[ale] Ot: chromebook

[Jim Kinney]

Then tell that cheapskate boss to quit messing around and provide the tools
you need to continue to be an awesome employee :-)
On Aug 23, 2015 10:41 PM, "James Taylor" <James.Taylor at eastcobbgroup.com>
wrote:

> I've been looking at that model to upgrade from the screens resolution on
> my hp envy.
> 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.
> 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.
> My employer would also be buying it, but then I am my employer...
> -jt
>
>
> James Taylor
> 678-697-9420
> james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com
>
>
>
> >>> Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> 8/22/2015 8:27 AM >>>
> 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).
> On Aug 22, 2015 8:11 AM, "DJ-Pfulio" <djpfulio at jdpfu.com> wrote:
>
> > TL;DR - I travel. Been through a few different devices. A $200-300 Dell
> > 11in
> > laptop would be my choice today.
> >
> > How I got there ...
> >
> > I traveled for a year using only a Nokia N800 and BT keyboard.  Found the
> > screen
> > size an issue. The BT keyboard was the type that folded in half to reduce
> > size.
> > No number run, no top row F1-F12 either. To get to those is a chord of
> > Fn+alt or
> > something like that.  Together, both those devices weigh under 2 lbs.
> > Battery
> > life sucked - perhaps 4 hrs with after market batteries. Swapping
> > batteries was
> > a reboot of the Debian-based OS. Had to carry a charger, extra batteries,
> > separate GPS device, pretty soon it would have been better to have a
> > laptop.
> >
> > When tablets came out, I got everything setup and attempted a 3 week trip
> > across
> > Europe with a 10in Acer and USB keyboard portfolio.  In about 40% of the
> > locations, I was unable to connect back to my servers. At the time,
> Android
> > didn't have enough tools for me to figure out why that happened.  I was
> > addicted
> > to the small size.  Some of the hotels didn't have wifi - only wired
> > ethernet in
> > the rooms. This usually happened at the nicer hotels.
> >
> > After that trip, I started looking for a netbook ... acquired one for
> free
> > - an
> > Asus Eee that a relative had been using. He had claimed an iPad was all
> he
> > needed on travel and I took advantage to get the Eee.  Traveled for about
> > 3 yrs
> > with that device. Always hated the low resolution - felt like I was
> > missing more
> > than half the pixels - which was true compared to 1200p home system.  I
> > started
> > noticing it was getting slower - not really - XUbuntu had just become so
> > bloated
> > so I felt the GUI as getting slower. the 2G of RAM was never an issue.
> Did
> > 5
> > continents with the Asus, It is small, clunky, yet capable.
> >
> > Eventually, the C720 was released and there were step-by-step
> instructions
> > to
> > blow away ChromeOS (ran it here for 5 min before wiping). The CPU inside
> > should
> > be as fast as a C2D from a few years earlier and have 8hrs of battery and
> > screen
> > was 768p. I could live with that.  Those are the good things. My travel
> > since
> > getting the C720 has been mostly USA and only 1 overseas trip, but enough
> > to
> > know it works.  The weight, size, battery life have me addicted to 11in
> > netbooks. Still, for me the keyboard is a real issue - knowing I could
> have
> > gotten a dell with the same CPU, more RAM, nicer keyboard for about the
> > same
> > price after all the mandatory upgrade really bothers me - even today. The
> > 2G of
> > RAM was an issue until I figured out to double the swap partition size
> > from 2G
> > to 4G. Since doing that, the system lockups have completely ended. I
> blame
> > firefox bloat on that. I only run 5 programs on the machine (basically).
> > * firefox
> > * thunderbird
> > * xterm (yes, the pure xterm)
> > * KeePassX
> > * x2go client
> > Sure, there are hundreds of other things on the laptop for convenience
> > when at
> > home, but outside the house, I use x2go to remote back home and surf from
> > there
> > almost always. Never trust a foreign network, folks.  Plus, I don't want
> to
> > confuse the NSA by having my traffic come from strange places. ;)
> >
> > I was like you and didn't get a laptop until very late. I didn't see the
> > point
> > when I had a POWERFUL desktop available to me from anywhere in the world
> > that
> > cost 1/3rd what a crappy laptop cost AND the desktop was 2-3x faster.
> For
> > my
> > needs, the portable device is just a remote access thing - not needed to
> > compile
> > (or run) java.
> >
> > BTW - I've had a 15in Dell laptop since about 2006 - on the 3rd one now.
> > The
> > current Core i5 (1st gen) hasn't left the house much the last 4 yrs -
> > since I
> > got the Asus Eee. It is a boat that I simply don't want to carry. There
> > isn't
> > any need these days - a chromebook can handle everything now - including
> > recording presentations.  I use it daily to run (2) 24in monitors which
> > connect
> > into my normal desktop - a VM running inside a private cloud under KVM.
> > That
> > desktop is available to me from anywhere in the world over x2go. Of
> > course, the
> > 1200p resolution has to be reset to 768p when accessed from the
> > chromebook. It
> > is a slight hassle, but not too bad.
> >
> > Get the Dell, dude. ;)
> >
> > I've been noticing lots of cheap lenovos with respectable specs recently.
> > Guess
> > people really do care if you screw over your customers with NSA-like
> > software.
> > Who knew?
> >
> >
> > On 08/21/2015 07:08 PM, Scott Plante wrote:
> > > Thanks for sharing your experience DJ--and thank you too Johnny!
> > >
> > >
> > > I guess I'm coming from the other direction--I'm currently using an
> iPad
> > 2 I
> > > won with a bluetooth keyboard case, which while much better than the
> > onscreen
> > > keyboard, is still a long way from a proper keyboard. It had no
> function
> > > keys, no escape key (kills me in vi or bash over ssh), and no delete
> > key. It
> > > also has no network port, but can't even use a USB NIC. Normally that's
> > not
> > > an issue, but it would be handy (as a small portable device) for
> setting
> > up a
> > > router or bringing into the server room to diagnose problems.
> > >
> > >
> > > I always preferred desktops to laptops for my daily work. I tend to
> just
> > stay
> > > at work late rather than work from home much. I mostly use it at lunch
> > for
> > > reading the paper--we like to read and discuss the news while we eat. I
> > also
> > > bring it to the pub for those important questions about who was in what
> > 1983
> > > movie or who sang in what year the currently playing song. The
> smartphone
> > > could work, but the iPad w/ keyboard is easier. It is available for
> > > occasional emails and to VPN/ssh into systems at work in case of
> > emergency
> > > and I've used it to monitor a process running on the weekend while
> > watching
> > > TV, but I don't do a great deal of work on it. I'll also watch a movie
> > on it
> > > when stuck in the airport for a long layover. So while the power of a
> > full
> > > laptop would occasionally be nice, if it gets big and clunky enough I
> > don't
> > > take it with me (a low bar), then it's lost it's purpose.
> > >
> > >
> > > I would happily accept another new free iPad! But they're pretty
> > expensive
> > > for what you get if you're paying out of pocket. The lack of Flash
> > support,
> > > and hence the dependence on devoted apps is sometimes an issue.
> > >
> > >
> > > I think the lack of memory is an issue with all of these devices these
> > days.
> > > It seems like a lot of websites are expecting a lot of memory these
> days.
> > > Some of it may be the browser, but I think it's more the Javascript
> > > programming sucking up more and more memory. But then I tend to keep
> too
> > many
> > > tabs open. This one SD Times article titled "The future of Javascript
> is
> > > Now", which I happen to have open at the moment, is taking up 109 MB of
> > > memory!!! It displays in several pages, but the one I have open taking
> > 109mb
> > > contains 4335 BYTES of actual article text. Some of the difference
> comes
> > from
> > > the ad graphics, but I'd say a lot comes from whatever Javascript
> > framework
> > > they're using allocating a ton of memory it doesn't need.
> > >
> > > Dell has a new Chromebook coming out in Sept that might be a
> possibility.
> > > Escape, but no delete or function keys. The memory goes up to 8GB
> though.
> > > It's hard for me to tell about the form factor until I see it in real
> > life.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > >
> > > From: "DJ-Pfulio" <DJPfulio at jdpfu.com> To: ale at ale.org Sent: Friday,
> > August
> > > 21, 2015 3:23:49 PM Subject: Re: [ale] Ot: chromebook
> > >
> > > Been running Ubuntu Server + openbox on a C720 for 18 months. I would
> > NOT buy
> > > this machine again.
> > >
> > > You can find real laptops, refurb for $140 with normal keyboards. The
> > funky
> > > chromebook keyboard layout sucks. The missing keys suck. F11, F12,
> > DELETE are
> > > the ones I miss the most, but there isn't any pgup/dn, home/end either.
> > >
> > > None of the F1-F10 keys are labeled. I touch type, but sometimes miss
> > those.
> > >
> > >
> > > Don't bother with any chromebook is my advice. Took me $140+ to
> > "upgrade" the
> > > chromebook to make it useful. Out of all those upgrades, the missing
> > DELETE
> > > key and the 2G of soldered-on RAM were the biggest.
> > >
> > > There are work-arounds for the limited m2-SSD (violate the warranty)
> and
> > lack
> > > of ethernet port (USB3 adapter).
> > >
> > > Wish I'd have bought the $280 Dell with the same CPU, 4G of RAM, 500G
> > HDD,
> > > ethernet port AND normal keyboard, dude.
> > >
> > > Did I mention how much I hate the chromebook keyboard?!!!!!!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 08/21/2015 01:38 PM, Scott Plante wrote:
> > >> I guess that would be this Acer. Also available online at that price
> > till
> > >> tomorrow (8/22).
> > >>
> >
> http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/814044/Acer-Chromebook-11-With-116-HD/
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Have any of you had good luck loading regular Linux distros like
> Ubuntu,
> > >> Fedora, or openSUSE, on these things?
> > >>
> > >> Scott
> > >>
> > >> ----- Original Message -----
> > >>
> > >> From: "Boris Borisov" <bugyatl at gmail.com> To: "Atlanta Linux
> > Enthusiasts"
> > >> <ale at ale.org> Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 1:21:43 PM Subject: [ale]
> > Ot:
> > >> chromebook
> > >>
> > >> I'm in Office Depot on N druid hills and noticed they have chromebooks
> > for
> > >> $129. Is not on the shelf probably has gone fast. Check your local
> > store.
> > >>
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