I'm not sure they even know how people who live by keypads use them.
Watch a good CPA use one. It is off to the side. He/She will not even be looking at it. His /her fingers will be moving so fast you cannot see them.

This cannot be done on a laptop keyboard. It simply cannot.

//

2016-09-26T04:57:16Z

Looks like they could have done away with the keyboard wonkiness (I can see from the pic that the layout is funky) by eliminating the number pad. I prefer those to be external on a laptop anyway.

//

2016-09-26T04:47:46Z

..And I omitted ALSA in my brief history of Linux sound :/

It was sniffles with a slight cough.

I had a lot of experience fighting Linux and sound since I used to stream to a Internet radio station with Linux. Did the occasional blues set and sometimes rambled. Sidekick used to do an entire show of her own. Good times. Wrote a QT/KDE front-end to the darkice encoder that allowed music to stream from a variety of sources and be faded in and out with the microphone input.

2016-09-26T04:44:17Z

The "wrapped in plastic" part is what keeps me from going "YEP" right now and pulling the trigger on the Thinkpad P50. Yes, they're traditionally built like tanks but I really like Aluminum. My Air has seen daily duty for years and a wipe with a damp cloth makes it look like I just pulled it out of the carton. The only thing than makes it not look brand new is the worn keycaps.

//

2016-09-26T04:36:49Z

Then I decided to see how suspend worked. Bad move.

Still is to this day with certain hardware. Suspend/Resume has always been a crap shoot to some degree.

Networking problems began. Kernel panics. Freezes that would only respond to a forced shutdown.

sniff I smell wireless networking in 2008.

Sometimes it remembered my WPA2 password, sometimes it didn't.

Called it.

Usual steps a vendor talks a user through when bad things happen

This is why we never sold Linux laptops. Boss insisted we do it. I put Linux on his laptop. Never heard another word about it.

When I tried to restart, it hung at "shuttting down ALSA".

Here's a brief history of sound under Linux.
Note, I am omitting a few things so don't get wadded panties, Linux people.

  • Linux sound was sickly, thin and named OSS. Like most earlier Linux bits, it worked and had a lot of room for improvement.
  • OSS was killed by FSF because "NOT FREE ENOUGH"
  • Linux sound developed a slight sniffle as it came down with something called ESD
  • Linux sound's condition mutated into ARTSD which meant it could sniffle multiple times at once.
  • Linux sound's condition mutated once again into Pulseaudio which was like leprosy but with sound (or, frequently, silence)

You get the idea. Sound has been a mess under Linux for years because of all those "mutations" and all the associated compatibility layers that entailed.

But first, I went to the Apple Store online and ordered a nice refurbished 2.4-GHz MacBook Pro with a 200 GB hard drive, 2 GB of RAM, an LED-backlit screen and AppleCare, the only extended warranty on the planet that's worth the money

This ending isn't restricted to non-geeks. It's roughly how my quest for "a *nix laptop that doesn't suck rocks" ended.

2016-09-26T04:27:02Z


> Next post: what happened next. Oh, boy…

So far this is following the usual non-geek trajectory.

2016-09-26T04:06:39Z


> Operating System: Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

The very version of Ubuntu that sent me over the edge. Nice.

The rest of the specs are very respectable for 2008.

2016-09-26T04:03:40Z

Pouring a cup of coffee and about to read 's blog posts. Got side-tracked from all of the "Grrr. Linux. Pitchforks." stuff.

2016-09-26T03:55:59Z

@thrrgilag Okay, bug, you're one exception trap away from "Party over". The sheriff is in town.

2016-09-26T03:50:39Z

Yeah. I can see where that would get old. I started to feel that way for a while when all of the talk was from iOS developers or social media douche-canoes

2016-09-26T03:48:48Z