joshwex90

I don't mind the SP keyboard. And you can pick up the Surface Pro 6 from Costco for $800, including the keyboard

DYKWIA

Windows 10

nkedel

There's a VLC build for ChromeOS. VLC plays almost anything, including DVDs -- really the only exception I can think of are things that use more modern DRM (and it will happily play BluRay images with the DRM removed.)

Very very slow, underpowered machine, especially the base model with the m3 processor. It's not as slow as some of the < $500 Chromebooks (or trash < $500 Windows machines) -- for ChromeOS, that's almost excusable, but for a $1300 machine, something clocked that low really isn't. The Macbook Air is cheaper, quite a bit faster, and not THAT much bigger -- and still slower than comparably priced PC machines where you'd have a quad core i5 (like the Macbook Pro 13) rather than a dual.

Not sure I'd call the XPS 15 a travel machine; I've got one (last-generation; 9560), and as far as full-power machines go it's one of the most compact (if not the lightest) and one of the better PC attempts to clone a MacBook Pro 15 -- but it's too big to open in a lot of coach seats, and pushing 5lbs.

XPS 13 or if you need something with a few more ports and a more business-y keyboard, the Latitude 7490 are great small general-use machines from dell (to my mind; the 7490 may be too big to be a "travel machine" to some), although IMO the best balance of size, power, and ports in that size range is the X1 Carbon, which basically does to a 14" screen what the XPS 13 did to 13s -- gets it into a one-size-smaller chassis. With a great keyboard (unlike the short-travel one on the XPS) and most of the standard business ports. If it were my money, I'd save the cash and get the 7490 (which is frequently almost cheap on Dell Outlet) but if someone else is paying and I had a choice of manufacturers the X1 is the nicer machine.

javabytes

spartacus

If you are anywhere close to the Omaha area, do yourself a favor and look into Shrock Innovations. They are a top-notch local company that has great deals and will build according to your individual needs. And it will not be as expensive as one may expect for a custom laptop.

msp3

chx1975

I mentioned CloudReady above with the X220 but I learned there is a better solution these days: Chromefy. It is full Chrome OS, including the Android Play Store. So: I maintain that's your best Chromebook.

DYKWIA

Looks like a nightmare to install... And doesn't appear to auto update.

I might have a go at installing on my old Surface 3
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paperwastage

i just started chromefy on my one mix yoga

starting to like it - android and linux subsystems work, chromeos UI definitely more touch/dpi friendly than the other linux distros (ubuntu mate, lubuntu etc)

will probably keep it if i can get my whole dev env set up (Webstorm/Intellij)

nkedel

I had actually forgotten that about the X1 Carbon, and that's one advantage of the Dell Latitude 7490. I doubt my wife is ever going to need to go to 32gb on hers (or likely 64gb, when 32gb DIMMs are readily available) but given how long she keeps laptops for it's not entirely implausible, and I could see some light-duty development workloads today where a U-series quad core i7 like the ones in the X1/7490/XPS13 would be adequate but 16GB would be limiting.

"Custom" laptops (and a lot of minor brand ones) are generally just barebones ones from the same handful of companies with a few parts out of the bin, and the OEM of the barebones model obscured. Nothing wrong with that, but there's fundamentally very little you can customize these days beyond what's already available as variations on build to order from Dell/HP/Lenovo.

DYKWIA

Let me know if you manage to get IntelliJ working...

boerne

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-2-...?skuId=6292310

i have this and it is brilliant. Win 10. Does all the work stuff and pretty decent on gaming. Very light. My travel go to PC. I am writing this from a chromebook that does Android apps, and I would still take this baby over that one, especially since weight is important on many of my travels.

paperwastage

https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/wi...stall-intellij

people have done it. I was able to set intellij up without any issues. Typical Linux apps run fast, intellij/Java is very slow due to lack of GPU acceleration



ChromeOS is less restrictive than I once thought with android container + crostini VM support (which were introduced in 2016 and mid-2018 respectively).

UI and workflow integration definitely exceeds my expectations (android->chromeos and linux -> chromeos)

crostini VM (kvm) - content with the performance so far (hey, my device has a quad cherry trail intel Atom with mmc drive), very happy them using lxc containers

still have some issues before i'm totally happy. will likely get the one mix 3 yoga when it comes out and load it with chromeos
- no GPU acceleration, should come in March 2019
- no sound/usb support (not dealbreaker for me)
- not quite sure how updates to ChromeOS AND chromiumOS works, need to test it out

You can probably run crouton(no VM) instead of crostini(VM) to get beter native performance, but no OS/UI integration

iowa guy

I'm the OP. I've been too embarrassed to reply because all I need the laptop for is to watch non-streaming movies on looooooooooong plane rides and to pull up google earth when I have an internet connection.

wco81

So have you bought anything?

It just depends on how good you want your experience to be. You can watch movies on a $300 laptop but the screen and speakers won't be as nice and it may not have a big hard drive to store a lot of movies. And most laptops these days do not have a DVD drive either so you'd need digital downloads of movies.

The more you spend, of course there will be nicer screens, better speakers, faster processor and graphics for things like Google Earth.

An iPad Pro will have good quality screen and speakers and it should run Google Earth well. But it's expensive for what it is, only about a 10-inch screen and when you get one with a lot of storage, say 128 GB (if they even still offer that size), it's expensive storage, unless you're okay with downloading and deleting movie and swapping them out constantly, to make it work with say a 64 GB model.

I think all of the streaming services provide a better experience with their iPad apps. than using their websites on a browser. Plus, you can download movies and shows from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Showtime Anytime apps. for offline viewing. Not sure you can do the same with the websites for those or other services.