Linus Torvalds is considering the Chromebook Pixel as his primary laptop

https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/dk1aiW4JjHd

by ninthfrank07 • 13 years ago

48 63 13 years ago

plus.google.com

sac2171• 13 years ago

Is this a parody?

largesse• 13 years ago

Sometimes I think this guy just wants to be controversial.

jlgreco5• 13 years ago

I'm not sure how this is controversial. I mean, it doesn't seem news-worthy either, but also not controversial.

taproot2• 13 years ago

Sometimes? Its kind of his thing.

tunnuz• 13 years ago

Who cares?

baq• 13 years ago

people who like hi-res displays care, because this guy might add some momentum to the push.

rartichoke• 13 years ago

Yeah this for sure. We've been stuck with 1080p for so long.

It's retarded to think that in the late 1990s we had 1600x1200 CRTs at 120hz and great color quality. Now it's almost 15 years later and 120hz isn't even main stream, color quality is worse and we traded some vertical for horizontal resolution.

Wtf?

millerm• 13 years ago

Exactly. It's just such arbitrary information.

modeless• 13 years ago

The Chromebook Pixel is exactly the laptop he requested in a rant last year: https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/ByVPmsSe...

ktsmith4• 13 years ago

I got a chance to use one this weekend and if it didn't have a cripplingly small SSD I'd swap out my 17" MBP for one.

windsurfer• 13 years ago

What do you need to store on the built-in drive that you couldn't store elsewhere?

jevinskie• 13 years ago

What kind of SSD does it use? It is a standard 2.5" format that could be swapped out or is it a proprietary interface like some of Apple's SSDs?

Nursie• 13 years ago

I know you shouldn't have to on a laptop with that price - but Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards are pretty damn quick and would make a decent expansion. Assuming you don't need the slot for other reasons.

mirsadm• 13 years ago

Sometimes I wonder if he didn't kick off the Linux kernel if he'd just be referred to as a troll.

jlgreco5• 13 years ago

How is he trolling in this instance?

nonamegiven• 13 years ago

Shipping goes a long way.

dubcanada• 13 years ago

Huh? If some random guy didn't do something to make himself popular (considering he's really smart, if he didn't make Linux he would have still probably done something else massive) how would he be a troll?

Your comment makes no sense... considering the only reason you/hn/whoever even reads his posts is because he's the Linux guy. If he wasn't nobody would even read it, and you can't troll nothing lol.

JoshTriplett5• 13 years ago

I'd consider it too, if not for the size of the drive.

Right now, unless something with a >1080p screen comes out, the ThinkPad Helix (https://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/thinkpad/thinkpad-...) will probably remain on the top of my list for when the warranty on my current laptop runs out. At least it has 1080p on a 12" screen, rather than making me choose between a 720p I don't mind carrying and a 1080p boat anchor.

meaty6• 13 years ago

I can't see anything on a 1080p screen at 12" and considering my eyesight isn't all that bad, I imagine it's not going to sell for most people.

rayiner• 13 years ago

They have these things called TrueType scalable fonts. Since like the late 1980s.

JoshTriplett5• 13 years ago

On any modern OS, resolution and text size have little to do with each other. If you can't see anything, turn up the DPI to match the actual DPI of your display, and any well-behaved application will become readable.

jaytaylor• 13 years ago

More info on the Chromebook Pixel[0][1] (in case other's missed the press launch like I did!):

[0] http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixe...

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/21/google-announces-1299-chrom...

devy• 13 years ago

It seems that Linus was praising the screen of Chromebook Pixel particularly its resolution. Sorry if I am being ignorant here, but has Linus heard of Retina Display MacBook Pro? rMBP has roughly the same PPI as Google Chromebook Pixel and had been available for almost a year by now. And surely you can install Linux on it. *[1]

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro_Retina

viseztrance• 13 years ago

> Suspend mode on lid close with nouveau and i915 (does not come out of suspend; blank screen).

This makes ANY laptop useless.

taproot2• 13 years ago

Trying to get on @ShitHNSays?

loser777• 13 years ago

There used to be some high-res laptops(compared to what's popular today)at non-16:9 aspect ratios. Anyone remember the IBM T21? 1400x1050 (14.1")... in '00-01! I guess a combination of waning consumer demand due to OMG WIDESCREEN and corner-cutting brought 1366x768 to the forefront. Also, it's kind of funny that 1366x768 is not actually 16:9 anyway.

jlgreco5• 13 years ago

1680x1050 was popular for a while about half a decade ago. Unfortunately it seems to have been primarily replaced with mostly 1366x768, not 1920x1080.

hkmurakami3• 13 years ago

I went through all the links HN'ers have posted in this thread and I couldn't find the information so I have to beg the question:

_Does it have a good keyboard??_

(Laptop keyboards seem to become worse as the years go on -- with the exception of macbooks and possibly Thinkpads -- and I'm really hoping that the Chromebook Pixel has a respectable keyboard)

Some of the pictures on Google's site seem to suggest a macbook-like keyboard layout and profile so I'm hopeful that they're comparable.

Cowen• 13 years ago

I have no idea about the Pixel, but my Samsung Chromebook's keyboard feels just as good as my older Macbook Air's.

The touchpad clicks really loudly, but the Pixel has a new glass touchpad so that might not be an issue anymore.

robinh2• 13 years ago

What exactly counts as a good keyboard? I've never had any trouble with my XPS, and don't really see how one could mess up a laptop's keyboard (then again, I haven't had that many laptops). Although some of the cheaper laptop's keyboards seem clunky.

hkmurakami3• 13 years ago

I have a Dell XPS from 2008 (now a tertiary machine) and some of its keys will get momentarily get "stuck" under the laptop chassis when returning from the compressed position.

My parents have a Toshiba laptop from around 2011, and its keyboard is undescribably atrocious. Poor key layout (small keys & excessive space between keys), overly resistant and springy key dynamics, very slippery key surface, etc.

The best laptop keyboard I've had was the late 90's ~ early 2000's IBM-era thinkpads.

JoshTriplett5• 13 years ago

> and don't really see how one could mess up a laptop's keyboard

"What's with this ~` key? Nobody uses that, and it offends my designer sensibilities."

I had a Dell like that, and got used to typing $HOME and $(command) rather than ~ and `command`.

JoshTriplett5• 13 years ago

The keys it has work very nicely; the keyboard action feels very comfortable, and the layout doesn't suck.

As long as you don't mind lacking a home, end, pageup, pagedown, F11, F12, or delete key, you should have no trouble using the keyboard.

For a closeup of the keyboard layout: http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixe...

recoiledsnake• 13 years ago

Interesting aside:

The post 'How I ended up with a Mac' by Miguel[1] got flagged off the front page while this post is zooming up the front page.

Coincidence?

http://hnrankings.info/5327247/

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5327247

dfc• 13 years ago

How do you know it was flagged? By the drop off in votes? I thought flagged stories got deleted/"dead"-ed. Are the stories that only show up with showdead different than stories that are flagged?

JanezStupar2• 13 years ago

It doesn't have a trackpoint. Pass.

meaty6• 13 years ago

Good point. Not a ThinkPad.

I'm rather worried about how Lenovo have gone all experimental. I still want an old fashioned black brick with a clitmouse.

JanezStupar2• 13 years ago

I just want 15" a X1 Carbon with 2560 display.

jlgreco5• 13 years ago

Experimental thinkpads are okay with me. Might be nice to see a revisit of that butterfly keyboard on the 701 for instance...

What really bugs me is thinkpads with shit screen resolution. Like, really shit, even compared to less heavy duty cheaper laptops. Thinkpads should not cut costs.

czervik• 13 years ago

loving my carbon x1 touch after taking almost 2 months to get here. I even still have win8 on it!

liquidise• 13 years ago

Nice post but this line really got my attention:

"...I can lug around this 1.5kg monster despite feeling fairly strongly that a laptop should weigh 1kg or less."

Are there laptops with any respectable screen real-estate weighing in at < 1kg? My primary laptop is a 13" Air. 1kg is only 70% of its weight. I was unaware they got much lighter while sporting double digit screen sizes.

hkmurakami3• 13 years ago

He also mentions that the screen is larger than his needs, so presumably he prefers the 11" range for his laptops.

aduitsis• 13 years ago

Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet.We're working to bring devices to more countries as quickly as possible.Please check back again soon.

Available countries: http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...

If I can't buy it, it's practically non-existent. A pity, all those devices Google has come up with are really interesting.

ziffusion• 13 years ago

And in related news, he is also considering Cottonelle to wipe his ass.

Linus Torvalds is considering the Chromebook Pixel as his primary laptop

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