Lightweight Travel Laptop that runs SL fairly well

[Coffee Pancake]

14 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

make sure you bootcamp (think thats what it is) so you have a viable windows install too if you need it.

Macbook Air M1 does not and will never support bootcamp, that requires an intel x86 chip. You can run parallels, but probably want a machine with 16GB ram for that and I've not found the need. It's not as important as it has been with other Macs I've had, everything I've needed to run (inc games) has come with a Mac port and most stuff has been updated to run on M1 natively at this point (well .. except for SL, but that's a whole different can of wurms).

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I looked up the Macbook Air M1 and it seems they are all 13.3" screens.  Eeeek.  I'm figuring a downsize to a 15.6" might be traumatic enough on my eyes.  I have not had a personal laptop smaller than 17" in over a decade.  That will take some serious thinking.

Yeah .. The Macbook Pro line comes with MUCH bigger screens .. and price too. I was used to big 16-17" laptops previously and my budget didn't stretch to a 16" Macbook. If I'm home with it at a desk, I do plug the Air into a dock / dongle and a second big monitor, but being honest .. the screen on the Macbook is really good and the big screen tends to just get iused to dump stuff on, and I've not found it to be an issue when out and about.

I would certainly say go poke one in person before buying (that goes for any laptop really).

[Madelaine McMasters]

L'il, If you decide to go with MacBook Air, wait until after Apple's Worldwide Developer conference opens on June 6. The rumor mill believes a new Air will be announced then. It's expected to be faster, come in a rainbow of colors( with white keyboard rather than the historical black), and a MagSafe connector (which eliminates the potential for yanking the thing off a desk if you trip on the power cord, which happened to me 20+ years ago). It's also possible it will cost more, but the current generation might also drop in price as they phase it out.

[Gabriele Graves]

2 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

There is a bit of a learning curve coming from Windows, but nothing like the curve going to Linux.

What a load of balderdash.  There is no more learning curve using Linux than any of the alternatives these days unless you want there to be.  This is just FUD.

[Coffee Pancake]

6 minutes ago, Gabriele Graves said:

What a load of balderdash.  There is no more learning curve using Linux than any of the alternatives these days unless you want there to be.  This is just FUD.

As someone who ran Linux as her main OS from the days It came shipped to your actual house in a box on floppy disks with a book, I respectfully disagree.

[Gabriele Graves]

19 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

As someone who ran Linux as her main OS from the days It came shipped to your actual house in a box on floppy disks with a book, I respectfully disagree.

What has gone before doesn't matter, it is how difficult it is today that matters and I stand by my assertion as someone who uses it still today as her main OS.

[Coffee Pancake]

11 minutes ago, Gabriele Graves said:

What has gone before doesn't matter, it is how difficult it is today that matters and I stand by my assertion as someone who uses it still today as her main OS.

Linux is a mountain of what's old is new again, it always has been, that's literally the entire point.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Coffee Pancake

[Henri Beauchamp]

4 hours ago, Kathrine Jansma said:

Actually, with the investments of Steam and others into DXVK and Proton (https://www.protondb.com/) and stuff like Lutris (https://lutris.net/), thats not necessarily true anymore these days. Gaming on Linux mostly works, but you might get troubles with ”Anti-Cheat” crap in some multi-player games, that try to install Windows kernel drivers or similar deeply scary stuff.

That's why I wrote ”if you are into AAA games, then it is easier to run them under Windows”. I never said you could not run them under Linux, but it requires more know-how, fiddling and sometimes right out ”hacking” for some games... Plus, the DX games will run slower under Linux+Wine (or its Proton/Lutris/Whatever flavours) than under native Windows... So, yes, for a ”gamer” (not a SLer), a dual-boot is usually the best solution.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Henri Beauchamp

[Wulfie Reanimator]

5 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I don't have the software - my current laptop came with Win 10 already installed.

For what it's worth, you can still use the Installation Media Creation Tool to install Windows 10/11 for free, so you don't have to pay for a computer that includes a pre-activated copy (+$130 or so). I've been using unregistered Windows 10 since it came out and it's been totally fine, no missing features outside of some personalization options which you can still change through the Registry if you're really determined.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Wulfie Reanimator

[MarissaOrloff]

1 hour ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

For what it's worth, you can still use the Installation Media Creation Tool to install Windows 10/11 for free, so you don't have to pay for a computer that includes a pre-activated copy (+$130 or so). I've been using unregistered Windows 10 since it came out and it's been totally fine, no missing features outside of some personalization options which you can still change through the Registry if you're really determined.

If you use Linux you can even add your own annoying watermark in the bottom right hand of the screen!

https://github.com/MrGlockenspiel/activate-linux

https://github.com/Lakr233/ActivateMac requires homebrew

Edited May 20, 2022 by MarissaOrloff