System76 Lemur is an Ubuntu laptop with Broadwell for $599 and up

1. 1366×768? I had 1680×1050 10 years ago, bro.

   1. And it was likely a low quality TN screen or even a TFT with limited viewing angles, limited contrast ratio, and inaccurate colors… There’s a lot more to screen quality than just the resolution… Bro!

      Screens today are mainly optimized for watching movies, etc… Thus the 16:9 to 16:10 ratios, with few exceptions… You’d note your 10 year old screen was a lot more square, for example… So usually default to either 720P or 1080P, just like TV’s… which, unfortunately, makes screens that deviate from those defaults higher cost and thus less likely to be used when they’re trying to keep the costs down…

      But, we’re more likely to get a IPS quality screen these days and that means much better viewing angles, better contrast ratios, and more accurate color gamut… not to say a FHD screen wouldn’t still be preferable to a HD screen but companies that cater directly to GNU/Linux users usually have a tough time being profitable and thus it may usually be better to just get a regular Windows device, wipe the drive, and then install your favorite distro to get a better deal on the hardware, as well as a wider selection of configuration options…

      At least until 3K and 4K screens become more common and thus more likely to find their way into budget range systems…

      1. Problem is that this LCD will also be low quality TN one like they all are, except those of tablet sizes.

         1. We don’t know that yet, not all laptops with this resolution use TN screens… You are far more likely to get a better screen with a tablet but laptop screens have been generally getting better as well the last two years… We’ll see…

            But a modern TN screens can be better than what was available ten years ago… Viewing angles are the main thing holding most of them back these days but the screen quality are generally better as long as you look directly at the screen…

2. Fugly

3. I use Linux/GNU operating systems on a few PCs, but I’m normally not a fan of laptops sold with Linux preinstalled. But lately, its becoming more apparent that some changes in the PC industry are making it more and more difficult to install alternate OSes on your own (lack of UEFI-64 on the Baytrail chips, and some laptops are simply omitting Legacy boot options).

   I was troubleshooting a friend’s HP laptop, trying to boot a USB live distro, but for some reason it won’t provide power on the USB ports during the boot up, so the USB drive doesn’t get power for the first few seconds (I resorted to using a USB hub that I know provides power via AC adapter). I’m seeing alot of major oversights like this on some laptops these days.

   I still won’t buy a Linux-laptop, but I am beginning to see the merit.

   1. Yes, I don’t think the idea is to wow anyone with the specs, but to provide hardware that is guaranteed to work well with Ubuntu. Lots of recent machines will require workarounds like your powered hub, major changes in BIOS, etc. to be able to install, and even then there’s the possibility some poorly supported components won’t play nice. Of course, Dell’s XPS 13 comes to mind as a fancier alternative with known-good hardware…

   2. The lack of UEFI-64 was mainly on Bay Trail T’s that were mainly for tablets… The Bay Trail M/D’s sold under the Celeron/Pentium branding usually had UEFI-64… While we’ll see about Cherry Trail, so far at least one tablet is reportedly going to be 64bit… and when Braswell comes out a little later it’ll update the ATOM Celeron/Pentiums as well…

      As for HP, my experience is that their devices can vary significantly in built quality and features… While they get the occasional weird issue… So, not everyone experiences a issue but some do…

      Like needing to disconnected the keyboard and mouse if the system refuses to boot every now and then… Or even needing to tilt the system 45 degrees to get it to boot…

      And, like you’ve found, issues with USB during the boot process but they had those issues popping up even before UEFI and it’s not unique to HP… Especially, if the system uses one of those ports that you have to enable to charge devices with as otherwise it won’t enable until the OS boots…

      While sometimes only one port will be powered at boot and you’ll have to switch between the available ports to see which it is…

      And some systems will only allow booting off a USB while in legacy mode… Though, if you’re trying off a tablet device, things like power conservation optimization usually prevents the ports from providing full power and can thus be too little to power some drives or just keeps the port off until it’s really needed by default… but that’s more a issue with tablets in general than the UEFI…

4. 14.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel resolution display. What year it is again? 2005 or 2015?

   1. Wow, tough crowd! Its cheaper than System76’s other offerings have been, and I don’t mind a lower spec screen or core i3…I’ve found the newer pc laptops I’ve looked at recently to be flimsy as hell. Hate the glossy screens too. But I’m not in market, I just bought an acer 11 Chromebook and Crouton’d Ubuntu on it. Its far from perfect, but for $195.00 I’d say the Acer’s worth it. That new Macbook makes me glad I am not a machead anymore. Now that is just…an embarrassment.

5. No thanks.

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