The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
So, after all, seems that the Macbook 12 would be a better fit for my needs… overpriced, but at least it's a unix machine (I prefer it to win if I can choose) with good battery life. Every other ultrabook I've considered has some quirks, and/or is similar in price.
I will give a chance to the Surface, and if I won't be satisfied I will wait for the next iteration of Macbook… I hope with a better keyboard and Kaby Lake.Thanks everybody for the hints!
Why not get something actually good and put Linux on it? Way cheaper, faster and nicer than a MacBook.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
So, after all, seems that the Macbook 12 would be a better fit for my needs… overpriced, but at least it's a unix machine (I prefer it to win if I can choose) with good battery life. Every other ultrabook I've considered has some quirks, and/or is similar in price.
I will give a chance to the Surface, and if I won't be satisfied I will wait for the next iteration of Macbook… I hope with a better keyboard and Kaby Lake.Thanks everybody for the hints!
Why not get something actually good and put Linux on it? Way cheaper, faster and nicer than a MacBook.
Big thumbs up for Linux, it's the environment of choiche for me. But… I haven't found a good Linux ultrabook yet, and I definitely don't have time to dial with the innumerable issue that Linux has with mobile hardware.
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again. -
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Big thumbs up for Linux, it's the environment of choiche for me. But… I haven't found a good Linux ultrabook yet, and I definitely don't have time to dial with the innumerable issue that Linux has with mobile hardware.
Same reason that I moved to Linux from a MacBook, I didn't have time to deal with the Mac issues and inefficiencies. I went for an Asus RoG which is a very rare device for Linux and had some challenges, but with Ubuntu it "just worked" instantly. No issues at all. Install was flawless, operation has been flawless. Less effort that going to an Apple Store to pick up a Mac.
What issues have you seen with Linux on mobile hardware? I had Linux on my HP Folio ultrabook, never had any issues at all.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
Have you checked to ensure your NVIDIA chip is active? Some laptops now days come with an Intel HDGraphics for standard operations and will only activate the NVIDIA when necessary.
I had problems with this, and I have run several laptops, Dell, Lenovo (before we found out about Superfish), and now an Acer.
Several times, I've done updates and it would bork something and I'd have to troubleshoot from the CLI or just wipe and reload the Linux partition.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
I tried everything, from plain enterprise linux and suse to ubuntu, debian, gentoo (emerge the nouveau drivers, what a mess!)… the best was archlinux, but every update was a betting :D.
I know that today many Linux distro works
OOB in sone big laptops, but I haven't found an ultrabook that support Linux in a decent way. The best seems to be the dell xps 13, also certified. But, despite the certification, the forums are full of people with issue on that machine… oh, and the webcam placement is awful! -
@dafyre said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
Have you checked to ensure your NVIDIA chip is active? Some laptops now days come with an Intel HDGraphics for standard operations and will only activate the NVIDIA when necessary.
I had problems with this, and I have run several laptops, Dell, Lenovo (before we found out about Superfish), and now an Acer.
Several times, I've done updates and it would bork something and I'd have to troubleshoot from the CLI or just wipe and reload the Linux partition.
Of course, the nvidia was the only gpu. Lenovo has maybe the best support for Linux, but…
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
I tried everything, from plain enterprise linux and suse to ubuntu, debian, gentoo (emerge the nouveau drivers, what a mess!)… the best was archlinux, but every update was a betting :D.
I know that today many Linux distro works
OOB in sone big laptops, but I haven't found an ultrabook that support Linux in a decent way. The best seems to be the dell xps 13, also certified. But, despite the certification, the forums are full of people with issue on that machine… oh, and the webcam placement is awful!Linux Mint!
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@wirestyle22 Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu… and it wasn't that mature in 2009 :D.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu… and it wasn't that mature in 2009 :D.
It's VERY mature, and has been for some time now. And it is very different when it comes to drivers. Mint can't install on my laptop, but Ubuntu is flawless, for example. They are rather different in real usage.
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Ok, my Surface 4 m3 is arrived and I've no issue till now, but… I really want a unix-like as the host OS, so I think I will get another laptop after returning it.
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360… any experience with them? I've read that the XPS is used by Linux Torvalds for kernel development when he is on travel, so I think it will work :D., The UX305 is also considered a very linux-friendly machine.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.
The Surface are like... anti-optimized.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360…
I have an Asus for Linux and love it, but it was pretty touchy as to getting Linux installed. Nothing but Ubuntu was happy on mine, but other models more or less anything installs just fine. It's weird.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.
The Surface are like... anti-optimized.
Microsoft sells a lot of stuff that depresses me
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360…
I have an Asus for Linux and love it, but it was pretty touchy as to getting Linux installed. Nothing but Ubuntu was happy on mine, but other models more or less anything installs just fine. It's weird.
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360…
I have an Asus for Linux and love it, but it was pretty touchy as to getting Linux installed. Nothing but Ubuntu was happy on mine, but other models more or less anything installs just fine. It's weird.
I've the same fear about the UX305. The XPS 9360 is certified for Ubuntu and they also sell it with ubuntu 16.04 preinstalled. It should outperform a macbook pro 2016 for a little less money in general stuff. Surely it's ahead of a wide margin for anything regarding docker/containers (native, of course) and virtualization (kvm is way better than anything on osx).
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While I have just gotten my new Dell - I'm setting it up as WIndows ,... for now. But - I am doing a hard consideration to 'follow' @scottalanmiller in the ways of Ubuntu with a Win10VM.
This Dell Inspiron is nicer than the last Dell, but I don't think as good as the ACER that just died... but as I just got it yesterday, I'm still setting and moving things.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.
The Surface are like... anti-optimized.
I was going to ask - optimized in what way? What were you expecting that you didn't get?
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@Dashrender said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.
The Surface are like... anti-optimized.
I was going to ask - optimized in what way? What were you expecting that you didn't get?
Well for one thing they run Windows 10 which is specifically terrible on a tablet. Slow, unresponsive, hard to use on a touch screen.
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@gjacobse said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
This Dell Inspiron is nicer than the last Dell, but I don't think as good as the ACER that just died... but as I just got it yesterday, I'm still setting and moving things.
What makes it not as good?
The Inspiron line is the consumer line, so there's always that too.
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@Dashrender said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@gjacobse said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
This Dell Inspiron is nicer than the last Dell, but I don't think as good as the ACER that just died... but as I just got it yesterday, I'm still setting and moving things.
What makes it not as good?
The Inspiron line is the consumer line, so there's always that too.
Inspirons are a freaking nightmare to work on. Like disassemble the whole damned thing to get to RAM or HDD. I told the owner here if he ever ordered anymore of them, I would smash them to bits. But he had seen me struggling to change a drive in one, so no more Inspirons.
