So my laptop’s CMOS battery went, which makes it less portable than it was. (It’s soldered onto the motherboard, so not easily changed because I have no experience with such things. Taking apart a laptop in that manner can be a royal pain in the ass for something that’s 6 years old.)
Granted, I like FOSS operating systems. (So tablet options would be…android sorta? No Scrivener, only casual games.) I think the closed source nature of the ipad would annoy me more than I’d benefit. (Although there is Scrivener eventually and a knitting chart program I’d use the hell out of. Games–still on the casual side.)
Any laptops you’ve used that you really dug? I’m not adverse to mac hardware–they run Linux quite well–but it seems overkill to buy a mac when I’ve no intention to use OSX.
Needs: Scrivener, a LISP compiler, VIM, a real video card (preferably Nvidia), and legacy BIOS support. And a pony, while I’m at it.
As I’ve posted elsewhere, the last couple of times I’ve researched notebooks, Macs came first on a specs for price comparison. So a refurbished Mac could work really well as a stable, high performing, good build quality Linux machine.
My laptop experience with non-Apple brands in recent years is limited to Dell, HP and Toshiba, and those experiences have been… underwhelming. My wife’s Dell is probably the best of that bunch, as long as you’re not too fussed by outward appearances, clunky size and a plastic-y finish. At least you would have a wide range of build-to-order options, something you wouldn’t get with a Mac (refurb or new).
Sadly none of the above come with a pony, but if you bought an iPad there’s a good chance there’s an app for that…
Yeah, I considered a refurbed macbook pro, but the new ones aren’t as good as the old, if the experiences of my fiance and his dad are any indication. (They do computer support for mostly macs.) You have to tweak a few things and use rEFIt to boot, but it’s easier than trying to finagle around SEcureBoot nonsense, if legacy BIOS isn’t supported on a PC, oddly enough. (If they’d get rEFIt working for PC’s, it would be a huge boon.)
Totally underwhelmed with Dell. I did computer support for my old academic department, and they’d try to wheedle their way out of every warranty repair. (And most of their computers would fail within 6 months.) I can’t imagine the shenanigans they’d try with consumers.
I’m happy with a ($329) Chromebook for travel, since it has 3g support when I’m not connected to WiFi. Some boffins have installed Linux on the CB, but it might be wiser to buy a Linux laptop, maybe running Ubuntu, and there install the Chrome browser plus the Linux variant of Scrivener. I’ve not made that step yet, but am seriously considering. Here are some relevant articles:
Yeah, not a fan of Ubuntu. I’d rather go back to Windows or use OSX than it. With all the audio stuff I do, I have to have a custom system, especially one that isn’t based around pulseaudio. (Which isn’t recommended for real time synthesis.)
My current one is from System76. I liked it, except for the CMOS battery you can’t replace.
I’ve always had great luck with the Asus brand. I have a Asus netbook with a dual core atom processor that I upgraded from 1GB RAM to 2. I’ve had this netbook for almost three years and haven’t had a single problem. Upgrading the ram is a must, it is ddr3 and fairly cheap and easy to do.
I bought the one have for $350 on Amazon with a 12.1" screen after doing some research on the most reliable netbook there was out there at the time. When I am not traveling with it, I plug into my 2, 24" flat panel’s at home with an additional keyboard hook up. Though I do not play games on this computer, that is what I have my rooted nook hd+ for.
I ditched desktops a long time ago, and although I have gone through many, many laptops in my day, this one I use for home and business and it suits me well.
I am still a mac fan even to this day, though I no longer own any apple products.
I currently run ubuntu, chrome and firefox and all three work simultaneously flawlessly.
Hope this helps.
If anything, one of the greatest things I have learned is you can do a lot with only a little.
