The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Minion-Queen said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 Oh, and there's something related to the hardware of the iPad, also… of course I cannot connect anything ethernet or serial, and this is a BIG downside when some support is required. Neither I can use an USB drive the right way: lack of support for filesystem, I cannot burn an iso etc.
Way too inflexible for what I need. With a standard laptop I can install or virtualize any os and use at least standard usb, video output and ethernet.You can't do Ethernet without the dock on the Surface either.
Uhm? What about a 10€ usb-to-ethernet adapter?
Outside of attaching a USB device to a VM I can't think of why I'd ever want to do this. If you need that you should have a laptop with an actual NIC IMO.
Laptop without a real NIC are huge compared to the ultrabook standard of today. I can live with an ethernet adapter.
Are they? Even my older ultrabooks have a real NIC and are tiny. How small are ultrabooks today?
Just look at XPS 13 or the new MacBook and you will see how a NIC cannot fit them :D.
MacBook can easily fit it, they just choose not to for their own reasons. That's their own animal. XPS 13 is a normal one, but lots do come with NICs. Mine is tiny, as small as an Air for sure, and has one.
I wouldn't get a laptop / ultrabook without ethernet. Even if I can get a USB one for it.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Minion-Queen said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 Oh, and there's something related to the hardware of the iPad, also… of course I cannot connect anything ethernet or serial, and this is a BIG downside when some support is required. Neither I can use an USB drive the right way: lack of support for filesystem, I cannot burn an iso etc.
Way too inflexible for what I need. With a standard laptop I can install or virtualize any os and use at least standard usb, video output and ethernet.You can't do Ethernet without the dock on the Surface either.
Uhm? What about a 10€ usb-to-ethernet adapter?
Outside of attaching a USB device to a VM I can't think of why I'd ever want to do this. If you need that you should have a laptop with an actual NIC IMO.
Laptop without a real NIC are huge compared to the ultrabook standard of today. I can live with an ethernet adapter.
Are they? Even my older ultrabooks have a real NIC and are tiny. How small are ultrabooks today?
Just look at XPS 13 or the new MacBook and you will see how a NIC cannot fit them :D.
MacBook can easily fit it, they just choose not to for their own reasons. That's their own animal. XPS 13 is a normal one, but lots do come with NICs. Mine is tiny, as small as an Air for sure, and has one.
So, what is your laptop precisely?
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Minion-Queen said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 Oh, and there's something related to the hardware of the iPad, also… of course I cannot connect anything ethernet or serial, and this is a BIG downside when some support is required. Neither I can use an USB drive the right way: lack of support for filesystem, I cannot burn an iso etc.
Way too inflexible for what I need. With a standard laptop I can install or virtualize any os and use at least standard usb, video output and ethernet.You can't do Ethernet without the dock on the Surface either.
Uhm? What about a 10€ usb-to-ethernet adapter?
Outside of attaching a USB device to a VM I can't think of why I'd ever want to do this. If you need that you should have a laptop with an actual NIC IMO.
Laptop without a real NIC are huge compared to the ultrabook standard of today. I can live with an ethernet adapter.
Are they? Even my older ultrabooks have a real NIC and are tiny. How small are ultrabooks today?
Just look at XPS 13 or the new MacBook and you will see how a NIC cannot fit them :D.
MacBook can easily fit it, they just choose not to for their own reasons. That's their own animal. XPS 13 is a normal one, but lots do come with NICs. Mine is tiny, as small as an Air for sure, and has one.
So, what is your laptop precisely?
I use an HP Folio. Well did until I moved to a bigger Asus RoG just recently. I run Ubuntu on it and have loads of power. I put up with not having an ultrabook any longer for all of the power since I do so much on it now. But the ultrabook I used for forever and it was great.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Minion-Queen said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 Oh, and there's something related to the hardware of the iPad, also… of course I cannot connect anything ethernet or serial, and this is a BIG downside when some support is required. Neither I can use an USB drive the right way: lack of support for filesystem, I cannot burn an iso etc.
Way too inflexible for what I need. With a standard laptop I can install or virtualize any os and use at least standard usb, video output and ethernet.You can't do Ethernet without the dock on the Surface either.
Uhm? What about a 10€ usb-to-ethernet adapter?
Outside of attaching a USB device to a VM I can't think of why I'd ever want to do this. If you need that you should have a laptop with an actual NIC IMO.
Laptop without a real NIC are huge compared to the ultrabook standard of today. I can live with an ethernet adapter.
Are they? Even my older ultrabooks have a real NIC and are tiny. How small are ultrabooks today?
Just look at XPS 13 or the new MacBook and you will see how a NIC cannot fit them :D.
MacBook can easily fit it, they just choose not to for their own reasons. That's their own animal. XPS 13 is a normal one, but lots do come with NICs. Mine is tiny, as small as an Air for sure, and has one.
So, what is your laptop precisely?
I use an HP Folio. Well did until I moved to a bigger Asus RoG just recently. I run Ubuntu on it and have loads of power. I put up with not having an ultrabook any longer for all of the power since I do so much on it now. But the ultrabook I used for forever and it was great.
Mmmh, the latest folio don't carry an ethernet but just two usbc :D.
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So, after all, seems that the Macbook 12 would be a better fit for my needs… overpriced, but at least it's a unix machine (I prefer it to win if I can choose) with good battery life. Every other ultrabook I've considered has some quirks, and/or is similar in price.
I will give a chance to the Surface, and if I won't be satisfied I will wait for the next iteration of Macbook… I hope with a better keyboard and Kaby Lake.Thanks everybody for the hints!
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
So, after all, seems that the Macbook 12 would be a better fit for my needs… overpriced, but at least it's a unix machine (I prefer it to win if I can choose) with good battery life. Every other ultrabook I've considered has some quirks, and/or is similar in price.
I will give a chance to the Surface, and if I won't be satisfied I will wait for the next iteration of Macbook… I hope with a better keyboard and Kaby Lake.Thanks everybody for the hints!
Why not get something actually good and put Linux on it? Way cheaper, faster and nicer than a MacBook.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
So, after all, seems that the Macbook 12 would be a better fit for my needs… overpriced, but at least it's a unix machine (I prefer it to win if I can choose) with good battery life. Every other ultrabook I've considered has some quirks, and/or is similar in price.
I will give a chance to the Surface, and if I won't be satisfied I will wait for the next iteration of Macbook… I hope with a better keyboard and Kaby Lake.Thanks everybody for the hints!
Why not get something actually good and put Linux on it? Way cheaper, faster and nicer than a MacBook.
Big thumbs up for Linux, it's the environment of choiche for me. But… I haven't found a good Linux ultrabook yet, and I definitely don't have time to dial with the innumerable issue that Linux has with mobile hardware.
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again. -
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Big thumbs up for Linux, it's the environment of choiche for me. But… I haven't found a good Linux ultrabook yet, and I definitely don't have time to dial with the innumerable issue that Linux has with mobile hardware.
Same reason that I moved to Linux from a MacBook, I didn't have time to deal with the Mac issues and inefficiencies. I went for an Asus RoG which is a very rare device for Linux and had some challenges, but with Ubuntu it "just worked" instantly. No issues at all. Install was flawless, operation has been flawless. Less effort that going to an Apple Store to pick up a Mac.
What issues have you seen with Linux on mobile hardware? I had Linux on my HP Folio ultrabook, never had any issues at all.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
Have you checked to ensure your NVIDIA chip is active? Some laptops now days come with an Intel HDGraphics for standard operations and will only activate the NVIDIA when necessary.
I had problems with this, and I have run several laptops, Dell, Lenovo (before we found out about Superfish), and now an Acer.
Several times, I've done updates and it would bork something and I'd have to troubleshoot from the CLI or just wipe and reload the Linux partition.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
I tried everything, from plain enterprise linux and suse to ubuntu, debian, gentoo (emerge the nouveau drivers, what a mess!)… the best was archlinux, but every update was a betting :D.
I know that today many Linux distro works
OOB in sone big laptops, but I haven't found an ultrabook that support Linux in a decent way. The best seems to be the dell xps 13, also certified. But, despite the certification, the forums are full of people with issue on that machine… oh, and the webcam placement is awful! -
@dafyre said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
Have you checked to ensure your NVIDIA chip is active? Some laptops now days come with an Intel HDGraphics for standard operations and will only activate the NVIDIA when necessary.
I had problems with this, and I have run several laptops, Dell, Lenovo (before we found out about Superfish), and now an Acer.
Several times, I've done updates and it would bork something and I'd have to troubleshoot from the CLI or just wipe and reload the Linux partition.
Of course, the nvidia was the only gpu. Lenovo has maybe the best support for Linux, but…
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I had a dell XPS 15… nvidia drivers were a big issue, the trackapad works nowhere as good as in windows, battery life was awful, the machine always run hot even with every immaginable tweaks of cpufreq and video drivers (I also contribute to the archlinux wiki in this regard). The laptop finally died of overheating, I found the GPU "cooked". Really a mess. My mbp 2011 is still brand new excepting some scratch, and I've used it all throughout the Europe almost every day. Every piece of its hardware works like a charm, and I want this polished experience from my next laptop… I've enough problems dealing with servers and VM, I don't want to waste my time for some stupid kernel upgrade that will broke that ACPI module that in turn will kill some blablabla again and again.
What Linux did you use? No Nvidia driver issues here, have a 960M in this laptop. It's a RoG so is all about the GPU. Linux uses it heavily for my desktop environment.
Sounds like a Dell issue rather than a Linux one, perhaps. Have seen nothing like that with other gear.
I tried everything, from plain enterprise linux and suse to ubuntu, debian, gentoo (emerge the nouveau drivers, what a mess!)… the best was archlinux, but every update was a betting :D.
I know that today many Linux distro works
OOB in sone big laptops, but I haven't found an ultrabook that support Linux in a decent way. The best seems to be the dell xps 13, also certified. But, despite the certification, the forums are full of people with issue on that machine… oh, and the webcam placement is awful!Linux Mint!
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@wirestyle22 Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu… and it wasn't that mature in 2009 :D.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@wirestyle22 Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu… and it wasn't that mature in 2009 :D.
It's VERY mature, and has been for some time now. And it is very different when it comes to drivers. Mint can't install on my laptop, but Ubuntu is flawless, for example. They are rather different in real usage.
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Ok, my Surface 4 m3 is arrived and I've no issue till now, but… I really want a unix-like as the host OS, so I think I will get another laptop after returning it.
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360… any experience with them? I've read that the XPS is used by Linux Torvalds for kernel development when he is on travel, so I think it will work :D., The UX305 is also considered a very linux-friendly machine.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.
The Surface are like... anti-optimized.
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@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360…
I have an Asus for Linux and love it, but it was pretty touchy as to getting Linux installed. Nothing but Ubuntu was happy on mine, but other models more or less anything installs just fine. It's weird.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
I've no use for the tablet mode, I was thinking it was more optimized.
The Surface are like... anti-optimized.
Microsoft sells a lot of stuff that depresses me
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@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360…
I have an Asus for Linux and love it, but it was pretty touchy as to getting Linux installed. Nothing but Ubuntu was happy on mine, but other models more or less anything installs just fine. It's weird.
@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
@Francesco-Provino said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:
Now I'm considering Asus UX305UA vs Dell XPS13 9360…
I have an Asus for Linux and love it, but it was pretty touchy as to getting Linux installed. Nothing but Ubuntu was happy on mine, but other models more or less anything installs just fine. It's weird.
I've the same fear about the UX305. The XPS 9360 is certified for Ubuntu and they also sell it with ubuntu 16.04 preinstalled. It should outperform a macbook pro 2016 for a little less money in general stuff. Surely it's ahead of a wide margin for anything regarding docker/containers (native, of course) and virtualization (kvm is way better than anything on osx).
