[ale] Good Laptop for Linux these days

[Scott Plante]

MD wrote:
> external floppy disk reader
Now, is that an 8", 5.25" or 3.5" floppy reader? ;-P

I've always used Linux on desktops as my main development box. Some years
ago I got a Macbook because one big client began requiring either Mac or
Windows to access their VPN. I knew it had a GNU shell and I knew a bunch
of developers who'd switched. I ended up using Synergy and left just the
actual coding on Linux, and just used the Mac for other stuff. Lately I've
been thinking about getting a Linux laptop, too (they ended up cutting off
VPN access altogether a couple of years later). I was thinking about maybe
System76 or Framework.

I've heard one issue with Laptops and Linux is around sleep and battery
usage--specifically when you close the lid it drains the battery pretty
quickly unless you do a full shutdown first. This was maybe a year ago--is
that still true, or is it something you can work around with config files,
etc.?

I also heard fingerprint readers were tricky and that for some you *can*
make it work with Linux OR Windows, but not both on the same machine (like
dual-boot). I think it was all tied into Trusted Compute and not just a
reader that the OS can query, but it's been a while since I was reading up
on that so it's a bit fuzzy.

Scott

On Thu, Aug 3, 2023 at 7:18 PM Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale <ale at ale.org>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I probably use laptops in a really weird way, since I travel so much and I
> have been stuck without good (or any) Internet connections, etc.  Therefore
> I always had a laptop that I could keep all of my relevant data on it to
> create presentations, videos, etc.   I have three TB of storage on my
> laptop.
>
> Of course you have to back this up, and with a 3.0 USB port it takes over
> 18 hours to do that.   So my next laptop will have USB 4.0, waiting for
> devices to catch up, or doing parallel backups of different datasets to
> different devices.   USB 4.x will be a driver.
>
> Of course I am also have NAS set up and can do backups almost continually
> over the network, but when I do not have that network (or a poor one) I
> will still have my data with me.   3 TB or 4TB on my laptop?  Nah.  One
> Western Digital M.2 SSD will hold 4 TB for 269 dollars.
>
> Networking would be the next issue, but if the built in networking is not
> good enough, a docking station or dongle going out through the USB 4.x will
> provide that.
>
> All of the other issues mentioned here (Screen size, CPU power, etc.) are
> good and depends on how much you want to pay.   Replace a battery in a
> laptop?   Something you do every three or four years, let the pros do it.
>
> I usually buy "top of the line", then let the line get a little crufty.
> My current Lenovo W510 "workstation" laptop is a heavy, powerhungry beast
> that started out with 16GB of RAM (and still has that) with 500 GB of HDD
> (now 1 TB of Hybrid SSD/HDD and 2 TB of HDD) but had an option added of two
> 3.0 USB Type A sockets that made it "last longer.   It has four cores with
> eight Virtual cores that does much of what I want it to do.  I have
> replaced the keyboard three times myself (the oils in my fingers eat
> through the keycaps for a total of 100 USD for all three.   I have replaced
> the batteries a couple of times (of course they are external).
>
> I have an external DVD, external floppy disk reader, portable scanner all
> of which would work fine with the next system.
>
> I also have a Lenovo X1 fifth gen laptop that is light, with two cores and
> four hypercores, but "only" 1TB and "Thuderbolt 3" connector.   I have
> ordered that 4TB M.2 connector.  This may replace my W510 simply because
> the X1 is so light and so much easier on battery.  I will probably be using
> that on my trips this year, and leave the beast behind.
>
> On the other hand I was looking at the Lenovo web site and configured a
> new, thin laptop with 64 GB of RAM, two USB 4.0 ports, 4TB of NVMe storage a
> 15" screen and the latest in WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, etc.and a kick-butt CPU
> which I swear had 20 real cores running at some insane frequency.   Fully
> configured as a monster laptop it came in at less than 5K USD and would
> probably last me for the rest of my life, or at least until I was senile
> (if I am not already there).
>
> Of course YMMV.
>
> md
>
>
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