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Razer targets perfect Linux support

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Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#71

Post by tallowen »

robertdpi wrote: post #64
mathnode wrote: post #36

I am one of many disgruntled Razer Blade Stealth and razer core owners, currently awaiting a refund. Some customers are on as many as their 4th or 5th replacement unit. They have no English support in the UK, just a couple of german phone numbers which nobody seems to answer. The forum is terrible and they can't translate emails correctly. It's insulting. The typical issues are usually related to firmware, which myse…

Another signal about the reliability of the company is how they handle logistics. So if you are an US citizen living in Germany, you cannot buy a laptop with US keyboard layout. The assumption that razer makes is that if you access the website from a Germany, you are a german citizen, speaker and someone who uses a QWERTZ keyboard.. Im literally trying to purchase their product, but they discourage me with this absur…

Have you had a different experience with other companies?

My experience living in Germany has been that its been pretty hard to get American keyboards. Apple for instance only lets businesses oder laptops with US keyboards in Germany.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#72

Post by maxsilver »

mathnode wrote: post #36

I am one of many disgruntled Razer Blade Stealth and razer core owners, currently awaiting a refund. Some customers are on as many as their 4th or 5th replacement unit. They have no English support in the UK, just a couple of german phone numbers which nobody seems to answer. The forum is terrible and they can't translate emails correctly. It's insulting. The typical issues are usually related to firmware, which myse…

I also got bit by this. Razer's simpler wired keyboards and mice might be OK, but their systems are fundamentally broken.

The Razer Blade Stealth (7500u) has broken Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C support. Most popular devices simply won't work at all, even though they work with other Kaby Lake computers, and even though they work with Razer's own previous Stealth laptop (6500u model).

The Razer Core has broken display software (double vsync lag) which makes it not work properly if you use an external GPU and monitor (which is ostensibly the purpose of the device)

Additionally, the Razer Core's USB ports just flat out don't work. There's a power short of some sort in the internal USB hub, so that if you plug in a device that draws any more than the lowest amount of power, it cycles through a connecting/disconnecting state, looping forever.

All of these are fundamental flaws with the product itself, so you can (and will be asked to) RMA units over and over for eternity, but you'll never get the problem fixed.

---

Razer Support has known about all of these issues for months now. There is zero communication coming from Razer -- they won't discuss their design flaws, they won't support their devices, they won't even acknowledge these issues as happening.

When asked directly, the CEO claimed he "wasn't looking at product reliability because we're actually one of the top few in terms of product quality". - https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/5v8zkh/improving_raz... Since Razer's leadership doesn't care about quality at all, I can't imagine the company will ever care either.

At this point, I'm not spending another dime with Razer ever again, and certainly couldn't recommend any one else do so.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#73

Post by Mikushi »

enknamel wrote: post #52

I really like someone stepping up and making a high quality linux laptop. After the thread yesterday about System76 (who I thought was doing that) this makes me really happy. It's also somewhat a threat to Apple. If you aren't doing any iOS development you will now get a really nice alternative to a Macbook Pro.

I mean, I you weren't already doing iOS dev, why have an overpriced paperweight like a MBP?

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#74

Post by rasz_pl »

Warning: They keep using underspecced parts in the cpu supply, and treat customers like idiots by pretending to never heard about the problem(Apple tactic to avoid warranty/lawsuit).

Did your Razer die? Did manufacturer propose $700 fix? Watch this: https://mailin.repair/blog/razer-laptop-motherboard-failure-...

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#75

Post by Slackwise »

jrockway wrote: post #60
dubcanada wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't even the laptop, it's for Razer Synapses which is their cloud mouse/keyboard settings program. This is literally nothing to do with their laptop line up.

This seems to be how the world of Windows works. Every peripheral I have seems to need an account to save your settings in the cloud, a feature I pretty much never care about. Every vendor wants you to know that yes, you're using their thing, and that they employ an entire team of engineers and designers that have never seen a computer before. I wish someone would put a stop to it.

This is why I had reservations about many high end mechanical keyboards that had all their macro/lighting/etc support done via software. Found out that Ducky makes keyboards that are 100% hardware configured, no OS even needed, just power. (Also IKBC keyboards do configuration via firmware too, I believe.)

As for my mouse, I had to use some Corsair junk to configure the button mappings, sensitivity, and turn down their ridiculous LED, but then it saved the settings to the mouse firmware so I can uninstall it and use it just fine on Linux. No more touching it again. Still not happy about it. Would rather it had been some tiny DIP switches underneath.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#76

Post by lazyloop »

tallowen wrote: post #71
robertdpi wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another signal about the reliability of the company is how they handle logistics. So if you are an US citizen living in Germany, you cannot buy a laptop with US keyboard layout. The assumption that razer makes is that if you access the website from a Germany, you are a german citizen, speaker and someone who uses a QWERTZ keyboard.. Im literally trying to purchase their product, but they discourage me with this absur…

Have you had a different experience with other companies? My experience living in Germany has been that its been pretty hard to get American keyboards. Apple for instance only lets businesses oder laptops with US keyboards in Germany.

This is false. On apple.de you can currently order 9 different keyboard layouts, including US.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#77

Post by Slackwise »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #21
eikenberry wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen a mechanical keyboard that required drivers. What abou that Logitech keyboard requires a driver?

Keyboard drivers provide additional support for controlling LED backlight color (many of them are RGB per key) and for managing 'macro' keys which send bulk key sequences. Both features are popular in the gaming community. But they are also useful in other ways, I've got a mod which blinks the F11 key when I've got a meeting/appointment coming up (for example)

This is why I bought a Ducky keyboard, which does all this via an ARM controller/firmware right on the board. Zero software for my macro, lighting, settings, etc.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#78

Post by pfooti »

iotscale wrote: post #20

Well, I think I'll refrain from buying razer because of this: https://mobile.twitter.com/internetofshit/status/83665111681...

Worth noting that you can use synapse (the driver software in question) in offline mode. Launching it during the s3 outage wasn't possible without manually editing the config XML file, but you can change to offline mode directly in synapse if their system isn't down.

Once you're in offline mode, you don't get cloud sync (nbd, honestly, except for when I get a new machine) and everything else works fine.

So synapse is online by default and has bad error detection (should just fall back to offline on timeout), but doesn't, strictly speaking, require cloud services to work. Not great design choices here, but not as bad as it sounds.

source: I am an owner of a razer mouse, couldn't configure it in windows on S3 day until I changed my config.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#79

Post by pfooti »

f8kr wrote: post #42

Razer's Synapse, or cloud based drivers seem like a huge step backwards. Needing to make an account so I can change the sensitivity of my mouse is crazy. I've heard the argument * they needed more space on the device so couldn't include the drivers and configuration * cloud drivers allow portability of configuration Both of those fall on their face in reality. Lan gaming is mostly dead since most multiplayer games ar…

you can run synapse in offline mode.

Re: Razer targets perfect Linux support

#80

Post by lazyloop »

mathnode wrote: post #36

I am one of many disgruntled Razer Blade Stealth and razer core owners, currently awaiting a refund. Some customers are on as many as their 4th or 5th replacement unit. They have no English support in the UK, just a couple of german phone numbers which nobody seems to answer. The forum is terrible and they can't translate emails correctly. It's insulting. The typical issues are usually related to firmware, which myse…

Couldn't agree more, Razer support is awful. They make pretty products, but if something doesn't work you're going to have a very bad time.
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