On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 10:09 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk < talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
| From: Alex Beamish via talk <talk@gtalug.org>
| My Windows 10 laptop died pretty close to its fifth birthday, so I'm | planning on replacing it with a Linux laptop.
I gave a lightning talk to GTALUG on how I ideosyncratically choose a notebook. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-mCQphZBuI&t=776s> Note the late Peter Hiscocks in the front row, on my right. I miss him. You can hear him laugh at 10:20 in.
Thanks for the link .. I look forward to watching.
I would not disavow much. The current Atom-based processors are not as bad as the older Baytrail ones. You still probably want something more powerful. I've got a few cheap cheap Atom-base toys with remarkably OK displays.
Why are you replacing it? Some, but not all, five year old laptops are still fine. What about it isn't as good as you would like?
It worked fine at the June meeting of the Perlmongers, sharing a Google Hangouts session. The next day, it wouldn't boot -- couldn't even get it to POST. I plan to buy the appropriate HD -> USB gadget to recover a few files; I assume there's little I can do to repair it.
Exactly which qualities of a notebook matter to you? (You may not actually know without living with one for a while.)
Good question. [] Decent speed -- I did some Audacity editing on my laptop when my workstation died, and my goodness was that slow. [] Decent wifi -- the HP Pavillion's Wifi receiver was pretty temperamental. [] Decent battery -- no complaints about the HP, it would last two hours+ on a charge. That's enough for me. [] HDMI output -- I can get by on just the laptop screen, but I do like to have the ability to have multiple screens. [] Reasonable size -- I think the HP Pavillion had a 14" screen, and that fit into my knapsack nicely. I don't need a gigantic screen. -- Alex Beamish Software Developer / https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alex-beamish-5111ba3 Speaker Wrangler / Toronto Perlmongers / http://to.pm.org/ Baritone, Operations Manager / Toronto Northern Lights, 2013 Champions / www.northernlightschorus.com