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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#251

Post by threatofrain »

hartator wrote: post #210
habosa wrote: post #113

Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…

I think if you are spending more than 10 hours per day on your laptop, price shouldn't matter. On a side note, you've missed the retina thing, it's making a true difference.

What does a 'true difference' mean? (retina screen) => (mediating factor) => ( more productivity / better eyes )?

Re: We Need a Better PC

#252

Post by jordanthoms »

Symbiote wrote: post #231
knights123 wrote: post #90

It seems like you should really just buy a MacBook Pro. Sure the software isn't perfect, but it's an order of magnitude closer to perfect than Windows has been lately. You buy it, boot it up, and it works wonderfully. Of course the one day out of the year that it doesn't you go rage comment on how it sucks and it scares Windows users away from Mac, but the rest of the time you'd never consider going back to a typical…

Is it really only one day a year for you? I was given the latest MBP for my new job, which was the first time I'd used a Mac. The external keyboard uses a non standard USB port. That's broken. It's not easy to maximise a window fully. Apparently I'm not supposed to do this, but I don't like being told how I'm supposed to use a computer. Focus follows mouse can't be done. There are very few ways the window manager can…

Mostly true, but you may want to look into Divvy (which makes it very easy to maximize and manage windows) and TotalSpaces2.

I'd rather deal with these issues and run a ubuntu VM for some things than deal with the cornucopia of crap that is the PC laptop market but hopefully some day that will change.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#254

Post by PhasmaFelis »

gcb0 wrote: post #189
SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really happy with my Toshiba Tecra Z series. The article totally missed Toshiba, which is still a decent manufacturer. I get 5-6 hours of battery life with real usage, close to 10 hours in "green" mode, I've got a 15.6" screen, a keypad, 16Gb of RAM, an i7 processor, and a 1Tb SSD. And it's just over 4 pounds and pretty thin. I have NVIDIA graphics. The Tecra Z has an available 3K touch display, and its HDMI port…

the article misses everything. lenovo is not even relevant anymore. Their new keyboards (since 2009!) are complete garbage. his "research" was probably asking some guy at the water cooler "what's a good PC laptop" "lenovo" "thanks"

Did you somehow just read the paragraph where he was disappointed with Lenovo, and miss the entire rest of the blog post where he was also disappointed with a bunch of other manufacturers?

Re: We Need a Better PC

#255

Post by microtonal »

hguant wrote: post #163
bpicolo wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homebrew is really, really good about about giving you guidance to fix failed installs. "Homebrew failed to do thing...here's exactly the commands you can run to make this thing work now though if you are so inclined." apt fails? Good luck

This is somewhat untruthful. If apt fails, it tends to leave detailed error reports, and does its best to leave things in a sane state. However, if you're using apt, you're doing it wrong - aptitude is where it's at. Home brew, when things go wrong, goes wrong disastrously in my experience. You're never quite sure where you're left, and you have to spend a fair bit of time picking through what actually failed.

If APT fails catastrophically, your complete system could be in limbo. If Homebrew fails catastrophically (which never happened to me), the rest of your system is fine, you wipe out /usr/local and are up and running again in a couple of minutes (since most large packages are bottled).

By the way, aptitude does not really help you in the typical error case: a package (continuously) fails in dpkg-reconfigure, which causes the complete install/upgrade to fail.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#257

Post by chaostheory »

rmm wrote: post #235

Microsoft Surface Book. Easily the best device i have used in a very long time. Expensive (especially the i7 dGPU option) but i am amazed at how good this machine is. Huge battery life, powerful when it needs to be. Connect to a dock and you have a powerful desktop. Currently use it when im working in the office doing design work (plugged into a couple of Dell U2715H) then when i am out on mine sites use it as a port…

Agree. I just don't understand why MS has to call it a Surface. It's confusing since there are so many different MS devices that are called Surface.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#258

Post by threatofrain »

jordanthoms wrote: post #252
Symbiote wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really only one day a year for you? I was given the latest MBP for my new job, which was the first time I'd used a Mac. The external keyboard uses a non standard USB port. That's broken. It's not easy to maximise a window fully. Apparently I'm not supposed to do this, but I don't like being told how I'm supposed to use a computer. Focus follows mouse can't be done. There are very few ways the window manager can…

Mostly true, but you may want to look into Divvy (which makes it very easy to maximize and manage windows) and TotalSpaces2. I'd rather deal with these issues and run a ubuntu VM for some things than deal with the cornucopia of crap that is the PC laptop market but hopefully some day that will change.

It is so strange to me that OS X has not adopted some kind of Divvy-like solution. Manipulating windows on OS X is a frustration to me.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#259

Post by Raed667 »

habosa wrote: post #113

Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…

The one I found had an Intel Core i7-5500U .. Which is not for power-users.

EDIT: Your guide[0] to intel CPUs

[0]: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/proce...

Re: We Need a Better PC

#260

Post by ocean3 »

jolux wrote: post #7

Honestly if you get a Mac you can install rEFInd on it and boot Linux just fine, or run Linux in a VM. The hardware also almost never breaks and especially if you have AppleCare they frequently replace it for free. Yes, it may be difficult to upgrade yourself. That's entirely true and if it's a deal breaker there's not much else around. You might do well to look at https://puri.sm if you're a Linux user, they seem to…

" if you have AppleCare they frequently replace it for free" - as long as you have warranty right? I had a issue with motherboard, the official Apple service center near my place quoted a replacement price equal to a new windows laptop with just 6 months additional warranty.
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