I bought a refurbished ASUS Vivobook X202E and put Linux Mint on it. I was pleasantly surprised that everything worked out of the box (touchscreen, multitouch trackpad, wifi, etc). It's still important to have manufacturers standing behind Linux on their PCs, but hardware support on Linux is always getting better.
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
71–80 of 169 posts
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#72Warning: Ubuntu on this laptop does not support video output on USB 3.0 docking stations.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#73I have one of these and think it's pretty good. I am really happy to have been able to give my money to someone selling me something with Linux on it.
Hi David, I have one of these too! But which one, that is the rub. As far as I can tell there are now three versions of project Sputnik. I too am so happy to throw my € in Dell's direction. I have the second because I bought mine just before the recent Haswell refresh, gah :( Please correct me if I am wrong. Original version ... November 2012 1: http://bartongeorge.net/2012/11/29/sputnik-has-landed-introd... Brings 1…
Want to start one?
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#74A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…
Serious question: aside from data-entry people and accountants, who uses numeric keypads anymore? As a developer, I don't exactly type a lot of numbers. And they're too far away from the home position of the hands to make the numpad efficient to use for numbers in mixed alphanumeric text. It really seems like they are rightly turning into a very niche input product, like Wacom tablets, instead of a general-purpose on…
I dislike the trend of putting number pads on laptop keyboards. It moves the entire keyboard to the side.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#75The first thing I noticed from the picture is that the keyboard looks exactly like the keyboard on my MacBook Pro. I haven't really looked at Windows laptops in a long time, so maybe this is a common layout now. It just seemed notable to me.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#766 hours isn't great, it's shitty for a 13" laptop with Haswell.
Very true, although seeing your comment made me realize how awesome it is that people consider 6 hours to be shitty for laptops nowadays. It doesn't seem that long ago that 90-150 minute battery life was pretty standard.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed about the screen - it's annoying. But pretty much everything has those stupid HD style screens these days. I thought the glossy screen would bother me. It doesn't. Numpad? Never used one. Trackpoint? Not my style - I mostly navigate with the keyboard and the trackpad just launches the pointer into the window I need active, and then focus follows it!
I've never really understood the attraction of focus follow mouse, and it's especially confusing to me when the preference comes from someone who professes to mostly navigate using the keyboard.
If you're using the mouse, not having focus follows mouse means you have to click twice to activate something in a window without focus, which from my point of view as someone who uses focus-follows-mouse, is pointless and irksome.
When I'm not using the mouse, I change the focus with the keyboard (In my setup, focus follows mouse only when the mouse moves).
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#78A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…
"This is just a standard high-end laptop. Disappointing."
Well, a high end laptop with a low resolution screen...
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#79I was debating getting this laptop or a Thinkpad T440s and a Chromebook Pixel. For me the Pixel just doesn't have the storage capacity I want, and the T440s isn't quite as portable.
I've made a deal with myself to get this once I've paid my loans off. C'mon, baby, just two months..
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#80A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…
Number pads are such a colossal waste of real estate. Let alone on a 13 inch laptop, the keys would have to be so small. With regards to wanting a 4:3 display over a 16:9/10; with 1920x1080 resolution do you really need the 4:3? Are you really going to make your terminal/editing window full screen height? I use my rMBP in 1920x1200 and my terminals rarely need to go full screen height in order to see all the lines of…
I always make my terminals and windows full screen height in my 1600x1200 monitor and in my old 1920x1200 laptop. And on the desktop, I also have a vertical (1200x1600) monitor, typically used for documentation. Vertical space has always been the most important for reading text, that's why books typically come in portrait form...