Funny you should mention it - I'm also a musician who takes his laptop everywhere, so that frequently means a backpack with the laptop and other misc stuff (cables, mics and other junk), a hard case with a guitar in it, a floorboard of some kind (GT-8 usually) and a 15W tube combo - that's quite a bit of stuff. And having recently switched from an EeePC 1000H to a 15.4" Thinkpad, I can safely say that the only factor that matters (provided your backpack is big enough, obviously) is the weight. That's what I've noticed in the transition...
Thickness? Gah, the processor idles at 30 degrees. Width/Length? I think 1680x1050 on 13" or even 14" would be pushing it a little:D
Once again, you're forgetting that MBPs cost 5x as much as a netbook. If you don't need the processing power that the MacBook offers, why not save a thousand bucks or so?
Yes, there are regular laptops that can keep up with or beat netbooks in terms of battery life - but they're in a completely different market segment, just like good old ultraportables/subnotebooks.
Actually, netbooks have pretty impressive battery life compared to regular laptops. My old EeePC 1000H, for instance, ran for about 6 hours (minimal screen brightness, WiFi on, regular office/note-taking type use) with the stock 6-cell battery - no protruding huge battery or anything. The newer models are even better (1000HE, for instance)...
Sure, you're gonna get some manufacturers who cheap out and go for a 2- or 3-cell battery, but these systems use 12W at full tilt including the screen, which is pretty awesome. I can barely get my 15.4" laptop down below 20W at idle with all power saving options enabled and all radios turned off...
Agree 100%. I don't see the point in having these devices dedicated to one purpose any more - a PC/laptop does it all for me. When I need a big screen, I just hook up my laptop. 1080p? Blu-Ray? Archaic MOV files in some obscure codec? It's all no problem.
Why is it necessary to have your "HTPC" integrated in the TV, when you could just use an external one and be far more flexible? Sure, some people will be more than satisfied with such an integrated set, but I'm guessing that doesn't include the Slashdot crowd...
Are you saying you can't select the sample rate, bitrate or buffer size on Linux? Or even choose which sound card(s) to use? That's what these settings entail - if they don't matter to you and everything works fine, don't change them... I suppose that would be fine for (very) amateurish home recording.
Well obviously you can just leave the bitrate, buffer size and sample rate at the default settings, and the right ASIO driver is likely to be selected anyway, depending on the DAW. I'm talking about "set-once, forget and have great sound forever" type settings here.
I read all my eBooks on my years-old HTC Prophet. 2.8 tiny inches (talking about the phone!) of low-resolution horror, but it's perfectly fine for eBooks with a reader that reflows the text properly. PDFs without reflow, on the other hand, are obviously not an option.
I've only ever experienced it with D-Sub... and even then, adding the resolution on nVidia and ATi graphics cards was very simple (Intel GMA950 was quite a bit more painful).
Actually, I did get the proprietary drivers popup, and I did enable/install them:)
The problem was mainly that setting the resolution in nVidia's control panel (which seemed to have come with that proprietary driver) simply didn't work. The regular Ubuntu GUI for changing resolutions (Screens and something) didn't work either, and most importantly, didn't sync with the settings in nVidia's control panel...
Sound, on the other hand, worked right away - albeit just output. I didn't even try to set up a mic or get low latency recording working...
I have NEVER had a problem setting up a resolution or refresh rate on a Windows machine. If the option was available in the Display Settings GUI and the graphics adapter and monitor both supported it, the switch was always perfectly fine.
Okay, fine, custom resolutions were a bit quirky with older nVidia drivers (my old 7800GTX, for instance, wouldn't output 1400x1050@85hz properly - but 1400x1050@90hz worked fine), but standard resolutions never caused problems.
I've set up quite a lot of Windows machines, but they have always been (excluding the Trident PCI adapter with 2MB of VRAM I had back in the late 90s) ones with brand name video adapters - always nVidia, ATi or Intel based. And back in the pre-XP days, I never really tried anything funky - it was mostly always 1024x768@85hz on a 17" CRT back then... Maybe that's why I've never had any problems.
Huh, I wish my girlfriend was like that - she does like to read, but is very selective. The rest of the time, she complains that I spend too much time reading Slashdot and on my music production...
How is installing a sound card driver, selecting the appropriate ASIO driver + bitrate + buffer size in your DAW software and setting the project to the appropriate sample rate "fiddling around"?
Because that's all there is to it on XP Pro, and I'm guessing Macs don't have it a lot harder either.
I don't know about the super high end, but most commerical studios around here use either Cubase or Pro Tools. A few hobbyists use Ardour, but the ones that actually charge for their use are almost exclusively Cubase or Pro Tools outfits...
Where are you located? Maybe that has something to do with it:)
"So you've been working on Windows for all your life and tried Ubuntu for 3x half an hour, and concluded it's 'a piece of junk'? No wonder you don't like linux, you'd probably hate OS X too, or any other OS you'll ever try that isn't Windows."
Actually, I quite like OS X:)
As for only trying Ubuntu for about 2 hours or so in my whole life, yeah, that's true. But there's quite a few more Linux distributions;). For instance, I really appreciate Knoppix and use it regularly when helping out friends and family with Windows crashes...
"That said, you have a valid point when it comes to hardware drivers for some pieces of hardware, especially wifi cards. Linux still isn't at the same level of hardware and vendor support that Windows is. Funny thing is that if your hardware DOES have drivers (which is true for more and more devices every day, because vendors are finally starting to get the point that Linux users can also be customers) you don't even have to download or install anything, just pop in the Ubuntu install CD and all the drivers are on there already, instead of a small subset of insanely out-of-date drivers as shipped on the Windows CD."
That's not quite true any more - Windows 7 RC1 recognized every component in my old Athlon64X2 based system right away, and will look for drivers it doesn't have online. The driver database has gotten huge...
"That said, OS X isn't much better than Linux when it comes to hardware support and drivers, webcams are a nightmare, WiFi drivers are simply absent and don't dare to try upgrading that video card in your Mac Pro because it won't work if you don't pick the exact model that Apple endorses. Does that mean OS X is 'bad' or 'worse than Windows'? Why do people who use OS X think it's so easy to use then? Because the machine is built for the OS, and you don't *need* to install or upgrade any drivers for normal use. The exact same thing holds for a vendor-supported Linux machine that you buy preinstalled, but that's not what people like you are trying. You're trying to do a clean install on random hardware, there's nothing different from Windows or OS X in that regard when it comes to the hassle it takes to get everything working. And no, a GUI doesn't help you to get a non- or semi- supported WiFi card with buggy drivers working."
True, but the Apple situation is a bit different - they don't sell software, they sell hardware. The software just adds value to the hardware, so if you put unsupported third party hardware in there (i.e. your video card upgrade), why is it in Apple's interest to help you make it work? They want you to buy the same video card in their Apple store with a rebadge and a 100% markup... in exchange, it'll work perfectly;)
As for a GUI helping with buggy drivers - correct, no amount of GUI or command line wizardry will help you there. That said, the buggiest driver I've ever seen was the nVidia proprietary driver in Ubuntu (think that was 8.04 or 8.10) - horrible piece of junk.
"Well let's put it this way: I simply disagree with everything you say, but I guess that's personal."
No problems there;)
"When I have to do stuff in Windows it takes me 10 minutes of mucking around all the stupid settings windows, tabs and icons, every Windows version shuffles all that around, and eventually I find out I have to edit some obscure registry key just to stop some stupid program I didn't install consciously from loading on startup. The fact that you remembered what icons you have to click to get somewhere doesn't mean it's easier to remember or anything, most likely you've had so many stuff to fix on your windows machine that you now know what is where from the top of your head. Most non-geek people I know who use Windows don't even know they have a control panel."
Perfectly true. I've been using Windows all my life (since 3.11), so I'm pretty used to it.
However, when there's a new Windows version and everything gets shuffled around, I can still easily find stuff because I'm capable of reading. Most people who have trouble navigating GUIs (I'm talking about the average Joe here, not CLI gurus who just don't WANT to use GUIs) just seem to be incapable of reading what's on the screen before deciding to hit the OK button...
"I also don't really get why you think you have to remember any commands for everyday linux use, like many people alread posted a fully working linux system doesn't need the CLI, and it just keeps working unless you deliberately screw it up."
Possibly - IF you have hardware that is 100% compatible, and are satisfied with a web browser, mail client and a half functional media player. If you want to setup anything more, however trivial it sounds - WiFi, sound cards, multi-monitor setups... well, it gets pretty difficult.
Sure, once it's running it's (usually) rock solid, but getting there on non-standard hardware is a pain in the ass, and pretty much not possible without CLI.
"It's sometimes a hard way to get there, especially on new hardware, and that's what the CLI is really useful for, much more useful than the Windows GUI (you know how to see the system log for example? Or the boot log? Or the PCI ids of that 'unknown device' on your system)."
So why would you not know that that "unknown device" is? Just install all the drivers that came with the machine, and if it's still showing up as unknown, call the manufacturer (if it's a pre-built machine - You won't get a lot of "unknown device"s in machines you build yourself... unless you forgot what you put in there).
If I have a problem like that on Ubuntu, I can either post on the forum and get jack shit for an answer, or wallow in my own misery.
"Last but not least let me add that people often view Windows as 'much easier' because they are used to it, and they bought the machine pre-installed and ready to go. Most people wo think Windows is easy would be completely lost if you gave them a generic installation CD and told them to get the machine up and running with all the hardware working properly."
I'm guessing that if you give a reasonably smart person a Windows CD and a CD with all the correct drivers (either as executables, or just a big folder with inf files that they can point the Device Manager to), they can figure it out. It's just a matter of navigating through very familiar GUIs - Next, next, install. If you can install software on Windows, you can install drivers.
Of course, if you don't give them the drivers, they might have a few problems, especially with older versions of Windows where stuff like Ethernet or WiFi doesn't work without third party drivers, but most manufacturers provide a driver CD. If not, you can always hop on the net somewhere else and put the files on a thumb drive...
On Windows 7 it's even easier - the drivers for most system components are installed right away or downloaded automatically...
Use a button. Turn off the "wake up on open lid" function. Never had any problems with standby on my previous machines, but my Thinkpad (which wakes up when you open the lid) often turns on in my bag when it gets bounced around a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
Why create a new file format when you could just create a standard with existing file formats?
How about just a RAR filled with JPEG+PDF covers/booklet, FLAC files and a cue sheet? That's what they need to compete with torrents...
Hell, I'm still looking for an online store where I can buy my tracks as FLAC at all - most of the tracks I want are only available as CBR MP3s...
Funny you should mention it - I'm also a musician who takes his laptop everywhere, so that frequently means a backpack with the laptop and other misc stuff (cables, mics and other junk), a hard case with a guitar in it, a floorboard of some kind (GT-8 usually) and a 15W tube combo - that's quite a bit of stuff. And having recently switched from an EeePC 1000H to a 15.4" Thinkpad, I can safely say that the only factor that matters (provided your backpack is big enough, obviously) is the weight. That's what I've noticed in the transition...
Thickness? Gah, the processor idles at 30 degrees. Width/Length? I think 1680x1050 on 13" or even 14" would be pushing it a little :D
Once again, you're forgetting that MBPs cost 5x as much as a netbook. If you don't need the processing power that the MacBook offers, why not save a thousand bucks or so?
Yes, there are regular laptops that can keep up with or beat netbooks in terms of battery life - but they're in a completely different market segment, just like good old ultraportables/subnotebooks.
"YouTube is no problem at all, even HD clips."
Bullshit. Unless, of course, a slideshow is what you call "no problem at all"... ;)
Maybe you mean the HQ mode - that's NOT HD.
Actually, netbooks have pretty impressive battery life compared to regular laptops. My old EeePC 1000H, for instance, ran for about 6 hours (minimal screen brightness, WiFi on, regular office/note-taking type use) with the stock 6-cell battery - no protruding huge battery or anything. The newer models are even better (1000HE, for instance)...
Sure, you're gonna get some manufacturers who cheap out and go for a 2- or 3-cell battery, but these systems use 12W at full tilt including the screen, which is pretty awesome. I can barely get my 15.4" laptop down below 20W at idle with all power saving options enabled and all radios turned off...
Agree 100%. I don't see the point in having these devices dedicated to one purpose any more - a PC/laptop does it all for me. When I need a big screen, I just hook up my laptop. 1080p? Blu-Ray? Archaic MOV files in some obscure codec? It's all no problem.
Why is it necessary to have your "HTPC" integrated in the TV, when you could just use an external one and be far more flexible? Sure, some people will be more than satisfied with such an integrated set, but I'm guessing that doesn't include the Slashdot crowd...
I'm no expert, but I'm guessing it's got something to do with the fact that current netbooks lack the grunt needed for 1080p video...
Now a cheap laptop, on the other hand...
Are you saying you can't select the sample rate, bitrate or buffer size on Linux? Or even choose which sound card(s) to use? That's what these settings entail - if they don't matter to you and everything works fine, don't change them... I suppose that would be fine for (very) amateurish home recording.
Well obviously you can just leave the bitrate, buffer size and sample rate at the default settings, and the right ASIO driver is likely to be selected anyway, depending on the DAW. I'm talking about "set-once, forget and have great sound forever" type settings here.
I read all my eBooks on my years-old HTC Prophet. 2.8 tiny inches (talking about the phone!) of low-resolution horror, but it's perfectly fine for eBooks with a reader that reflows the text properly. PDFs without reflow, on the other hand, are obviously not an option.
Sure about that? My Core2Duo P7370 (2GHz) is pretty much pegged on the first core as well...
Maybe this thing automatically scales to CPU power?
Even my parents were able to enable Remote Desktop and install Hamachi with a little bit of coaching via Skype. Et voila!
Yep. I dunno why, but I find them easier to remember ;)
True. However, is this still a problem with DVI?
I've only ever experienced it with D-Sub... and even then, adding the resolution on nVidia and ATi graphics cards was very simple (Intel GMA950 was quite a bit more painful).
Actually, I did get the proprietary drivers popup, and I did enable/install them :)
The problem was mainly that setting the resolution in nVidia's control panel (which seemed to have come with that proprietary driver) simply didn't work. The regular Ubuntu GUI for changing resolutions (Screens and something) didn't work either, and most importantly, didn't sync with the settings in nVidia's control panel...
Sound, on the other hand, worked right away - albeit just output. I didn't even try to set up a mic or get low latency recording working...
I have NEVER had a problem setting up a resolution or refresh rate on a Windows machine. If the option was available in the Display Settings GUI and the graphics adapter and monitor both supported it, the switch was always perfectly fine.
Okay, fine, custom resolutions were a bit quirky with older nVidia drivers (my old 7800GTX, for instance, wouldn't output 1400x1050@85hz properly - but 1400x1050@90hz worked fine), but standard resolutions never caused problems.
I've set up quite a lot of Windows machines, but they have always been (excluding the Trident PCI adapter with 2MB of VRAM I had back in the late 90s) ones with brand name video adapters - always nVidia, ATi or Intel based. And back in the pre-XP days, I never really tried anything funky - it was mostly always 1024x768@85hz on a 17" CRT back then... Maybe that's why I've never had any problems.
Vim? This vim?
How the hell is a text editor supposed to help with CLI commands?
As for not treating Linux as Windows... where would you get that idea? It's an OS. Works fine everywhere else...
Huh, I wish my girlfriend was like that - she does like to read, but is very selective. The rest of the time, she complains that I spend too much time reading Slashdot and on my music production...
How is installing a sound card driver, selecting the appropriate ASIO driver + bitrate + buffer size in your DAW software and setting the project to the appropriate sample rate "fiddling around"?
Because that's all there is to it on XP Pro, and I'm guessing Macs don't have it a lot harder either.
I don't know about the super high end, but most commerical studios around here use either Cubase or Pro Tools. A few hobbyists use Ardour, but the ones that actually charge for their use are almost exclusively Cubase or Pro Tools outfits...
Where are you located? Maybe that has something to do with it :)
Good to know... maybe I should give it another try.
Probably will, the next time I'm drunk off my ass... :)
"So you've been working on Windows for all your life and tried Ubuntu for 3x half an hour, and concluded it's 'a piece of junk'? No wonder you don't like linux, you'd probably hate OS X too, or any other OS you'll ever try that isn't Windows."
Actually, I quite like OS X :)
As for only trying Ubuntu for about 2 hours or so in my whole life, yeah, that's true. But there's quite a few more Linux distributions ;). For instance, I really appreciate Knoppix and use it regularly when helping out friends and family with Windows crashes...
"That said, you have a valid point when it comes to hardware drivers for some pieces of hardware, especially wifi cards. Linux still isn't at the same level of hardware and vendor support that Windows is. Funny thing is that if your hardware DOES have drivers (which is true for more and more devices every day, because vendors are finally starting to get the point that Linux users can also be customers) you don't even have to download or install anything, just pop in the Ubuntu install CD and all the drivers are on there already, instead of a small subset of insanely out-of-date drivers as shipped on the Windows CD."
That's not quite true any more - Windows 7 RC1 recognized every component in my old Athlon64X2 based system right away, and will look for drivers it doesn't have online. The driver database has gotten huge...
"That said, OS X isn't much better than Linux when it comes to hardware support and drivers, webcams are a nightmare, WiFi drivers are simply absent and don't dare to try upgrading that video card in your Mac Pro because it won't work if you don't pick the exact model that Apple endorses. Does that mean OS X is 'bad' or 'worse than Windows'? Why do people who use OS X think it's so easy to use then? Because the machine is built for the OS, and you don't *need* to install or upgrade any drivers for normal use. The exact same thing holds for a vendor-supported Linux machine that you buy preinstalled, but that's not what people like you are trying. You're trying to do a clean install on random hardware, there's nothing different from Windows or OS X in that regard when it comes to the hassle it takes to get everything working. And no, a GUI doesn't help you to get a non- or semi- supported WiFi card with buggy drivers working."
True, but the Apple situation is a bit different - they don't sell software, they sell hardware. The software just adds value to the hardware, so if you put unsupported third party hardware in there (i.e. your video card upgrade), why is it in Apple's interest to help you make it work? They want you to buy the same video card in their Apple store with a rebadge and a 100% markup... in exchange, it'll work perfectly ;)
As for a GUI helping with buggy drivers - correct, no amount of GUI or command line wizardry will help you there. That said, the buggiest driver I've ever seen was the nVidia proprietary driver in Ubuntu (think that was 8.04 or 8.10) - horrible piece of junk.
"Well let's put it this way: I simply disagree with everything you say, but I guess that's personal."
No problems there ;)
"When I have to do stuff in Windows it takes me 10 minutes of mucking around all the stupid settings windows, tabs and icons, every Windows version shuffles all that around, and eventually I find out I have to edit some obscure registry key just to stop some stupid program I didn't install consciously from loading on startup. The fact that you remembered what icons you have to click to get somewhere doesn't mean it's easier to remember or anything, most likely you've had so many stuff to fix on your windows machine that you now know what is where from the top of your head. Most non-geek people I know who use Windows don't even know they have a control panel."
Perfectly true. I've been using Windows all my life (since 3.11), so I'm pretty used to it.
However, when there's a new Windows version and everything gets shuffled around, I can still easily find stuff because I'm capable of reading. Most people who have trouble navigating GUIs (I'm talking about the average Joe here, not CLI gurus who just don't WANT to use GUIs) just seem to be incapable of reading what's on the screen before deciding to hit the OK button...
"I also don't really get why you think you have to remember any commands for everyday linux use, like many people alread posted a fully working linux system doesn't need the CLI, and it just keeps working unless you deliberately screw it up."
Possibly - IF you have hardware that is 100% compatible, and are satisfied with a web browser, mail client and a half functional media player. If you want to setup anything more, however trivial it sounds - WiFi, sound cards, multi-monitor setups... well, it gets pretty difficult.
Sure, once it's running it's (usually) rock solid, but getting there on non-standard hardware is a pain in the ass, and pretty much not possible without CLI.
"It's sometimes a hard way to get there, especially on new hardware, and that's what the CLI is really useful for, much more useful than the Windows GUI (you know how to see the system log for example? Or the boot log? Or the PCI ids of that 'unknown device' on your system)."
So why would you not know that that "unknown device" is? Just install all the drivers that came with the machine, and if it's still showing up as unknown, call the manufacturer (if it's a pre-built machine - You won't get a lot of "unknown device"s in machines you build yourself... unless you forgot what you put in there).
If I have a problem like that on Ubuntu, I can either post on the forum and get jack shit for an answer, or wallow in my own misery.
"Last but not least let me add that people often view Windows as 'much easier' because they are used to it, and they bought the machine pre-installed and ready to go. Most people wo think Windows is easy would be completely lost if you gave them a generic installation CD and told them to get the machine up and running with all the hardware working properly."
I'm guessing that if you give a reasonably smart person a Windows CD and a CD with all the correct drivers (either as executables, or just a big folder with inf files that they can point the Device Manager to), they can figure it out. It's just a matter of navigating through very familiar GUIs - Next, next, install. If you can install software on Windows, you can install drivers.
Of course, if you don't give them the drivers, they might have a few problems, especially with older versions of Windows where stuff like Ethernet or WiFi doesn't work without third party drivers, but most manufacturers provide a driver CD. If not, you can always hop on the net somewhere else and put the files on a thumb drive...
On Windows 7 it's even easier - the drivers for most system components are installed right away or downloaded automatically...
No, I haven't. But I choose my OS based on how easy it is for me to USE it - not how easy it is for me to describe how to use it to someone else.
If someone wants Windows tech support from me, it's gonna be via Remote Desktop or a VNC viewer.
Use a button. Turn off the "wake up on open lid" function. Never had any problems with standby on my previous machines, but my Thinkpad (which wakes up when you open the lid) often turns on in my bag when it gets bounced around a bit.