Recent Laptop experiences sought
Mark Ellison
ellison at ieee.org
Sun Sep 15 09:09:02 EDT 2019
Thanks! I appreciate all of the feedback provided- I have been running
Fedora on Thinkpad laptops since IBM days- first, a T43 and then a W500.
The W500 still works, but is now too slow to do much more than be a
terminal server for web browsing or jumping onto a cloud VM.
I had not looked at either the HP or the Dell laptops prior to this
discussion- and there looks to be some good offerings from both companies.
And, checking for refurbished and open box systems looks like a good idea
as well.
Peter noted 16GB as a minimum for carrying a reasonable (software
development) workload, and, I suspect 24 or 32GB would be a better
future-proofing option. A faster, newer gen CPU with more cores is usually
desirable, as is a bright high resolution screen, but these items need be
considered against how much quicker the battery will drain. Six hours of
*real* use out of a battery/system advertised to run for 10 or 12 hours on
a single charge, I think would be a realistic expectation. There were some
quora/reddit discussions about BIOS tweaks necessary to reduce idling power
consumption for linux, some having to do with thunderbolt support.
This research, while still a work-in-progress, has benefited from your
contributions. Many thanks!
Regards,
Mark Ellison
On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 7:02 PM Peter Petrakis <peter.petrakis at gmail.com>
wrote:
> 16GB ram is my minimum for a Linux desktop. 8GB was fine before sandbox
> tabbed browsing came
> along but today that's where the bulk of the memory is allocated. It works
> but it feels cramped sometimes.
> KDE is leaner than gnome these days believe it or not. I also don't need a
> registry editor or "tweak tool"
> to set stuff that matters.
>
> I still have a T510 with an SSD that won't die. I had to replace the cpu
> fan recently though, bearings were going.
>
> It might be worth investigating if you can get LineageOS onto the
> chromebook. I recently recycled a Samsung
> Galaxy S4 from Android 4.4 to Android 9 using LOS (r16?). Thing screams
> now.
>
> On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 4:07 PM Tom Buskey <tom at buskey.name> wrote:
>
>> I tend to use my laptop in one place so I don't really use the battery.
>> I want chrome, xterminals and ssh to my servers.
>>
>> I had T61p laptops with 8GB and SSD for a long time until the power
>> supplies got flakey.
>> I upgraded to a T420s from ebay ($100ish) plugged the SSD from the T61p
>> and just kept running.
>> I like the durability (the T61p was 12 years old!).
>> All the newer laptops seem to have chiclet type keyboards. I prefer more
>> of a real keyboard.
>>
>> I have a chromebook that can run Linux. It's a bit slower, has only 4GB
>> RAM (upper limit for cheap chromebooks), lower resolution and that horrible
>> keyboard. The battery life is fantastic though.
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 2:13 PM Peter Petrakis <peter.petrakis at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> You can pickup Thinkpad x220 cheap on ebay with 2/4 core i7
>>> processor and max 16G DRAM + SSD for under $250.
>>> Just picked one up for the wife for $179.
>>>
>>> After that I wouldn't bother with anything less than a P50. They can be
>>> had for under $1K and are absolute
>>> beasts. Tons of ram capacity, multiple harddrives, nvme, dual gpus,
>>> suitable for CUDA dev.
>>>
>>> https://tinyurl.com/y3keh99t , Intel i7-6700HQ 2.60GHz 32GB 480GB SSD
>>> 15.6", buy it now for $760
>>>
>>> http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/lenovo-thinkpad-p50-review-workstation-all/
>>>
>>> I've been halfway around the world with *business class* Thinkpads and
>>> they have never failed me.
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 1:17 PM Mark Ellison <ellison at ieee.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi-
>>>>
>>>> As appropriate, please respond with your recent laptop experience...
>>>>
>>>> I have been using the Lenovo Thinkpad line of laptops with Fedora
>>>> Linux.
>>>>
>>>> Currently, have a short list of laptops- the Lenovo Thinkpad T490 and
>>>> the HP ProBook, Zbook or Elite with the i7 4-core 8M cache. Screen should
>>>> be no larger than 14".
>>>>
>>>> Some online research turned up 'short battery life' problems with the
>>>> T490 that seem resolvable with some BIOS tweaks.
>>>>
>>>> Any issues, any preferences? Things to consider pre-sale?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance for all your help!
>>>>
>>>> Mark Ellison
>>>>
>>>>
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