3 ms·

7 months is a long time in tech. Ubuntu 16.04 was't around then either. Im Interested in some recent pro and cons

peller 10y ago
This is true[1], but especially for running Linux, I think this attitude might be shooting yourself in the foot. What I mean by that is, hardware support on Linux lags behind the closed source OS options by the very nature of Linux being open source and the developers needing access to the hardware to make anything work. Intel themselves try to get ahead of the curve, but even they are not perfect and when it comes to the trickier aspects such as power management, it often takes a few months of having the hardware in-the-wild to get things really sorted. And that's not to mention the fact that distros rarely run a bleeding edge kernel. [1] Intel CPUs have not changed very much, instructions-per-clock wise, over the past 3 or 4 generations. You're looking at 5-10% at most for any single generation. Their GPUs have drastically improved, and the power efficiencies have improved, but since you're running Linux... well sadly, we don't tend to get the same benefits closed source peoples do in those two respects. As for SSDs, buy something with a HDD and install the SSD yourself. It's cheaper, and you'll get a far better SSD than you would when you let the OEM choose what to install.
- daddyfix 10y ago
  Thank you. I haven't thought of looking at a HDD model and buying an SSD. I am going to look into that right now.
  - peller 10y ago
    Sure. The one area where this advice begins to break down, however, is with M.2 PCIe SSDs. I personally don't keep up with laptops, so unfortunately I can't offer any specific recommendations, but if you can find an otherwise solid laptop with an M.2 slot that's the way to go. They're about 2-3x faster than SATA-based SSDs. It's not the same order-of-magnitude jump in speed a SSD offers over a HDD, so I wouldn't necessarily call it a make-or-break feature, but it's something to keep in mind (for that, you'll definitely need the latest-generation "Skylake" platform) Also, to save yourself some time researching SSDs: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds

This is true[1], but especially for running Linux, I think this attitude might be shooting yourself in the foot. What I mean by that is, hardware support on Linux lags behind the closed source OS options by the very nature of Linux being open source and the developers needing access to the hardware to make anything work. Intel themselves try to get ahead of the curve, but even they are not perfect and when it comes to the trickier aspects such as power management, it often takes a few months of having the hardware in-the-wild to get things really sorted. And that's not to mention the fact that distros rarely run a bleeding edge kernel. [1] Intel CPUs have not changed very much, instructions-per-clock wise, over the past 3 or 4 generations. You're looking at 5-10% at most for any single generation. Their GPUs have drastically improved, and the power efficiencies have improved, but since you're running Linux... well sadly, we don't tend to get the same benefits closed source peoples do in those two respects. As for SSDs, buy something with a HDD and install the SSD yourself. It's cheaper, and you'll get a far better SSD than you would when you let the OEM choose what to install.

daddyfix 10y ago
Thank you. I haven't thought of looking at a HDD model and buying an SSD. I am going to look into that right now.
- peller 10y ago
  Sure. The one area where this advice begins to break down, however, is with M.2 PCIe SSDs. I personally don't keep up with laptops, so unfortunately I can't offer any specific recommendations, but if you can find an otherwise solid laptop with an M.2 slot that's the way to go. They're about 2-3x faster than SATA-based SSDs. It's not the same order-of-magnitude jump in speed a SSD offers over a HDD, so I wouldn't necessarily call it a make-or-break feature, but it's something to keep in mind (for that, you'll definitely need the latest-generation "Skylake" platform) Also, to save yourself some time researching SSDs: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds