Dell Puts Out Updated Ubuntu Linux Laptop

[AJenbo]

I had a used Dell Latitude D510. That was an amazingly durable machine and spare parts are available to this day.

[Sonadow]

I wonder what people call "quality". Apple macbook pro's are pretty, and the whole notebook is encased in a practically solid aluminium shell.
But the inside parts run scorchingly hot and have a rather high fail rate, their wifi reception is pretty close to pathetic, trumped even by my ancient Acer One netbook.
Thye are also irreperable, and once out of warranty, they just litter around because nobody even cares to go through the trouble to keep them running.

So if this is the cost of "quality", I'm not sure I want it.

I choose my computers based on repairability, heck, my 7 year old notebook is doing active duty to this day. Amasing what you can get an old machine to do with a few minor, well selected upgrades.

Notebooks with replaceable parts (especially ultrabooks) are as good as extinct today.

I've opened up Samsung Series ultrabooks, ASUS Zenbooks, Acer's S3 and S7 ultrabooks and Lenovo's X-series ultrabooks and all i see are a combination of the following:

- Soldered-down WiFi
- socketed WiFi cards that use a PCIe connection but with a proprietary port (Lenovo and ASUS, i'm looking at YOU)
- soldered down RAM
- soldered down SSDs
- Glued batteries
- soldered processors
- zero SATA ports (kiss that SATA SSD or mechanical HDD goodbye)

[grigi]

Yes. The only real option are "workstations", like my Precision. Even the GPU is socketed in a somewhat standardised form-factor. But this is not the norm, unfortunately :-(

Integrating things like wifi is ineviteable, like sound cards. They will soon become part of the core silicon. but that isn't such a big issue, as if it breaks, you can replace/augment its capabilities with pheripal extensions. (e.g. USB dongles)

The issue is, a lot of the fashionable notebooks (becoming more popular) they almost deliberately limit your options in expansions.
Oh, one usb port? and it pops out under the keyboard? Oh, custom proprierty connectors that "looks" like standard stuff, but isn't just to fool people?

Grrrrr....

[Sonadow]

Yes. The only real option are "workstations", like my Precision. Even the GPU is socketed in a somewhat standardised form-factor. But this is not the norm, unfortunately :-(

Integrating things like wifi is ineviteable, like sound cards. They will soon become part of the core silicon. but that isn't such a big issue, as if it breaks, you can replace/augment its capabilities with pheripal extensions. (e.g. USB dongles)

The issue is, a lot of the fashionable notebooks (becoming more popular) they almost deliberately limit your options in expansions.
Oh, one usb port? and it pops out under the keyboard? Oh, custom proprierty connectors that "looks" like standard stuff, but isn't just to fool people?

Grrrrr....

Meh, im still pissed at myself for buying a whole lot of 10 Intel mini PCIe wifi cards (i just love Intel's WiFi cards) last week only to find out that my Aspire S3 uses a soldered down WiFi chip.

Now what am i supposed to do with those 10 Intel cards?

[Luke_Wolf]

Notebooks with replaceable parts (especially ultrabooks) are as good as extinct today.

I've opened up Samsung Series ultrabooks, ASUS Zenbooks, Acer's S3 and S7 ultrabooks and Lenovo's X-series ultrabooks and all i see are a combination of the following:

- Soldered-down WiFi
- socketed WiFi cards that use a PCIe connection but with a proprietary port (Lenovo and ASUS, i'm looking at YOU)
- soldered down RAM
- soldered down SSDs
- Glued batteries
- soldered processors
- zero SATA ports (kiss that SATA SSD or mechanical HDD goodbye)

That would be because it's an ultrabook which you should know better than to get anyway. Standard consumer grade notebooks such as the HP dv6 don't really have this problem, and it sounds like the business laptops are in a better position than those, and no despite Intel's attempts Ultrabooks are not the way of the future, as is shown by just how hard they've been flopping.

[uid313]

That would be because it's an ultrabook which you should know better than to get anyway. Standard consumer grade notebooks such as the HP dv6 don't really have this problem, and it sounds like the business laptops are in a better position than those, and no despite Intel's attempts Ultrabooks are not the way of the future, as is shown by just how hard they've been flopping.

Problem with the non-ultrabook laptops is that they're big, bulky, noisy and fuggly.

[TheLexMachine]

Meh, im still pissed at myself for buying a whole lot of 10 Intel mini PCIe wifi cards (i just love Intel's WiFi cards) last week only to find out that my Aspire S3 uses a soldered down WiFi chip.

Now what am i supposed to do with those 10 Intel cards?

Simple solution. Go NUCin futz! There's gonna be a bunch of Intel NUCs coming out in the next few months and you can use some of them to throw together your own and sell/trade the rest for various parts.

[TheLexMachine]

Problem with the non-ultrabook laptops is that they're big, bulky, noisy and fuggly.

Not really. Six years ago, sure. But not today. I see nothing but sleek and slim notebooks that weigh a fraction of the models I sold in retail several years ago, even at the 17-inch market segment.

[orawas]

The windows version is still 50,- cheaper

It's the other way around.

[Ibidem]

In my mind, "quality" means "lasts for the next decade, tough enough you can stand on it or drop it on the floor without worrying, and it doesn't make your hands hurt using it or your eyes hurt seeing it." There is also the component of the hardware working reliably.
Lasts for the next decade: I had a Thinkpad 600-series that died in 2009 (manufactured in 1999), and from what I hear that's less than average. How do Macbooks compare to that?
Tough enough to stand on or drop: I've done that several times with both my Thinkpads. In contrast, my Aspire One popped open falling off a low bed...
The real top-notch one here is a Panasonic Toughbook, IMHO.
Hands hurt/eyes hurt: I'm looking at Acer's keyboards and trackpads, and the Pavilion's general feel of plastic that might well break soon.
Hardware works reliably: Some Acers actually comes out tolerably well here, in my experience. On the other hand, if I could ask Lenovo one question it would be what possessed them to use Realtek wireless (though it does work well now).

But in general, I think that the Thinkpads come out pretty well. From what I hear, Macbooks don't when you include how long they keep working properly.