Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[joe]

Will do.  I'm still figuring things out and writing
a how-to for my bride, and will post it asap.

The break-thru finally came for me late last night
after reading a dozen other too-long how-to's online.

At least being able now to save, access, and edit
documents offline fairly easily helps a lot.

That much was (and still is) a bit confusing.


-
> Keith wrote:
> Please post your experience so we can learn from it.

> Stephen wrote:
> I have been trying to wrap my head around a Chromebook
> experience with limited success. I would also be interested
> in hearing about your experience.



---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Kevin Fries]

I just got one, and am extremely impressed.

My new Chromebook is the Samsung Chromebook 2 (
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NJGRLUY).

I use it for real work, such as development and network administration.
What I did to check it out before buying is this:

  - Open you regular desktop
  - Open a Chrome browser
  - Use only Chrome apps to try and work

The longer you do this, the better you will be prepared for making the jump
to a Chromebook.  Anything installable as a Chrome App can be added to your
Chromebook Shelf.

Some of my favorites:

  - Code Repo: Git Browser
  - Dev IDE: My Cloud9
  - Agile Project Mgmt: Planbox
  - UML/Diagrams: Creately
  - Arduino Design: 123D
  - Linux Server Mgmt: Secure Shell
  - CMS: ZenDesk

I run a full Linux server for experimentation at AWS.  It's a free tier
instance, so it works well for me to try stuff.  This instance is running
CoreOS, so I also have two tools to manage that:

  - AWS Console App
  - Docker UI

For file sharing and storage, I use a combination of Google Docs, DropBox,
and Evernote.

Finally, I leave my calendaring needs to Google and Sunrise.

Gmail, Google Docs, etc

So far, I have not missed cutting the PC cord at all.

KevinF
On Jul 7, 2015 10:48 AM, "Stephen Partington"  wrote:

> I have been trying to wrap my head around a Chromebook experience with
> limited success. I would also be interested in hearing about your
> experience.
>
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 9:29 AM, Keith Smith 
> wrote:
>
>> Please post your experience so we can learn from it.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2015-07-07 09:16, j...@actionline.com wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks to everyone for all the helpful suggestions.
>>>
>>> We have a chromebook, but never learned how to work with
>>> google docs offline until today; but now discovered that
>>> might turn out to be a satisfactory solution for travel.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Keith Smith
>>
>> ---
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
>
>
>
> --
> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
>
> Stephen
>
>
> ---
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Stephen Partington]

I have been trying to wrap my head around a Chromebook experience with
limited success. I would also be interested in hearing about your
experience.

On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 9:29 AM, Keith Smith 
wrote:

> Please post your experience so we can learn from it.
>
>
>
> On 2015-07-07 09:16, j...@actionline.com wrote:
>
>> Thanks to everyone for all the helpful suggestions.
>>
>> We have a chromebook, but never learned how to work with
>> google docs offline until today; but now discovered that
>> might turn out to be a satisfactory solution for travel.
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
>
> --
> Keith Smith
>
> ---
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>



-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Keith Smith]

Please post your experience so we can learn from it.


On 2015-07-07 09:16, j...@actionline.com wrote:

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful suggestions.

We have a chromebook, but never learned how to work with
google docs offline until today; but now discovered that
might turn out to be a satisfactory solution for travel.



---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss


--
Keith Smith
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[joe]

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful suggestions.

We have a chromebook, but never learned how to work with
google docs offline until today; but now discovered that
might turn out to be a satisfactory solution for travel.



---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Stephen Partington]

Current Ubuntu 2014 and on plays very ncie with uEFI and even in ASUS's
implementation. I have ti playing really nicely on my desktop. wich is
based on their UEFI implementation.

On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 12:19 PM, Michael Butash  wrote:

>  I had a former employer get me a pimp asus zenbook, the nice
> 2800x1600ish 15" display, dual ssd, etc, but it was a freakin basketcase
> under ubuntu to get working.  Even trying arch and some others were
> painful, each with widely varying quirks.
>
> Their bios didn't support "legacy" booting, so I had to learn efi which
> wasn't itself so bad, but very different and took some time to figure out
> my raid+crypto+lvm with gpt.  I encountered countless bugs/quirks, many
> with the nvidia video that the desktop version wouldn't work oob without
> causing the oss drivers to wig out at 100% cpu, and if I let the display
> sleep, it wouldn't reawaken.  Great, since the install took forever with it
> pegging the cpu the whole way, and having to reboot it constantly to work
> around the crappy ubuntu desktop installer quirks that came with 13.10 at
> the time.
>
> Some reason I don't remember, the alt installer wouldn't work on it too, I
> think the 4k resolution blew up the vesa compatibility for the
> ncurses-based di installer.  I think sound didn't work at the time too
> (needed newer kernel support at the moment).
>
> Once it was working, I'd have lots of random lockups and other things my
> laptops just didn't do, which really made using it far more painful than my
> little crap hp folio, so I just kept using that.  When I quit, I gave it
> back gladly and checked Asus off my buy list.  Asus obviously didn't give a
> darn about linux support, not even as an afterthought, and I doubt they've
> changed much since early 2014 when that adventure took place.
>
> I'm currently using a 12" lightweight dell latitude 7220 laptop, i7 ulv
> proc, 16gb of ram, dual msata ssd, 1080p touch screen, and a docking
> station.  Only a dual-core and crap intel graphics, but as a workstation,
> it's light, docking station is wonderful, and works almost entirely great
> with linux, having run mint debian and settling back on ubuntu.
>
> I say almost, the only issue I've had is after a month or so of use, it'll
> go into this zombie mode that I can't get it to shutdown or hibernate
> without a hard powerdown, as it'll literally keep waking up immediately
> after going to sleep.  More than a few times I pulled it out my laptop bag
> broiling itself, but now I just pay attention and hard power it down
> (holding the power for 10sec) if it does.  I need to harass dell some, this
> is a bios bug it seems.
>
> It's kinda pricey new ($2200ish), but I never buy new, rather look for
> dell outlet coupons around holidays, usually finding 30-35% off, at refurb
> price made it a steal (I think I paid ~$900), saving to upgrade the memory
> and ssd's.
>
> -mb
>
>
>
> On 07/05/2015 11:16 AM, Stephen Partington wrote:
>
>  I have really been crushing on the ASUs XenBook's lately. They have an
> interesting array of them now and most of them are some pretty sexy
> machines.
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-3-Inch-Ultraslim-Aluminum-Available/dp/B00SGS7ZH4
> is the cheaper one i have been looking at. they have a more fully featured
> version that has Nvidia 960M graphics and a 4k touchscreeen but thats about
> 1700 right now.
>
> On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 10:06 AM, Keith Smith 
> wrote:
>
>> If you are only going to use it for mail and surfing the web, anything
>> that runs Windows 8 will run better with Linux on it.
>>
>> i3 / 4GB RAM would be my preference
>>
>> I think at the bare minimum I'd want at least a Pentium with 2GB of RAM.
>>
>> Looks like the Celeron is a dual core and the Pentium is a quad core.
>>
>> Here is the list of Celeron laptops.
>>
>>
>> http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~19561351,55846~0~14739528&p=1
>>
>>
>> Pentiums are more expensive.
>>
>>
>> http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~14720657,55846~0~14739528&p=1
>>
>> I've noticed that some of the cheaper Laptops do not come with an optical
>> drive (DVD) and I noticed my Dell laptop does not have a microphone in so I
>> assume Skype calls are out... have not researched so I might be wrong.
>>
>> Keith
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2015-07-05 08:09, j...@actionline.com wrote:
>>
>>> What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
>>> the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
>>> run Linux?
>>>
>>> Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
>>> weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---
>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>
>>
>>   --
>> Keith Smith
>>
>> ---
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>>

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Kevin Fries]

Depends on your needs.

I just got a Samsung Chromebook 2 for about $250, and connected it up to my
Free Tier AWS instance (CoreOS).  I for one am loving it... my chromebook
does not to cellular, it's WiFi only, but my Galaxy5 can teather, so, I can
use it anywhere.  Full on AWS server has more horse power than any laptop I
have ever owned.

May or may not work for you, but defiantly does for me.

Kevin
On Jul 5, 2015 9:16 AM,  wrote:

> What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
> the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
> run Linux?
>
> Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
> weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Michael Butash]

  
  
I had a former employer get me a pimp
  asus zenbook, the nice 2800x1600ish 15" display, dual ssd, etc,
  but it was a freakin basketcase under ubuntu to get working.  Even
  trying arch and some others were painful, each with widely varying
  quirks.
  
  Their bios didn't support "legacy" booting, so I had to learn efi
  which wasn't itself so bad, but very different and took some time
  to figure out my raid+crypto+lvm with gpt.  I encountered
  countless bugs/quirks, many with the nvidia video that the desktop
  version wouldn't work oob without causing the oss drivers to wig
  out at 100% cpu, and if I let the display sleep, it wouldn't
  reawaken.  Great, since the install took forever with it pegging
  the cpu the whole way, and having to reboot it constantly to work
  around the crappy ubuntu desktop installer quirks that came with
  13.10 at the time.
  
  Some reason I don't remember, the alt installer wouldn't work on
  it too, I think the 4k resolution blew up the vesa compatibility
  for the ncurses-based di installer.  I think sound didn't work at
  the time too (needed newer kernel support at the moment).
  
  Once it was working, I'd have lots of random lockups and other
  things my laptops just didn't do, which really made using it far
  more painful than my little crap hp folio, so I just kept using
  that.  When I quit, I gave it back gladly and checked Asus off my
  buy list.  Asus obviously didn't give a darn about linux support,
  not even as an afterthought, and I doubt they've changed much
  since early 2014 when that adventure took place.
  
  I'm currently using a 12" lightweight dell latitude 7220 laptop,
  i7 ulv proc, 16gb of ram, dual msata ssd, 1080p touch screen, and
  a docking station.  Only a dual-core and crap intel graphics, but
  as a workstation, it's light, docking station is wonderful, and
  works almost entirely great with linux, having run mint debian and
  settling back on ubuntu.  
  
  I say almost, the only issue I've had is after a month or so of
  use, it'll go into this zombie mode that I can't get it to
  shutdown or hibernate without a hard powerdown, as it'll literally
  keep waking up immediately after going to sleep.  More than a few
  times I pulled it out my laptop bag broiling itself, but now I
  just pay attention and hard power it down (holding the power for
  10sec) if it does.  I need to harass dell some, this is a bios bug
  it seems.
  
  It's kinda pricey new ($2200ish), but I never buy new, rather look
  for dell outlet coupons around holidays, usually finding 30-35%
  off, at refurb price made it a steal (I think I paid ~$900),
  saving to upgrade the memory and ssd's.
  
  -mb
  
  
  On 07/05/2015 11:16 AM, Stephen Partington wrote:


  
I have really been crushing on the ASUs
  XenBook's lately. They have an interesting array of them now
  and most of them are some pretty sexy machines.


http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-3-Inch-Ultraslim-Aluminum-Available/dp/B00SGS7ZH4
is the cheaper one i have been looking at. they have a more
fully featured version that has Nvidia 960M graphics and a
4k touchscreeen but thats about 1700 right now. 

  
  
On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 10:06 AM, Keith
  Smith 
  wrote:
  If you are
only going to use it for mail and surfing the web, anything
that runs Windows 8 will run better with Linux on it.

i3 / 4GB RAM would be my preference

I think at the bare minimum I'd want at least a Pentium with
2GB of RAM.

Looks like the Celeron is a dual core and the Pentium is a
quad core.

Here is the list of Celeron laptops.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~19561351,55846~0~14739528&p=1


Pentiums are more expensive.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~14720657,55846~0~14739528&p=1

I've noticed that some of the cheaper Laptops do not come
with an optical drive (DVD) and I noticed my Dell laptop
does not have a microphone in so I assume Skype calls are
out... have not researched so I might be wrong.

Keith
  
  
  
  
  
  On 2015-07-05 08:09, j...@actionline.com
  wrote:


  

  What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
 

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Stephen Partington]

I have really been crushing on the ASUs XenBook's lately. They have an
interesting array of them now and most of them are some pretty sexy
machines.

http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-3-Inch-Ultraslim-Aluminum-Available/dp/B00SGS7ZH4
is the cheaper one i have been looking at. they have a more fully featured
version that has Nvidia 960M graphics and a 4k touchscreeen but thats about
1700 right now.

On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 10:06 AM, Keith Smith 
wrote:

> If you are only going to use it for mail and surfing the web, anything
> that runs Windows 8 will run better with Linux on it.
>
> i3 / 4GB RAM would be my preference
>
> I think at the bare minimum I'd want at least a Pentium with 2GB of RAM.
>
> Looks like the Celeron is a dual core and the Pentium is a quad core.
>
> Here is the list of Celeron laptops.
>
>
> http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~19561351,55846~0~14739528&p=1
>
>
> Pentiums are more expensive.
>
>
> http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~14720657,55846~0~14739528&p=1
>
> I've noticed that some of the cheaper Laptops do not come with an optical
> drive (DVD) and I noticed my Dell laptop does not have a microphone in so I
> assume Skype calls are out... have not researched so I might be wrong.
>
> Keith
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2015-07-05 08:09, j...@actionline.com wrote:
>
>> What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
>> the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
>> run Linux?
>>
>> Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
>> weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
>
> --
> Keith Smith
>
> ---
> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>



-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Keith Smith]

If you are only going to use it for mail and surfing the web, anything 
that runs Windows 8 will run better with Linux on it.


i3 / 4GB RAM would be my preference

I think at the bare minimum I'd want at least a Pentium with 2GB of RAM.

Looks like the Celeron is a dual core and the Pentium is a quad core.

Here is the list of Celeron laptops.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~19561351,55846~0~14739528&p=1


Pentiums are more expensive.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=226291~0~14720657,55846~0~14739528&p=1

I've noticed that some of the cheaper Laptops do not come with an 
optical drive (DVD) and I noticed my Dell laptop does not have a 
microphone in so I assume Skype calls are out... have not researched so 
I might be wrong.


Keith





On 2015-07-05 08:09, j...@actionline.com wrote:

What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
run Linux?

Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)





---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss


--
Keith Smith
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Re: Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[Keith Smith]

What are you going to use it for?

On 2015-07-05 08:09, j...@actionline.com wrote:

What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
run Linux?

Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)





---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss


--
Keith Smith
---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

Seeking recommendations for best Linux ultralights

[joe]

What does this esteemed brain trust recommend as
the best options for an inexpensive ultralight to
run Linux?

Probably an 11 or 13" screen, thin, and light
weight (i.e. at or under 3 pounds)





---
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss