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Can you point to specific Lenovo and Asus models? I’ve found the quality of ThinkPad X1 machines to be terrible in the last few years to the point where collea

by mattl 2y ago

Can you point to specific Lenovo and Asus models? I’ve found the quality of ThinkPad X1 machines to be terrible in the last few years to the point where colleagues who would normally have one switched to Dell laptops of dubious quality instead because they had support for Linux and came preinstalled. How old is a Pixel 5? I’m surprised it’s still getting updates from Google.

ActorNightly 2y ago
In my personal experience, the only bad build laptops out there are HP ones. Thinkpad and Dells have been solid. People just install a bunch of shit that runs in the background and hogs resources, especially if you have one issued by a company that has all the management software. But again, this is just my personal experience. Its easy enough to pick one up on ebay for like $200 from a few years ago, get an ssd and max ram from Amazon, and install bunsenlab linux to test drive it. Pixel 5 no longer gets updates from Google, and it doesn't really need it. All the app updates work fine tho.
- mattl 2y ago
  The keyboards and trackpads on a lot of the non-Apple laptops out there are very bad. If you look at https://dell.com/linux https://dell.com/linux you can see the options for a Linux machine with more than 16gb of RAM drop off pretty quickly. I don't think Lenovo sells machines preinstalled with Linux anymore. Does Framework offer those? Again, not looking for used computers... let me know where I can buy a dozen machines with Linux that don't suck and support from the vendor. And yeah, a phone without security updates is a poor choice comparison against an iPhone when devices from 4 years earlier are still getting updates from Apple.
  - ActorNightly 2y ago
    These conversations are pointless to have because you are stating your particular preference for hardware, but those preferences are defined by a more intrinsic preference for Apple. What is going on mentally is that you chose a product based on something else than objective metrics (usually vanity), however for whatever reason it seems shameful to admit that to yourself, so instead what you do is that you implicitly assume that all of the properties of that object is good, and that anything that doesn't have that is bad. This is a common human bias btw, nothing wrong with that. But you should be aware of this. Because , the annoying part of it, and arguably self destructive, is when you start making crazy incorrect objective statements about the world based on those biases like "the keyboards and trackpads on a lot of the non-Apple laptops out there are very bad". Instead, you should say "I just really like the feeling of using an Apple product, and Im ok with paying more for that even I don't get any objective advantage, and I don't care enough to explore switching cause it works for me".
    - mattl 2y ago
      ThinkPad keyboards have gotten worse. I have a closet full of older models where the keyboards aren’t crap. But it really is a shame there are no high quality laptops with Linux preinstalled as an option. Every time this comes up people suggest everything except the thing I’m looking for. System76 desktops aren’t bad, I used one daily for several years. They’re also in the same price or higher as the MacBook Pro I replaced it with.

by mattl 2y ago

ActorNightly 2y ago

In my personal experience, the only bad build laptops out there are HP ones. Thinkpad and Dells have been solid. People just install a bunch of shit that runs in the background and hogs resources, especially if you have one issued by a company that has all the management software. But again, this is just my personal experience. Its easy enough to pick one up on ebay for like $200 from a few years ago, get an ssd and max ram from Amazon, and install bunsenlab linux to test drive it. Pixel 5 no longer gets updates from Google, and it doesn't really need it. All the app updates work fine tho.

mattl 2y ago
The keyboards and trackpads on a lot of the non-Apple laptops out there are very bad. If you look at https://dell.com/linux https://dell.com/linux you can see the options for a Linux machine with more than 16gb of RAM drop off pretty quickly. I don't think Lenovo sells machines preinstalled with Linux anymore. Does Framework offer those? Again, not looking for used computers... let me know where I can buy a dozen machines with Linux that don't suck and support from the vendor. And yeah, a phone without security updates is a poor choice comparison against an iPhone when devices from 4 years earlier are still getting updates from Apple.
- ActorNightly 2y ago
  These conversations are pointless to have because you are stating your particular preference for hardware, but those preferences are defined by a more intrinsic preference for Apple. What is going on mentally is that you chose a product based on something else than objective metrics (usually vanity), however for whatever reason it seems shameful to admit that to yourself, so instead what you do is that you implicitly assume that all of the properties of that object is good, and that anything that doesn't have that is bad. This is a common human bias btw, nothing wrong with that. But you should be aware of this. Because , the annoying part of it, and arguably self destructive, is when you start making crazy incorrect objective statements about the world based on those biases like "the keyboards and trackpads on a lot of the non-Apple laptops out there are very bad". Instead, you should say "I just really like the feeling of using an Apple product, and Im ok with paying more for that even I don't get any objective advantage, and I don't care enough to explore switching cause it works for me".
  - mattl 2y ago
    ThinkPad keyboards have gotten worse. I have a closet full of older models where the keyboards aren’t crap. But it really is a shame there are no high quality laptops with Linux preinstalled as an option. Every time this comes up people suggest everything except the thing I’m looking for. System76 desktops aren’t bad, I used one daily for several years. They’re also in the same price or higher as the MacBook Pro I replaced it with.