I guess it makes sense this is for power users, only amateurs use Page Up/Home/etc. buttons.
Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
561–570 of 686 posts
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#562Again?
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#563Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, with 128GB RAM, I guess one could even ignore that it is soldered (and hence "unrepairable"), but if it can't run Linux or *BSD it is a definite no go. We definitely don't need two closed hardware platform duopoly (Apple and Microsoft), as together they will dominate and kill the "open" platforms. But I am pessimistic here as everything seems headed towards that eventuality. We should never have accepted smartph…
> Yes, with 128GB RAM, I guess one could even ignore that it is soldered Unless that RAM fails in some way or another, then you have to replace the whole motherboard because of this.
It depends - soldered RAM (LPDDR) on iPads and soldered SSD on Intel Mac Minis can be repaired by replacing the chip. (But obviously it requires skills and specialised tools). So you don't necessarily need to replace the whole board. But if it is some kind of "integrated" non-standard RAM, like Apple uses on its ARM series SoCs, it is near unrepairable. So yeah, one should think many times before buying a computer with soldered RAM. (On the positive side, I've never had to replace any RAM in any computers I've owned so far - the failure point has always been HDDs for me).
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#564This is obviously intended for running local AI, but the memory bandwidth of 300 GB/sec seems a limiting factor, since this is what limits single user LLM inference tokens/sec. For comparison the M2 Ultra does up to 800 GB/sec, thanks to having a 1024-bit bus vs the RTX Spark's 256-bit bus.
Where did you find the 300GB/s? That's indeed disappointing if true.
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#565Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, with 128GB RAM, I guess one could even ignore that it is soldered (and hence "unrepairable"), but if it can't run Linux or *BSD it is a definite no go. We definitely don't need two closed hardware platform duopoly (Apple and Microsoft), as together they will dominate and kill the "open" platforms. But I am pessimistic here as everything seems headed towards that eventuality. We should never have accepted smartph…
> But I am pessimistic here as everything seems headed towards that eventuality. Lots of companies buy average Dell and Lenovo laptops because they are repairable in-house.
That's good to know - but many of their models also have soldered RAM, which is disappointing.
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#566Call me a hater, but the problem is Windows, not necessarily the hardware. I get it they want to stop the MacBook Pro, but: Windows is slow for no reason; it collects everything it can about the user; takes screenshots of whatever the user is doing; has ads - even though you pay for the OS; drivers are still a mess; hardware is made by different companies and no actual proper integration like Apple does. I could go o…
Similarly on the higher end, I want to run linux on Apple Macbook laptops.
Leave the drivers/power management to the optimized OS and do your work in VM ?
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#567Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm curious about the openness of the platform. As long as the openness and standardization of the PC platform is not present, this platform is not a contender of x86 in my eyes. We can see with the highly praised Apple M platform on the example of the Asahi Linux what the lack of openness brings: people are locked in to operating systems by the vendors, and planned obsolescence, even with long support periods. On th…
Yes, with 128GB RAM, I guess one could even ignore that it is soldered (and hence "unrepairable"), but if it can't run Linux or *BSD it is a definite no go. We definitely don't need two closed hardware platform duopoly (Apple and Microsoft), as together they will dominate and kill the "open" platforms. But I am pessimistic here as everything seems headed towards that eventuality. We should never have accepted smartph…
> We should never have accepted smartphones as closed platforms.
I didn't. Sent from my Librem 5.
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#568Earlier quoted context omitted.
Similarly on the higher end, I want to run linux on Apple Macbook laptops.
Leave the drivers/power management to the optimized OS and do your work in VM ?
This will not save you from things like this:
macOS unable to open any non-Apple application (twitter.com/lapcatsoftware)
2603 points by mattsolle on Nov 12, 2020 | 1292 comments
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#569My experience with Surfaces and, particularly, the Surface Book and its accompanying dock were such that I'd have to be paid to use one again. For example, the dock would get its own updates silently and brick itself randomly and the proprietary magnetic connector between the dock and the computer was prone to a poor connection. I remember many occasions trying to work and my screens just randomly blinking in and out…
I worked with some of the people responsible for the Surface Book, Surface docks, and specifically the Surface Book's dock. These were hardware people (EEs), not software people, and this was after their time at MS. Unfortunately I don't remember specifics (both because it's been a few years, and because I'd probably have to fuzz details anyway), but... : Docks are horrifying products. Thunderbolt docks are doubly ho…
I've always suspected Thunderbolt (and USB-C with a thick, inflexible cable attached) is a terrible port for a dock.
This guy tears down and analyzes docks with incredible detail, he might like to hear about your experience
Re: Microsoft builds MacBook Pro rival with NVIDIA-powered Surface Laptop Ultra
#570Seriously? Will it be as silent as a MacBook Pro? Will you be able to throw it into a backpack without shutting it down? At a quick glance it sounds like they're competing on specs and obviously missing everything else.
Also, Windows is probably significantly less secure than MacOS and Apple definitely has the best hardware security in the industry.