Slashdot Mirror
Dell Designing Developer Oriented Laptop
jones_supa writes "Barton George, director of marketing for Dell's Web vertical reveals information about 'Project Sputnik', a laptop tailored for developer needs in web companies. 'We want to find ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible. And what better way to do that than beginning with a laptop that is both highly mobile and extremely stylish, running the 12.04 LTS release of Ubuntu Linux,' George ponders. He also gives a quick list of packages that the default installation could include. The machine will base on the XPS13, assessing a couple of its main hardware deficiencies along the way."
According to the article, this is a "6 month project to investigate an Ubuntu laptop. If successful, we have big plans for the effort." It's unclear how closely they are working with upstream, but there's mention of Canonical as a commercial partner so this may mean Dell is working to ensure some of their hardware Just Works (tm) with Ubuntu. The software side is so far just a customized install with developer tools preinstalled. Ars remains skeptical about Dell's strategy for GNU/Linux support, which may be warranted given their track record.
The one thing that they (Dell) and pretty much everyone else are missing is a decent screen resolution. 1366x768 and 1440x900 just don't cut it for development. They're barely useable for browsing.
They've supported it just fine for a long time. It's their hardware offerings that have been spotty.
That's not encouraging. I jest of course, that's a reasonable time to ensure a support line for the platform. We'll see how it works out, would be nice to have an OEM doing a Linux system that's more then just installing it and forgetting about it.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Could 2012 be the year of the linux laptop? And I might not be completely joking here.
If I am going to be using the laptop outside of a dimly lit room, give me the option of buying a quality matte display. I don't care if it's an extra $200. Just give me the damn option. My comfort and ability to work in public without feeling like I'm staring into a mirror is more important.
Indeed. Orient is a noun, orientate is a verb. This is why, among other things, there are orientation sessions but never oriention sessions.
Burns: We're building a casino!
McAllister: Arrr. Give me 5 minutes.
vim.
Some apps are WYSIWYG. Some others are WYSIWTF.
I'm worried about the shovelware. Will ten antiviruses and junk like that be in a removable ubuntu package or will it be too deeply embedded into the OS to remove?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Maybe Dell can succeed where legions of open-source developers have failed: to twist the arm of hardware developers to release the source of their drivers so we can FINALLY use our computers with Linux without ages of pointless driver and configuration file tweaking!
http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=16260~0~195640&p=1
Could have surprised me. My laptop is the predecessor to that model, the Vostro V130n, which came with Ubuntu LTS installed on it. They're still selling them, you just have to look for it. The V130n features a Celeron U3600, 2GB of RAM, 13.3" screen (1366x768), and came originally with a 250GB hard drive. The battery life isn't that great (about 2.5h with the factory configuration), but that's because the battery is very small (slightly less than the volume of a CD jewel case). I was able to increase the battery life to 4h by swapping the hard drive with an Intel 320-series SSD. 3.2lbs with the stock configuration, and slightly lighter than that with the hard drive swapped. Total cost (including the hard drive replacement) was under $500. If they can price this ultraportable under $1000 like they're doing with the XPS 13, I would seriously consider it when it comes time to replace my current laptop. (though that'll probably be a few years, it's plenty powerful enough for everything I throw at it).
It's nice that they're doing this, and more power to them, but it's misleading to claim that they aren't supporting Linux, when you can, today, buy a reasonably nice system with Ubuntu preinstalled on it.
The software side is so far just a customized install with developer tools preinstalled. Ars remains skeptical about Dell's strategy for GNU/Linux support, which may be warranted given their track record.
Call it a "developer laptop" and you've probably scared away 99% of the market, the 99% Dell doesn't want. The ones who think it'll be like Windows or run Windows software or work with all accessories they have on their old PC. The people interested in Linux will know hey it's just an Ubuntu install with a few preloads, the important thing is the hardware is supported under Linux. To me it sounds good, to make it profitable it's just as much about not selling to the wrong people as selling to the right people. Support and returns will very quickly kill your margins.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It's almost as if they're just throwing the word "developer" in there just to make it seem like a different machine. I will admit it definitely peaks my interest and I'd certainly contemplate buying one. But every time I try to code on a laptop, especially web development, I get very frustrated with the lack of a good keyboard and mouse. Not to mention the INSERT key is probably the most important key for me to use and they're always in awkward places unlike your standard desktop keyboard. What also concerns me is the simple longevity problem with laptops. Hard drive crashes (maybe not so much nowadays thanks to SSD) and dead batteries seem to be all too common. Therefore relying on such a machine to get your work done is hard to do. I know people make due just fine, but for me personally it will take a lot convincing.
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
Keyboard must be easy to clean and resist spills. Test against Cheetos and Mountain Dew.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I find significant dissonance with their two statements:
"ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible" and
"what better way to do that than beginning with a laptop that is both highly mobile and extremely stylish"
I was unaware that web designers did most of their work "in the field" away from modern conveniences like desks and dual monitors. I am also surprised that "stylish" is equated with "powerful and simple".
By the look of their press release, I'd say they are trying to convert all of the metrosexual Apple users to Dell brand users with shiny and an OSX-esque GUI. Function and capability don't appear to play into the equation much.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
developers. developers. developers. (developers developers developers)
As a developer, I need more vertical screen space: looking at code, looking at debuggers, editing long files.
I have two monitors at work: an ld 19" and 23". The 23" has less vertical screen space than the 19".
More vetical screen real estate would make a laptop more dev friendly
Well, I'm glad to hear they are at least waiting 6 months before putting anything into the market. It'll take that time for any and all bugs pertaining to Ubuntu 12.04 to be cleared up, I'm sure.
I want to say Ubuntu would be a terrible platform for development, but I've found that despite its rapidly changing environment its often been the easiest to configure solely from the repositories. I'd be interested if they don't preinstall tons of unnecessary crap and the drivers it comes with are solid.
Developing on a 13 inch screen...
Developing on dual 30" screens is certainly nicer, but it you can't develop on a 13" screen, then you're not terribly effective. I developed good software on a netbook (1024x600), since I was travelling a lot and I valued the light weight (940g for a 20G EEE 900, with the lightest PSU I've ever used) and decent battery life over a big screen.
Once you're all set up with a decent folding editor and plenty of virtual screens, it's a surprisingly good environment.
And don't forget that unless you're flogging the CPU, the backlight is the biggest power draw, which scales with the square of the diagonal length. You simply cannot have a lightweight large screen laptop with a long battery life.
Remember, no matter how awesomely huge your screen space is, development is a bit of a drag if you have to write the code on paper when the battery runs out.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Turn it to the side...
Kidding of course, hard to do it with a laptop anyways, but while I was working on a long report recently I decided to rotate my 19" monitor and it was great.
My laptop has a 12" 4x3 screen and I find it much better than the 13-14" wide screen ones.
They're both correct (as much as a constantly evolving language can be). They were both independently derived from the same French word "orienter" which is a verb as it happens. Orient was first used in the 1700s and Orientate was first used in the 1800s. One was not derived from the other. Pedants begone!
Using Unity...
Do that and I buy one.
Visual Studio vs VIM is like an aircraft carrier vs the world's greatest compound bow. I'll grant you, it is the best goddamned bow the world has ever seen. A good bowman can take shots a sniper would be hard-pressed to make, and there is a simple joy to using such a powerful and versatile tool. And if you want, you can call it the rustiest piece of shit aircraft carrier that's ever wallowed the seas. But come on. Be real. They're hardly even the same thing.
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
We want to find ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible [...] extremely stylish
Failed, right out of the gate.
16x10 is the best resolution, especially now the docks of your window managers are finding their way to the side (where they used to be, decades ago).
Yeah, every web developer runs Ubuntu up until that moment when they realise they have to make sure the site works with Internet Explorer. So the first thing you'll have to do with this is install Virtual Box and do a Windows Install. You do have a Windows license, right?
"'We want to find ways to make the developer experience as powerful and simple as possible. And what better way to do that than beginning with a laptop that is both highly mobile and extremely stylish, "
Ummm. What developers are you referring to? Give me a nice dense 4:3 aspect ratio display (I know - this is a distant dream), lots of I/O, CPU power and RAM. I couldn't care less if my dev laptop watches movies or looks prettier than me and I really don't care how heavy it is.
And I don't care what OS you preinstall. I'm going to put my own one on anyway.
What does resolution have to do with font size?
As the pixel density increases, the font size in physical pixels has to increase proportionally . But a lot of Windows applications (and, I assume, Linux applications) have broken layout if you run them at any DPI other than 96.
The new iPad has a 9" screen at 2048x1536
As with the iPhone 4 compared to the 3GS, the new iPad's screen is exactly twice as dense in each direction as the iPad 2's. This allows the operating system to more easily compensate for DPI-unaware applications. The Windows platform hasn't had such a jump.
For reference: http://www.theblog.ca/bilingual-canadian-keyboard
development machine, even if you put a gun to my head.
The only way I would use it would be with a docking station that gives me a normal keyboard, mouse, and a couple of desktop monitors, at which point it's basically a desktop. Laptop screens, k/b's, and mice are incomparable by default.
It's not a matter of being able to. Development can be done on a 9" netbook screen; I've done it. However, I would never choose to do such a thing if I had an alternative.
People often give me odd looks when I open my 17" Macbook Pro and boot to Windows, there is a reason it was rated "Best Windows laptop" a few years ago. It is usually high-end, lightweight, with a 1920x1200 display.
In fact, it's rather hard to find any laptop with a 1920x1200 screen these days. Some years ago, they were not so difficult to find; Apple appears to be one of the few left. Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Acer, Asus, Fujitsu ... none of them have a 1920x1200 laptop offering. One of the few on offer is the HP EliteBook Workstation which actually costs more than the MacBook and has a smaller disk!
The lack of decent resolution screens is the main reason I still have an 8-year-old Sony Vaio VGN-A117S laptop in service. It may only have a 1.7GHz Pentium M, 1GiB of RAM, and Radeon 9600 (sticker says 9700, diagnostics say 9600) but its 17" 1920x1200 screen is a beauty. Since we don't do any gaming, it's quite adequate as a kitchen PC with Xubuntu (email, browsing, music, movies, photos, documents, etc.). I'm not replacing it until I can get more than 1200 vertical pixels on a built-in display - even an iPad 3 type display would do. Pixels matter rather more than inches.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
kubuntu-desktop is always just an apt-get away. Or xubuntu-desktop. Or lubuntu-desktop.
That's the forgotten joy of Ubuntu- even compared with other Linux distros, window managers are fantastically easy. There are so many pre-built ones for the distro which you can guarantee will play nice with all the other default software. It's one of those little benefits which Unity has really managed to focus in my mind...
Kind of sad since my very first laptop (a Dell) had 1600x1200 resolution
What is sad? A change in aspect ratio? It is a move towards the 16:9 aspect ratio. The end result is greater horizontal resolution, less vertical resolution, and a greater number of pixels overall than your 4:3 ratio 1600x1200 screen.
IT HAS LESS VERTICAL RESOLUTION. 10 years later, less vertical resolution. That's what is sad.
What is sad? A change in aspect ratio? It is a move towards the 16:9 aspect ratio. The end result is greater horizontal resolution, less vertical resolution, and a greater number of pixels overall than your 4:3 ratio 1600x1200 screen.
What is sad is that 10 years ago the top laptop screen resolution was 2 megapixels and now it's still only 2 megapixels, in a format that's worse for every application except watching video. What's sad is that the 9.7" screen in the new iPad is better than anything you can get in a laptop.