<p dir="ltr">I love my new Dell XPS 13. Even better, work bought it. The developer edition ships with Ubuntu. Fedora22 works great. Thanks to the screen design, it's a 13" in the same space as an 11". Right around 2 pounds. Not cheap, though. At $1500 that's a lot of chromebooks (except for the pixel).</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Aug 22, 2015 8:11 AM, "DJ-Pfulio" <<a href="mailto:djpfulio@jdpfu.com">djpfulio@jdpfu.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">TL;DR - I travel. Been through a few different devices. A $200-300 Dell 11in<br>
laptop would be my choice today.<br>
<br>
How I got there ...<br>
<br>
I traveled for a year using only a Nokia N800 and BT keyboard. Found the screen<br>
size an issue. The BT keyboard was the type that folded in half to reduce size.<br>
No number run, no top row F1-F12 either. To get to those is a chord of Fn+alt or<br>
something like that. Together, both those devices weigh under 2 lbs. Battery<br>
life sucked - perhaps 4 hrs with after market batteries. Swapping batteries was<br>
a reboot of the Debian-based OS. Had to carry a charger, extra batteries,<br>
separate GPS device, pretty soon it would have been better to have a laptop.<br>
<br>
When tablets came out, I got everything setup and attempted a 3 week trip across<br>
Europe with a 10in Acer and USB keyboard portfolio. In about 40% of the<br>
locations, I was unable to connect back to my servers. At the time, Android<br>
didn't have enough tools for me to figure out why that happened. I was addicted<br>
to the small size. Some of the hotels didn't have wifi - only wired ethernet in<br>
the rooms. This usually happened at the nicer hotels.<br>
<br>
After that trip, I started looking for a netbook ... acquired one for free - an<br>
Asus Eee that a relative had been using. He had claimed an iPad was all he<br>
needed on travel and I took advantage to get the Eee. Traveled for about 3 yrs<br>
with that device. Always hated the low resolution - felt like I was missing more<br>
than half the pixels - which was true compared to 1200p home system. I started<br>
noticing it was getting slower - not really - XUbuntu had just become so bloated<br>
so I felt the GUI as getting slower. the 2G of RAM was never an issue. Did 5<br>
continents with the Asus, It is small, clunky, yet capable.<br>
<br>
Eventually, the C720 was released and there were step-by-step instructions to<br>
blow away ChromeOS (ran it here for 5 min before wiping). The CPU inside should<br>
be as fast as a C2D from a few years earlier and have 8hrs of battery and screen<br>
was 768p. I could live with that. Those are the good things. My travel since<br>
getting the C720 has been mostly USA and only 1 overseas trip, but enough to<br>
know it works. The weight, size, battery life have me addicted to 11in<br>
netbooks. Still, for me the keyboard is a real issue - knowing I could have<br>
gotten a dell with the same CPU, more RAM, nicer keyboard for about the same<br>
price after all the mandatory upgrade really bothers me - even today. The 2G of<br>
RAM was an issue until I figured out to double the swap partition size from 2G<br>
to 4G. Since doing that, the system lockups have completely ended. I blame<br>
firefox bloat on that. I only run 5 programs on the machine (basically).<br>
* firefox<br>
* thunderbird<br>
* xterm (yes, the pure xterm)<br>
* KeePassX<br>
* x2go client<br>
Sure, there are hundreds of other things on the laptop for convenience when at<br>
home, but outside the house, I use x2go to remote back home and surf from there<br>
almost always. Never trust a foreign network, folks. Plus, I don't want to<br>
confuse the NSA by having my traffic come from strange places. ;)<br>
<br>
I was like you and didn't get a laptop until very late. I didn't see the point<br>
when I had a POWERFUL desktop available to me from anywhere in the world that<br>
cost 1/3rd what a crappy laptop cost AND the desktop was 2-3x faster. For my<br>
needs, the portable device is just a remote access thing - not needed to compile<br>
(or run) java.<br>
<br>
BTW - I've had a 15in Dell laptop since about 2006 - on the 3rd one now. The<br>
current Core i5 (1st gen) hasn't left the house much the last 4 yrs - since I<br>
got the Asus Eee. It is a boat that I simply don't want to carry. There isn't<br>
any need these days - a chromebook can handle everything now - including<br>
recording presentations. I use it daily to run (2) 24in monitors which connect<br>
into my normal desktop - a VM running inside a private cloud under KVM. That<br>
desktop is available to me from anywhere in the world over x2go. Of course, the<br>
1200p resolution has to be reset to 768p when accessed from the chromebook. It<br>
is a slight hassle, but not too bad.<br>
<br>
Get the Dell, dude. ;)<br>
<br>
I've been noticing lots of cheap lenovos with respectable specs recently. Guess<br>
people really do care if you screw over your customers with NSA-like software.<br>
Who knew?<br>
<br>
<br>
On 08/21/2015 07:08 PM, Scott Plante wrote:<br>
> Thanks for sharing your experience DJ--and thank you too Johnny!<br>
><br>
><br>
> I guess I'm coming from the other direction--I'm currently using an iPad 2 I<br>
> won with a bluetooth keyboard case, which while much better than the onscreen<br>
> keyboard, is still a long way from a proper keyboard. It had no function<br>
> keys, no escape key (kills me in vi or bash over ssh), and no delete key. It<br>
> also has no network port, but can't even use a USB NIC. Normally that's not<br>
> an issue, but it would be handy (as a small portable device) for setting up a<br>
> router or bringing into the server room to diagnose problems.<br>
><br>
><br>
> I always preferred desktops to laptops for my daily work. I tend to just stay<br>
> at work late rather than work from home much. I mostly use it at lunch for<br>
> reading the paper--we like to read and discuss the news while we eat. I also<br>
> bring it to the pub for those important questions about who was in what 1983<br>
> movie or who sang in what year the currently playing song. The smartphone<br>
> could work, but the iPad w/ keyboard is easier. It is available for<br>
> occasional emails and to VPN/ssh into systems at work in case of emergency<br>
> and I've used it to monitor a process running on the weekend while watching<br>
> TV, but I don't do a great deal of work on it. I'll also watch a movie on it<br>
> when stuck in the airport for a long layover. So while the power of a full<br>
> laptop would occasionally be nice, if it gets big and clunky enough I don't<br>
> take it with me (a low bar), then it's lost it's purpose.<br>
><br>
><br>
> I would happily accept another new free iPad! But they're pretty expensive<br>
> for what you get if you're paying out of pocket. The lack of Flash support,<br>
> and hence the dependence on devoted apps is sometimes an issue.<br>
><br>
><br>
> I think the lack of memory is an issue with all of these devices these days.<br>
> It seems like a lot of websites are expecting a lot of memory these days.<br>
> Some of it may be the browser, but I think it's more the Javascript<br>
> programming sucking up more and more memory. But then I tend to keep too many<br>
> tabs open. This one SD Times article titled "The future of Javascript is<br>
> Now", which I happen to have open at the moment, is taking up 109 MB of<br>
> memory!!! It displays in several pages, but the one I have open taking 109mb<br>
> contains 4335 BYTES of actual article text. Some of the difference comes from<br>
> the ad graphics, but I'd say a lot comes from whatever Javascript framework<br>
> they're using allocating a ton of memory it doesn't need.<br>
><br>
> Dell has a new Chromebook coming out in Sept that might be a possibility.<br>
> Escape, but no delete or function keys. The memory goes up to 8GB though.<br>
> It's hard for me to tell about the form factor until I see it in real life.<br>
><br>
> ----- Original Message -----<br>
><br>
> From: "DJ-Pfulio" <<a href="mailto:DJPfulio@jdpfu.com">DJPfulio@jdpfu.com</a>> To: <a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a> Sent: Friday, August<br>
> 21, 2015 3:23:49 PM Subject: Re: [ale] Ot: chromebook<br>
><br>
> Been running Ubuntu Server + openbox on a C720 for 18 months. I would NOT buy<br>
> this machine again.<br>
><br>
> You can find real laptops, refurb for $140 with normal keyboards. The funky<br>
> chromebook keyboard layout sucks. The missing keys suck. F11, F12, DELETE are<br>
> the ones I miss the most, but there isn't any pgup/dn, home/end either.<br>
><br>
> None of the F1-F10 keys are labeled. I touch type, but sometimes miss those.<br>
><br>
><br>
> Don't bother with any chromebook is my advice. Took me $140+ to "upgrade" the<br>
> chromebook to make it useful. Out of all those upgrades, the missing DELETE<br>
> key and the 2G of soldered-on RAM were the biggest.<br>
><br>
> There are work-arounds for the limited m2-SSD (violate the warranty) and lack<br>
> of ethernet port (USB3 adapter).<br>
><br>
> Wish I'd have bought the $280 Dell with the same CPU, 4G of RAM, 500G HDD,<br>
> ethernet port AND normal keyboard, dude.<br>
><br>
> Did I mention how much I hate the chromebook keyboard?!!!!!!<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On 08/21/2015 01:38 PM, Scott Plante wrote:<br>
>> I guess that would be this Acer. Also available online at that price till<br>
>> tomorrow (8/22).<br>
>> <a href="http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/814044/Acer-Chromebook-11-With-116-HD/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/814044/Acer-Chromebook-11-With-116-HD/</a><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Have any of you had good luck loading regular Linux distros like Ubuntu,<br>
>> Fedora, or openSUSE, on these things?<br>
>><br>
>> Scott<br>
>><br>
>> ----- Original Message -----<br>
>><br>
>> From: "Boris Borisov" <<a href="mailto:bugyatl@gmail.com">bugyatl@gmail.com</a>> To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts"<br>
>> <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a>> Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 1:21:43 PM Subject: [ale] Ot:<br>
>> chromebook<br>
>><br>
>> I'm in Office Depot on N druid hills and noticed they have chromebooks for<br>
>> $129. Is not on the shelf probably has gone fast. Check your local store.<br>
>><br>
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</blockquote></div>