<p dir="ltr">Then tell that cheapskate boss to quit messing around and provide the tools you need to continue to be an awesome employee :-)</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Aug 23, 2015 10:41 PM, "James Taylor" <<a href="mailto:James.Taylor@eastcobbgroup.com">James.Taylor@eastcobbgroup.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I've been looking at that model to upgrade from the screens resolution on my hp envy.<br>
I do a lot of onsite work, and the hp would be perfect if it didn't have the ridiculous 1366x768 resolution that's standard on most notebooks.<br>
The xps has a decent resolutions, plus and ssd. The hp has the 30gb "cache" that I use as my root volume, but full ssd is a nice perq.<br>
My employer would also be buying it, but then I am my employer...<br>
-jt<br>
<br>
<br>
James Taylor<br>
<a href="tel:678-697-9420" value="+16786979420">678-697-9420</a><br>
<a href="mailto:james.taylor@eastcobbgroup.com">james.taylor@eastcobbgroup.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
>>> Jim Kinney <<a href="mailto:jim.kinney@gmail.com">jim.kinney@gmail.com</a>> 8/22/2015 8:27 AM >>><br>
I love my new Dell XPS 13. Even better, work bought it. The developer<br>
edition ships with Ubuntu. Fedora22 works great. Thanks to the screen<br>
design, it's a 13" in the same space as an 11". Right around 2 pounds. Not<br>
cheap, though. At $1500 that's a lot of chromebooks (except for the pixel).<br>
On Aug 22, 2015 8:11 AM, "DJ-Pfulio" <<a href="mailto:djpfulio@jdpfu.com">djpfulio@jdpfu.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> TL;DR - I travel. Been through a few different devices. A $200-300 Dell<br>
> 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<br>
> screen<br>
> size an issue. The BT keyboard was the type that folded in half to reduce<br>
> size.<br>
> No number run, no top row F1-F12 either. To get to those is a chord of<br>
> Fn+alt or<br>
> something like that. Together, both those devices weigh under 2 lbs.<br>
> Battery<br>
> life sucked - perhaps 4 hrs with after market batteries. Swapping<br>
> 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<br>
> laptop.<br>
><br>
> When tablets came out, I got everything setup and attempted a 3 week trip<br>
> 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<br>
> addicted<br>
> to the small size. Some of the hotels didn't have wifi - only wired<br>
> 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<br>
> - 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<br>
> 3 yrs<br>
> with that device. Always hated the low resolution - felt like I was<br>
> missing more<br>
> than half the pixels - which was true compared to 1200p home system. I<br>
> started<br>
> noticing it was getting slower - not really - XUbuntu had just become so<br>
> bloated<br>
> so I felt the GUI as getting slower. the 2G of RAM was never an issue. Did<br>
> 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<br>
> to<br>
> blow away ChromeOS (ran it here for 5 min before wiping). The CPU inside<br>
> should<br>
> be as fast as a C2D from a few years earlier and have 8hrs of battery and<br>
> screen<br>
> was 768p. I could live with that. Those are the good things. My travel<br>
> since<br>
> getting the C720 has been mostly USA and only 1 overseas trip, but enough<br>
> 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<br>
> same<br>
> price after all the mandatory upgrade really bothers me - even today. The<br>
> 2G of<br>
> RAM was an issue until I figured out to double the swap partition size<br>
> 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<br>
> when at<br>
> home, but outside the house, I use x2go to remote back home and surf from<br>
> 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<br>
> point<br>
> when I had a POWERFUL desktop available to me from anywhere in the world<br>
> that<br>
> cost 1/3rd what a crappy laptop cost AND the desktop was 2-3x faster. For<br>
> my<br>
> needs, the portable device is just a remote access thing - not needed to<br>
> compile<br>
> (or run) java.<br>
><br>
> BTW - I've had a 15in Dell laptop since about 2006 - on the 3rd one now.<br>
> The<br>
> current Core i5 (1st gen) hasn't left the house much the last 4 yrs -<br>
> since I<br>
> got the Asus Eee. It is a boat that I simply don't want to carry. There<br>
> 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<br>
> connect<br>
> into my normal desktop - a VM running inside a private cloud under KVM.<br>
> That<br>
> desktop is available to me from anywhere in the world over x2go. Of<br>
> course, the<br>
> 1200p resolution has to be reset to 768p when accessed from the<br>
> 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.<br>
> Guess<br>
> people really do care if you screw over your customers with NSA-like<br>
> 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<br>
> 2 I<br>
> > won with a bluetooth keyboard case, which while much better than the<br>
> 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<br>
> key. It<br>
> > also has no network port, but can't even use a USB NIC. Normally that's<br>
> not<br>
> > an issue, but it would be handy (as a small portable device) for setting<br>
> 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<br>
> stay<br>
> > at work late rather than work from home much. I mostly use it at lunch<br>
> for<br>
> > reading the paper--we like to read and discuss the news while we eat. I<br>
> also<br>
> > bring it to the pub for those important questions about who was in what<br>
> 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<br>
> emergency<br>
> > and I've used it to monitor a process running on the weekend while<br>
> watching<br>
> > TV, but I don't do a great deal of work on it. I'll also watch a movie<br>
> on it<br>
> > when stuck in the airport for a long layover. So while the power of a<br>
> full<br>
> > laptop would occasionally be nice, if it gets big and clunky enough I<br>
> 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<br>
> expensive<br>
> > for what you get if you're paying out of pocket. The lack of Flash<br>
> 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<br>
> 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<br>
> 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<br>
> 109mb<br>
> > contains 4335 BYTES of actual article text. Some of the difference comes<br>
> from<br>
> > the ad graphics, but I'd say a lot comes from whatever Javascript<br>
> 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<br>
> 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,<br>
> 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<br>
> NOT buy<br>
> > this machine again.<br>
> ><br>
> > You can find real laptops, refurb for $140 with normal keyboards. The<br>
> funky<br>
> > chromebook keyboard layout sucks. The missing keys suck. F11, F12,<br>
> 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<br>
> those.<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > Don't bother with any chromebook is my advice. Took me $140+ to<br>
> "upgrade" the<br>
> > chromebook to make it useful. Out of all those upgrades, the missing<br>
> 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<br>
> 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<br>
> 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<br>
> till<br>
> >> tomorrow (8/22).<br>
> >><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<br>
> Enthusiasts"<br>
> >> <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a>> Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 1:21:43 PM Subject: [ale]<br>
> Ot:<br>
> >> chromebook<br>
> >><br>
> >> I'm in Office Depot on N druid hills and noticed they have chromebooks<br>
> for<br>
> >> $129. Is not on the shelf probably has gone fast. Check your local<br>
> store.<br>
> >><br>
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</blockquote></div>