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Groups > comp.os.linux.advocacy > #331901

Re: Ultrabook portables

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"Big Fish in a Small Crotch" <bigfishinasmallcrotch@myself.com> wrote in 
message news:1xihng4k8f0sc.1aix5jvbn4ota$.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 11:22:22 -0500, Ezekiel wrote:
>
>> So I decided to upgrade my aging laptop. It's an older Acer i5 that's 
>> pretty
>> big and weights about 6 lbs. I have a full desktop and plenty of 
>> CPU+storage
>> on the network so I don't need a really powerful machine. Decided to go 
>> with
>> something light and portable.
>>
>> Factors were:
>>   Size and portability - Extremely important
>>   SSD drive - Must have
>>   Battery life - important
>>   DVD-Drive - Do not want at all
>>   High res display - very nice to have
>>   Touch screen - nice to have
>>   Gaming - N/A
>>   100% silent (no CPU fan) - nice to have
>>
>> I looked around and decided to go with a Macbook. Not a Macbook Air and 
>> not
>> a Macbook Pro, but the small 2lb Macbook like this one :
>> https://www.apple.com/macbook/
>>
>> It only weighs 2 lbs and is about a 1/2" thick. Not entirely sure but it
>> might be the smallest/lightest ultrabook available. The display is 
>> 2304x1440
>> and the battery last 7+ hours in real life usage. The only other laptop 
>> that
>> I considered seriously was the Dell XPS-13 which was a close 2nd.
>>
>>
>> What I like:
>>
>> The Touchpad is the best I've ever used. Period. it's as smooth as glass
>> because it is glass. It has the force-touch which is very cool. When you
>> press hard (adjustable) it actually feels like the touchpad "clicks' 
>> down.
>> But it doesn't move or click at all. it just feels like it does. Try it 
>> out
>> if you can get your hands on one from a friend or at an Apple Store. 
>> You'll
>> be absolutely convinced that it clicks down even though it doesn't move 
>> at
>> all. (The amount of "click" feedback is also adjustable.) Fantastic 
>> touchpad
>> in every way.
>>
>> The screen is excellent and the battery life easily gives me a full day 
>> of
>> usage. The 802.11ac wireless is way faster than the Acer's 802.11g and 
>> the
>> backlit keyboard is also something the Acer didn't have. There's no CPU 
>> fan
>> and it has an SSD so it's always 100% silent.
>>
>> All the hardware works perfectly. Open or close the lid and it does the
>> right thing. The power button works and I spent exactly zero time messing
>> with acpid or apcupsd. It works the way it's supposed to right out of the
>> box.
>>
>> The hardware, build quality and fit-and-finish is top notch. It looks and
>> feels like a well build device.
>>
>>
>> What I don't like:
>>
>> No Mag-Safe connector. The Macbook Air that my wife stole from me 2 years
>> ago has one but this Macbook is so thin that there wasn't room for one. 
>> So
>> it charges with a USB-C connector but I would prefer a Mag-Safe.
>>
>> Since there's no room for Mag-Safe give it a lightening connector which 
>> is
>> pretty ubiquitous for people with other iDevices. I don't want yet 
>> another
>> different cable with a USB-C connector.
>>
>> Not easy to open the lid. Maybe my hands are too big but it takes a fine
>> touch to open the skinny little thing.
>>
>>
>> The Apple eco-system or walled garden:
>>
>> Say what you want about this but it "just works" and works incredibly 
>> well
>> and easy. When I powered it up and set it up for the first time it asked 
>> me
>> to sign-in with my Apple-ID. Done. Finished. Nothing else to setup,
>> configure, edit, whatever.
>>
>> Once I signed in with my Apple ID my email, calendar, contacts,
>> text-messages, photos, documents, shared-photos, todo-list, music and
>> everything else was synced with my iPhone. I didn't need to configure a
>> half-dozen apps individually. Everything that I need to stay in sync and
>> share across devices was done.
>>
>> Maybe I don't get some fine level of control that 1% of users might need.
>> But 99% of users won't care because "stuff" they otherwise would never be
>> able to setup on their own "just works" with very little to no effort.
>
> That's the thing about Apple. It just works and you don't have to mess 
> with
> it.
> Of course you have to accept the Apple way of doing things but it works so
> well most people don't even care.
> All my kids you Apple Mac machines of various types and they never bother
> with the OS at all. Everything backs up to the cloud and is synced across
> their various devices.
>

Someone could "roll their own" solution and get something like this working 
for just about any app and device. But in most cases it's going to require a 
level of technical knowledge that most people don't have.

With Apple it's a 1-stop (and 1-step) solution if you use their apps. Their 
apps being mail, contacts, calendar, etc. It's all stored in their cloud 
with your Apple-ID so when you setup a new device you simply login and all 
of this is taken care of for you.


> About the only complaint I have heard is when a new version of iOS comes
> out and they have so many pictures and apps on their phone there isn't
> enough room to install the update.
> Easily remedied though.

There's basically nothing that any product can do when there's 500-megs of 
free space left and you need to download a 600-meg software update. The 
solution is to not do the update over-the-air and to plug the device into 
iTunes. The update will temporarily move some data from the phone/tablet to 
the laptop, install the update and then move the data back. Short of trying 
to compress data locally to make more room, there's not much chance of 
getting around the low disk space.

> Compare this to Linux.
> Linux is a freaking disaster when it comes to user friendliness.
> There is a thread over in alt.os.linux.ubuntu where some poor sap is 
> asking
> how to sync his phone with Linux via wifi or BT. You have to read the
> replies from these Linux loons. It's literally hysterical.
>
> That thread is *the* poster child for not using Linux.

I've never tried this on Linux. On Windows it's up to the app as to how 
"friendly" it is to syncing with external data. I've managed to get things 
working for the most part but it took some time and some tweaking. But with 
the Macbook it just works without having to do much more than just logging 
in with your Apple-ID. It gets all your settings/preferences from their 
cloud and sets up you desktop apps to work. Very nicely done.

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Thread

Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 11:22 -0500
  Re: Ultrabook portables John Gohde <john.h.gohde@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 08:40 -0800
  Re: Ultrabook portables Big Fish in a Small Crotch <bigfishinasmallcrotch@myself.com> - 2015-11-09 11:59 -0500
    Re: Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 12:10 -0500
      Re: Ultrabook portables Lloyd Parsons <lloydp211@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 19:52 +0000
        Re: Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 15:11 -0500
          Re: Ultrabook portables Lloyd Parsons <lloydp211@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 20:15 +0000
        Re: Ultrabook portables Slimer <.m@nsn.s> - 2015-11-09 16:48 -0500
  Re: Ultrabook portables Lloyd Parsons <lloydp211@gmail.com> - 2015-11-09 17:10 +0000
    Re: Ultrabook portables "Ezekiel" <zeke@nosuchemail.com> - 2015-11-09 12:14 -0500

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