Entroware have released another beast of a Laptop, worth looking into

Its good to see a UK company shipping Ubuntu laptops. Most people seem oblivious and have little to no interest in PC Gaming or hardware let alone GNU/Linux.


Last edited by on 18 June 2016 at 2:38 pm UTC

Quoting: Miqueyelaptops might save some space, but the ergonomics are compromised. use some extra gear to help that and the space is used up again. portability is really the only point for me (mostly bedroom <--> kitchen to be honest), I am quite happy with my mainframe being room sized and stationary.
a mobile VR gaming rig would be sweet though 8D

cheers,
Michael

You add a mouse, some decent speakers, a dac maybe ? Perhaps the keyboard is nice but too restrictive for longer periods and your wrist gets pain from the hard edge on the laptop case.. so you add a keyboard .. then you add an aftermarket cooling tray underneath as it gets hot and noisy because you got tired of the quarterly clean out required.
You bought a larger model with a 17" screen the image is ok (60hz 1080p) but the screen isn’t a patch on a dedicated monitor. so you decide to use a spare one lying around and prefer the two screen setup ... 'but if only that screen was bigger' .
Finally you decide that you love the portability potencial and yet end up only using it in one place as the environment is quieter and nicer and you can get work done, plus the 17" model was a bit too heavy to carry around with it's 300w power supply.
Two years later it can't play the latest games anymore and on a late night gaming session you accidentally spill half a pint of beer over it, jumping back only to rip off your headphones that are in the side socket.. right next to the USB pen that can only just manage to cram in next to the other USB for the mouse and oddly placed HDMi connector.

The laptop gets cleaned up and used as a server / streaming machine under the TV.

That thing maxes out at 64 GB of RAM. :O You can even opt for the 1TB SSD. If money were no object, I'd be all over it. But alas, my money is a very very small object. I'll stick to my Chromebook for portability and my desktop for gaming.

For those of you in the States - such as myself - check out System76. They're based in Colorado, build their machines from the ground up to run Linux - Ubuntu's their distro of choice - and build laptops, desktops, and servers. They're the American equivalent of Entroware, who sadly doesn't deliver to the US, last time I checked. :(

[url=system76.com]system76.com[/url] if you want to check them out.

Quoting: mr-egg

Quoting: Miqueyelaptops might save some space, but the ergonomics are compromised. use some extra gear to help that and the space is used up again. portability is really the only point for me (mostly bedroom <--> kitchen to be honest), I am quite happy with my mainframe being room sized and stationary.
a mobile VR gaming rig would be sweet though 8D

cheers,
Michael

You add a mouse, some decent speakers, a dac maybe ? Perhaps the keyboard is nice but too restrictive for longer periods and your wrist gets pain from the hard edge on the laptop case.. so you add a keyboard .. then you add an aftermarket cooling tray underneath as it gets hot and noisy because you got tired of the quarterly clean out required.
You bought a larger model with a 17" screen the image is ok (60hz 1080p) but the screen isn’t a patch on a dedicated monitor. so you decide to use a spare one lying around and prefer the two screen setup ... 'but if only that screen was bigger' .
Finally you decide that you love the portability potencial and yet end up only using it in one place as the environment is quieter and nicer and you can get work done, plus the 17" model was a bit too heavy to carry around with it's 300w power supply.
Two years later it can't play the latest games anymore and on a late night gaming session you accidentally spill half a pint of beer over it, jumping back only to rip off your headphones that are in the side socket.. right next to the USB pen that can only just manage to cram in next to the other USB for the mouse and oddly placed HDMi connector.

The laptop gets cleaned up and used as a server / streaming machine under the TV.

Wouhou! Sounds like another "Slice of Life". :)

...also a 980M is not even half as fast as a real 980.

Quoting: jasondaigoi worked a couple of years for dell and i really tried to get into that touchpad and notebook keyboard thing; but i just cant; it would not safe any space for me as i still want my roccat kybd and mouse. a barebone would safe space maybe :-) naah im fine; notebooks suck...

It would save space even with the peripherals simply because I wouldn't have to contend with the big, metal box that my PC currently resides in.

But like I said, the limited ability to replace components is the deal breaker.


Last edited by Mountain Man on 17 June 2016 at 6:04 pm UTC

This is the same as the System76 Oryx Pro laptop. I have it with the gtx 980m model, and it's great.

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: mrmangoI have the Athena, which is essentially a Clevo. Like the ones other Linux computer sellers use. It has a 970 and it doesn't chug for me. Yeah in a few the card will not seem that fast. But if you want laptop that works with Linux and is decent with games. The range looks like a good range in general :)

Yep! I got the same exact laptop but in the 17in version. I recognize the bezels on the top of the screen, the case texture and the power button look and position. Got the same hardware too but with the GTX980m. In fact, it's the computer I'm using to type this message.

For my part, it works great and the perfs are awesome. Just had to make a rollback on the gpu driver because of texture applications problems (SoM where characters had no bodies, just a floating head...) and it didn't work with Ubuntu 16.04 ootb. Mir or KDE refused to start and I was left with the desktop background without any menus. KDE was even worst, I was left with a frozen screen with an underscore. Could'nt even access the terminal. So I decided to stick to Ubuntu 14.04. Has it been fixed?

There's an easy fix for the Shadow of Mordor bug. I can't tell you what it is at the moment since I'm not at my PC, but it's a simple matter of adding some launch options in Steam.

As for the Ubuntu 16.04, I can't help you there since I haven't had a lick of trouble with it.

Quoting: Mountain Man

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: mrmangoI have the Athena, which is essentially a Clevo. Like the ones other Linux computer sellers use. It has a 970 and it doesn't chug for me. Yeah in a few the card will not seem that fast. But if you want laptop that works with Linux and is decent with games. The range looks like a good range in general :)

Yep! I got the same exact laptop but in the 17in version. I recognize the bezels on the top of the screen, the case texture and the power button look and position. Got the same hardware too but with the GTX980m. In fact, it's the computer I'm using to type this message.

For my part, it works great and the perfs are awesome. Just had to make a rollback on the gpu driver because of texture applications problems (SoM where characters had no bodies, just a floating head...) and it didn't work with Ubuntu 16.04 ootb. Mir or KDE refused to start and I was left with the desktop background without any menus. KDE was even worst, I was left with a frozen screen with an underscore. Could'nt even access the terminal. So I decided to stick to Ubuntu 14.04. Has it been fixed?

There's an easy fix for the Shadow of Mordor bug. I can't tell you what it is at the moment since I'm not at my PC, but it's a simple matter of adding some launch options in Steam.

As for the Ubuntu 16.04, I can't help you there since I haven't had a lick of trouble with it.

Sorry, I should have specified that the problem with Ubuntu 16.04 is documented and Skylake related. I read somewhere to wait for 16.04.1, it wil solve the issue. I was just wondering if it's been already upstreamed because, according to their website, this company is already shipping 16.04 laptops.

Keep in mind that I tried the 16.04 installation on April 22nd so, I might be outdated on the subject and it's the reason why I'm asking. :)

Besides, I'm running 16.04 on an old Core 2 Duo E8400 and it runs really well.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 17 June 2016 at 6:34 pm UTC