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Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

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Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#91

Post by gems »

pyre wrote: post #73
pajju wrote: post #46

This decision is purely a function of cost, portability, features. And you might have to compromise on something, be prepared. My choice: Asus Ultrabooks. In my case, I couldn't afford a Macbook Air, (I badly wanted a MAC, I couldn't buy with my budget, but just somehow managed to get an ASUS Ultrabook with EMI's) About Asus Ultrabooks-- Compared to MAC's: - They are much much cheaper, ( almost half the price) not co…

(Pedant alert) MAC => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address Mac => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh

That was completely unnecessary. There's no reason to think that it's a reference to the former in such a context.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#93

Post by theirishpenguin »

cjbprime wrote: post #77
theirishpenguin wrote: post #74

Would totally recommend the X1 Carbon - though it's a while since it was released so maybe there is something recent that trumps it. Build quality is top notch - AFAIK it has the only trackpad and keyboard that can compete with the MBA (Asus Zenbook - I've heard - falls down on the track pad front, despite more pixels). SSD is fast. And it charges in 30 mins to full charge, which I didn't care for when I bought it bu…

Downsides: doesn't have full HD, and you can't upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB without paying for many other additions that you don't need.

Agree with you on the full HD front.

As I said, I'd go for the 8GB out of the box. This means you can only get an i5 processor (there isn't enough space for an i7 + 8GB in the machine). But all these processors are type U anyway so they're wayyy slower than i5/i7 series - so i5U vs i7U prob isn't a factor.

But ya, moar pixels is always good :)

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#94

Post by cjh_ »

anonymfus wrote: post #51
loxs wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My work (and hobbies) involve lots of linux specific programming. Most of the things (but not all) can be done on MacOS, but almost always linux is the better tool for me, getting my work done. Developing blindly on MacOS, not knowing whether (and how) will it run on linux can't be as good as developing on EXACTLY the same OS that will later run the production version. Using exactly the same (to the exact version) di…

Why not use virtualization?

Running native gives increased battery life and makes multiple-monitor support generally easier.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#95

Post by Erwin »

abelsson wrote: post #90
thelittlelisper wrote: post #36

My favorite options are the Air (11 / 13) and Thinkpad x220. Other options include Thinkpad x230 (newer than the x220) but worse keyboard, x1 Carbon, Dell XPS, Chromebook Pixel, Asus and Samsung. I ended up buying both an Air 11 (my own money) and a x220 (my employer). Both machines are really well supported under Linux (most hardware is Intel). The only drawback is their low resolution screen, which IMHO is not a de…

I personally would get an Air over a x220 after having used the x220 for the last 6 months. The x220 is my fourth Thinkpad over the years, and it looks just like the X30 I got 10 years ago. And honestly, the design has not kept up with the times. For its weight class, it's pretty big, thick and clumsy. The trackpad is atrocious (that's not a problem if you like trackpoints, but my fingers end up hurting after an hour…

I've had the new XPS for about 2 weeks now. It's nice and light, good screen. Worked with Ubuntu out of the box except hibernate -- which ran into some problems with encrypted swap before it could work (could be my fault for saying Yes to encrypted home dir when setting up the preloaded Ubuntu). I gave up on the trackpad though (maybe it can be tweaked to be usable), and am using a mouse. I never liked the trackpad on my previous laptop (some kind of netbook) nor the trackpad or the red thingy on the solid Thinkpad T42.

With an i7, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD it's nice and fast. Suspend, hibernate are quick. Sound is decent.

I tried an Asus zenbook and the Samsung series 9 in a store, and was not happy about the keyboard. I think the Dell XPS keyboard is nice. Not as nice as on my 2005 Thinkpad, but the XPS is far lighter and thinner.

Here in Denmark it was hard to find a good selection of laptops to try in store. My other alternative was the X1 carbon... but I really wanted something that worked with Ubuntu out of the box with 100% guarantee.

Overall, it feels solid and sleek yet light (1.4 kg or so). It fits into the same tiny Victorinox laptop bag that my 2009 10" netbook fit into, yet it is much more powerful (of course, also 3x the price).

I found one wifi hotspot that the Ubuntu or wifi hardware mysteriously refused to connect to, where I had to connect via my Galaxy S3 phone and share the connection via the USB port (which worked pretty well).

While the screen is nice, I've increased the font size to "Large" in Ubuntu's universal access settings, and have zoomed in on several web pages with Chrome. So I'm not yet sure about the benefit of the high resolution screen (Linus Torvalds however swears to his Pixel and its 2560x1440 or so screen).

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#96

Post by pyre »

gems wrote: post #91
pyre wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Pedant alert) MAC => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address Mac => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh

That was completely unnecessary. There's no reason to think that it's a reference to the former in such a context.

True, but there's also no need to capitalize it. It's a shortened version of Macintosh, not an acronym.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#97

Post by benjiweber »

theirishpenguin wrote: post #93
cjbprime wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downsides: doesn't have full HD, and you can't upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB without paying for many other additions that you don't need.

Agree with you on the full HD front. As I said, I'd go for the 8GB out of the box. This means you can only get an i5 processor (there isn't enough space for an i7 + 8GB in the machine). But all these processors are type U anyway so they're wayyy slower than i5/i7 series - so i5U vs i7U prob isn't a factor. But ya, moar pixels is always good :)

I have an X1 carbon with both i7 and 8gb ram. Perhaps this restriction only applies to older models? Mine is the newer model with 1600x900 display.

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#98

Post by theirishpenguin »

benjiweber wrote: post #97
theirishpenguin wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with you on the full HD front. As I said, I'd go for the 8GB out of the box. This means you can only get an i5 processor (there isn't enough space for an i7 + 8GB in the machine). But all these processors are type U anyway so they're wayyy slower than i5/i7 series - so i5U vs i7U prob isn't a factor. But ya, moar pixels is always good :)

I have an X1 carbon with both i7 and 8gb ram. Perhaps this restriction only applies to older models? Mine is the newer model with 1600x900 display.

Interesting to know. My i5/8GB RAM X1 also has the 1600x900 display. Perhaps as you say there's newer internals. But cool!

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#99

Post by bebna »

loxs wrote: post #61
w1ntermute wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually used a 14" laptop with a 1600x900 screen? When I got the X1 Carbon, I was worried that I was giving up a higher resolution screen in order to get a ThinkPad ultrabook. But I've found that even 1600x900 is actually too high a resolution for me, without scaling. For example, I've got HN scaled right now to 125%. A friend of mine has an ASUS ultrabook (the Zenbook Prime UX31A) with a 1080p screen and i…

At the moment I type this from a T410 with 1600x900 resolution. I want better.

T400@1440x900 here, one word: MORE!

Re: Best ultrabook for linux? [April 2013 edition]

#100

Post by da_n »

tehwalrus wrote: post #25
14113 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been looking at getting a macbook air recently (because shiny), specifically to run linux on it. However, I couldn't find much about driver support for recent airs. How well does linux run on it? Is there much that doesn't work properly, or is there really great support for it?

I'd be interested in an answer to this too. Especially about support for multitouch gestures (that could be mapped to keyboard shortcuts, at least). At the moment I use a debian VM inside OS X when I need to.

I have MacBook 11 and dual-boot with Linux Mint 14. It runs great, much prefer it over OS X. If there was one thing I could steal from OS X though it would be the trackpad and multitouch implementation. On all the distros I have installed it sucks, it is truly awful. This is the only real deal breaker holding me back from using Linux primarily on the Air at the moment, I am not going to carry a mouse around.
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