Hacker News Reader

Comment by jonaswi | Hacker News Reader

I was so tired of being forced to buy overpriced hardware from Apple that I'm not even happy with just because I work with OS X.

I then bought a new Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition and was surprised that a) the scaling does not even work with Dells own "tweaked" Ubuntu (even the installer looked horrible) and b) "coil whine" is a thing at this price point. I was so unhappy with it that I sold it and replaced it with an HP spectre x360. Except for thunderbolt everything worked fine so for me there was no real advantage over the "preinstalled" Ubuntu on the Dell.

View on HN

If all you care about are CPU clock speed & RAM then Apple computers are overpriced. I grew up salivating over another few hundred Mhz but honestly computers are fast enough that I really didn't notice a difference the last time I upgraded to a new computer.

Computers have evolved well beyond those basic specs and I buy apple products because I care about the whole package. So until other manufacturers figure out how to build computers that are sturdier, last longer, have better screens, sync wifi hotspots across devices, etc... I expect apple to continue charging more for a superior all around product.

The battery and of course the trackpad...

What really changed laptop buying for me was the cloud.

No laptop is going to have 8x discrete GPUs, but all of them can manage to SSH using my cellphone as a hotspot.

So I started buying laptops that were easy to carry, nice to type on, etc.

I have a precision 5520, and if I'm using integrated graphics I get 8+ hours even with the 4k screen. The build seems quite sturdy but I've only had it for around 6 months so far so can't say too much about that yet.

I have an Acer Travelmate p645. Bought it as a refurb for $750. Everything works flawlessly with Ubuntu. I would take if over my $1500 MBP any day. MBP has good battery life, better screen, and better trackpad (when it works) but OSX is a total drag. Everything in OSX is slow and clunky compared to Ubuntu and even the simplest tasks require googling to find some obscure keyboard shortcut that does what you want.

I met a person once who explained to me why Macs are so much better than PCs - because they just have the apple logo and none of the other "weird stuff" (BIOS boot sequence) when they startup. That pretty much summarizes all the "advantages" of OSX.

Still can't figure out why people who develop software for Ubuntu servers work on OSX instead of Ubuntu. What a waste.

>Still can't figure out why people who develop software for Ubuntu servers work on OSX instead of Ubuntu. What a waste.

It wasnt an option. I think, especially in larger organizations, that IT departments dont want to support yet another OS. My previous employer didnt even offer macs.

I also just bought a Dell XPS 13 to replace my MacBook 13. I returned it after a day. I can confirm that a) the scaling doesn't work well at all yet, and b) absolutely awful "coil whine".

What exactly is the coil whine? Mine “chatters” when I move the mouse or there is animation, is that the same thing?

It's a very high frequency constant note that comes from some component somewhere inside.

Ok, so different than what I have.

It baffles me that they are not able to fix the "coil whine" problem. The support thread I was active has like 20+ pages, and they are still claiming that the new revision of the motherboard fixed the problem.

They even replaced mine two times, and even the technician that had to replace it on site told me it will make no difference at all. He then gave me a link to a YouTube video where someone was wrapping different parts inside the computer with electrical tape. That's when I knew that a) I need a new notebook and b) never buy a Dell product ever again.

Indeed. And the Dell XPS 13 is not a cheap computer. I will think twice before buying a Dell.

I can also confirm XPS 13 coil whine which Dell considers a "non issue" / "working as intended". The quality of Dell products declined so fast last couple of years that I'm glad this thread is full of useful laptop advice as I'm seriously considering dropping Dell altogether. (actually coil whine is the least of problems with this laptop)

I have XPS 13 9343 and I haven't noticed the coil whine. Which model do you have? Do I not notice it because it's not there or because of ambient noise/poor hearing?

9350 with i7. Just keep your ear near the keyboard. With a bad combination of video drivers the whine is super loud. People in video conferences were asking about the sound (thought it's HDD but I've got SSD). If you don't hear anything then congratulations! Maybe previous models did not have this issue? Do you have Thunderbolt port? If so I'd check 9343...

What OS are you running? My "coil whine" was significantly quieter when running Windows. Running the preinstalled Ubuntu the whine was like 200% louder.

I don't know if that's a question for me but I've seen noise in Windows too. Additionally with a "bad" set of video drivers the noise was super-loud.

Does sound work in Ubuntu on the x360? I bought one when it first came out, but there was an issue with the BIOS (from my recollection, Windows turned off the sounds but Ubuntu couldn't turn it back on) and had to return it.

Very nice build, although the battery made it back heavy.

I don't know, to be honest. The first thing I did was to remove Windows and install Ubuntu. Sound worked fine. Due to the thunderbolt issues I now use a MacBook again so I can't comment on the current state of it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com