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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#561

Post by polymeris »

reirob wrote: post #501
jensen123 wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently bought a third generation Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon. It had a very annoying fan, which made it unusable for me. It wasn't very loud, but it was a high-frequency sound which made it annoying. Eventually, I got myself a Lenovo Thinkpad T450 instead. So far this T450 has been very good. The fan almost never comes on. However, it should probably be noted that I got the T450 model with the slowest CPU. For thos…

Got the T450s with an i7-5600U, 20GB RAM, 1TB SSD (bought from another vendor and swapped, much cheaper than the 500GB SSD from Lenovo). Ubuntu 14.04 works like charm. With an additional battery (the thick one), I can spend a whole day without electricity and the battery can be swapped without switching off the laptop. It's so far the best ThinkPad that I had until now. I have the impression that at least with this o…

Just curious, why do you consider the T440s unusable? I have had mine for years and, while it's not perfect, I don't have any big complaints about it.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#562

Post by JBReefer »

slantyyz wrote: post #547
pdimitar wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so very tempted by this laptop but there's one requirement I will never forego -- the backlit keyboard. If they make a second iteration of that model with a backlit keyboard I'll run to the nearest store and I WILL JUST BUY IT right there and then.

Serious question - can someone explain the appeal of the backlit keyboards? I notice it's a big deal whether you're a Mac or PC fan, but I generally don't understand it. Is it for people who can't touch type without looking at the keyboard? Admittedly, my desktop keyboard is backlit (I had to buy a gaming keyboard to get the macro keys I wanted), but the only purpose of the backlight for me is to know which of the fo…

It's nice if you use the weird keys that are far from the nubs - like F10, F11, F12, or anything where the grid doesn't give you tactile wayfinding.

For example, I use the backlit keyboard when I'm debugging at night, because hitting the wrong key carries a penalty, and F9 is not nearly as heavily used as 'A'

Re: We Need a Better PC

#563

Post by pjmlp »

jfb wrote: post #393
pjmlp wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which developers? Not everyone is writing POSIX only code.

Of course, Darwin is a perfectly cromulent POSIX system.

My point being that human beings writing native desktop and mobile applications, device drivers, games, vertical integrations, plugins for commercial software are developers as well.

UNIX having a cli doesn't do anything to help us.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#564

Post by Aoyagi »

dokument wrote: post #516
Aoyagi wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I just have plenty of experience with Razer's accessories.

Isn't that kind of like saying that Apples phone chargers and cords are always failing/breaking so Apple has bad build quality on all of their products?

I guess. Are they always failing/breaking? Then again, those things are by-products, Razer's peripherals are its main business.

My guess is that the Razer thing is based on a Clevo frame. If that's the case, I'd somewhat trust it.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#565

Post by marincounty »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #549
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'm in a similar boat, I have a mid-2010 MacBook Pro which I've added RAM and an SSD to. I'm dreading the day it dies because it's such a perfect laptop for me. The new MacBook Pros are nice, I've got a work-issued one, but whatever configuration you buy is what you're stuck with until you replace it. That sucks.

If what happens to the economy, and Apple sales--I feel comming. I think you might see, a Mac that's easy to upgrade/repair be suddenly available. I just hope they don't wait too long, and their stores look like Sears.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#566

Post by raisedbyninjas »

elboru wrote: post #348
joefreeman wrote: post #337

I went through a similar process recently after getting fed up with Apple's direction. I ended up getting a Surface Pro 4. The build quality seems good, battery is ok. The software/drivers are terrible - it rarely wakes up from sleep, and I don't get much delight from using Windows. Hoping Linux support improves in the near future.

What do you mean by drivers are terrible? Do some components fail randomly in Windows? Or do you mean they just don't work with Linux? Just asking because I'm planning to buy a Surface Pro

Issues with drivers have affected display, charging hibernation on surface devices. Other skylake laptops have seen similar problems so they may share the same root cause.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#567

Post by cowardlydragon »

Not only that, all desktop OSes are regressing. Well, windows 10 is an improvement over the massive shitstorm of Windows 8 where Microsoft apparently tried to commit corporate suicide.

Ubuntu and desktop linux continue to be extremely frustrating. I tried Suse, Ubuntu, and Mint in the last box I built for Xmas, and Ubuntu was the only one that installed cleanly, a marked improvement from the previous couple releases.

OSX is hardware-locked and it has many many problems and frustrations, especially if you are used to key bindings from the PC / Linux realm.

Desktop/laptop is steadily dying. We are all basically waiting on a hybrid of Android to take over desktop.

I continue to be mystified as to why Google does not pursue a desktop Linux operating system that's good. (aka not ChromeOS). It's a gigantic market to take over that Microsoft was begging someone to take from them throughout the Windows 8 debacle. With an unnoticeable hit to their bottom line they could assemble a team that would clean up Crossoffice, merge with Android, make tons of money from Android app store, get search/voice search/services integration at the OS...

ChromeOS could/should be this, but either it's not properly funded to handle the Windows interoperability (put/fund WINE on steroids) more seamlessly or doesn't have very good people on it.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#568

Post by raisedbyninjas »

creshal wrote: post #419
k_bx wrote: post #415

One very strong point which not that many discuss here is how awful websites of non-Apple manufacturers are. They are a strong indication of how bad things are organized and developed at those companies, if they can't make a nice website answering all your questions in an attractive manner – how can they expect you to buy stuff from them? Always impressed me.

HP's website should be discussed in UX curricula as best example how to never, ever, under any circumstances including death threats to design a website. From crazy URLs to crazy design to absurd uptime issues to random slowdowns, the inability to use it for anything made me go away from procuring HP products. Lenovo's is not quite as bad, but the article already highlighted the worst offences. At least I've memorize…

Dell used to provide abundant configurations. You could get significantly different prices for identical or very similar machines depending on the shop you used, special URLs, promotions or changing components on different models.

Asus was lauded ITT for their website design. I'd disagree because I've been considering a zenbook. I couldn't find the comparison between the models or even the submodels of the UX305. It is pretty though.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#569

Post by LordKano »

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 was a long time Mac aficionado. I loved Apple and their products. It was a heart breaking experience when I felt like it was time to move on.

I paid about $2,300 for a Performa 550 back in 1993. That machine served me well. I added memory, internal and external hard drives, a Zip drive, a 68882 FPU and a bunch of other peripherals. Between 1990 and 2000, I probably spent $6,000 in hardware, software and peripherals for those machines.

They served me well. I still have a G3 and Performa 6400/200 with G3 upgrade under my desk. Every once in a while, I fire one up just to reminisce.

Commodity parts and easy interchange is just so powerful that the community of Apple users just doesn't provide the same kind of benefits to outweigh that. At least, in my humble opinion.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#570

Post by ChristianBundy »

lmm wrote: post #467
randallsquared wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can install Linux on a Macbook, but you'll fight with drivers and end up with less machine than you would using OS X.

Matter of opinion. I've seen better OpenGL performance on Linux on the same hardware, for example, and better filesystem performance too. (I'd also be much less productive without the customizability of Linux window management, but that's getting into more subjective territory).

On Apple hardware? Which?
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