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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#401

Post by mbrock »

askafriend wrote: post #311
mbrock wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to use HiDPI on Linux, but I guess it depends on what software you use. I've used it for almost a year. I set my DPI in X and GTK. I believe GNOME understands DPI, but I just use ratpoison so I don't know. After turning off hunting, fonts look very nice. Don't bother trying to connect an external monitor with a different DPI though, hehe. I've heard that problem is unsolvable with the X11 paradigm but w…

I want you to re-read the first paragraph you wrote. That's exactly why I don't use Linux. I don't mean this to be a condescending comment, but really, the contents of your entire first paragraph are just things that I don't want to deal with. It's all just bullshit, and I don't have time to deal with bullshit like that. I really just don't want to even think about stuff like that. Not even a tiny bit, not even for a…

Sure, that's fine with me, you can choose to spend your time however you want.

Someone said proper HiDPI support is not available on Linux. So I replied that I have used HiDPI on Linux for a long time without major issues.

That's not an advocacy argument for anyone to choose Linux. So I might ask you to re-read my paragraph—unless you're so allergic to Linux "bullshit" that mere anecdotes cause you pain, in which case I'm sorry. (That's meant to be just slightly condescending...)

Re: We Need a Better PC

#402

Post by jrapdx3 »

jordanthoms wrote: post #315
eosrei wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cornucopia of crap that is the PC laptop market Haha! High-end Dell and ASUS machines are good, but the lack of Apple competition is why Microsoft made the Surface Book. "We gave you nearly twenty years to make something good! Fine! We'll do it ourselves."

I have had the thought that if the Surface machines had good Linux support (still can't stand Windows for development), they'd be a great option. The irony of running Linux on Microsoft hardware would be a major plus also. With the way MS is going maybe they'll introduce official support!

As an owner of an SP2 for >2yrs, I strongly agree with your idea. However as things are now, it's very difficult to install Linux, FreeBSD or other OS on the SP[2-4], I know because I've tried to do it, not a pleasant experience at all.

OTOH it is pretty easy to run just about any OS in a Hyper-V VM. My SP2 has FBSD running most of the time. One use is letting the VM act like a remote node that clients on the host OS can access. Makes a convenient arrangement for server development and testing in a way that dual booting would not accomplish.

On the downside MS hardware means running Windows 10 on new machines, which I'm not happy about. I won't go into details re: Win10, it's been discussed plenty. When it works the hardware's great, though MS firmware skills are marginal at best, it's bitten me a few times, but there's another bunch of long stories that ATM I'll refrain from telling.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#403

Post by icebraining »

jahnu wrote: post #341
chjohasbrouck wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have both, and I find the things that Macs have that everything else is missing just aren't articulated on a spec sheet. The display on the Macbook Pro Retina is just flawless. The colors, the anti-glare, and the picture quality from all angles, it's just really well done. The brushed aluminum chassis makes it very cool and lightweight, great to travel with and keep on your lap. Excellent battery life. It's just a…

Have to agree. It's always the small details that aren't obvious at first blush. Here's another one that always gets me about PC laptops: Air vents on the bottoms so I can't safely rest it on anything soft that would block them. On my MBP I only have to worry about the very back.

YMMV; my Thinkpad and my HP DV2 before that both had side vents.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#404

Post by nextos »

mandelken wrote: post #388
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 bought the first Zenbook UX31 when it came out and last year bought a retina MBP. The zenbook was at the time half the price for the comparable mac air and I enjoyed it very much the first year, but since then I had it repaired 3 times costing me more than the purchase price (HDD, ram, power plug) and the power plug still doesnt work well so I can't use it anymore. It served me well, but not sure I would recommend…

I think it's not only about build quality. If you use Linux, sadly it's also about compatibility.

I bought a MBA 11' (2012) because it's an all-Intel machine, which was used by Linus for some time and hardware support is almost perfect. It's only lacking ACPI events for battery discharge, something very few machines have.

While Macs are good, I think they are optimised for the looks and not for robustness. Glossy screens are a bit uncomfortable, and aluminium tends to be too rigid, transmitting shocks to the screen as a consequence.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#405

Post by mbrock »

glogla wrote: post #362
mbrock wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the XPS 13 Developer Edition, and it's a fine laptop in many ways... But it's marketed as a Linux laptop, yet requires a proprietary WiFi driver. After I upgraded my kernel a month ago, the WiFi started kernel panicking randomly and often, so I don't bother even using the computer anymore... I just use a full screen terminal on my old MacBook and ssh to a VPS. One day I'll reinstall the driver or something, bu…

How is the touchpad? Is it comparable to Mac? How is the highdpi screen on Linux?

Oh yeah, the touchpad is frankly awful compared to my MacBook's. I've almost considered disabling it, because I keep brushing against it with my palm causing wild cursor behavior and accidental button presses. It's difficult for me to control even when I do it intentionally.

But I don't use the mouse much anyway (hence ratpoison).

The HiDPI screen is pretty good, I talked about it in a sibling comment. Chromium understands the DPI setting and so does Xterm, and honestly I don't use any other programs. I imagine if I used different desktop applications, I'd probably run into some issues like maybe icons being too small or something.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#406

Post by krylon »

symmetricsaurus wrote: post #244
gcb0 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

I don't agree at all with the new Thinkpad keyboards being garbage. The old ones were nice (maybe even nicer than the new ones) but the new ones are still the best laptop keyboards in the market at the moment. The keyboard has no flex or mushiness. The keys have some resistance and a nice feel when depressing them. Finally the keys are slightly curved inwards so that the fingesrs easily find the centers of the keys.…

At work, I have a L540. I don't like the look of the new-ish ThinkPad keyboards, but otherwise, the only complaint I have is that a few keys will sometimes (rarely) fire twice when I push them.

Otherwise it is a nice keyboard. Tactile feedback is not comparable to a Model M, of course, but it is okay. Acoustically it works nicely.

I am not sure how much of a difference it makes, but I was surprised when I got my machine to find out it is a 17" model, so the keyboard is rather close in size to an external keyboard, which is very nice. (I don't usually carry this beast with me, so I don't mind the size. YMMV!)

Re: We Need a Better PC

#407

Post by mbrock »

Terribledactyl wrote: post #390
mbrock wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the XPS 13 Developer Edition, and it's a fine laptop in many ways... But it's marketed as a Linux laptop, yet requires a proprietary WiFi driver. After I upgraded my kernel a month ago, the WiFi started kernel panicking randomly and often, so I don't bother even using the computer anymore... I just use a full screen terminal on my old MacBook and ssh to a VPS. One day I'll reinstall the driver or something, bu…

I too was quite frustrated with the wifi card, apparently they've sourced different cards. The Broadcom (I think?) was pure crap in linux, fine in windows. I upgraded to the non bluetooth intel card, everything is fantastic now.

Yeah, Broadcom. Oh, how did you upgrade? Ask the Dell support?

Re: We Need a Better PC

#408

Post by tdsamardzhiev »

legulere wrote: post #380
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…

A 13" macbook air with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Core i5 processor costs $1 299.00, so more like 60%. There also seem to be some small things where Asus is saving money: It uses a SATA SSD instead of a NVMe PCIe SSD for instance.

True that. MBA also has better connectivity and audio.

On the other hand, MBA's monitor is a complete joke compared to the one on ASUS UX305.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#409

Post by ilek »

osense wrote: post #332
perlgeek wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and god help you if you ever need the Asus customer support for repairing that thing. A truely horrible experience. I can provide details of my "experience" with them, but the Internet is already full of horror stories that cover everything that is to say about that topic. And no, buying a new laptop after a year and a half simply isn't acceptable to me, even if it makes sense in your economic situation.

I don't know how things are over in the US, but here in Czech republic, my experience with them was nothing but good. When my SSD broke down after about a month of using the thing, they paid for the shipping to and from the repair shop and replaced the drive in... a week I think. I've been using it for about a year now and I've had no other problems.

I had a poor experience with them in the UK. The hinge snapped on my ultrabook (I don't remember the exact model as the codes are obscure.) E-mailed support, provided plenty of pictures of the issue. Keep in mind I only owned the thing for 6 months so still in warranty.

Best they would offer is an out of warranty repair.

I know someone with the same model, exact same problem happened to him.

Horrible build quality and support.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#410

Post by paddyoloughlin »

ekianjo wrote: post #147
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

apt is not the only package manager on Linux. At least you have abundant choices as to what you can use. As always on Linux, for about everything, there are tons of ways to do it.

And homebrew isn't the only package manager on OSX.

I actually see this as an argument in favour of OSX, as it is much more straightforward to change package manager than on Linux, where the sane way to change package manager is to change your distribution.

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