[Discuss] Linux on laptops

[mail at whats-your.name (carmen)]

> used macbook air or macbook pro for $700, thinkpad T520 for $390, latitude E5420 for $275

seeing a few red-flags off the bat:

* pricey stuff, (160-180 gets you the latest and greatest Atom-SoC 11.6" 1080p touchscreen tablet on Aliexpress)
* do those have touchscreens? after you use phones/tablets you start tapping links in browsers, trying to pinch-zoom everything
* theyre used so there's the potential for issues the seller didnt mention, and further clock-ticks towards "Everything breaks day",
 "Everything breaks day" has happened even on all of my thinkpads, maybe im just unlucky. screens crack, the powercable plug comes unsoldered,
  the mouse button stop registering clicks, certain keys fall off and cant be popped back on, pointer moves on its own, loud+noisy. never again..

brief musing on why chromebooks cost about 50-100% more than tablets:

* big western companies with VP, sales/marketing teams, all sorts of non-bluecollar jobs tacked on above the labor of poorly-paid Chinese
* a hinge mechanism, which is one more thing to break. plus fans, beacuse they use beefier CPUS
* an annoying chiclet keyboard which sucks, and a trackpad which usually sucks too unless it's Apple

w/ the savings can go for a keyboard that doesnt suck, even a wireless one like:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F3V81VG

or 15-year-old Fujitsu Pencentra USB-kbd on ebay for $12, slim and fits along/in a surface-ish case (also via Jack Ma)
between touchscreen gestures working fine on Gnome and Android and using kbd for most things anyways, havent missed a mouse or trackpad at any point yet

happy TECLAST/ASUS tablet user here