Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 27th Mar 2012 22:17 UTC
For years and years now (since the first G4 iBooks), whenever someone asked me for advice about what laptop to buy, my standard answer was simple: get an Apple laptop. Doesn't matter which one. Apple was so far ahead of the competition it just wasn't funny anymore. This past weekend, though, marked the end of an era for me: for the first time, I advised someone to get an Asus ZenBook instead.
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RE: ZenBook is good but ...
by Lennie on Wed 28th Mar 2012 00:40
in reply to "ZenBook is good but ..."
Member since:2007-09-22
RE: ZenBook is good but ...
by ggiunta on Wed 28th Mar 2012 00:51
in reply to "ZenBook is good but ..."
Member since:2006-01-13
@kristoph : as Thom also said, Bootcamp experience on MacBooks is far from being pleasant (see http://www.osnews.com/comments/25637 for my personal rant). The substitution of BIOS with EFI actually makes those laptops all except friendly to other operating systems.
And no, Apple will not assist you very much with windows 7 problems, and even less with linux...
Edited 2012-03-28 00:52 UTC
RE[2]: ZenBook is good but ...
by AdamW on Wed 28th Mar 2012 06:32
in reply to "RE: ZenBook is good but ..."
Member since:2005-07-06
It wouldn't be so bad if Apple's idea of an EFI implementation hadn't been apparently designed by some poor guy who'd been forced at gunpoint to smoke crack continuously for several weeks beforehand.
What I'm trying to say is their EFI implementation is terrible. Got that? Good.
RE[2]: ZenBook is good but ...
by DoctorD on Wed 28th Mar 2012 19:26
in reply to "RE: ZenBook is good but ..."
Member since:2009-03-08
I've used bootcamp for years, literally since the week windows 7 came out. With the exception of a stupid move on my part (attempt to resize a partition with older software, which failed) the experience has been quite a success, and bug-free. One of my most strait-forward, hassle free windows experiences ever. I however have a desktop mac. After reading your post, it seems like the issues you had were primarily laptop oriented (lid, battery, touchpad, etc.).
RE: ZenBook is good but ...
by AdamW on Wed 28th Mar 2012 06:29
in reply to "ZenBook is good but ..."
Member since:2005-07-06
"it can run a vastly larger range of operating systems more reliably (because, you know, everyone supports Apple hardware nowadays)"
erm. Apple's firmware is a hideous nightmare. Just ask Matthew Garrett. If you're a maintainer of an OS that's not OS X or, to a limited extent, Windows, trying to make yourself installable on modern Macs is an exercise in pain. I certainly wouldn't recommend Apples as a good choice of hardware for the OS-agnostic.
RE[2]: ZenBook is good but ...
by Richard Dale on Wed 28th Mar 2012 08:42
in reply to "RE: ZenBook is good but ..."
Member since:2005-07-22
"it can run a vastly larger range of operating systems more reliably (because, you know, everyone supports Apple hardware nowadays)"
erm. Apple's firmware is a hideous nightmare. Just ask Matthew Garrett. If you're a maintainer of an OS that's not OS X or, to a limited extent, Windows, trying to make yourself installable on modern Macs is an exercise in pain. I certainly wouldn't recommend Apples as a good choice of hardware for the OS-agnostic.
erm. Apple's firmware is a hideous nightmare. Just ask Matthew Garrett. If you're a maintainer of an OS that's not OS X or, to a limited extent, Windows, trying to make yourself installable on modern Macs is an exercise in pain. I certainly wouldn't recommend Apples as a good choice of hardware for the OS-agnostic.
You don't need to run Linux natively on a MacBook Air. I have an 11 inch Air with a 128 Gb SDD and 4 Gb RAM and I run Kubuntu under VirtualBox in 2Gb of the RAM and OS X Lion in the other 2 Gb. It works great and is like having two machines in one.
If I ran Linux natively then 3D performance would be better and I could use all the RAM, but for my purposes that wouldn't make much difference. I run Windows 7 under VMWare on my iMac and that works great too. For me, the way to go is to use virtual machines for whatever OS you need to run.
I used to dual boot or install Linux natively but I really can't see much advantage anymore, and it is much less flexible. If I fancy trying a new linux distro, or I need a special Linux development environment, I can just install it into a new virtual machine and run that instead of my usual Linux VM.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.More News »
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2006-01-01
I've tried the Zenbook and I think it's a very good product but I sort of question why you would choose it over a MacBook air which has a slightly but tangibly higher build quality, it can run a vastly larger range of operating systems more reliably (because, you know, everyone supports Apple hardware nowadays) and when it comes time to upgrade it has a much higher resale value.
Also, and let's be honest about this, when you have a problem with your Apple product you go to the Apple store and they replace it or fix it for you. If you have a problem with a ThinkBook or a Dell there is a great support organization. What do you do with you ZenBook a year down the line?
I guess if you really want to move away from Apple but you want to retain the same design aesthetic the Zenbook is a decent candidate though I think - generally - a ThinkBook would be better for most users.
Edited 2012-03-27 22:55 UTC