Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Unveils the Surface Laptop, a Traditional Notebook That Is 'Better' Than MacBook Pro (engadget.com)
On the sidelines of Windows 10 S and affordable Chromebook-like laptops announcements, Microsoft also announced the newest addition to its Surface computing lineup. Dubbed the Surface Laptop, the laptop starts at $999, and is for everyone, the company claims, though the focus is on students and professionals. From a report: The Surface Laptop includes a 13.5-inch PixelSense display (Microsoft's branding for its unique screen technology) and a keyboard draped in Alcantara, a smooth cloth-like material. It's powered by Intel's most recent Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, and it can pack in an SSD up to 1TB (that's notably integrated directly onto the motherboard). Performance-wise, Microsoft's Surface head, Panos Panay, claims the Laptop is 50 percent faster than the Core i7 MacBook Air while also being lighter. (Editor's note: Panos added that the Surface Laptop also outpaces the MacBook Pro on performance.) You can also expect up to 14.5 hours of battery life, thanks to Windows 10 S's battery savings and more efficient hardware. One thing you won't see on the Surface Laptop: Speaker holes or grills. Microsoft managed to fit the speakers behind the keys, which Panay claims delivers a more enveloping sound. Microsoft says it has also improved the standby time -- so much so that "you could go away on spring break and still have the same battery life when you returned."
>> laptop starts at $999
Seems like it's priced about $700 too high. About three years ago, I was happy to shell out about $300 for a Windows 8 tablet with Office preinstalled and a bluetooth keyboard. It was just fast enough to run Civ5 in tile mode through Steam.
For dev machines I can build my own laptop (with RAM + SSD) for cheaper than $1K too, and $1K should be mostly graphics cards if it's invested in a desktop. And educational institutions on budgets are already using "disposable" Chromebooks and Android tablets that can be had for a hundred bucks so it seems unlikely Microsoft has a viable product for K-12. So again...what do you get for a $1K Surface?
The title claims better performance than a MacBook Pro, but the summary references a MacBook Air. There's also no link to the actual article?
Touch screens on laptops and desktops are terrible. Plus some people do real work and not just consume content.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Why is the side covered in weird rectangular holes?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It's freaky when they even copy the number of an apple. However I'm going to wait for the Next edition, dubbed NE1, which I hear will be labeled as
10S NE 1
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I have no problem with a touchscreen on a laptop as long as I'm not forced to use it.
And if it adds any cost to the laptop, I'm likely to pick up the cheaper version without it.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Alcantara Keyboard... yuk!
And that is a selling point?
RAM? Discrete graphics? Oh wait, it comes with Windows 10S... the rebranding of RT. Nevermind. It's worthless.
I'm guessing the answer is "No."
I've had my 2013 MBPro since Jan 2014. Zero issues. Longest uptime was 144 days which I hit before upgrading to Sierra. Compare: I have a Dell Win10 PC that crashes when I unplug my mouse or it goes to sleep with an Arduino plugged in.
Yeah, Surface is a nice UI, no question there, but the underlying OS is still fucking buggy garbage. Apple could learn from that UI. Nice affordances on everything, well, until you hit a Win95 dialog, which lurk a few clicks below just about every interface item.
Wonder if Windows Server 2016 would work on that thing.
So its a high power laptop that can't run any software that would need high power? A high end Chromebook makes no sense at all. Easy to see why the surface series has less sales than apples accessory division.
And leave a smear on your screen. My eyelid twitches when people touch my screen to point at stuff.
Are there any capacitive touch matte screens? No.
I hate glare, but you have to choose between contrast and no glare. You can get rid of glare by adjusting where you place the screen. You can't get that level of contrast with a matte screen.
A $1000 laptop that can only run Windows Store apps? Somebody at MS is getting fired.
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
I'm a communicable disease. Please keep using touchscreens!
That's your big reason not to use touch screens? You don't think keyboards face a similar but noticeably worse situation with respect to this?
Even by slashdot standards that's pretty stupid.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
..... this post brought to you by Microsoft.
Wow, shill much?
A MacBook doesn't need to be connected to the Internet to work, I get 30 days of standby/suspend/sleep time on battery, and MacBook Pros and Airs already are i5 or i7. They say it's faster, but only because of cloud computing: the destroyer of open source. Also, good luck getting any work done without the internet and enjoy having no control over your software and Window$ spyware. There's also no way you'll be able to install Linux on it either. If I have $999 to blow on a laptop, I'll get a System76 or a Thinkpad off of Amazon. Hell, I might just buy a bunch of Raspberry Pi's and put them together.
OS X has Launchpad, which is designed to be touch-friendly despite no OS X systems coming with a touch screen. Nobody uses it, so you may not remember it.
Windows does not have a touch-friendly interface unless you only use "modern" apps. They don't adjust the size of the drop-down menus on regular apps when you're in tablet mode - something they could do if they lied to the program about the size of the screen to make room (I assume - I don't do Windows GUI development).
I cant top looking at that fabric covered keyboard and thinking how NASTY that's going to be within a single report writing session
While I often do slap hands away from my non-touch monitors at work, a well designed screen can make smudges less likely/visible. Plus, your average desktop monitor is more likely to develop a film of dust which makes previous touches more visible, something which is not as common on a laptop which gets a good bit more movement.
Oh how I miss my old Lenovo Carbon Touch X1... and how much I hate the glossy & smudge attracting MacBook Pro I have today.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
If its primary OS is a Microsoft OS, that doesn't fit the description of "better" in my book.
Windows was the primary reason why I jumped ship to OSX/MacOS so I'll stick with that OS, thank you very much.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
I get the feeling they are testing those two things separately. If you have your computer set to performance and the competition set to battery, naturally your computer will perform better. (for a few hours anyway) And vice-versa. You can't have highest performance AND best battery life at the same time without some incredible hardware, which I doubt this can live up to.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
At $999, I can buy 4 (or more) chromebooks, which are more than adequate for pretty much all education needs. Way to read your market there, Microsoft...
Personally I'd rather have my idiots at home glued to the TV than out doing idiotic things
A MacBook doesn't need to be connected to the Internet to work, I get 30 days of standby/suspend/sleep time on battery, and MacBook Pros and Airs already are i5 or i7. They say it's faster, but only because of cloud computing: the destroyer of open source. Also, good luck getting any work done without the internet and enjoy having no control over your software and Window$ spyware. There's also no way you'll be able to install Linux on it either. If I have $999 to blow on a laptop, I'll get a System76 or a Thinkpad off of Amazon. Hell, I might just buy a bunch of Raspberry Pi's and put them together.
It looks like MS is playing the "you can centrally manage the machines and only approved MS Store software can be installed so you don't have any security issues..." to school districts. They would presumably always have wireless access so using cloud based programs is not an issue. tI would guess MS will offer substantial "discounts" for volume buys. As for Alcantara, it'll be interesting to see how that stands up over time in a school environment. I'd also love to see teh data backing up the faster than Macs claim. After all, my $4 calculator is faster than the new Surface (if all I am doing is adding 2 numbers).
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
It's never been a consideration for me, but now that you mention it, this laptop appears to be covered in fur. I imagine that will pick up some general yuckies over time.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
...is here. Honestly, I can't see the point of putting an i7 in these. If you're doing anything that's pushing all the cores, the heat generated will force it to throttle down, unless the newest chips have become way more efficient than previous gens. Would be interesting to see a shoot-out between the i5 and i7 models.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Yeah, I'm wondering if they're comparing to Macbooks running Windows. Bootcamp drivers are crap, so it's not a great comparison. My Air runs OSX much more efficiently than Windows.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
I thought so until I got one at work. Damn, it's useful.
Smear isn't a problem, the glass does a terrific job of not showing it, and when I do see it, I also see glare and reposition anyways.
I bounce between touch and mouse easily - whatever works best at the moment.
So good I bought a Surface Pro for myself. Excellent.
The only annoyance is reaching for non-touch screens...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
"I have no problem with a touchscreen on a laptop as long as I'm not forced to use it."
If by "I have no problem with a touchscreen on a laptop as long as I'm not forced to use it." you mean "I have no problem with a touchscreen on a laptop as long as I'm not forced to use touch.", then you have no problem.
Next.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
This infomercial is a frickin joke. 999$ USD for an entry level Core i5 laptop with Windows on it is an insult to our intelligence.
"The Surface Laptop includes a 13.5-inch PixelSense display..."
No one attaches a 13.5" display to their desktop and boasts about it. I'd sure as hell give up an hour or two of battery life for some actual real estate. Let me guess, that "monster" screen also has 4K capability too, for some pointless marketing reason.
"...a keyboard draped in Alcantara, a smooth cloth-like material.
Obviously a critical "Pro" feature. I always wanted my keyboard to feel like drapery.
"... it can pack in an SSD up to 1TB (that's notably integrated directly onto the motherboard).
Translation: Fuck You consumer. You'll pay factory price for upgrades, and like it, bitch. (Tell me again how this is notably better than Apple's Fuck-You hardware model?)
"You can also expect up to 14.5 hours of battery life..."
Translation: You can expect to get up to 4 hours of Netflix binging.
"Microsoft managed to fit the speakers behind the keys, which Panay claims delivers a more enveloping sound."
Translation: We spent a billion dollars on behind-the-keyboard R&D for the earbud generation.
THIS is what hardware has become these days; a fucking fashion shitshow for hypes sake. Thanks Apple, for starting this trend.
Mildly interested if I could replace the OS with something that works, not M$ crap.
Comparable laptop cost: $499
Upcharge for Microsoft logo: $500
Why exactly would you want to pay money to have a Microsoft logo on your linux box?
You can't get that level of contrast with a matte screen.
Bull-fucking-shit.
No, I mean so long as the GUI is set up to work with a keystrokes (best) or mice/touchpads so I don't have to move my arms and poke the screen. Apple and Chromebook touchpads show how much of the touchscreen advantages can be had on the touchpad (pinch to zoom, rotate, swipes, and especially scrolling). If the GUI makes significant compromises to accommodate touch, then I am being "forced to use it".
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
OS X has Launchpad, which is designed to be touch-friendly despite no OS X systems coming with a touch screen. Nobody uses it, so you may not remember it.
Windows does not have a touch-friendly interface unless you only use "modern" apps. They don't adjust the size of the drop-down menus on regular apps when you're in tablet mode - something they could do if they lied to the program about the size of the screen to make room (I assume - I don't do Windows GUI development).
Launchpad is keyboard friendly. Click the icon, start typing the name of the program. After you are 2 or three characters into typing it, it filters the many icons down to the one program you are looking for. It didn't need to take over the whole screen, it works similarly on Windows 10. Click in the corner, start typing, click on the program you were looking for, but windows 10 does take over the screen while you do it.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Longer battery life AND better performance AND lighter than a MBP?
Something smells really fishy. Microsoft has pulled sketchy stunts like this before, so only a fool would take this announcement at face value. I'll wait for some actual reviews before I'll form an opinion.
It's using their newly released Windows 10S, so you can only install UWP and select windows store approved win32 apps. This is another massive alarm bell, and it's certainly not fit for "professional" use, no matter what they like to claim. There are more than plenty of "professional" applications which are not available in their app store.
Well, at least you should give them credit for finally getting the direction where the wind is blowing.
Dell got bumper sales once Michael Dell got back into business and wrestled the helm from MBA flowchart warriors and people who were "product managing" company's products to death.
See: XPS13 - the most sold high-end PC laptop. And they got there in just 2 years.
Hey, even Chinese are leapfrogging old brands now: See Chuwi Surbook 13 - the name is ofcourse ridiculous, but see THEY GOT IT TOO. This is provably the one and only budget PC laptop worth buying on the market. You have apollo lake for the core, bur it comes with huuuge battery, best in class screen, and all benefits of 100% solid state/single chip platform.
Gets worse... not only is it underspec'd, but there's no info on durability (or more importantly, even the potential thereof).
I've got a 4-year-old MacBook Pro that still performs just as well as most latest/greatest mid/high-end laptops, and I abuse the crap out of it. I wiped the disk and reinstalled exactly once - when I upgraded the disk from platter to SSD. Nothing (and I mean *nothing*) has ever given me cause to doubt the quality of the product, let alone its durability. Odds are nearly perfect I will keep it another year (maybe two?) before refreshing it. I also know that my particular scenario is quite typical among folks who own similar MacBook Pro laptops.
So... can Microsoft credibly make the same claim?
(There's also that stupid Spyware-by-default called Windows 10 on these new Surface laptops, but we won't go into that at the moment.)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
simply touch and drag your finger over the spot
which then copy/pastes, or drag/drops something that you didn't want pasted/moved.
file:
I'm not saying it's not keyboard friendly, but it is touch friendly. No matter how friendly it is, I don't think anyone uses it.
I didn't realize it had search filtering - kind of odd that it's a completely separate interface to Spotlight.
Click in the corner, start typing, click on the program you were looking for, but windows 10 does take over the screen while you do it.
Windows 10 only takes over the whole screen in tablet mode or if you manually set the start menu that large. It's Windows 8 that always takes over the whole screen.
To me, that's not as easy as keeping my hands on the keyboard and pressing CMD+Space to open Spotlight to launch apps. Going back and forth between keyboard and mouse that often is a productivity killer.
Oh I love the way branding goes these days, as if it wasn't enough to say it has "i5" or "i7" CPUs while omitting they're actually ULV CPUs. But claiming it to be more powerful than an MBP makes me digress, but I'm calling that BS since they started to compare it with a Macbook Air.
But man, that marketing BS with the "PixelSense", "Iris Plus" and deceptive numbers like "3.4 Million pixels". So basically it's not 4k in 2017. It is less than a Dell XPS 4k (2y old, but ok, 15''), it is less than a Chromebook Pixel (a 4y device, a DISCONTINUED one at that!). It is also less than an MBP. So basically it is up-to-or-less-than par with the competition.
Granted: it looks good; a ULV CPU will be decent enough for most; and so will WQHD (2560x1440). But that "Iris Plus", at first glance, doesn't convince, especially due to the fact the the real dedicated GPU contender we know on the Iris family is named Pro, you know the one used in soldered variants such as Gigabyte cubes and "cost-efficient" macs. I also have serious reservations about 50% performance of an MBA on what pretty much looks like a passive cooling solution. XPS15 and MBP (not the XPS13 though, don't know about the air, think not) all come with better BASE MODEL, dedicated GPUs. For getting that Intel-beefed-up-Iris you need to shell out for the i7 model (which, to be fair, puts it in the XPS15 price range).
AH! And that SD Card teaser! Everybody on the youtube video was praising it, apparently it is just a sheet-thinned PSU connector. Well who knows, maybe MS decided to do what no other company wanted to do because they wanted to profit either from cloud-storage or the "more-storage-in-200-bucks-increments-variants". If they added an SD Card reader in a super-premium range device, they have probably discovered the best new feature of 2017.
My precocious verdict is this will be like all niche products in the ultra-portable category: either M or C-Level word+slideshow machines, like the XPS13 or the the Surface Pro, or under-adopted, "almost-powerhouses" like the Chromebook Pixel.
MS make me eat my words please.
Here's my takeaway.
My overall rating, averaging it all together: DUMB.
Sorry guy, mustook the name. It's called "Lapbook." Chuwi's take on XPS class devices is this thing https://liliputing.com/2017/04...
I really tried to drink the Kool Aid and use 8 when it came out. I put up with it for a whole year before giving up and reinstalling 7.
Yes, that's exactly what I mean.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It's even worse than that, they say it runs W10 "S" which is locked down to only** be able to install software from the MS app store.
** With MS's security history, anyone want to take bets on how long before this is blown wide open so you can install normal programs from anywhere?
To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
I know they're trying to compete with the Chromebook, but I thought they learned their lesson with Windows RT -- very few use cases exist for an artificially limited device that can only run Store apps and, essentially, Office.
It's obvious that Azure and cloud services are the way they want to go, but no one wanted the non-Pro Surface. Outside of education, why would anyone want this? Phone is dead, UWP apps exist but certainly aren't the only type of apps people use, and it seems silly to me to artifically limit a device using Windows 10 S.
The ideal endgame for Microsoft is definitely having locked-down devices that are useless without paying subscription fees and consuming Azure services. They're going to be the new IBM and we're all going to be mainframe customers at some point.
Speak for yourself with regard to Lauchpad. I use it constantly for launching apps (mostly different utilities) not on my dock. I don't want to overload my Dock with tons of icons I can barely see. Three finger to launch Launchpad, start typing name of app, hit Return once the correct app is selected. I find that quicker that Spotlight or going to the Application folder.
Nobody statistically speaking - there are outliers - good job on that. If hands are on the keyboard, Cmd+Space is quicker than a three-finger swipe. I don't know if that was a default shortcut or one that I set, but it's quick.
Aye, agreed. The new Microsox _might_ be good but it isn't better than a MacBook Pro. In fact, it isn't even _as_ good as a MacBook Pro. In addition to the technical aspect there is also the fact that the MacBooks last so much longer than Windows machines and require less support. This is repeatedly shown in industry studies. We have MacBook Pros and PowerBooks (older version of MBP) that are over 10 years old and even over 15 years old and still performing their duties perfectly. When the top level users upgrade the machines pass down within our business and family because not everyone needs the latest and greatest. Meanwhile Windows machines have an average lifespan of about 2 years and a higher support cost.
This infomercial is a frickin joke. 999$ USD for an entry level Core i5 laptop with Windows on it is an insult to our intelligence.
Only if you compare it to the end-of-isle specials at Walmart.
How much does a 14mm thick laptop with 14 hour battery life and a bit of style cost at Walmart? Oh, that's right, they don't even sell them!
This is way cheaper than a similar size Macbook and better specced. Those Macbooks sell by the million. You can complain about a lot of things but the price isn't one of them. Not really.
(and anybody who'd buy something with an Alcantara keyboard certainly won't be complaining about that)
No sig today...
Are there any capacitive touch matte screens? No.
Who wants capacitive touch in a laptop?
I hate glare, but you have to choose between contrast and no glare. You can get rid of glare by adjusting where you place the screen.
ie. You have to use it in the dark.
No, thanks. I bought _one_ laptop with a shiny screen. Never again. My list of specs now starts with "matte screen" and goes from there.
No sig today...
Angry AC doesn't like it when his BS gets smacked down by logic
You talk as if we've never seen a matte screen before.
Clues:
a) The surface of the screen doesn't alter the underlying electronics.
b) Contrast doesn't matter a hoot if 90% of the light coming from the screen is a reflection of the room.
No sig today...
I thought so until I got one at work. Damn, it's useful.
Smear isn't a problem, when I do see it, I also see glare and reposition anyways.
"Reposition"?
This word 'work'. I don't think it means what you think it means.
No sig today...
But the real question is will it run Linux?
Who wants capacitive touch in a laptop?
Not me personally unless it converts to a tablet.
You have to use it in the dark.
No - you just have to use it at an oblique angle to any non-diffuse light. It's a choice - nobody's saying you have to go with it. But matte screens, by diffusing direct light, prevent deep blacks altogether. Just look at a matte screen when it's off - not black, just a medium grey. By definition, they diffuse light from every angle.
tl;dr I wouldn't buy a glossy laptop screen, but they still have a purpose.
'work' in this context means 'where i am employed'. I received this laptop at work, that is, as part of my job.
It meant exactly what I intended it to mean. You may want to reset your typo filter level. There was no typo in my sentence.
ps - glare has afflicted nearly every monitor I've used for over 27 years, even the 'non-glare' ones. It happens.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Microsoft says it has also improved the standby time -- so much so that "you could go away on spring break and still have the same battery life when you returned."
Appealing not to people that will actually attend spring break since they hardly have money for gas and beer, rather, to people with fond memories of spring breaks past.
Even Windows 10 on my Surface Pro 3 happily works as expected when the keyboard is attached. When I forced it into Tablet Mode, changing it back was trivial.
Windows 10 touch laptops work just fine with keystrokes and non-touch pointing devices in my experience.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
So... can Microsoft credibly make the same claim?
I'll answer that for you: no, because no one actually has it yet, let alone has had it for 4+ years.
P.S., your Macbook is about to catch on fire and burn, within the next several weeks. Can you credibly claim otherwise?
"Using your fingers to touch a screen instead of interacting with a mouse is like replacing a scalpel with a fucking kitchen knife."
"Touch screens work great for phones."
So you're telling me that the smaller the screen, the better fingers work. No, actually, you're telling me that smaller screens need touch interfaces because they are on devices that have no other surface or input device. Not about the small screen, tiny little UI elements, or fat fingers.
And you're telling me that when my laptop is in full on tablet mode, without a keyboard or mouse, the bigger screen would still leave me with fat fingers.
True, but it still works, pretty well. Bigger screen just makes it easier.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
My Asus G50VT is only 9 years old. Works perfectly,even now with Windows 10 on it. I didn't game on it much, so the video card is still 100%.
My Dell E6440 is just shy of 4 years old. Works perfectly, but did get a hard drive replacement last year. Drive failures being essentially random nowadays, this is hard to blame on Windows, Microsoft, or Dell.
Before this, I had a no name laptop that lasted 11 years, damn, but i hacked the power connector back on several times. My ThinkPad X41t lasted me 9 years and is still working fine in its new life literally velcroed to a wall 24x7, running some weird asterisk pbx and bbs stuff, now about 12 years old. The battery has to be toast.
There are non-Apple laptops/notebooks out there doing fine for very long lives. Apple doesn't have a lock on hardware, just the foresight to avoid letting manufacturers build for them, getting caught up in driver hell. Well played, Apple.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
cloud computing: the destroyer of open source
lol.
I try to eat some chips or something before I touch people's screens.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I'll answer that for you: no, because no one actually has it yet, let alone has had it for 4+ years.
Nota Bene: The Microsoft Surface line launched in 2012, or 5 years ago. ;)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
that has an atom cpu and eMMC storage. it's crap.
"The focus is on students and professionals."
I've never understood this. These two groups couldn't have more different needs. Students need basic word processing and internet browsing. Professionals need all kinds of other things, such as virtual machines, high-end graphics software, video editing, etc. etc. Why do they always get lumped together? Is it just because students so often want to waste their time playing video games?
I won't have much choice when next I need to upgrade my computer :)
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I have no problem with a touchscreen on a laptop as long as I'm not forced to use it.
I do. It requires a glossy, reflective display.
I like launchpad too, but yeah, not many people use it.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
8.x was OK after installing Classic Shell. 10 never added anything. The "returned start menu" is a shrunkdown version of the 8.x start screen. Classic shell gave a usable start menu to 8.x (able to see the nested folder version of the start menu).
10 still has an identity crisis. Half the control panels are Desktop control panels, half are metro. 10 also makes you lose control of updates, telemetry, etc. It forces Cortana on you.
It took 10 to make 8.x look good. At least you get the under the hood improvements without losing all control of your computer.
And no chance of Windows 10 here.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Yeah, I prefer matte as well - but it's not a deal killer for me.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I saw a glare screen on a colleague's laptop once. Made me cringe. It's on top of my list of things to avoid as well. And glare+touch means you will be constantly wiping thumbprints off the screen. No thanks.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
Yup. Sitting back with popcorn for that one. Two weeks maybe, to get Ubuntu booted on it? Then if the price actually gets closer to the Chromebook zone, I'd pick one up.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
The difference is, as shown by plenty of studies, while you have an anecdotal case of a Windows machine lasting four or nine years the vast majority of them only last about two years. The studies contrast this with Macs which last two to three times longer on average.
The Dell Latitude series has for the past 7-8 years far surpassed the 4 year life mark.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
This appears targetted to low end (ie, students). But Macbook Air is not intended to be a low end laptop, and Macbook Pro is definitely professional grade. So their whole stance here is confusing; is this the cheap student laptop or a laptop to compete with the top of the line? If it's Windows 10 "S" then it's useless for professional purposes.
If the claims turn out to be valid (actually competing with Macbook but at a cheaper price, smaller, better battery life), then this would be awesome to put Linux on. But I think there's a whole lotta marketing going on here which means treat everything as hypothetical until a real person gets ahold of one.
I have a MacBook 4,1 2008 and I just run Linux on it. Right now it's a distro I made that's using kernel 4.10 and latest software, so I can probably get another 5 years out of it if I wanted; only 5 because it's 32-bit, but I do have the PAE kernel installed for more RAM access if I need it, though with Linux I barely ever get about 2 GB of RAM.
The college I went used Windows but even then, they ran it on iMacs. I think they did it so that the IT department could free up their time for internet security (they had military students and homeland security majors there) and because they also took looks at student's computers for fixing if they needed it. You can guess which platform saw the most trouble, and it was a private school too, so the Windows to Mac ratio was a little off.
Nothing giant on any phone I've used. Not even the 5 1/2 inch screen.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.