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Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

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Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#51

Post by [deleted] »

dnissley wrote: post #50
nxzero wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, who uses Fedora on all of his computers." Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_(operating_system) Be interesting to know what hardware Linus use, though given security is a low priorty for him, not sure what this would mean. Personally, I would like to know if the gen4 ThinkPad X1 Carbon (hardware, bios, firmware, drivers, etc) have any know exploits or notab…

Macbook Air 11": http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/skitched...

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#52

Post by simon_acca »

I use a ThinkPad x1 2nd generation and from the my experience this is a great linux machine. Everything works, including the fingerprint reader and suspension.

It's a 14 inches laptop, which makes it bit enough for programming and small enough to be carried around everywhere. In this respect, the fact that it only weights 1.3kg also helps a lot!

The HiDPI screen makes it quite pleasant to stare at the screen for hours at hand. Given the high resolution, I have no trouble opening up 3 80char vim panes side by side, even though at home I connect it to an external monitor.

Xrandr lists eDP1 (internal monitor), DP1, DP2, HDMI1, HDMI2 as outputs, this makes me think that a DP split is supported, even though I haven't checked yet.

The keyboard is nice like all the thinkpads but be aware that the layout is different from the standard. In particular, caps lock has been replaced by home and end keys. After some getting used to, I must say I rather enjoy this change and I use the the two keys often! The laptop also has an "adaptive keyboard": a row of keys that change its function according to the context (on win). I only got to working the F{1..12}, volume -+, mute, light -+, keyboard light toggle, and two extra programmable keys.

The battery situation is also good: One charge lasts about 5.5h, and with the rapid charge feature, you can bring the battery to 80% in just 1h. The rapid charge turned out to be very useful as I can charge the laptop between lessons at the uni for about 20' and keep going for 2h afterwards.

Connectionwise, the lack of ethernet (it does have a network card and port but you have to use a proprietary adapter) and SD is noticeable at times. The other ports, namely: HDMI, DP, 2xUSB3, mic/headphones work as expected. I have not tried a docking adapter yet.

So, to summarize the Best Features:

* 2K screen (Amazing!) * good keyboard with sensible improvements over the standard layout * fast recharge * good battery life

Possible improvements:

* RAM is soldered and max 8GB * no SD or microSD port * m2 SSDs are still expensive

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#53

Post by drakonka »

Ao7bei3s wrote: post #43
drakonka wrote: post #6

I recently bought a gen4 ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Despite a couple of issues first getting started with Linux (I've been using OS X for years aside from running Ubuntu on my web servers) I'm now happily on Fedora 23. There was a kernel bug that I think is being patched atm, requiring booting with intel_pstate=no_hwp but no problems with Fedora other than that. When discussing this on the ThinkPad subreddit a Red Hat emplo…

The X1 Carbon has a Skylake CPU, so the problem that Linux doesn't have support for the higher C-states resulting in reduced battery life and reduced total CPU lifetime should apply to you, right?? Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11492070 (I have tested the predecessor (gen3) and liked it. I'm waiting for the 16GB gen4 X1 Carbon to become available here in Germany, drop enough in price to…

I think an upcoming patch is meant to greatly improve this, at least judging by this, aside from solving the boot parameter requirement issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4c6q6w/fixing_int...

> I have finally compiled a patched kernel myself and couldn't be happier with results. Not only battery life increased (~1 additional hour), but what's more important, performance on battery improved significantly.

(Note: I have not tried this myself yet...maybe this weekend)

Some other possibly useful links I just came across related to this patch:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/4d6qj5/psa_linux_...

- https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#54

Post by jordigh »

reitoei wrote: post #48
jordigh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm having trouble with the graphics acceleration with an intel graphics card on Debian. This is on an x250. I'm kind of surprised, because it's the first time that the intel chipsets fail me. Usually they work the best because the drivers are free.

That's may be too 'new' of a computer in Debian userland, although I'm probably wrong.

I'm using the driver versioned at 2:2.99.917 from backports, although I see that unstable has added stuff from a recent git branch. Still, if apparently I'm using the latest released driver, shouldn't that be enough?

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#55

Post by ericlee4 »

dnissley wrote: post #50
nxzero wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, who uses Fedora on all of his computers." Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_(operating_system) Be interesting to know what hardware Linus use, though given security is a low priorty for him, not sure what this would mean. Personally, I would like to know if the gen4 ThinkPad X1 Carbon (hardware, bios, firmware, drivers, etc) have any know exploits or notab…

Macbook Air 11": http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/skitched...

More recently a Sony Vaio Pro according to this interview.

http://www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-qa-2014-6

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#56

Post by MichaelGG »

hellofunk wrote: post #42
MichaelGG wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nit: Some ThinkPads have 2560 x 1440 displays now (or higher, I think, on the big ones). And their keyboard and touchpad buttons are vastly superior than Apple (though some people have wrong opinions on this). They also don't overheat like Apple, generally speaking.

I've never seen anything like the new Force Touch trackpads (Apple) on any machine, and they are really spoiling me.

Isn't that just compensating for lack of right and middle click? I'd prefer to put as little pressure as possible, and like the tactile positioning of buttons.

But obviously people disagree else they wouldn't rave about the subpar keyboard and rather hot chassis as well ;).

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#57

Post by jruz »

I would get a macbook. I use Arch 90% of the time but usually I'm dealing with poor battery life and not rock solid wifi, but I can stand both. If I need long battery life or really stable wifi I would just boot OSX and run Arch on VMware with my /home partition mounted and work from there. Also you get the chance to do some iOS development in case you are into that.

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#58

Post by izym »

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #40
MichaelGG wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nit: Some ThinkPads have 2560 x 1440 displays now (or higher, I think, on the big ones). And their keyboard and touchpad buttons are vastly superior than Apple (though some people have wrong opinions on this). They also don't overheat like Apple, generally speaking.

Agreed. My Dell XPS 15 is running at 3840x2160. Unfortunately, there's a few quirks: - Wireless drivers broken in Jessio (unless you build your own kernel) - UI elements are EXTREMELY small (you have to set DPI before window manager starts) Apart from that, it's an awesome machine

How well does the touchpad work under Linux? Also, how is the battery life and GPU switching? I'm currently deciding between the XPS15 and waiting for the rMBP refresh, and the XPS15 is seriously tempting.

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#59

Post by izolate »

lmm wrote: post #4

I haven't installed Linux on it yet, but I've been really impressed by the Microsoft Surface Book - even leaving aside the tablet functionality it's just a really nice laptop, with the best features vs size/weight I've seen going.

The poster explicitly said Linux, and that's the sentence you start with?

Re: Ask HN: Best linux laptop right now?

#60

Post by ShookOnes »

It took me 18 years to finally get the guts to move away from Thinkpads. I ordered the Chromebook Pixel LS and absolutely love it and sport it better than an Apple hipster in Bushwick! Only downside to me is that it lacks F11,F12 and the hdd is soldered in.

Not sure if anyone commented yet but Torvalds used a Macbook but I think since moved to some Sony VAIO if I'm not mistaken.

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