Dalton asks us when consumer computers peaked which stirs up a debate about various generations of XPS and ThinkPad laptops, trackpads vs trackpoints, P-cores and E-cores, and more. Plus follow-up on the devices and software we trust.
Latest photos of my laptops decorated with various stickers.
The 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro is my primary laptop, so it has collected a bunch of stickers.
The Surface Pro 3 is adorned with several Linux-related stickers, but also a Blahaj saying "Don't test me!", even though I use the Surface Pro 3 to test different things with Linux.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 (AMD) has a Blahaj with flames behind it and Mona getting ready to stomp on a bug. I'm using that laptop to keep up with Pop!_OS and the new COSMIC DE.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 is my primary Linux laptop, so it's starting to collect more stickers. I'm waiting for a new set of Birdo stickers to add to it.
I would only consider any of the upcoming Windows on ARM laptops with the new Qualcomm processors if and only if there is first-tier support for Linux and nothing is locked-down tight re: Secure Boot or TPM.
🧳Travel a lot or just don't feel like lugging heavy #laptops around? Then take a closer look at our #mobility devices and look forward to #TUXEDOs under 2.5 kg for various tasks! 🪶
Something I'd be interested in that I can't seem to find:
A low-powered Linux laptop with an e-ink display, that I could use for long-form writing or coding.
What I've found so far are mostly either
Tablets intended for note-taking (like the ReMarkable or BOOX's various lines)
Higher-end where the e-ink display is an extra (like Lenovo's swivel designs where you rotate the display to use either an OLED or e-ink).
Some of the tablets do have keyboard cases, which would be better than just hooking up a random Bluetooth keyboard, but it doesn't look like I can just install programs on them, except for the Android ones, which aren't going to be ideal for things like coding or running build scripts or anything like that.
The closest I found was the Modos Paper Laptop, but seems to still be in the prototype phase.
Does this form factor exist yet? Am I just having trouble finding them because of the current state of search?
Privacy can be powerful. The Librem 14 is the first ultra-portable laptop for the security-conscious- designed chip-by-chip, line-by-line, to respect your rights to privacy, security, and freedom.
I loathe those little mouse pointer controls popping up like awhackamole in the middle of the keyboard - every time I see one of those I just wanna grab a pair of pliers, rip it right out of the keyboard, and stick it onto the end of a pencil as if it were a brand new replacement eraser, lolz....
to this day I even disable the track pads and carry around a little USB mouse. Otherwise my lazy palm wreaks havoc on any document I'm currently editing 🤣
Every time I review any #Linux hardware on the channel, I always get asked « where the affordable options are », so here are 2 #laptops from @slimbook, the « Elemental » line.
They start under 550€, or under 500€ if you don’t have to pay VAT, and they actually give you a really solid device for the cost:
Is it worth mentioning, in this context, Minifree as a supplier of linux laptops? They also sell *BSD laptops too. That's not even their USP, which is that they use (and indeed develop) libreboot - a FOSS BIOS for improved security.