great boxing week ultrabook deal
<http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-UX305CA-UHM4T-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.327234200> <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ms-store-650-50-gc-asus-zenbook-ux305ca-256gb-ssd-8gb-ram-qhd-1889197/> An Asus ZenBook ultrabook for $650. - 3200x1800 pixel screen! - Core m2-6y30 processor (not that much crunch but low power) - 8G RAM, 256G SSD - no spinning parts (no fan, no HDD) Price so good that I and others thought it might be an error. It still seems to be available online but not in-store at Yorkdale. Hints for perfecting Kubuntu on this machine: <https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3ia8ta/review_of_ubuntu_on_asus_ux305fa/>
I tried it at Canada Computers. Keyboard sucks, but good specs, though. -- William On Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 03:50:05PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
<http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-UX305CA-UHM4T-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.327234200> <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ms-store-650-50-gc-asus-zenbook-ux305ca-256gb-ssd-8gb-ram-qhd-1889197/>
An Asus ZenBook ultrabook for $650.
- 3200x1800 pixel screen! - Core m2-6y30 processor (not that much crunch but low power) - 8G RAM, 256G SSD - no spinning parts (no fan, no HDD)
Price so good that I and others thought it might be an error. It still seems to be available online but not in-store at Yorkdale.
Hints for perfecting Kubuntu on this machine: <https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3ia8ta/review_of_ubuntu_on_asus_ux305fa/> --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
I've been looking at the Asus UX305 for the past couple months. As it's been ~$850 the whole time, I was happy to get it for $650. Thanks for the information. Microsoft's site insists you use or create a Microsoft account to purchase from them: there's no guest option. Presumably because you will of course want that acct when you go online with their fine operating system on your new laptop. They don't accept the "+" symbol in email addresses. They don't accept spaces in their passphrases - so I guess they're only "passwords." So I took the spaces out of the passphrase ... and it was rejected because they required special characters. Unimpressive. The irony of buying a computer from the Microsoft Store so I can install Linux on it isn't lost on me. I gave them money. <sigh> I hope it was below cost and they aren't actually profiting from this. On 26 December 2015 at 16:46, William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> wrote:
I tried it at Canada Computers. Keyboard sucks, but good specs, though.
On Sat, Dec 26, 2015 at 03:50:05PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
<http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-UX305CA-UHM4T-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.327234200> <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ms-store-650-50-gc-asus-zenbook-ux305ca-256gb-ssd-8gb-ram-qhd-1889197/>
An Asus ZenBook ultrabook for $650.
- 3200x1800 pixel screen! - Core m2-6y30 processor (not that much crunch but low power) - 8G RAM, 256G SSD - no spinning parts (no fan, no HDD)
Price so good that I and others thought it might be an error. It still seems to be available online but not in-store at Yorkdale.
Hints for perfecting Kubuntu on this machine: <https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3ia8ta/review_of_ubuntu_on_asus_ux305fa/>
-- Giles http://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
On 29 December 2015 at 12:09, Giles Orr <gilesorr@gmail.com> wrote:
The irony of buying a computer from the Microsoft Store so I can install Linux on it isn't lost on me. I gave them money. <sigh> I hope it was below cost and they aren't actually profiting from this.
No, even better is that you now have a $50 gift card for the Microsoft store... ^_^
From my experience with the Yoga 2 pro: XTerm with the default bitmap fonts is REALLY hard to read on this screen but the pixels are all
| From: Giles Orr <gilesorr@gmail.com> | I've been looking at the Asus UX305 for the past couple months. As | it's been ~$850 the whole time, I was happy to get it for $650. | Thanks for the information. $850 for the FullHD version (1920x1080) (eg. NCIX right now)? This is $650 for the FullerThanFullHD version (3200x1800) -- 2.7777 times the pixels! there. So I've switched to GNOME Terminal. | Microsoft's site insists you use or create a Microsoft account to | purchase from them: there's no guest option. Presumably because you | will of course want that acct when you go online with their fine | operating system on your new laptop. Yeah. And for support etc. You may well want to keep Windows in a corner just to do firmware updates. | They don't accept the "+" symbol in email addresses. Yeah. There seem to be a lot of sites that do that (breaking the RFC 822 and successor requirements). I wonder if some Microsoft framework does that and hence causes the problem on other sites. | They don't | accept spaces in their passphrases - so I guess they're only | "passwords." So I took the spaces out of the passphrase ... and it | was rejected because they required special characters. Unimpressive. Yeah. But I never talk about spaces in passwords because that would tell people something about my passwords. | The irony of buying a computer from the Microsoft Store so I can | install Linux on it isn't lost on me. I gave them money. <sigh> I | hope it was below cost and they aren't actually profiting from this. I've bought several computers from them. At very good prices. Not all their prices are good but randomly they've had excellent ones. | From: Tim Tisdall <tisdall@gmail.com> | No, even better is that you now have a $50 gift card for the Microsoft | store... ^_^ The coupon is only good for credit in the Windows Store (I hope I got the confusing name right). Once you exercise the coupon you get credit that only lives 90 days (if I remember correctly -- check the fine print). As far as I know, the credit can only be used for: - Windows "apps" - XBox games - music I've always chosen the latter because you can buy mp3s without DRM. It's the only way of getting something OUT of the Microsoft ecosystems. But you've got to be using some Microsoft system to make the purchases and downloads. And you need a Microsoft account. Their account identity system pervades all their services. Kind of like Google's and Apple's. It could be worse: lots of unrelated sites let you log in with your Facebook or Twitter identity (I don't have those).
On 29 December 2015 at 13:50, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> wrote:
| From: Giles Orr <gilesorr@gmail.com>
| I've been looking at the Asus UX305 for the past couple months. As | it's been ~$850 the whole time, I was happy to get it for $650. | Thanks for the information.
$850 for the FullHD version (1920x1080) (eg. NCIX right now)? This is $650 for the FullerThanFullHD version (3200x1800) -- 2.7777 times the pixels!
From my experience with the Yoga 2 pro: XTerm with the default bitmap fonts is REALLY hard to read on this screen but the pixels are all there. So I've switched to GNOME Terminal.
| Microsoft's site insists you use or create a Microsoft account to | purchase from them: there's no guest option. Presumably because you | will of course want that acct when you go online with their fine | operating system on your new laptop.
Yeah. And for support etc.
You may well want to keep Windows in a corner just to do firmware updates.
| They don't accept the "+" symbol in email addresses.
Yeah. There seem to be a lot of sites that do that (breaking the RFC 822 and successor requirements). I wonder if some Microsoft framework does that and hence causes the problem on other sites.
| They don't | accept spaces in their passphrases - so I guess they're only | "passwords." So I took the spaces out of the passphrase ... and it | was rejected because they required special characters. Unimpressive.
Yeah. But I never talk about spaces in passwords because that would tell people something about my passwords.
| The irony of buying a computer from the Microsoft Store so I can | install Linux on it isn't lost on me. I gave them money. <sigh> I | hope it was below cost and they aren't actually profiting from this.
I've bought several computers from them. At very good prices. Not all their prices are good but randomly they've had excellent ones.
| From: Tim Tisdall <tisdall@gmail.com>
| No, even better is that you now have a $50 gift card for the Microsoft | store... ^_^
The coupon is only good for credit in the Windows Store (I hope I got the confusing name right). Once you exercise the coupon you get credit that only lives 90 days (if I remember correctly -- check the fine print). As far as I know, the credit can only be used for:
- Windows "apps"
- XBox games
- music
I've always chosen the latter because you can buy mp3s without DRM. It's the only way of getting something OUT of the Microsoft ecosystems. But you've got to be using some Microsoft system to make the purchases and downloads.
And you need a Microsoft account.
Their account identity system pervades all their services. Kind of like Google's and Apple's. It could be worse: lots of unrelated sites let you log in with your Facebook or Twitter identity (I don't have those).
The laptop just arrived (very fast delivery!), and has brought home a couple things I didn't quite realize. As I mentioned, the UX305 has been around $850 at newegg and Canada Computers for a while ... but that's with a 1920 x 1080, non-touch screen. For $650, this has (as Hugh spotted and I did not) a resolution of 3200 x 1800. And it's a touch screen. The deal is still available. The main caveat being that I haven't even turned it on yet (let alone tried to install Linux). Thanks again Hugh. I wonder if I can buy an Arc Mouse with that stupid $50 gift certificate ... -- Giles http://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
Thank you for the heads up! I've been looking at the Zenbooks for a while. On 26 December 2015 at 15:50, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> wrote:
< http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-UX305CA-UHM4...
< http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ms-store-650-50-gc-asus-zenbook-ux305ca-256gb...
An Asus ZenBook ultrabook for $650.
- 3200x1800 pixel screen! - Core m2-6y30 processor (not that much crunch but low power) - 8G RAM, 256G SSD - no spinning parts (no fan, no HDD)
Price so good that I and others thought it might be an error. It still seems to be available online but not in-store at Yorkdale.
Hints for perfecting Kubuntu on this machine: < https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3ia8ta/review_of_ubuntu_on_asus_ux30...
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
| From: D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> | <http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/ASUS-ZenBook-UX305CA-UHM4T-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.327234200> | <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ms-store-650-50-gc-asus-zenbook-ux305ca-256gb-ssd-8gb-ram-qhd-1889197/> | Price so good that I and others thought it might be an error. It | still seems to be available online but not in-store at Yorkdale. The deal is real -- I snagged two. I think it ends on Jan 3 but don't count on it. | Hints for perfecting Kubuntu on this machine: | <https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3ia8ta/review_of_ubuntu_on_asus_ux305fa/> There are further problems. The deal is for a ux305ca, slightly different. The main challenge is that Linux is lagging on Intel Skylake support and the ux305ca uses Skylake (a Good Thing, but inconvenient right now). On Fedora 23, the touchpad didn't work and the display showed up at low resolution. The fix is to run the rawhide kernel because it does have some skylake fixes. Oh, and you need to turn off Secure Boot in the UEFI config menu (Asus boot menu). <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RawhideKernelNodebug> <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1281990> <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1292615> Notice who filed the second bugzilla. Also notice how the diagnostic does not point well at the problem. There are still some slightly rough spots but I haven't worked at them. - I don't know how to access the Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End codes (second meaning for arrow keys but holding Fn doesn't work). - the airplane mode light (in the keycap) is on but I'm not in airplane mode Probably more when I get more experience with it.
| From: D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> | - I don't know how to access the Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End | codes (second meaning for arrow keys but holding Fn doesn't work). Working now. I guess the new kernel fixed that. Odd.
Anyone else buy this laptop and is installing Ubuntu 15.10 on it? I've found that the touchpad doesn't work, but the touch screen does. I read that the touchpad should work with the latest 4.4-RC but I haven't had time to try upgrading the kernel. I'm also having the same issue with the light being on for the "airplane mode" and that button does nothing (so can't turn off wifi/bluetooth with it). I managed to get the screen ratio to a reasonable setting (it defaults to tiny-tiny everything).
On 5 January 2016 at 10:37, Tim Tisdall <tisdall@gmail.com> wrote:
Anyone else buy this laptop and is installing Ubuntu 15.10 on it?
I've found that the touchpad doesn't work, but the touch screen does. I read that the touchpad should work with the latest 4.4-RC but I haven't had time to try upgrading the kernel. I'm also having the same issue with the light being on for the "airplane mode" and that button does nothing (so can't turn off wifi/bluetooth with it). I managed to get the screen ratio to a reasonable setting (it defaults to tiny-tiny everything).
Hi Tim. Yup, same laptop, same OS, same problems. I've mostly kept the screen at the native resolution and found ways to increase the font sizes in Firefox and xterm. But I keep arandr available for when my eyes get tired of "tiny-tiny." I'm probably going to wait a couple weeks more to see if Ubuntu ships a new kernel that supports the touchpad. If/when I get tired of waiting, I'll look at this link again: https://florisvanvugt.wordpress.com/2015/12/26/making-asus-ux305ca-touchpad-... How to compile a custom kernel with a bit of a hack to fix the touchpad. Specific to our laptop and OS. I recommend reading the reddit thread Hugh cited at the beginning of this discussion and following the suggestions there to increase the battery life: it made a massive difference (+100% or so). Do a little homework though: I found his settings a bit aggressive and have probably improved battery life by letting the laptop be "sluggish" as he puts it. What he considers "sluggish" I consider "just fine" because I'm mostly using a text editor in a terminal. :-) -- Giles http://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
On 5 January 2016 at 11:47, Giles Orr <gilesorr@gmail.com> wrote:
Yup, same laptop, same OS, same problems. I've mostly kept the screen at the native resolution and found ways to increase the font sizes in Firefox and xterm.
I'm not sure what you did, but what worked amazing for me was going to "System Settings" > "Screen Display" and moving the "Scale for menu and title bars" to "2". It sounds like it should only be affecting what it says, but it seemed to make pretty much everything work properly. Both Chrome and Firefox will make use of that setting. (unfortunately it doesn't seem to apply to the initial login screen, though)
| From: Tim Tisdall <tisdall@gmail.com> | Anyone else buy this laptop and is installing Ubuntu 15.10 on it? I'm using Fedora 23 with a rawhide kernel. (I reported this to the list earlier.) | I've found that the touchpad doesn't work, but the touch screen does. Fixed in rawhide. An Arch user says that the Fedora rawhide patches, ported to Arch, make arch work too. | I read that the touchpad should work with the latest 4.4-RC but I | haven't had time to try upgrading the kernel. I think there is something missing from even 4.4. | I'm also having the | same issue with the light being on for the "airplane mode" and that | button does nothing (so can't turn off wifi/bluetooth with it). Same here. Seems unimportant but it wood be nice to fix.
| From: William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> | Let me get this straight, Hugh. You spent $1300 on laptops which don't | work right. Almost all laptops don't work right. Some involve more adventures than others. The UX305C is working fine for us except for the "airplane mode" light being constantly on. Probably the function key functions don't work -- we haven't tried. Most of the adventures for the UX305C seem to involve the Skylake processor. Skylake is the future of Intel processors (for a couple of years) so we'll all have to get used to it. | Well, I'm looking at ThinkPad T450 at CanadaComputers for $800. That looks to be a good choice (but I haven't looked carefully). - the trackpoint mouse buttons look to be reasonable after the Tx30 generation screw-up. - an i5-4300u is fine (a couple of generations back from Skylake, but with reasonable power consumption compared with the generation before) - no optical drive and two batteries so this is a chassis with which I have no experience. Is the second battery where an optical drive would go? - I hope that it is easy to upgrade the HDD and RAM. Does it have a slot for mSATA SSD? (like T530 etc.) SSD makes a big performance difference. - I really don't like 1366x768 displays - The GPU is Intel's HD 4400. Newer generations are more powerful. Many T-series notebooks have nVidia GPUs added (at some expense in battery life). For me the Intel GPU would be fine but some folks want more.
On Wed, Jan 06, 2016 at 06:18:00PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
Almost all laptops don't work right. Some involve more adventures than others.
Thinkpads generally just work.
The UX305C is working fine for us except for the "airplane mode" light being constantly on.
Probably the function key functions don't work -- we haven't tried.
Most of the adventures for the UX305C seem to involve the Skylake processor. Skylake is the future of Intel processors (for a couple of years) so we'll all have to get used to it.
I believe as of 4.2 or 4.3 kernel, they should be OK. I did an install on a Core i7-6700k a couple of weeks ago, and had no issues.
| Well, I'm looking at ThinkPad T450 at CanadaComputers for $800.
That looks to be a good choice (but I haven't looked carefully).
- the trackpoint mouse buttons look to be reasonable after the Tx30 generation screw-up.
No the Tx30 was fine, the Tx40 was the problem. The Tx50 fixes it (and the W541, since the W550 isn't out yet, but people wanted a fix for the screw up).
- an i5-4300u is fine (a couple of generations back from Skylake, but with reasonable power consumption compared with the generation before)
- no optical drive and two batteries so this is a chassis with which I have no experience. Is the second battery where an optical drive would go?
Actually I believe there is a 3 cell battery internally (permanent) and then an external swappable battery. Now maybe that internal batter is in fact where they used to have the optical drive (which I just noticed does in fact appear to have gone away).
- I hope that it is easy to upgrade the HDD and RAM. Does it have a slot for mSATA SSD? (like T530 etc.) SSD makes a big performance difference.
mSATA is obsolete. M.2 it might have. As far as I can tell it has an M.2 2242 slot (so 42mm max length) which is limiting, since most cards are 2280 (80 mm length). It appears to be SATA only, so no NVMe or PCIe cards.
- I really don't like 1366x768 displays
I thought the minimum was 1920x1080 on the T450, but I didn't check.
- The GPU is Intel's HD 4400. Newer generations are more powerful. Many T-series notebooks have nVidia GPUs added (at some expense in battery life). For me the Intel GPU would be fine but some folks want more.
Only the Txx0p models I believe. -- Len Sorensen
On 01/07/2016 10:41 AM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
On Wed, Jan 06, 2016 at 06:18:00PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
Almost all laptops don't work right. Some involve more adventures than others. Thinkpads generally just work.
I agree. I currently have a ThinkPad E520 and previously had an R33. Both work well with Linux. In fact, my first Linux experience was on a ThinkPad, back when I was with IBM. It was Mandrake, IIRC. The only issue I had was getting the token ring PCMCIA card to work. I had to change one line in a file and then it was fine.
participants (6)
-
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Giles Orr -
James Knott -
Lennart Sorensen -
Tim Tisdall -
William Park