@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).

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.

@Mike-Davis said in What's good for a workstation these days?:

Like @stacksofplates I like the HP z series for a true workstation. They have some different form factors, but you can buy a used one pretty cheap for the power they have because they started off life as $1,600 workstations. The only down side might be that the Xeon is a little more power hungry than some other processors. (and the form factor if you want something small enough to mount to the back of your monitor)

Agree with you, I use a z240 and it's beautifully built. It's cheap, also.

@wirestyle22 Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu… and it wasn't that mature in 2009 :D.

@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…

@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!

@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.

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!

@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.

@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?

@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.

@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:

Serial console for iPad...

https://www.get-console.com/shop/

I knew about it, it's sort of an hack :D.

@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.

@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?

@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.

@scottalanmiller 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?:

@scottalanmiller 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?:

@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?:

Ok, seems like a lot of problems with that device… I hope I'll be lucky with mine!
What do you use as an alternative?

I skip the category, I've not found tablets to be that useful for system admin work. I use an iPad on the rare occasion that I need a tablet, otherwise I use a laptop since I need a stable, fast machine with a keyboard to do any real work.

Agreed but I think it suits what he posted initially: "I want to follow the philosophy of having a thin endpoint just to surf the web and doing basic stuff with text and cli, leveraging cloud or on permise servers for everything requiring big ram, CPU or GPU."

That's exactly where I find them not very useful.

Why out of curiousity? Text and CLI require virtually nothing

They require a stable device the same as anything else, and a good keyboard. Specifically the two things the Surface don't have. Nowhere in our concerns was performance one of them, so regardless of how much something "doesn't require" it wouldn't be applicable to our reasons for the Surface not being useful.

So, in the case that I'll find the Surface uncomfortable and return it, what devices can you suggest me?
I mean, in the class of very thin ultrabook or similar stuff. I like the new Macbook, but the keyboard is not so good and the single port leave me cold. And… the webcam! I looked at dell XPS 13 and some HP (Spectre and, uhm… that 13' ultrabook), also the Asus ux305 is nice.

@gjacobse iOS unfortunately lacks the ability to run any Windows or Linux specific software, or to virtualize them, of course. The list could be very long… I had an iPad Air 1st gen, great device (but it was stolen). I'm not anti-apple or anti-iOS at all, other than the iPad I've an iPhone and a MBP :D.

Ok, seems like a lot of problems with that device… I hope I'll be lucky with mine!
What do you use as an alternative?

@scottalanmiller said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:

around

The fourth series as well? Uhm…

@Minion-Queen said in The Sysadmin / CTO machine - A Surface + Cloud to rule them all?:

The surface "should" work well for that. As long as you are aware they have lots of wifi adapter issues as well. Any update can completely kill it. The Surfaces on average do not last much longer than around 18 months either with heavy use. So as long as you are only using it here and there and not asking it to do much you "should" be fine.

Really? That's scary! I found it at just 750€ (christmas offer), I didn't think it was that bad…