Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

Sun Jul 5 12:42:14 MST 2015

Current Ubuntu 2014 and on plays very ncie with uEFI and even in ASUS's
implementation. I have ti playing really nicely on my desktop. wich is
based on their UEFI implementation.

On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 12:19 PM, Michael Butash <michael at butash.net> wrote:

>  I had a former employer get me a pimp asus zenbook, the nice
> 2800x1600ish 15" display, dual ssd, etc, but it was a freakin basketcase
> under ubuntu to get working.  Even trying arch and some others were
> painful, each with widely varying quirks.
>
> Their bios didn't support "legacy" booting, so I had to learn efi which
> wasn't itself so bad, but very different and took some time to figure out
> my raid+crypto+lvm with gpt.  I encountered countless bugs/quirks, many
> with the nvidia video that the desktop version wouldn't work oob without
> causing the oss drivers to wig out at 100% cpu, and if I let the display
> sleep, it wouldn't reawaken.  Great, since the install took forever with it
> pegging the cpu the whole way, and having to reboot it constantly to work
> around the crappy ubuntu desktop installer quirks that came with 13.10 at
> the time.
>
> Some reason I don't remember, the alt installer wouldn't work on it too, I
> think the 4k resolution blew up the vesa compatibility for the
> ncurses-based di installer.  I think sound didn't work at the time too
> (needed newer kernel support at the moment).
>
> Once it was working, I'd have lots of random lockups and other things my
> laptops just didn't do, which really made using it far more painful than my
> little crap hp folio, so I just kept using that.  When I quit, I gave it
> back gladly and checked Asus off my buy list.  Asus obviously didn't give a
> darn about linux support, not even as an afterthought, and I doubt they've
> changed much since early 2014 when that adventure took place.
>
> I'm currently using a 12" lightweight dell latitude 7220 laptop, i7 ulv
> proc, 16gb of ram, dual msata ssd, 1080p touch screen, and a docking
> station.  Only a dual-core and crap intel graphics, but as a workstation,
> it's light, docking station is wonderful, and works almost entirely great
> with linux, having run mint debian and settling back on ubuntu.
>
> I say almost, the only issue I've had is after a month or so of use, it'll
> go into this zombie mode that I can't get it to shutdown or hibernate
> without a hard powerdown, as it'll literally keep waking up immediately
> after going to sleep.  More than a few times I pulled it out my laptop bag
> broiling itself, but now I just pay attention and hard power it down
> (holding the power for 10sec) if it does.  I need to harass dell some, this
> is a bios bug it seems.
>
> It's kinda pricey new ($2200ish), but I never buy new, rather look for
> dell outlet coupons around holidays, usually finding 30-35% off, at refurb
> price made it a steal (I think I paid ~$900), saving to upgrade the memory
> and ssd's.
>
> -mb
>
>
>
> On 07/05/2015 11:16 AM, Stephen Partington wrote:
>
>  I have really been crushing on the ASUs XenBook's lately. They have an
> interesting array of them now and most of them are some pretty sexy
> machines.
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-3-Inch-Ultraslim-Aluminum-Available/dp/B00SGS7ZH4
> is the cheaper one i have been looking at. they have a more fully featured
> version that has Nvidia 960M graphics and a 4k touchscreeen but thats about
> 1700 right now.
>
> On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 10:06 AM, Keith Smith <techlists at phpcoderusa.com>
> wrote:
>
>> If you are only going to use it for mail and surfing the web, anything
>> that runs Windows 8 will run better with Linux on it.
>>
>> i3 / 4GB RAM would be my preference
>>
>> I think at the bare minimum I'd want at least a Pentium with 2GB of RAM.
>>
>> Looks like the Celeron is a dual core and the Pentium is a quad core.
>>
>> Here is the list of Celeron laptops.
>>
>>
>> http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~19561351,55846~0~14739528&p=1
>>
>>
>> Pentiums are more expensive.
>>
>>
>> http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~14720657,55846~0~14739528&p=1
>>
>> I've noticed that some of the cheaper Laptops do not come with an optical
>> drive (DVD) and I noticed my Dell laptop does not have a microphone in so I
>> assume Skype calls are out... have not researched so I might be wrong.
>>
>> Keith
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2015-07-05 08:09, joe at actionline.com wrote:
>>
>>> What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
>>> the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
>>> run Linux?
>>>
>>> Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
>>> weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>   --
>> Keith Smith
>>
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>
>
>
>  --
> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
>
> Stephen
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen
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