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Follow the herd: RT-N16 running Tomato or similar firmware. Gigabit, 802.11N, USB, open-source.

One of the most popular routers ever made and the natural successor to the WRT54.

The Asus Republic of Gamer laptops are great gaming machines that have really high end graphics, great cooling (friend had one and it never got hot to the touch), and nice upgrade-ability (some come with two hard drive bays). *However* they lose major points in the laptop side because they are large, heavy, and have really poor battery life.

I was considering getting one until I remembered what a pain it is to travel with a "desktop replacement" laptop and opted for a lighter and more efficient model that'll do 95% of what I need.

Network-bound tasks If your Atom laptop accesses the Internet through a USB adapter that connects to a UMTS network, and your carrier deploys LTE alongside UMTS using GL DSS, then a new USB adapter supporting GL DSS will make your laptop download things faster. CPU-bound tasks Even if you're downloading things faster, you might not notice much of this speed because it won't help your laptop process what it downloads faster, especially now that web pages are using more JavaScript. If your tasks are CPU-bound, you might have to replace your Eee PC with a Transformer Book T100, the successor to the Eee PC with a quad-core Atom CPU, for more speed.

https://www.asus.com/us/Networ...

I bought one of the previous models of these kinds of things from Asus and love the crap out of it. OpenWRT and all!

You mean like the ASUS Chromebox?

http://promos.asus.com/us/chro...

ASUS RT-N66U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.374.4422
Security related issues:
1. Fixed lighthttpd vulnerability.
2. Fixed cross-site scripting vulnerability (CWE-79).
3. Fixed the authentication bypass (CWW-592).
4. Added notification to help avoid security risks.
5. Fixed network place(samba) and FTP vulnerability.

Improvement:
1. Redesigned the parental control time setting UI.
2. Updated multi language strings.
3. Adjusted FW checking algorithm.
4. Adjusted Time zone detecting algorithm.
5. Improved web UI performance.

For one thing, dang, that page scrolls slowly. For another, it's bigger than 10" and expensive.

They dont use it on consumer equipment because consumers are so dumb they will buy a cheaper computer without it and think they are getting a better deal, and because it's rationalized that no one (should) use consumer equipment for anything important anyway.

You might want to take another look at consumer equipment because nearly all ASUS AMD (look at the AM3+) boards have it. Intel is the one that goes out of their way to disable it.

What happens once all the still-working used netbooks on Amazon are bought up?

I'm pretty sure you can still find 'em... this one for example is on sale this week, for damn near netbook prices. Yes, it's about $100 more than most netbooks cost, but it's in the price range of a midrange tablet, and it has a keyboard.

If you prefer something cheaper, you could, you know, buy a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard for less.

And failing that, there are always chromebooks. That was my plan for my next ultraportable... buy a 13" chromebook, wipe the drive, and install my Linux of choice....

10" are not gone, just changed.
http://www.asus.com/in-search-of-incredible/us-en/asus-transformer-book-t100/

Except:

1. It seems to be about twice the price of my old EeePC.
2. It's a tablet with attached keyboard, so, with an Atom stuffed inside, is likely to be even more poorly balanced than my ARM Transformer.

Chromebooks seem to be the real successor to netbooks, but the OS is a pain to replace.

10" are not gone, just changed.
http://www.asus.com/in-search-of-incredible/us-en/asus-transformer-book-t100/

I have an Asus Transformer TF300. I bought it about six months ago. It was on sale with the keyboard for about $350. It has a 10.1 inch HD touchscreen, and a keyboard with 'signature Android buttons for "home screen", "previous"'. (No Apps Screen button, but nothing's perfect.) Its screen doesn't swivel, but it does detach. It also has a camera, a microSD card slot and an HDMI port like the Lenovo, plus a USB port on the keyboard.

http://uk.asus.com/Tablet/Fonepad/ASUS_Fonepad/

I just bought an Asus Fonepad to replace my ageing Galaxy Note (Which is still a nice phone but too small). The Fonepad is 7" (Nexus 7 sized), and is a completely functional phone, although I haven't had to take a call yet I can imagine you will look a complete idiot.

Jen

The Dell laptop I'm typing this on has Firewire. My ASUS motherboard, in my desktop, has thunderbolt ports.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_PREMIUM/

Try again.

My year and a half old laptop (Asus G74) has a quad i7, lots of RAM and a decent GPU.

If you want something new, the Asus G750 series is high-end and doesn't cost much.

Transformer AiO also runs both Windows and Android... so, it's easy to make and small version (Transformer Book Trio) from biggy one (Transformer AiO). :)

TF700T tablet.
Strictly speaking not a monitor, lower dpi than retina display, but still an extremely nice display.

I've never tried to use it as a second screen, and neither do I dual-boot GNU/Linux on it, but I'm confident there are ways to (wifi + VNC for one, maybe through USB too ?).
You'll probably want a stand, and I don't know if any exists.

Do they make new routers that can maintain a stable connection for under $100?

Yes - TP-LINK do. Currently $50 at amazon.

I'd never heard of them until getting this model a while back. Plus it looks like something designed by the people responsible for Knight Rider (I like it, but apparently routers are also fashion accessories nowadays), but it's a really good unit.

I use Arch, and decided to stick with ext4 for now--I don't want a filesystem that bleeding-edge, btrfs does not yet directly support swap files, and though my laptop has enough memory to fit a container ship or two (16 gibs, good god...) I'd still rather have one, both for resume and general swappy stuff if ever needed.

Personally I'd like file birth time support (and not just for btrfs) to jog my memory about the times I've made old stuff, but it seems I'd have to move to e.g. FreeBSD for that and I prefer the more-up-to-date-iness of Arch.

I think they may be coming back soon. I'm in the market for an "ultrabook" right now and I'm quite pleased that there are actually some with higher screen resolutions.

Many of Asus's Zenbook lineup have 1980x1080, same with the new Dell XPS 13. They're still restricting themselves to screens they can market as "Full HD" and 1080p, but we're moving. I doubt anybody will market a higher resolution until they can market it like Apple with their Retina display.

I'm looking at a 13" to replace my 4 year old Macbook Pro. 1280x720 on it was small in 2009, and it feels like it is growing more so in this day and age.

Asus has a motherboard.

Asus

...which they don't. Try this. Granted it doesn't come with Linux preinstalled, but in my experience the only thing that doesn't work out of the box is Optimus (for which there is Bumblebee - a hack, yes, but most of the time discrete graphics is not needed). Not affiliated, just liking mine.

I havent ran into a nic that didnt work in linux in over a decade, again where are they getting this crazy garbage from? a back alley in Wuhan?

Wouldn't surprise me. Here is the piece of garbage, if you're interested:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/

Note that there isn't even a PCI slot to plug a different network card into!

PCI slots have been legacy for what, 5 years now? Look for a PCI-E or USB Ethernet adapter.

Look here:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/#specifications
http://il.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4143#sp

They will tell you that the board uses an "Atheros GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)" but they don't mention which driver it uses. Specifically, they won't mention "does not support legacy drivers".

I might be late with this, but if you are considering ASUS motherboards, this can help:

http://www.asus.com/websites/global/aboutasus/OS/Linux.pdf

I've bought about 2 dozen Asus AMD motherboards, and they all work fine in Linux.

Consider yourself fortunate.

ASUS doesn't consider Linux support a priority, and goes out of their way to stymie support for their motherboards. Note that there is *still* no resolution for this issue: the current patch is a hack that "kind of" works, which is the best that can be expected without a datasheet.

Typical motherboard tech specs don't list the SMBus/IO chipsets. So, if you want to ensure your motherboard will have support in Linux, you have to do ridiculous thngs like going online and searching for a high-res photo of the motherboard and hoping you can read the designation screenprinted on the chip (and then checking support status on the lm-sensors site). Or you could try to contact sales support with your technical questions, but that's just *painful*.

So, while it is ASUS' right to restrict their market however they like (including blocking Linux support for their motherboards), it is important to ensure the Linux using subset of the population is aware of ASUS' stance on Linux support—ASUS does not care about your ability to use Linux on their hardware.

No, not unlucky.. just incompetent. The board he says he purchased says in the manual that it has an RL8111E/RL8111F nic. and in the summary he says it's a 8168. No idea where he got that from, and then he turns around and blames Asus.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8H61-M_LX_R2.0/E7241_P8H61-M_LX_R2_Series.pdf

He also says he couldn't attach a nic because the board does not have a PCI slot, just 4 PCIe slots.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/#overview

No, not unlucky.. just incompetent. The board he says he purchased says in the manual that it has an RL8111E/RL8111F nic. and in the summary he says it's a 8168. No idea where he got that from, and then he turns around and blames Asus.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8H61-M_LX_R2.0/E7241_P8H61-M_LX_R2_Series.pdf

He also says he couldn't attach a nic because the board does not have a PCI slot, just 4 PCIe slots.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/#overview

OMG.. I just noticed you posted what the actual board was in another thread. You said it had a RL8168 nic and the manual clearly says it's its an rl81111
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8H61-M_LX_R2.0/E7241_P8H61-M_LX_R2_Series.pdf

And that manual was uploaded in June.

So you're obviously completely incompetent and full of shit.

The motherboard that was purchased had no PCI slot, why deride me for that fact:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/

Deride Asus instead. In fact, that is the whole point of this thread: If Asus can no longer be trusted, which motherboard manufacturers can?

I havent ran into a nic that didnt work in linux in over a decade, again where are they getting this crazy garbage from? a back alley in Wuhan?

Wouldn't surprise me. Here is the piece of garbage, if you're interested:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/

Note that there isn't even a PCI slot to plug a different network card into!

My last Asus motherboard install (about four months ago) did not support Linux due to the NIC reporting as the wrong model,

So return the MB and get a refund. I wouldn't have spent more than 30 minutes on it, after seeing the specs were wrong. I've built about 5 dozen computers.. I have NEVER had that happen. So just return it.. it's not a widespread issue.

None of the currently available motherboards make the NIC model available before purchase

Here, I don't know what you are talking about. Granted it's been almost a week since I built my last computer, but the manufacturers websites haven't changed that much.

http://www.asus.com/
http://us.msi.com/
http://www.biostar-usa.com/app/en-us/index.php
http://www.supermicro.com/index_home.cfm

Yep.. all of them list the NIC card in the MB specs.

If you're that lazy, why the fuck are you bothering me.

Yeah, I second that specific option (ASUS PA248Q - unfortunately out of stock). It's also an IPS display and has an adjustable stand that doesn't suck (90-degree rotation and height). On the negative, it's a bit more expensive than similar-sized monitors. But you get what you pay for.

There's also a 20-inch model (ASUS PA246Q) that is 1920x1200.

No one has anything as flat and integrated as the Touch Cover. No one. The Android tablets that do have kick stands are not the full width of the device; they're like little arms that extend, which prevents them from being useful in your lap, unless there is a newer Android tablet that I haven't seen, but I believe none of the mainstream ones have them built in anyway.

There you go. It's not that new either. Now, granted, the keyboard dock is not as flat as the Touch Cover, but a) it has a built-in battery, extending the battery life to about 16 hrs (depending on your usage, obviously), b) it has a full-sized SD card slot in addition to the microSD slot on the tablet itself, and a full-sized USB port, and c) you can use it like a regular laptop, choosing how much you want to tilt the display. Oh, and the display is 1920x1200 IPS+ (the "+" in there means it can be used in pretty much direct sunlight, it's really really bright if needed).

The irony in reference to this post is Asus and Sony are now profitable since they dropped Windows.

Since when did either Sony (notice all the laptops with Windows 8 on them) or Asus (note the "ASUS recommends Windows 8" line). So what exactly is supposed to be ironic when both are still selling Windows machines? Maybe you meant "Windows Phone"? But then again, when did either of them sell Windows phones?

Samsung I believe is making out like gangbusters

Yes, Samsung would be the one vendor they were referring to.

ZTE

O really? Steep profits drop adds to ZTE woes .

Huawei doing great.

Huaweii profits dropped 22%. Yeah sounds like they are doing great what with their profits dropping off at huge rates.

Stop spreading this ill informed garbage.

Says the guy spreading the ill-informed garbage.

...oh you mean HTC which is STILL profitable, and makes...you guessed it windows phones.

HTC Profit Falls 79% Amid Competition. Oh and HTC makes more Android phone models than Windows phones for quite some time now.

Oh your making a point about your beloved Apple making lots of profits...I'm afraid Apples pursuit of profits is already hurting Apples market share, which didn't work out well last time...they became Microsofts Bitch. They are already irrelevant.

Yes, their market share has gone down because the market has expanded with tons of shitty Android phones flooding the market not because they are selling less phones and tablets.

Tablets just aren't laptops, however hard you squint at them.

Is this or this a tablet or a laptop?

Tablets just aren't laptops, however hard you squint at them.

Is this or this a tablet or a laptop?

This is technically a tablet, but I don't see why it wouldn't work well for developers (etc).

This Android device has full size USB and MicroSD slot. It's perfect in every way. http://www.asus.com/Tablet/Transformer_Pad/ASUS_Transformer_Pad_Infinity_TF700T/#specifications I would love to have Ubuntu running on it.

My mid-grade Asus motherboard supports ECC memory.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A97/#specifications

Is that really easier than just "touch the URL field with your finger"? (BTW, ^L is just the analog of cmd-L, which has been the standard for a long time.)

Yes, it's much easier when you already have your fingers on the keyboard.

On a full computer, I can see (and daily take advantage of) the argument that keyboard shortcuts are easier, but when you have the device in your hand and are already interacting with the screen with your fingers, seems like a lot of keyboard shortcuts with a virtual keyboard are actually more difficult than direct manipulation.

We're not talking about a virtual on-screen keyboard, but a physical one - keyboard docks etc. This kind of thing. Of course, when in that mode, you wouldn't hold the device in your hand - you'd have it on the desk or on your laps.

What are your opinions on Window 8? Have you tried it?

Windows 8 has a "fast boot" feature: AFAIK on shutdown it closes all userland apps and hibernates just the kernel + drivers (which has a small memory footprint and is fast written to disk). On boot the kernel is loaded from the hibernation image, the drivers initialize all the devices and userland boots normally. This makes Windows 8 to boot in just 2 seconds with a SSD (and I think the UEFI also bypasses the system checks).

New motherboards like "Asus Crosshair Formula V - Z" include a hardware switch to enable "fast boot".
Are there plans to include such mechanism in Linux?

Also, what are your thoughts on UEFI in general?

I've looked seriously at the ASUS Slider. I know the keyboard sucks, but it might just be good enough to fit the niche as long as I don't have to do too much real work.

What's strange is: my work just bought me an Asus Zenbook Prime and I'm running 150% on it (I nuked the OS to get rid of the crapware and to be able to log on to the domain, so I've actually never seen it stock). I can scale web pages easily by doing a pinch-zoom on the touchpad and they look terrific, including images. (I mean, sure, the images ARE scaled up, which never looks 100% perfect, but it's just not that noticeable, and doesn't look anything the article.)

What they may be noticing is ASUS Splendid Video Enhancement Technology which is turned on by default (I'm told, I didn't install it after reading that people were trying frantically to get rid of it). Basically, it's supposed to "fix" your graphics so they look "more lifelike". But I've seen cases where people report that web graphics were getting very blurred by it, exactly like what the article is showing.

After using 150% and browser scaling for the past week, I've been pleasantly surprised by just how "arrived" high-DPI scaling was in Windows 7. I really didn't think it would work, but it's terrific so far, with ultra-readable text that's incredibly easy on the eyes and looks just as good as Apple's Retina displays.

I don't see tablets and cell phones as a very viable market for document creation and editing. Tablets and cell phones are for consumption and it's going to take a hell of an engineering feat to make it more practical otherwise.

Why would it take "a hell of an engineering feat"? What's wrong with these?

So, I found the almost full specs.

Vivo Tab RT | iPad
Resolution: 1366×768 | 2048 × 1536
Screen Size: 10.1" | 9.7"
CPU: 1.4 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 | 1.0 GHz dual-core
GPU: 12-core ULP GeForce | quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4
RAM: 2 GB | 1 GB
Rear Camera: 8 MP LED Flash | 5 MP no Flash
Front Camera: 2 MP | 0.3 MP
Sensors: Mag, Accel, Gyro, Light | Mag, Accel, Gyro, Light
Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 | 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Expansion: USB port | Apple 30 pin + $30 dongles Office: Office RT (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote) | None Storage: 32GB | 32GB
Price: $599 | $599

So the iPad wins on the screen and that's about it. Now, the iPad is about 6 months old, so it's a bit of an unfair comparison, but this is the comparison people will make until the iPad 4 is released. This particular tablet has more horsepower, better cameras, equivalent sensors and storage, included Office, native USB port.... What's left to know is size/weight/battery, but those should be comparable as well. All for the same price as the iPad.

Perhaps Linux needs a minimalist leader. Throw everything out. Then step by step, bring back features and see what works, and what doesn't. In the process make sure that everything has a consistent look and feel.

EEEpc 2G Surf, from 2007. The first "netbook".

It wasn't a huge success, but it panicked Microsoft. For a brief moment, the future of mobile computing was Linux. Windows Vista wouldn't fit on the thing. Microsoft had to re-animate Windows XP to compete.

(It also had a terrible variant of Linux. I have two of the things. The WiFi code is unreliable, and the "union file system" which makes one read-only and one read-write file system appear to be in the same namespace leaks inodes. The hardware is solid, though.)

The word you want is "dock". And yes, not even that far away -- the Asus PadFone shows a substantial chunk of the capabilities in question.

Requires considerable coordination and effort to keep such a thing transparent. Microsoft's history (NT on the Alpha / Windows on Itanium e.g.) suggests that they don't succeed in sustaining this long term. Transparency will become much more difficult as they want to provide more and more native code.

I still don't follow. First of all, Win8 development is already doable in 100% native code - that's one of the three available "paths" (the other two being .NET and HTML5/JS), and it was pretty heavily promoted - in fact, for some categories of apps, like games, C++ and DirectX is essentially the recommended choice.

I also don't see how it requires much effort, given the toolchain that can target both platforms equally well. As far as developer is concerned, he needs do nothing special - just hit "Build" in the IDE and get packages produced which he uploads to the store. He writes code only once, in C++. Why would he care that the packages come with both x86 and ARM binaries in them?

Secondly, about Intel catching up with ARM. Sorry if I misspeak here; some references would be appreciated if I'm wrong but this seems to me to be future generations of Intel vs. current generations of ARM.

For references, have a look at reviews of Lava XOLO - that's a shipping Android phone running on Medfield. IIRC, Anandtech had a decent one, with some detailed battery life numbers.

I don't think there are any Clover Field devices in the wild yet, but it's basically just a more powerful version of Medfield, so it should be just as good (or bad). Either way, we'll see when Asus gets its Transformer-like Tablet 810 out, presumably by the end of this year - that's a Clover Field device.

Having said all that, it still wouldn't change my analysis. The Windows RT tablets on the ARM architecture are then providing pure fragmentation with no benefit. It will be possible to provide the same small/thin/cheap tablets from the Intel side and so the ARM tablets will be killed.

I actually agree with that. As a user I don't see any reason to buy an ARM Windows tablet, if there's an x86 one with the same size & weight & power profile - I lose the ability to run legacy apps, while getting... what, exactly? Free Office out of the box?

You have to understand, however, that it's about more than just technological advantages and disadvantages. In US v. Microsoft, the scope of Microsoft's monopoly was defined as "Intel based personal computers". So, on Intel, every step is subject to anti-trust scrutiny in US, and these days (after the IE showdown) also in EU. In EU especially it's a major minefield because fines there grow with every new infraction, and IE litigation has already cost MS something like $3B in the initial fine and all the penalties for non-compliance along the way. Another round would likely be even more costly.

On ARM tablet market, on the other hand, the playing field right now is much more even, and the dominant player is Apple, not MS - so "do as Romans do" with respect to locked bootloader etc is a reasonable excuse...