux drivers. Windows is no more reliable and I am forced to move on. Mac is great but the inability to modify is bugging me. I have a MBP also. Of course, nothing beats a PC but its tough while travelling or when you just want to move around while w…

I'm not sure I get it? Why not just buy a Macbook and install Ubuntu? you get the nicely designed hardware and don't have to run OSX if you don't want to.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#220

Post by unsignedint »

eximius wrote: post #167
unsignedint wrote: post #71

I'm finding $300 Acer laptop (or netbook, one of their Inspire line) loaded with Linux surprisingly usable. (It was preloaded with Linpus, but I've replaced with my own.) At 1.10 GHz Dual-Core, 4GB RAM, it's a bit slow at times, but as long as I'm not running intensive process on it, it's very usable on the go machine. (Mainly, TeX, translations, web stuff, browsing, and occasional spreadsheet, is what I do on the ma…

'surprisingly usable' is not what we should have to settle for

Well, I did add that I do have a desktop that I use for more demanding tasks. I guess it's the matter of doing the right thing on right machines.

Though, I do understand there are plenty of people out there who requires a laptop with decent capabilities. A $300 machine that "surprisingly usable" can be a good compromise in some use cases.

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