What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?

[happylacquer]

Debian for machines I use, sometimes KNOPPIX.

Gentoo or CentOS for servers I run.

[rowdy]

I've been trying Fedora 25 in a VM recently.

Reasonably nice, performs very well, good selection of software available.

Bit there are hundreds of MB of updates every few days (including kernels that require a reboot), and the yum command has been replaced by dnf with subtly different options.

for some reason i was under the impression that fedora didn't update that often because of their aggressive release schedule. but i have never really used it unless it was already installed on a machine i was temporarily using.

I have no idea.  I started using it recently as a replacement for CentOS 7, which although a recent version still has a lot of legacy software.  I needed something a bit more cutting-edge, but not as extreme as Arch (which I've also tried).

It didn't hurt to try Fedora in a VM, but I have found that there are a couple of hundred MB of updates every week or so.

[suicidal_orange]

Debian for machines I use, sometimes KNOPPIX.

Gentoo or CentOS for servers I run.

I used Gentoo until about 10 years ago, anytime I've tried to install since has failed (it's been at least a couple of years since the last attempt...) but it's tempting to try it when I get a working computer again.

Can't help wondering why you only use it on servers though, it was always a bit experimental with stuff randomly breaking so not something I'd want on my server - have things changed that much?

[hgoel89]

Ubuntu at home and office

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

[sth]

Can't help wondering why you only use it on servers though, it was always a bit experimental with stuff randomly breaking so not something I'd want on my server - have things changed that much?

job security

[menuhin]

my wife use LMDE - rock stable as debian, usability of mint

That's also my choice, paired with MATE.
LMDE3 release is probably in 2018 though.

[dante]

Not Linux but I've been toying with the idea of FreeBSD + XFCE.

[sth]

Not Linux but I've been toying with the idea of FreeBSD + XFCE.

do it then homey

i really liked openBSD but some of its security features don't lend themselves to desktop usage. if i need to set up a server for near anything in the future i'd use it in a heartbeat. the documentation alone is unbeatable -- you get man pages for config files and everything! plus centralized style guides and editing means no wimpy docs like a lot of linux programs come with.

[ramnes]

Debian for machines I use, sometimes KNOPPIX.

Gentoo or CentOS for servers I run.

I used Gentoo until about 10 years ago, anytime I've tried to install since has failed (it's been at least a couple of years since the last attempt...) but it's tempting to try it when I get a working computer again.

Can't help wondering why you only use it on servers though, it was always a bit experimental with stuff randomly breaking so not something I'd want on my server - have things changed that much?

In my company we're running something like a hundred servers (I think, maybe more) on Gentoo for some years now, and we really don't want to change. We're also all using it as our desktop system in my team.

Gentoo is not experimental at all, but clearly you have to know what you're doing. And if you want to be serious about security on Linux, a hardened Gentoo is probably one of the best experience you can get.

Using Gentoo on servers is exactly where it makes the most sense to me.

[_BMW_M3_]

Ubuntu 14.04 w/ Remnux

[iLLucionist]

I talked about this earlier in this thread, but I've finally done it: moved out of Apple's ecosystem and built my own rig (i7 6700K - 64GB DDR4 - 512GB NVME SSD + 512 GB 850 Pro, 980 GTX OC).

I'm now running Xubuntu with XFCE alongside Win7. Man, XFCE is the BEST desktop environment ever, really. I'm a power user, I want to manage windows, launching apps, stitching windows, etc effectively. That's all. And XFCE does JUST THAT. Everything has sane default behavior.

OS X always slowed me down because of "animations" and so-called "usability". But XFCE is just... so nice and clean. It's like Win95 on steroids.

And guess what? There is this thread about on what linux lags behind on the desktop. But Xubuntu turned out to be the ONLY distro that worked right out of the box. Because my motherboard no longer supports AHCI and switched to EHCI or XHCI? not sure how it's called.. anyway. Win7 didn't recognize my hardware.

Xubuntu just worked. Everything. Out of the box. Sound, accelerated graphics, NVME even. Immediately. I was amazed. Within 10-15 minutes or so I was up and running at the maximum resolution of my screen (2560x1440), with accelerated graphics and even out-of-the box support for my Scarlett 2i2 external sound card (interface).

[fohat.digs]

Xubuntu just worked. Everything. Out of the box.

So far, this has been my experience with Mint/Cinnamon, with more pleasing interface to boot.
 

[iLLucionist]

Xubuntu just worked. Everything. Out of the box.

So far, this has been my experience with Mint/Cinnamon, with more pleasing interface to boot.

Couldn't agree more, I've been using Mint as well only not on my new rig. Both work extremely well so far.

I also have a server still on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS that has been running 24/7. Never a single hiccup or issue *knock on wood*.

Even though people argue that linux quality is downhill because the kernel is becoming more bloated and the "hobbyists" don't like maintaining their code and thus not fixing bugs enough, I still have the feeling that GNU/linux distros are far superior in stability than windows or even macos.

[iri]

I'm a power user

Why don't you use a tiling window manager then?

[Altis]

Linux Lite has been working beautifully for me as a desktop OS (mostly in VM). Lighweight, attractive, runs like a champ in VM on a 2010 MacBook Pro 17" 8GB i5.

It hasn't missed a beat so far.

[ramnes]

I'm a power user

Why don't you use a tiling window manager then?

This.

[iLLucionist]

I'm a power user

Why don't you use a tiling window manager then?

This.

I do. I switch between i3 and XFCE. My whole remark was more about how win10 and OS X Sierra got it so "wrong" in my opinion and that if you want a REGULAR DE for real work, XFCE is superior (compared to OS X and windows nowadays).

When I do writing and research online, I use XFCE.

When I am programming I use i3 and/or terminal using tmux.

[Altis]

I do. I switch between i3 and XFCE. My whole remark was more about how win10 and OS X Sierra got it so "wrong" in my opinion and that if you want a REGULAR DE for real work, XFCE is superior (compared to OS X and windows nowadays).

When I do writing and research online, I use XFCE.

When I am programming I use i3 and/or terminal using tmux.

XFCE is really hard to beat. Fast, efficient, flexible, attractive.

MacOS seems to be getting slow and bloated these days, unfortunately (as has iOS).

[xtrafrood]

Rendering with Blender is faster on Linux praise the gods. Seven months--this may be the start of something grand

[iLLucionist]

I do. I switch between i3 and XFCE. My whole remark was more about how win10 and OS X Sierra got it so "wrong" in my opinion and that if you want a REGULAR DE for real work, XFCE is superior (compared to OS X and windows nowadays).

When I do writing and research online, I use XFCE.

When I am programming I use i3 and/or terminal using tmux.

XFCE is really hard to beat. Fast, efficient, flexible, attractive.

MacOS seems to be getting slow and bloated these days, unfortunately (as has iOS).

Yeah exactly. MacOS now feels like Vista. I always thought OS X was more optimized so one day I was using somebody's i5 PC and I was like "wtf it's fast". So then I decided to build my own rig again. It is SOOO FAAAST. Whenever I use my 2010 MacBook Pro (WITH SSD) now, I become agitated because it's so slow.

[happylacquer]

Apparently Debian8.7.0 is out now so I did a clean install of that on my spare SSD. All my laptops are running Debian 8.6.0 and i have one ARM TV Box running ARMbian instead of Android.

[iLLucionist]

Apparently Debian8.7.0 is out now so I did a clean install of that on my spare SSD. All my laptops are running Debian 8.6.0 and i have one ARM TV Box running ARMbian instead of Android.

I haven't touch vanilla debian since the death of it's founder and alleged NSA infringement. I stay the hell away from that sh*t.

[Altis]

I do. I switch between i3 and XFCE. My whole remark was more about how win10 and OS X Sierra got it so "wrong" in my opinion and that if you want a REGULAR DE for real work, XFCE is superior (compared to OS X and windows nowadays).

When I do writing and research online, I use XFCE.

When I am programming I use i3 and/or terminal using tmux.

XFCE is really hard to beat. Fast, efficient, flexible, attractive.

MacOS seems to be getting slow and bloated these days, unfortunately (as has iOS).

Yeah exactly. MacOS now feels like Vista. I always thought OS X was more optimized so one day I was using somebody's i5 PC and I was like "wtf it's fast". So then I decided to build my own rig again. It is SOOO FAAAST. Whenever I use my 2010 MacBook Pro (WITH SSD) now, I become agitated because it's so slow.

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro as well (17"). MacOS Sierra runs poorly on it, so I have El Capitan still. But even that runs pretty dismal -- especially Safari.

But when I boot to either Windows or Linux Lite, it runs like a champ. I can smooth stream 3 YouTube videos in 1080p simultaneously and scrub through them quickly with no hiccups, while OSX Safari struggles heavily with just one 1080p video.

I might ditch OSX from it altogether at some point and just use Win/Linux on it.

[sth]

not to go too OT but i'm curious about all this sierra hate, other than performance which is totally reasonable. maybe my workflow is just totally unaffected by recent changes but honestly i can't really tell the difference between sierra and the last few revisions.

[iLLucionist]

I do. I switch between i3 and XFCE. My whole remark was more about how win10 and OS X Sierra got it so "wrong" in my opinion and that if you want a REGULAR DE for real work, XFCE is superior (compared to OS X and windows nowadays).

When I do writing and research online, I use XFCE.

When I am programming I use i3 and/or terminal using tmux.

XFCE is really hard to beat. Fast, efficient, flexible, attractive.

MacOS seems to be getting slow and bloated these days, unfortunately (as has iOS).

Yeah exactly. MacOS now feels like Vista. I always thought OS X was more optimized so one day I was using somebody's i5 PC and I was like "wtf it's fast". So then I decided to build my own rig again. It is SOOO FAAAST. Whenever I use my 2010 MacBook Pro (WITH SSD) now, I become agitated because it's so slow.

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro as well (17"). MacOS Sierra runs poorly on it, so I have El Capitan still. But even that runs pretty dismal -- especially Safari.

But when I boot to either Windows or Linux Lite, it runs like a champ. I can smooth stream 3 YouTube videos in 1080p simultaneously and scrub through them quickly with no hiccups, while OSX Safari struggles heavily with just one 1080p video.

I might ditch OSX from it altogether at some point and just use Win/Linux on it.

Interesting... perhaps if I install xubuntu it will fly again. Weird. Wonder what happened to the codebase of OS X. Or "software implemented planned obsolescence"..

[iLLucionist]

not to go too OT but i'm curious about all this sierra hate, other than performance which is totally reasonable. maybe my workflow is just totally unaffected by recent changes but honestly i can't really tell the difference between sierra and the last few revisions.

Great that Sierra works for you, but if you would build a new decent PC now and then compare side by side commont tasks: open a filebrowser, open a webpage, click through menus and dialogs in applications, saving a file, emptying trash, etc. you will notice a large gap in "responsiveness". Sierra on my macbook pro from 2010 is extremely slow. My new build is snappy and extremely fast. And by that I don't mean computations or a high workload, just the regular stuff already.

[Leslieann]

not to go too OT but i'm curious about all this sierra hate, other than performance which is totally reasonable. maybe my workflow is just totally unaffected by recent changes but honestly i can't really tell the difference between sierra and the last few revisions.

It needs more ram than many Mac users have and it's quite fickle in regards to the hardware it supports. Apple is using it and El Cap. to purge older hardware from their ranks.

It also implemented some new security features that are causing problems for hardware and software, and some were simply not well thought out. A lot of video cards simply no longer work, others will not resume from suspend, there's really only a handful of video cards that work problem free now out of the box. As of Sierra, connecting to a server's shared drive requires authentication after each restart, Apple eventually released of command line code to reverse it, but if you use a lot of shared drives, especially across multiple servers, it was/is a nightmare.

[iLLucionist]

not to go too OT but i'm curious about all this sierra hate, other than performance which is totally reasonable. maybe my workflow is just totally unaffected by recent changes but honestly i can't really tell the difference between sierra and the last few revisions.

It needs more ram than many Mac users have and it's quite fickle in regards to the hardware it supports. Apple is using it and El Cap. to purge older hardware from their ranks.

It also implemented some new security features that are causing problems for hardware and software, and some were simply not well thought out. A lot of video cards simply no longer work, others will not resume from suspend, there's really only a handful of video cards that work problem free now out of the box. As of Sierra, connecting to a server's shared drive requires authentication after each restart, Apple eventually released of command line code to reverse it, but if you use a lot of shared drives, especially across multiple servers, it was/is a nightmare.

It really IS a nightmare. I have a U2713HM and that is recognised as a TV with only 1920x1080. So What I have to do is manually install a device identifier file into the system files so that the resolutions are recognized properly (2560x1440). Guess what? You can't do it because system files are protected. So you have to (1) reboot into safe mode (2) disable system file protection (3) reboot back into normal mode, copy the ESID-file into play (4) reboot back into safe mode (5) turn system file protection back on (6) reboot. If only there was a way you could temporarily disable it WHILST running wtf apple. Reminds me of Win 95/98 with constant rebooting even to update the registry sometimes.

[dante]

What do you guys think of the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop?

link to a review

[iLLucionist]

What do you guys think of the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop?

link to a review

I don't trust Dell laptops anymore after the XPS 13/15 2016 fiasco: a lot of issues with drivers, hardware support, and even hardware issues (overheating for instance).

So although it looks enticing (it does), I'll probably try to stay away from them. Such as shame.. really looks like a MacBook "Pro" competitor.

[asym]

What do you guys think of the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop?

link to a review

I have a 2015 XPS 13 Developer Edition and I had to deal with wifi hardware and intermittent blank screen issues early on. After those were worked out it has been relatively smooth sailing. I'm currently running 16.04.

[Leslieann]

It's a nice laptop on the surface, but like iLLucionist said, they have had some issues.

My advice is grab a last generation Lenovo X series (X250). Is it perfect, does it have all the bells and whistles, is it as cool? Nope, but you will get a great deal on it (half the price of the new Dell), it will be less likely to be stolen yet more durable, reliable, and cheap to repair if anything does happen. Which is why I regularly see 10 year old Lenovos still being used on a semi-regular basis. Also, it will take Linux better than most, it's even certified by Ubuntu as being fully compatible.

Blah blah blah Lenovo spyware... The spyware you know (and remove) is better than the spyware you don't.

[Arallu]

..

[rowdy]

It's a nice laptop on the surface, but like iLLucionist said, they have had some issues.

My advice is grab a last generation Lenovo X series (X250). Is it perfect, does it have all the bells and whistles, is it as cool? Nope, but you will get a great deal on it (half the price of the new Dell), it will be less likely to be stolen yet more durable, reliable, and cheap to repair if anything does happen. Which is why I regularly see 10 year old Lenovos still being used on a semi-regular basis. Also, it will take Linux better than most, it's even certified by Ubuntu as being fully compatible.

Blah blah blah Lenovo spyware... The spyware you know (and remove) is better than the spyware you don't.

... unless they are still shipping it in the firmware ...

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150812/11395231925/lenovo-busted-stealthily-installing-crapware-via-bios-fresh-windows-installs.shtml

[Leslieann]

Again, the spyware you know is better than the spyware you don't.

You can bet Lenovo isn't the only one.

[joey]

Got a new PC on the way, so going to be using voidlinux again soon!

[iri]

The spyware that doesn't exist is better than the one that does.

[xtrafrood]

Checked out Cruchbang/Bunsen earlier today. Pretty slick indeed

[Leslieann]

The spyware that doesn't exist is better than the one that does.

Dell shipped desktops with pre-installed malware, they also shipped ENTERPRISE servers with malware.
Sony was infecting pc's with a rootkit (you can thank them for all modern rootkits).
HP was shipping ENTERPRISE switches and usb sticks with malware.
Asus shipped laptops with malware.
Apple shipped Ipods with Malware and BBC claims 4k apps are infected on their store.
Samsung shipped laptops with a keylogger and cell phones and picture frames with malware.

So tell me again how you're sure your system is clean.

[iLLucionist]

It's a nice laptop on the surface, but like iLLucionist said, they have had some issues.

My advice is grab a last generation Lenovo X series (X250). Is it perfect, does it have all the bells and whistles, is it as cool? Nope, but you will get a great deal on it (half the price of the new Dell), it will be less likely to be stolen yet more durable, reliable, and cheap to repair if anything does happen. Which is why I regularly see 10 year old Lenovos still being used on a semi-regular basis. Also, it will take Linux better than most, it's even certified by Ubuntu as being fully compatible.

Blah blah blah Lenovo spyware... The spyware you know (and remove) is better than the spyware you don't.

I'm probably going for the new X270 with nvme SSD. It has h264/h265 on-die in the cpu (kaby lake) if i'm correctly, so it shouldn't have issues playing 1080p/4k youtube content.

And the keyboard is awesome.

I have to do ACTUAL WORK on laptops, mostly statistiscs (SPSS / R), development (python), and writing, so I want a good keyboard as well.

I HATE the new mackbook pro 2016 keyboard.

[iLLucionist]

The spyware that doesn't exist is better than the one that does.

Dell shipped desktops with pre-installed malware, they also shipped ENTERPRISE servers with malware.
Sony was infecting pc's with a rootkit (you can thank them for all modern rootkits).
HP was shipping ENTERPRISE switches and usb sticks with malware.
Asus shipped laptops with malware.
Apple shipped Ipods with Malware and BBC claims 4k apps are infected on their store.
Samsung shipped laptops with a keylogger and cell phones and picture frames with malware.

So tell me again how you're sure your system is clean.

Ever since there were rumors that win95 came with backdoors, I just accepted that Orwell's 1984 is a reality and that now we're always online, your basically f**ked.

You can think "but I shot facebook down and I avoid google like the plague". But still whenever you visit a site that has google ads or facebook like-button, you are STILL being tracked. And if you could even factor THAT out, you still have ISPs or the mere fact that the NSA monitors all internet traffic anyway since they own the superblocks.

You can't win, you don't have privacy. You can only try to make it more difficult for them, via encryption perhaps.

I haven't figured a way out of this.

[Leslieann]

Ever since there were rumors that win95 came with backdoors, I just accepted that Orwell's 1984 is a reality and that now we're always online, your basically f**ked.

You can think "but I shot facebook down and I avoid google like the plague". But still whenever you visit a site that has google ads or facebook like-button, you are STILL being tracked. And if you could even factor THAT out, you still have ISPs or the mere fact that the NSA monitors all internet traffic anyway since they own the superblocks.

You can't win, you don't have privacy. You can only try to make it more difficult for them, via encryption perhaps.

I haven't figured a way out of this.

In regards to internet privacy, there are now two schools of thought, hide among the people or stick out and protect yourself.
By burying yourself among the herd, you flood them with data. Use Win10 and Edge, with nothing else installed the idea is that you will get so lost among the herd, no one will ever ID you from your neighbor without a hell of a lot of work. You will also get infected with crap, just like your neighbor. While true on the surface, researchers have been able to sift through AOL data dumps and ID individual users, so it can be done, but sifting through raw data is much more difficult than finding the sore thumb among the crowd.

So really the option is be an easy to spot Linux user, or be a sheep among the flock, hard to spot, but easy to infect. This was proven when the FBI said TOR users are immediately zeroed in on, because why else would you use it and try to be so covert. You may as well paint a target on your head.


If you use Chrome on Windows, you may as well just admit you're part of the herd, but with a numerical ID painted on you, in hot pink. If you do use Chrome on a Mac, you're a hot pink cow with lime green dollar signs. If you use Firefox and Linux, you stick out like an orange cow sitting off to the side like the social outcast you are, but at least you won't catch the fever (or herpes) spreading through the herd.


As for the OS spying on you, realistically, it's not difficult to detect or even stop, spying is pointless if it can't relay information back to a central location. However, to do it right, requires a proxy server where you can analyze everything that comes and goes. I've used them to detect rootkits in the past.

[iLLucionist]

Ever since there were rumors that win95 came with backdoors, I just accepted that Orwell's 1984 is a reality and that now we're always online, your basically f**ked.

You can think "but I shot facebook down and I avoid google like the plague". But still whenever you visit a site that has google ads or facebook like-button, you are STILL being tracked. And if you could even factor THAT out, you still have ISPs or the mere fact that the NSA monitors all internet traffic anyway since they own the superblocks.

You can't win, you don't have privacy. You can only try to make it more difficult for them, via encryption perhaps.

I haven't figured a way out of this.

In regards to internet privacy, there are now two schools of thought, hide among the people or stick out and protect yourself.
By burying yourself among the herd, you flood them with data. Use Win10 and Edge, with nothing else installed the idea is that you will get so lost among the herd, no one will ever ID you from your neighbor without a hell of a lot of work. You will also get infected with crap, just like your neighbor. While true on the surface, researchers have been able to sift through AOL data dumps and ID individual users, so it can be done, but sifting through raw data is much more difficult than finding the sore thumb among the crowd.

So really the option is be an easy to spot Linux user, or be a sheep among the flock, hard to spot, but easy to infect. This was proven when the FBI said TOR users are immediately zeroed in on, because why else would you use it and try to be so covert. You may as well paint a target on your head.


If you use Chrome on Windows, you may as well just admit you're part of the herd, but with a numerical ID painted on you, in hot pink. If you do use Chrome on a Mac, you're a hot pink cow with lime green dollar signs. If you use Firefox and Linux, you stick out like an orange cow sitting off to the side like the social outcast you are, but at least you won't catch the fever (or herpes) spreading through the herd.

This is all very interesting, thanks! I guess you are right. I thought about doubling down on security and going all the way.. using a secure linux, using tor, encrypting all my stuff etc. But like you said, it looks like you have something to hide.

You say it is difficult if you blend into the crowd to notice you. Statistically, that would mean that you deviate little from the mean. As with every algorithm, outliers or extreme deviations from the mean may be interesting. In terms of regression, everybody browsing kittens and 9gag is the mean, but those two persons browsing kiddie pron stand out and do not fit the regression line. So the more you deviate, the more interesting you become for NSA I believe, if you put it in terms of algorithms.

Sorry if that was too much statistics, I'm trying to reason about how the NSA would actually pick you out of the herd, and I guess it is via algorithms, typically based on machine learning and discriminatory analysis. So they need to quantify a way to distinguish the herd from interesting data points (people).

As for the OS spying on you, realistically, it's not difficult to detect or even stop, spying is pointless if it can't relay information back to a central location. However, to do it right, requires a proxy server where you can analyze everything that comes and goes. I've used them to detect rootkits in the past.

I'm NEVER going back to Mac in the near foreseeable future and I'm now running Win7, which I really like. But in the future I will be forced to upgrade to Win10 or what else we will have. (Alongside, I run xubuntu alongside and/or virtualized within windows to do serious programming work).

So I'm thinking about building my own hardware router, using iptables etc and then monitoring what win10 tries to do.

Would that be possible? Or is it also technically possible to make particular ip addresses "undetectable" by commonplace network software?

[iri]

The spyware that doesn't exist is better than the one that does.

Dell shipped desktops with pre-installed malware, they also shipped ENTERPRISE servers with malware.
Sony was infecting pc's with a rootkit (you can thank them for all modern rootkits).
HP was shipping ENTERPRISE switches and usb sticks with malware.
Asus shipped laptops with malware.
Apple shipped Ipods with Malware and BBC claims 4k apps are infected on their store.
Samsung shipped laptops with a keylogger and cell phones and picture frames with malware.

So tell me again how you're sure your system is clean.

It has an OPEN SOURCE BIOS and an OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM. Also I wipe it with a CLEAN CLOTH.

[vivalarevolución]

It's a nice laptop on the surface, but like iLLucionist said, they have had some issues.

My advice is grab a last generation Lenovo X series (X250). Is it perfect, does it have all the bells and whistles, is it as cool? Nope, but you will get a great deal on it (half the price of the new Dell), it will be less likely to be stolen yet more durable, reliable, and cheap to repair if anything does happen. Which is why I regularly see 10 year old Lenovos still being used on a semi-regular basis. Also, it will take Linux better than most, it's even certified by Ubuntu as being fully compatible.

Blah blah blah Lenovo spyware... The spyware you know (and remove) is better than the spyware you don't.

I'm probably going for the new X270 with nvme SSD. It has h264/h265 on-die in the cpu (kaby lake) if i'm correctly, so it shouldn't have issues playing 1080p/4k youtube content.

And the keyboard is awesome.

I have to do ACTUAL WORK on laptops, mostly statistiscs (SPSS / R), development (python), and writing, so I want a good keyboard as well.

I HATE the new mackbook pro 2016 keyboard.

I would just bump up to a quad core if you have to do actual work.  Everytime I try to do actual work on a dual core laptop, there are just too much throttling and bottlenecks.

[iLLucionist]

It's a nice laptop on the surface, but like iLLucionist said, they have had some issues.

My advice is grab a last generation Lenovo X series (X250). Is it perfect, does it have all the bells and whistles, is it as cool? Nope, but you will get a great deal on it (half the price of the new Dell), it will be less likely to be stolen yet more durable, reliable, and cheap to repair if anything does happen. Which is why I regularly see 10 year old Lenovos still being used on a semi-regular basis. Also, it will take Linux better than most, it's even certified by Ubuntu as being fully compatible.

Blah blah blah Lenovo spyware... The spyware you know (and remove) is better than the spyware you don't.

I'm probably going for the new X270 with nvme SSD. It has h264/h265 on-die in the cpu (kaby lake) if i'm correctly, so it shouldn't have issues playing 1080p/4k youtube content.

And the keyboard is awesome.

I have to do ACTUAL WORK on laptops, mostly statistiscs (SPSS / R), development (python), and writing, so I want a good keyboard as well.

I HATE the new mackbook pro 2016 keyboard.

I would just bump up to a quad core if you have to do actual work.  Everytime I try to do actual work on a dual core laptop, there are just too much throttling and bottlenecks.

Yeah that's probably true. My Late 2010 MacBook Pro with dual core i7 is not really good at multithreading for some reason. It always fails me.

Also, I have the feeling that virtualization works waaaaay better with 4 cores: 2 for main os, 2 for guest os.

[dante]

SDF a Public Access Unix Shell provider uses NetBSD on primarily DEC Alpha in an attempt to hide from hackers.

[iwantatrophy]

I am using and loving AntergOS. Feels refreshing from someone coming from KDE and Unity.

[vivalarevolución]

It's a nice laptop on the surface, but like iLLucionist said, they have had some issues.

My advice is grab a last generation Lenovo X series (X250). Is it perfect, does it have all the bells and whistles, is it as cool? Nope, but you will get a great deal on it (half the price of the new Dell), it will be less likely to be stolen yet more durable, reliable, and cheap to repair if anything does happen. Which is why I regularly see 10 year old Lenovos still being used on a semi-regular basis. Also, it will take Linux better than most, it's even certified by Ubuntu as being fully compatible.

Blah blah blah Lenovo spyware... The spyware you know (and remove) is better than the spyware you don't.

I'm probably going for the new X270 with nvme SSD. It has h264/h265 on-die in the cpu (kaby lake) if i'm correctly, so it shouldn't have issues playing 1080p/4k youtube content.

And the keyboard is awesome.

I have to do ACTUAL WORK on laptops, mostly statistiscs (SPSS / R), development (python), and writing, so I want a good keyboard as well.

I HATE the new mackbook pro 2016 keyboard.

I would just bump up to a quad core if you have to do actual work.  Everytime I try to do actual work on a dual core laptop, there are just too much throttling and bottlenecks.

Yeah that's probably true. My Late 2010 MacBook Pro with dual core i7 is not really good at multithreading for some reason. It always fails me.

Also, I have the feeling that virtualization works waaaaay better with 4 cores: 2 for main os, 2 for guest os.

Yea, the argument that I've seen around the web is that if you worried about the performance of dual core i5 vs. i7, just bump up to a quad core because that's where you will get a sizeable performance bump.  You lose on size and battery, but will have definite improvements in performance.

[tp4tissue]

Yea, the argument that I've seen around the web is that if you worried about the performance of dual core i5 vs. i7, just bump up to a quad core because that's where you will get a sizeable performance bump.  You lose on size and battery, but will have definite improvements in performance.

Size yes..  Battery... we got pretty good gating on the intels nowadays..