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As amazing as Retina/HiDPI is, is it really worth trading "freedom" for? I have found high quality traditional 96ish DPI displays are really quit fine. Objectiv

As amazing as Retina/HiDPI is, is it really worth trading "freedom" for? I have found high quality traditional 96ish DPI displays are really quit fine. Objectively, what does HiDPI provide? Do you write code faster? Do you write better words? I don't mean this sarcastically, but in a positive inquisitive manner. HiDPI is one of the few real innovations in the last decade. And yet, as cool as it is it doesn't add much as far as I can tell. I went to a Dell. 32 GiB RAM. Xeon Quad Core. Heavy. But great.

eropple 8y ago
> Objectively, what does HiDPI provide? My eyes don't strain when I use smaller fonts that let me see more of what I'm working on (graphics, code, whatever) at the same time. The absolute lowest PPI display I use is a 108 PPI 27" 1440p display--but it also sits much further back than I do when I use a laptop and I have the physical real estate to use much larger fonts than I do on a laptop. On a laptop, where I'm under two feet from the screen at all times and am physically constrained, I have different needs. I would not use a laptop that couldn't at least match a Retina MBP's 220 PPI. It's noticeable. It makes my life worse not having that; the "freedom" to use a laptop that gives me eyestrain is not worth it to me (and Purism's touchpads are pretty bad, too). The tradeoff is worth it to me.
xiaq 8y ago
It is perhaps a niche use case here on HN, but as someone who regularly reads Chinese text, Retina has totally changed my reading experience. Pre-HiDPI you basically have to use a bitmap font (meh).
- lioeters 8y ago
  That's a good point, I never heard this before about how retina displays can improve legibility of Chinese text. It makes perfect sense. As a person who reads Japanese regularly, I'm now considering getting a retina display for this reason.
leadingthenet 8y ago
> As amazing as Retina/HiDPI is, is it really worth trading "freedom" for? I think for most people that answer would be a resounding "Yes". Me included, unfortunately.
- briandear 8y ago
  If am not even sure what “freedom” I am giving up. I don’t care about upgrading old machines, I don’t even care about modifying the OS. I just care about getting work done quickly and with a nice experience. Freedom for me is not having to think about the Linux kernel or carefully inspecting software licenses to be sure I’m not polluting “freedom.” I like MIT and Apache licensed open source software — but the almost religious fervor surrounding the Richard Stallman fringe of the tech community wears on me like the persistent, yet infuriating good nature of Mormon missionaries. I want the freedom to just get my work done without having to consider an ideological struggle each day. I care more about WHAT I create and less about the purity of the tools upon which I create. I submit pull requests for open source software I use and I am happy to by licenses/donate (such as Sidekiq Pro, or donating to the Vapor team,) but beyond that, I’m not going to try to perform tech gymnastics or compromises to make some “free” computer work “almost as good as a Mac.” You know what IS actually as good as a Mac? A Mac. Lots of respect for the FOSS folks; I appreciate your mission despite not sharing the obsession.
- bitexploder 8y ago
  FWIW, I could have gotten a Dell with a nice HiDPI display, but it is a lot of work to make it a good experience on Linux. Only MacOS has a good HiDPI experience. Linux is functional, but takes effort up front.
jpetso 8y ago
To add another opinion, I'm really quite the fan of HiDPI displays but I found that 1080p is just about sufficient for my own 12"-13" ThinkPads. 96 dpi now feels limiting in terms of space and font fidelity, I would never consider going back after having worked with a higher resolution. It's nice to have smaller window decorations and taskbar without resorting to 6-8px fonts, and it really does feel so much nicer on the eye. For a laptop and target audience like this, bumping it up to 1440p probably makes sense in the next iteration. It's also important to note that there is a trade-off of more quickly depleting battery with higher-resolution screens. It sounds like the battery in the Librem 13 is just about par (if even) with current runtime expectations for Linux, bumping that up to 8h would be qualitatively a much higher jump for me than increasing the resolution. That, and going 14" with a thin-border "infinity" display. Also, can we please get the Lenovo key arrangement for arrow and PgUp/PgDown keys? This continues to be a deal-breaker for me with most laptops.
- eropple 8y ago
  Alienware sells a 1440p 13" display which is fantastic. (They sell 4K in the 15".) Runs fine on Linux too without making the sacrifices that Purism saddles you with--notably the touchpad and keyboard. It's a bit heavy, especially for a 13", but it's probably ny next non-Mac.

eropple 8y ago

> Objectively, what does HiDPI provide? My eyes don't strain when I use smaller fonts that let me see more of what I'm working on (graphics, code, whatever) at the same time. The absolute lowest PPI display I use is a 108 PPI 27" 1440p display--but it also sits much further back than I do when I use a laptop and I have the physical real estate to use much larger fonts than I do on a laptop. On a laptop, where I'm under two feet from the screen at all times and am physically constrained, I have different needs. I would not use a laptop that couldn't at least match a Retina MBP's 220 PPI. It's noticeable. It makes my life worse not having that; the "freedom" to use a laptop that gives me eyestrain is not worth it to me (and Purism's touchpads are pretty bad, too). The tradeoff is worth it to me.

xiaq 8y ago

It is perhaps a niche use case here on HN, but as someone who regularly reads Chinese text, Retina has totally changed my reading experience. Pre-HiDPI you basically have to use a bitmap font (meh).

lioeters 8y ago
That's a good point, I never heard this before about how retina displays can improve legibility of Chinese text. It makes perfect sense. As a person who reads Japanese regularly, I'm now considering getting a retina display for this reason.

leadingthenet 8y ago

> As amazing as Retina/HiDPI is, is it really worth trading "freedom" for? I think for most people that answer would be a resounding "Yes". Me included, unfortunately.

briandear 8y ago
If am not even sure what “freedom” I am giving up. I don’t care about upgrading old machines, I don’t even care about modifying the OS. I just care about getting work done quickly and with a nice experience. Freedom for me is not having to think about the Linux kernel or carefully inspecting software licenses to be sure I’m not polluting “freedom.” I like MIT and Apache licensed open source software — but the almost religious fervor surrounding the Richard Stallman fringe of the tech community wears on me like the persistent, yet infuriating good nature of Mormon missionaries. I want the freedom to just get my work done without having to consider an ideological struggle each day. I care more about WHAT I create and less about the purity of the tools upon which I create. I submit pull requests for open source software I use and I am happy to by licenses/donate (such as Sidekiq Pro, or donating to the Vapor team,) but beyond that, I’m not going to try to perform tech gymnastics or compromises to make some “free” computer work “almost as good as a Mac.” You know what IS actually as good as a Mac? A Mac. Lots of respect for the FOSS folks; I appreciate your mission despite not sharing the obsession.
bitexploder 8y ago
FWIW, I could have gotten a Dell with a nice HiDPI display, but it is a lot of work to make it a good experience on Linux. Only MacOS has a good HiDPI experience. Linux is functional, but takes effort up front.

jpetso 8y ago

To add another opinion, I'm really quite the fan of HiDPI displays but I found that 1080p is just about sufficient for my own 12"-13" ThinkPads. 96 dpi now feels limiting in terms of space and font fidelity, I would never consider going back after having worked with a higher resolution. It's nice to have smaller window decorations and taskbar without resorting to 6-8px fonts, and it really does feel so much nicer on the eye. For a laptop and target audience like this, bumping it up to 1440p probably makes sense in the next iteration. It's also important to note that there is a trade-off of more quickly depleting battery with higher-resolution screens. It sounds like the battery in the Librem 13 is just about par (if even) with current runtime expectations for Linux, bumping that up to 8h would be qualitatively a much higher jump for me than increasing the resolution. That, and going 14" with a thin-border "infinity" display. Also, can we please get the Lenovo key arrangement for arrow and PgUp/PgDown keys? This continues to be a deal-breaker for me with most laptops.

eropple 8y ago
Alienware sells a 1440p 13" display which is fantastic. (They sell 4K in the 15".) Runs fine on Linux too without making the sacrifices that Purism saddles you with--notably the touchpad and keyboard. It's a bit heavy, especially for a 13", but it's probably ny next non-Mac.