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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#491

Post by S_A_P »

Some of the big PC vendors have started catching up. I just bought an HP Envy for my father in law, and the hardware is pretty solid, and it had some features I really like(256GB ssd and 1TB hybrid drive, 16gb ram stock, nice display). It is really snappy, and despite his being non technical and wary of moving from Windows 7 to 10, he got on with it really quickly.

I think there is another issue with PC battery life here. Nothing heats up/drains my macbook pro's battery life quicker than windows 10. I have tried various power settings, but nothing ever quite "fixes" it. I have had to do the following "tweaks" to improve battery performance of Windows 10: 1)Disable Cortana(at least as much as you are able to) 2)remove this "phone companion" app that seems to reinstall with every new update 3)adjust power management which noticeably slows performance and or annoyingly shuts down the screen. 4)randomly go in and kill rogue battery robbing processes

Mac OS seems to seamlessly handle power management regardless of what Im doing- including multitrack audio recording/processing. I never hear the fan while running OSX only. But without fail my laptop heats up and the fan starts cranking while I have Windows running. I am getting closer to not ever needing to run windows, but I still do some .NET work and work with Sql Server. For me, its a huge turn off to hear a laptop constantly fighting to stay cool. In fact this is the major flaw I saw with the HP laptop I got my father in law. It would get hot and crank the fan. In my anecdotal opinion, windows is a poor laptop OS, and I don't see how there could be a better pc/laptop/tablet until Microsoft figures out how to manage power. I don't have a use case for Linux, so things could be better there, but Linux is still relegated to niche users for the most part in laptops.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#492

Post by sixbrx »

__tmg wrote: post #487
sixbrx wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a MBP from around 2012 and a big problem is that when running any OS besides OS X, it runs very hot with very short battery life because it can only use discrete graphics (NVidia) full time. The integrated graphics is disabled in Apple's efi (maybe by Bootcamp?), and I don't know that anyone has ever found a workaround. There's an extremely longstanding Apple support issue still open about it. So if planning…

Looks like this[0] should solve your issue. Also, it's my understanding that there's a way to patch GRUB for saner EFI behaviour. [0] https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/systemd-vgaswitcheroo-uni...

I'm not sure, it looks like it just disables the discrete GPU? If so, I've tried that - the problem is there's no other graphics to fall back on, Apple's proprietary EFI doesn't let non-OS X systems see that the integrated graphics are present at all (currently running only Windows 10 on it since I need Visual Studio). Maybe the patched Grub might be the start of a solution (could run Windows with a VM in Linux) but I'm not sure I'm that brave - last time I tried messing around with Apple's EFI for multi-booting it didn't end well :)

Re: We Need a Better PC

#493

Post by ebbv »

This idea that laptops should be tinker able is just so weird to me. No laptop is really tinker able. The best you can do is replace RAM and HDD. Motherboards, battery modules, etc. are all proprietary in these things and usually anything beyond those three is non-trivial to replace.

Call me crazy but I'd rather just have a machine that's specced right out of the box, and with a battery module that I never need to replace.

My 2012 15" Retina MacBook is still going strong over 3.5 years later. Not only that but the machine has been a pleasure to use every day.

It's true there should be alternatives to Apple products out there that are similar build quality, but I have yet to find them. Some of my coworkers are hard line anti-Apple and their laptops are all really poorly made, IMHO.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#494

Post by thedaemon »

The headline is misleading. It should say a better laptop. A PC is not equal to a laptop. I was hoping for a in depth article about modern computer design, but instead found a rant about bad websites and lack of well engineered laptops.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#495

Post by jwn »

theyCallMeSwift wrote: post #94

Check out the Dell Developer Edition XPS. It comes with Ubuntu on it and has 100% full driver support out of the box. It's a great machine, we use them for work. Screen is great too and it looks really beautiful. https://sputnik.github.io/

I want to like this machine, but it comes stock with 8GB of RAM and only a 256GB drive for the high end model with no options to upgrade (at least on Dell's site).

Re: We Need a Better PC

#496

Post by pflats »

lmm wrote: post #471
christoph wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people use a laptop throughout the day like in our office - plugged into a large monitor, mouse, keyboard and put up on a desktop stand. You then have the flexibility to just get up and walk into a meeting with it or walk out at the end of the day with everything just as you left it and carry on working on the train should you need.

The Macbook isn't very usable in that space though, since they have no first-party docking station support.

Apple's official monitors double as docking stations, with USB/Firewire/Ethernet being carried over thunderbolt.

The most recent ones also half a decade old and still quite expensive, so I can't imagine buying one, but Apple would tell you that they do have a first-party docking station, complete with monitor built-in!

Re: We Need a Better PC

#497

Post by Kurtz79 »

neverminder wrote: post #368
executesorder66 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never used a Chromebook, but why can't you just wipe the harddrive with something like gparted and then install a Linux OS as you normally would?

You can and many people (including myself) have successfully done that already - https://github.com/raphael/linux-samus

I think the question of the parent was if you could install Linux as you can with a normal PC (just by plugging an installation CD or USB drive), and the answer would be: "no you can't, unless you go through some hoops".

It's like installing Mac OSX on a PC, or Linux on a Mac: you can, but not easily and not in a way that is supported by the manufacturer.

You just have to scroll down in the link to see that there are several limitations that you wouldn't have with an OS that is supported natively.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#498

Post by douche »

Avshalom wrote: post #8
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Don't get a a laptop. The pc industry is doomed with phone envy. Desktop machines are one place you can really do better.

I don't know, buying a prebuilt desktop is just as bad of an experience. Building one piece meal from Newegg shouldn't be as convenient as buying something from Dell, it's damn close some days though.

Building a desktop from parts is easier than some Lego sets these days. I think the only possibly tricky part is making sure you apply the thermal paste and install the heat-sink correctly. Everything else you just screw in, snap in, and plug in.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#500

Post by Aeolos »

mbrock wrote: post #405
glogla wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 under…

I don't if this is available on Ubuntu, but recent versions of libinput are way nicer than the old synaptics touchpad driver.
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