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Comment by adamweld | Hacker News Reader

The Chromebook Pixel is the only laptop I've had that matches Apple build quality. It can also run Linux and ChromeOS synchronously on the same kernel, which leads to a really great user experience.

The Surface Book I'm on now is very close, but the trackpad isn't quite as good. The Pixel trackpad was, honest to god, better than on a MacBook pro.

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They're also no longer manufacturing the Chromebook Pixel / Chromebook Pixel 2.

Disclaimer: I work at Google, but not on Chrome / Chromebook.

Just curious what laptop do you use for work and what OS (Linux/Mac)?

You mean via crouton? How do you deal with the issue that silent updates to the chrome-os can screw up the linux?

You can also completely replace Chrome OS with Linux. Works great.

Tempting, but then you loose the chance to run Android Apps or run Netflix. And I hear drivers may be an issue, at least on ARM chromebooks.

Agreed. The pixel 2015 is my main computer and now with mailine support (since 4.8) it's fairly easy to run linux. I'm using ubuntu stretch and it works great.

Did you try the Dell XPS 13?

The 2015 model (non-touch) has been my daily driver for a few months, and I prefer the feel of it over current MacBook Pros. The palm rests are slightly soft/rubbery in a nice way, but they are fingerprint magnets.

If you look around you can find it for $600 (refurb).

The Dell appears to be more likely to survive getting wet than Apple's laptops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8211HNs4eY

So... for 1/2 the price you can get a machine that you might like better than a MBP.

i wanted to love the XPS sooo much. they have a great linux team and it's damn near perfect were it not for two glaring flaws (imo):

1 - the webcam. what the hell? it's on the bottom right of the screen. if you videoconference often this will drive you insane -- the angle is so bad it borders on being useless

2 - the trackpad. (obv nothing matches apple here), but the xps in particular sucks (and oddly is not mentioned in any reviews i saw). for programmers, having the cursor randomly move while typing is just not acceptable.. from what I read the hardware was picking up noise from somewhere else in the system, causing jumps in the cursor. the latest drivers filter this noise in software, but this lead to increased latency. end result is weak. sold the machine :(

The webcam location is ridiculous. I had a coworker who had an XPS and whenever we were video conferencing he had to avoid all typing as his hands would occult his face.

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