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I will try to do this as soon as I have the time. But time is the main reason I bought the machine in the first place. Reviews about Ubuntu support were glowin

by smeej 5y ago

I will try to do this as soon as I have the time. But time is the main reason I bought the machine in the first place. Reviews about Ubuntu support were glowing. Linux support was touted in the website significantly. I'm really not trying to do anything extraordinary with the machine, so I thought it would be better just to spend the money and get one that works than it has been trying to do things like run Lubuntu on my old Chromebook Pixel. I'm doing basic things like research things in a web browser, scan documents with xsane, or occasionally record audio in Audacity. I'm not trying to do anything extraordinary or complicated. I just wanted a machine that would do those things without tracking me everywhere (Windows) and where I could fix pieces rather than having to replace the whole device if something broke or wore out. I paid more than twice as much as I ever have for a computer so that I would NOT have to help you develop the product, do quality control, or troubleshoot it. I wanted it to be ready to use for my run-of-the-mill needs. And it wasn't, and that's why I wrote this review here.

aksss 5y ago
> time is the main reason If time is your valuable commodity then buying a first gen "revolutionary" product was never going to be a good move. In your case, buying "known good" was the direction you should have gone and let others cut themselves and bleed out on the edge. Sorry for your bad experience, chalk it up to lessons learned. It's ever the case with tech: the vision is far, far ahead of reality.
- smeej 5y ago
  If it hadn't been for the glowing reviews of how seamlessly it supported Linux, and the suggestions if not outright claims on the website that it was designed with Linux support in mind, I wouldn't have. It doesn't sound ridiculous to me that someone might decide to target the Linux market really well even though others haven't. I had hoped that was what had happened. Maybe I wanted to believe it more than I should have believed it. But that's the motivation behind my posting here, to save anyone from making the same mistake. I have a $1700 paperweight. Oh well. But that doesn't mean I want anyone else to make the same mistake.
ss108 5y ago
> I paid more than twice as much as I ever have for a computer so that I would NOT have to help you develop the product, do quality control, or troubleshoot it. I wanted it to be ready to use for my run-of-the-mill needs. TBH, then I think you should have bought an Apple or Windows computer, and put up with whatever the downsides of such things are (such as the tracking you mention). Not saying that the extremely poor performance you describe is your fault or that the manufacturer should be absolved or anything, just that this is precisely the point of paying for conventional computers and putting up with their bullshit (real or perceived).
- smeej 5y ago
  My threat model does not support Apple or Microsoft products. I'm glad yours does; that does sound convenient!
reasonabl_human 5y ago
When faced with the same issue (optimizing for time wrt computer setup), I moved from a thinkpad with Arch Linux to an M1 MacBook + headless Ubuntu server under my desk. Truly best of both worlds in my experience- incredible battery life and everything ‘just works’ for normal workflows on the MacBook, and can ssh into the headless Ubuntu box directly or from anywhere with internet. Depending on your dev needs, this anecdote may be useful: I’ve exclusively used vim and VS Code with a remote server extension to target the Ubuntu box for builds and I haven’t touched the setup for 6-8 months. Also, if you’re willing to spend some time learning, getting into Nix ends up saving time in the long run as your nix shell definitions should provide replicable user / build environments on top of whatever Linux flavor you happen to be running at the time, for the headless dev box
- panda88888 5y ago
  I have a similar setup, except I also have a windows machine for gaming with Steam Link.
  - reasonabl_human 5y ago
    How do you like the steam link? I had issues with getting multiple PS4 controllers to connect over Bluetooth and there always seemed to be a bit of latency / artifacting despite being wired, but that was years ago when it launched and I don’t know if those issues have been addressed or if the device was refreshed
lenkite 5y ago
Never buy v1 of anything- you basically pay for the privilege of "beta testing"

by smeej 5y ago

aksss 5y ago

> time is the main reason If time is your valuable commodity then buying a first gen "revolutionary" product was never going to be a good move. In your case, buying "known good" was the direction you should have gone and let others cut themselves and bleed out on the edge. Sorry for your bad experience, chalk it up to lessons learned. It's ever the case with tech: the vision is far, far ahead of reality.

smeej 5y ago
If it hadn't been for the glowing reviews of how seamlessly it supported Linux, and the suggestions if not outright claims on the website that it was designed with Linux support in mind, I wouldn't have. It doesn't sound ridiculous to me that someone might decide to target the Linux market really well even though others haven't. I had hoped that was what had happened. Maybe I wanted to believe it more than I should have believed it. But that's the motivation behind my posting here, to save anyone from making the same mistake. I have a $1700 paperweight. Oh well. But that doesn't mean I want anyone else to make the same mistake.

ss108 5y ago

> I paid more than twice as much as I ever have for a computer so that I would NOT have to help you develop the product, do quality control, or troubleshoot it. I wanted it to be ready to use for my run-of-the-mill needs. TBH, then I think you should have bought an Apple or Windows computer, and put up with whatever the downsides of such things are (such as the tracking you mention). Not saying that the extremely poor performance you describe is your fault or that the manufacturer should be absolved or anything, just that this is precisely the point of paying for conventional computers and putting up with their bullshit (real or perceived).

smeej 5y ago
My threat model does not support Apple or Microsoft products. I'm glad yours does; that does sound convenient!

reasonabl_human 5y ago

When faced with the same issue (optimizing for time wrt computer setup), I moved from a thinkpad with Arch Linux to an M1 MacBook + headless Ubuntu server under my desk. Truly best of both worlds in my experience- incredible battery life and everything ‘just works’ for normal workflows on the MacBook, and can ssh into the headless Ubuntu box directly or from anywhere with internet. Depending on your dev needs, this anecdote may be useful: I’ve exclusively used vim and VS Code with a remote server extension to target the Ubuntu box for builds and I haven’t touched the setup for 6-8 months. Also, if you’re willing to spend some time learning, getting into Nix ends up saving time in the long run as your nix shell definitions should provide replicable user / build environments on top of whatever Linux flavor you happen to be running at the time, for the headless dev box

panda88888 5y ago
I have a similar setup, except I also have a windows machine for gaming with Steam Link.
- reasonabl_human 5y ago
  How do you like the steam link? I had issues with getting multiple PS4 controllers to connect over Bluetooth and there always seemed to be a bit of latency / artifacting despite being wired, but that was years ago when it launched and I don’t know if those issues have been addressed or if the device was refreshed

lenkite 5y ago

Never buy v1 of anything- you basically pay for the privilege of "beta testing"