4 ms·

I think you need to cherry pick hardware. My last two laptops have given me the best software/hardware experience ever, even better than Tiger/Leopard days on

by nextos 9y ago

I think you need to cherry pick hardware. My last two laptops have given me the best software/hardware experience ever, even better than Tiger/Leopard days on MacBooks, and they run Linux. Three tricks: i) cherry pick hardware (all Intel); ii) minimal userspace (tiled wm + firefox + emacs + terminal); iii) distros you build & customize from the ground up (arch/slack/nix/guix). All those together remove a lot of complexity vs a regular desktop setup, so few moving parts that can break. Furthermore, the ability nix gives to set up the system / configure packages declaratively and have the possibility to rollback is a total killer feature. Moving to MacOS or Windows would feel like a huge step backwards due to this feature alone. The absence of decent tiling window managers on those platforms is also a dealbreaker for me.

pjmlp 9y ago
Not even that helps. Netbooks were released each with its own Linux flavour, thanks to lack of driver ABI, it was almost impossible to replace them with more common distributions. I have an Asus 1516B, sold with Ubuntu, that I had to fight with Firefox for proper hardware acceleration and being able to wake after hibernation. A Dell developer laptop could have been another option, but they are always unavailable in European shops. Intel GPUs are no match for good 3D acceleration, case in point, what they just announced with AMD. Windows can also rollback without issues, just keep the snapshots and shadow file system configured. OS X can easily rollback with Time Machine.
- nextos 9y ago
  > Intel GPUs are no match for good 3D acceleration, case in point, what they just announced with AMD. For regular tasks I find Intel GPUs great. Plus they consume little power. NVIDIA is also OK on the open Nouveau driver. And when I do deep learning on a workstation, NVIDIA's closed drivers are good. > Windows can also rollback without issues, just keep the snapshots and shadow file system configured. Nix rollbacks have absolutely nothing to do with filesystem-level rollbacks.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
    Let me ask you something: doesn't it bother you that something like Nix is necessary for the problems Nix claims to solve? Why is a system so fragile as to require what Nix provides?
    - nextos 9y ago
      If you stay in the bleeding edge some setups might break. E.g. package A doesn't work with library B anymore unless you switch back to another version. I have very rarely experienced this problem, and in 8 years time I have never had to roll back any critical packages like the kernel, firefox, emacs or any system utilities. It's not something that bothers me because it's so rare, and I understand it's the product of very complicated setups and bleeding edge configurations. Nix is mostly valuable for simple declarative configurations, the ability to alter package build recipes quickly, and for package and setup reproducibility.
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
        That's my whole point though: why does this library conflict occur at all? Why do you need such a convoluted tool just to have a reproducible setup? Doesn't something about the nature of that situation seem off to you? Like, Nix solves a problem that maybe only exists because the system itself is fundamentally flawed?
- merb 9y ago
  > A Dell developer laptop could have been another option, but they are always unavailable in European shops. Never ever order something from the dell website. Always seek out to either A. and Dell distributor or B. Dell directly (most likely you pay less than the price on the website). Also there is a Ubuntu Dell Workstation in the European shops. (It's just a little bit hidden) http://www.dell.com/de-de/shop/dell-notebooks/xps-13/spd/xps-13-9360-laptop/cnx93618 http://www.dell.com/de-de/shop/dell-notebooks/xps-13/spd/xps... Directly under notebooks 13" the simple versions it's the newest and besides the fact that it's a little bit noisy it's really really great, it even works with the dell wd15 dock just perfectly.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Thanks for the link, I keep it around for when the time to replaces the netbook comes around. However, the prices being listed give an edge to Windows installations, even though we cannot compare Windows 10 Home with Ubuntu.

by nextos 9y ago

pjmlp 9y ago

Not even that helps. Netbooks were released each with its own Linux flavour, thanks to lack of driver ABI, it was almost impossible to replace them with more common distributions. I have an Asus 1516B, sold with Ubuntu, that I had to fight with Firefox for proper hardware acceleration and being able to wake after hibernation. A Dell developer laptop could have been another option, but they are always unavailable in European shops. Intel GPUs are no match for good 3D acceleration, case in point, what they just announced with AMD. Windows can also rollback without issues, just keep the snapshots and shadow file system configured. OS X can easily rollback with Time Machine.

nextos 9y ago
> Intel GPUs are no match for good 3D acceleration, case in point, what they just announced with AMD. For regular tasks I find Intel GPUs great. Plus they consume little power. NVIDIA is also OK on the open Nouveau driver. And when I do deep learning on a workstation, NVIDIA's closed drivers are good. > Windows can also rollback without issues, just keep the snapshots and shadow file system configured. Nix rollbacks have absolutely nothing to do with filesystem-level rollbacks.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
  Let me ask you something: doesn't it bother you that something like Nix is necessary for the problems Nix claims to solve? Why is a system so fragile as to require what Nix provides?
  - nextos 9y ago
    If you stay in the bleeding edge some setups might break. E.g. package A doesn't work with library B anymore unless you switch back to another version. I have very rarely experienced this problem, and in 8 years time I have never had to roll back any critical packages like the kernel, firefox, emacs or any system utilities. It's not something that bothers me because it's so rare, and I understand it's the product of very complicated setups and bleeding edge configurations. Nix is mostly valuable for simple declarative configurations, the ability to alter package build recipes quickly, and for package and setup reproducibility.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 9y ago
      That's my whole point though: why does this library conflict occur at all? Why do you need such a convoluted tool just to have a reproducible setup? Doesn't something about the nature of that situation seem off to you? Like, Nix solves a problem that maybe only exists because the system itself is fundamentally flawed?
merb 9y ago
> A Dell developer laptop could have been another option, but they are always unavailable in European shops. Never ever order something from the dell website. Always seek out to either A. and Dell distributor or B. Dell directly (most likely you pay less than the price on the website). Also there is a Ubuntu Dell Workstation in the European shops. (It's just a little bit hidden) http://www.dell.com/de-de/shop/dell-notebooks/xps-13/spd/xps-13-9360-laptop/cnx93618 http://www.dell.com/de-de/shop/dell-notebooks/xps-13/spd/xps... Directly under notebooks 13" the simple versions it's the newest and besides the fact that it's a little bit noisy it's really really great, it even works with the dell wd15 dock just perfectly.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Thanks for the link, I keep it around for when the time to replaces the netbook comes around. However, the prices being listed give an edge to Windows installations, even though we cannot compare Windows 10 Home with Ubuntu.