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The most important thing he can do is railroad through a Nexus-style Ubuntu exemplar hardware platform. All you need is one or two devices. I'd pay 25% over a

The most important thing he can do is railroad through a Nexus-style Ubuntu exemplar hardware platform. All you need is one or two devices. I'd pay 25% over a comparable Apple for a real Ubuntu-Debian laptop with Apple-quality build and a real software-hardware pairing. I'm tired of flimsy setups from a weekend configuration tutorial hack job or Dell's XPS empty gesture.

StavrosK 13y ago
I hate to recommend this, but my Macbook Air runs Ubuntu pretty much perfectly, and pretty much out of the box.
- hack_edu 13y ago
  pretty much
- hpaavola 13y ago
  So does Asus Zenbook Prime and many models from Lenovo. I have Zenbook and it's almost perfect. Minor touchpad issues, ambien light sensor does not work and screen is always at max bright after reboot, that's about it. The problem of course is that this is fairly expensive machine and people won't tolerate those quirks when enough money is involved.
  - hack_edu 13y ago
    almost I have a ZenBook too as my primary Ubuntu machine. It's almost good enough. I also suffer all the points you list, each of which are 100% dealbreakers and perfect examples of how almost it is yet no one goes the extra mile. A little bit of effort/sway from Canonical would go a long way.
    - oinksoft 13y ago
      As they say, "God is in the details."
      - kapilvt 13y ago
        then buy certified hardware. thinkpads work great. or go pre-install with system76 or zareason.. the new system76 (clevo shell) 14.1 pro looks pretty sweet (quad core, 16gb ram, half the price of a macbook pro, ubuntu preinstalled) https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1 https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
vacri 13y ago
Thinkpads. Thinkpads have good build quality - they pass more military toughness tests than 'toughbooks' do, and they're generally 'just work' when it comes to linux (sometimes you'll need a broadcom driver or similar if you're using Debian)
- hack_edu 13y ago
  generally... and I hate to be that guy, but Thinkpads build quality has really suffered of late; plastic is not a way to go. And, 'military-grade' or 'passed all one-hundred and whatever tests used to certify for the US Army' are well-known marketing gimmicks used out of context.
  - ctb_mg 13y ago
    Recently bought a thinkpad (Christmas 2012). I didn't encounter any marketing specific to military grade/army use. Perhaps it's different now. Some plastics are very durable, and the type that comes with the thinkpad is not the cheapo dell plastic. Regardless the plastic shell isn't designed to provide structural strength in the first place. The inner frame is the core strength of the thinkpad; magnesium or some kind of metal (I forget exactly). Please provide links for your claims of suffered build quality... if only for my sake to perhaps look at other laptop manufacturers.

StavrosK 13y ago

I hate to recommend this, but my Macbook Air runs Ubuntu pretty much perfectly, and pretty much out of the box.

hack_edu 13y ago
pretty much
hpaavola 13y ago
So does Asus Zenbook Prime and many models from Lenovo. I have Zenbook and it's almost perfect. Minor touchpad issues, ambien light sensor does not work and screen is always at max bright after reboot, that's about it. The problem of course is that this is fairly expensive machine and people won't tolerate those quirks when enough money is involved.
- hack_edu 13y ago
  almost I have a ZenBook too as my primary Ubuntu machine. It's almost good enough. I also suffer all the points you list, each of which are 100% dealbreakers and perfect examples of how almost it is yet no one goes the extra mile. A little bit of effort/sway from Canonical would go a long way.
  - oinksoft 13y ago
    As they say, "God is in the details."
    - kapilvt 13y ago
      then buy certified hardware. thinkpads work great. or go pre-install with system76 or zareason.. the new system76 (clevo shell) 14.1 pro looks pretty sweet (quad core, 16gb ram, half the price of a macbook pro, ubuntu preinstalled) https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1 https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]

vacri 13y ago

Thinkpads. Thinkpads have good build quality - they pass more military toughness tests than 'toughbooks' do, and they're generally 'just work' when it comes to linux (sometimes you'll need a broadcom driver or similar if you're using Debian)

hack_edu 13y ago
generally... and I hate to be that guy, but Thinkpads build quality has really suffered of late; plastic is not a way to go. And, 'military-grade' or 'passed all one-hundred and whatever tests used to certify for the US Army' are well-known marketing gimmicks used out of context.
- ctb_mg 13y ago
  Recently bought a thinkpad (Christmas 2012). I didn't encounter any marketing specific to military grade/army use. Perhaps it's different now. Some plastics are very durable, and the type that comes with the thinkpad is not the cheapo dell plastic. Regardless the plastic shell isn't designed to provide structural strength in the first place. The inner frame is the core strength of the thinkpad; magnesium or some kind of metal (I forget exactly). Please provide links for your claims of suffered build quality... if only for my sake to perhaps look at other laptop manufacturers.