[ale] Good Laptop for Linux these days

[James Taylor]

The sleep thing seems to be sorted on my Lenovo.
I'm usually careful about not closing the cover without fully shutting
down because of the reasons you mentioned.
I forgot to do it on my Lenovo not long after I got it, and when opened
it the next day, there was no noticeable battery loss.
Since then, I've regularly used sleep mode in between sessions, and
works well.
Not sure if the distro makes a difference, but I'm using openSUSE Leap
15.5.

Fortunately, I don't really need FP reader, I haven't taken the time to
see if I can get that working.
Everything else works, including the function keys for sound, video,
wifi, bluetooth, etc.
-jt


>>> Scott Plante via Ale <ale at ale.org> 08/04/2023, 02:18 PM >>>
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)> 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
>
>