Comments on i'm special.: Hardware of 2010

@daniels: I generally don't report bugs in dri...

2010-03-10T20:43:19.157Z

@daniels: I generally don't report bugs in drivers unless I can take the time to build from source and make sure the problem is still there. But I agree with everything else you said :)

If you've got any problems with the open ATI d...

2010-03-10T19:20:23.494Z

If you've got any problems with the open ATI drivers, please do report a bug on bugs.freedesktop.org with the Xorg.0.log and description of the problem -- they're really responsive and so far haven't failed to fix any problem I've seen. I'd probably say it's the best-maintained of any of the drivers; better than Intel and Nouveau (but the latter are definitely getting there), and I'm not counting nvidia_drv because it's proprietary, and screw those guys.

Thanks for the recommendations on thinkpads all. I...

2010-03-10T10:24:51.435Z

Thanks for the recommendations on thinkpads all. I'll take a look into what my options are. ;)

@maelcum: on Sony... yes, I'm not satisfied wi...

2010-03-10T10:23:54.657Z

@maelcum: on Sony... yes, I'm not satisfied with some of their business decisions in the past. unfortunately, I'm satisfied with their competitors even less.

this doesn't mean to say that I'm using a Sony simply because they're the lesser evil, they're still *an* evil I'd rather avoid - but because I've not found anything better, alas. in terms of failure rates, they're much more reliable than (most) of the competition, they have good support, and good hardware.

@maelcum: I'm sure ATi are improving, but I do...

2010-03-10T10:22:07.284Z

@maelcum: I'm sure ATi are improving, but I don't have as much time as I'd like, meaning that setting drivers up from source isn't really something I'd like to do. It is what I was *forced* to do recently, since you and KAMiKAZOW seem curious:

I was setting up an OpenSUSE install on a laptop for my fiancee.

Open drivers didn't work, at all. Varying problems from total system lockup to an invisible mouse cursor. No helpful information left anywhere I could find it, at least. I'm not experienced at digging into such problems, so after a few hours of tinkering with X's config, I decided that enough was enough, and pulled fglrx, and installed it. While it's far from satisfactory in a number of ways, it at least lets me use the system, reliably.

wow! so many comments, thanks for the feedback all...

2010-03-10T10:16:09.576Z

wow! so many comments, thanks for the feedback all. let me address the points...

@KAMiKAZOW: thanks for the warning. i'm reluctant to use proprietary drivers, but at the moment (with nvidia and ati, I'll cover ati seperately) they're unfortunately the better option.

nv, as we know, doesn't support 3D which puts it entirely out of consideration, noveau does, but it's relatively immature (though improving fast), but it's not all that stable/tested, yet, and it's not all that fast, meaning that it's not quite ready *yet*.

I've been using proprietary (nvidia) drivers on and off since 2006, so I know what the pitfalls are, and I do dislike them, but simple pragmatic reality dictates that - at least for now - I'm stuck with them.

Open drivers are fast improving, though, so I hope that 2010 will be the year that I can kiss them goodbye. Unfortunately, I lack the skill (and time) to help improve them to reach that goal sooner.

While i wouldn't recommend a 5 year old thinkp...

2010-03-10T07:15:14.557Z

While i wouldn't recommend a 5 year old thinkpad, i can definitely recommend the new one. I have a t400, which works like a charm with linux (including sleep and whatnot). You get decent battery time (~6h), it's rather light and the led backlight screen is a must.
The ati drivers work flawlessly for me, but anyway i always use the onboard intel graphics which use less power.

I have the Asus N10J it's a 10" atom lapt...

2010-03-10T07:02:52.887Z

I have the Asus N10J it's a 10" atom laptop with nvidia graphics. It works with KDE quite well. I haven't tried to do any gaming on it (its atom based so not so fast) but it is fast enough to run the game engine that I develop on at work.

ps Screen brightness is working fine for me here with nvidia binary drivers.

Also, Thinpad maintenance manuals are freely downl...

2010-03-10T03:26:11.937Z

Also, Thinpad maintenance manuals are freely downloadable and Thinkpads are very easy to take apart and reassemble. You can remove the harddisk with one screw, for example. There are no plastic tabs that can break off when you don't treat them right, just screws.
Thinkpads also look (much) better used than new, which is probably not for you if you buy new hardware that often :)

The latest git radeon driver works just fine her...

2010-03-10T03:17:55.554Z

The latest git radeon driver works *just* fine here (Radeon HD 3200, AMD 780G integrated, RS600 architecture). The latest radeon is available from special repositories in several distributions - I know of (K)ubuntu and Arch.
It's also free and only going to get better.

Also, don't buy from Sony. At least I don't because a Sony spokesperson said that the rootkit their DRM installed on computers a few years ago "was no big deal because users don't know what a rootkit is anyway". The only way to retaliate against such contempt of customers is not buying.

Suggestions - easy: if you can afford it, get a Thinkpad, ideally from one of the series that existed before Lenovo took over. Mine is 5 years old or so, not the slightest hardware problem in all those years.

toughed --> touched

2010-03-10T01:41:07.403Z

toughed --> touched

Oh, you want NVidia for your next laptop? Then be ...

2010-03-10T01:40:24.219Z

Oh, you want NVidia for your next laptop? Then be prepared to not be able to set the screen brightness.

Yeah, you may have been in ATI hell, but AMD/ATI at least provides FOSS drivers. I don't know what your hell was (I'd guess it has something to do with the proprietary drivers which AFAIK don't support the current X-Server), but I only had good experiences with the FOSS drivers that I never even toughed the proprietary ones.
FOSS drivers ans 3D compatibility require a bit older hardware, though, as AMD releases the drivers only after a while.

Comments on i'm special.: Hardware of 2010

@daniels: I generally don't report bugs in dri...

If you've got any problems with the open ATI d...

Thanks for the recommendations on thinkpads all. I...

@maelcum: on Sony... yes, I'm not satisfied wi...

@maelcum: I'm sure ATi are improving, but I do...

wow! so many comments, thanks for the feedback all...

While i wouldn't recommend a 5 year old thinkp...

I have the Asus N10J it's a 10" atom lapt...

Also, Thinpad maintenance manuals are freely downl...

The latest git radeon driver works *just* fine her...

toughed --> touched

Oh, you want NVidia for your next laptop? Then be ...

The latest git radeon driver works just fine her...