The lack of ethernet and (ports in general) is annoying for me. Had to use another laptop when my home router forgot its password and I needed cable to log into it. Need an extra cable to plug it into monitors, or TVs.
The main issue with most ultrabooks is they only get a single sodimm slot. Or in other words have a hard limit of 8gb. These 16gb sticks[1] have been round a while but an issue with the cpu's prevented them from registering, the broadwell series has sorted that.
As for recommendations, I was tossing up between x1c 3rd gen and a macbook / second air / 16gb mbp. I'm now holding out for april and likely going to go with a thinkpad X250 - its a bit fatter but its 12.5" and has upgradable insides (ram/hd.) This is mostly down to the fact that I prefer a solid keyboard over anything else and the x1c just doesn't have the travel to make it worth ditching apple. (I'd take another MBA over going with x1c)
Options:
- x1c - nice but too thin for key travel like a fatter thinkpad, qhd will kill battery life, at least it has track point - x250 - fatter but small, good kb with decent travel, upgradeable / replaceable insides + battery, shitty screen - mba - can't really complain, had my mba since late '11 no issues what so ever. - mb - nice everything, only a single port though, depending on usage you might not be able to deal - mbp - far better spec's than all and still cheaper / thinner than lenovos (aus taxes destroy lenovo v mac..)
All of the above will run linux but have some issues until problems get sorted, nothing a deal breaker. For me, the x250 is in first place but I don't mind a fattop and the keyboard is far too important to me. (I don't mind crappy screens while coding so much) Trackpoint vs mac trackpad is a 50-50 for me also but I wouldn't want anything less than either of those.
[1] http://www.intelligentmemory.com/dram-modules/ddr3-so-dimm/
E.g., http://www.cnet.com/products/asus-vivobook-x202e-dh31t/
Once you swap in an SSD it performs well enough for normal dev work.
Only difficulty you might run into is adapting applications to scale text and graphics up, as the screen's DPI is very high. For example, Chrome's bars (navigation, tabs and bookmarks) are still sized in fixed number of pixels and look painfully small.
1. Some of the media keys don't work on Windows 8, even with Samsung software (laptop shipped with Windows 7, and they offered limited support with Windows 8).
2. The touchpad is awful. I can click on some right sides of the touchpad and it left clicks, or sometimes it right clicks when I click on the left side. My old netbook and dell laptops had much better touchpads. Thankfully, the touchpad is rarely used.
3. Usb or mini hdmi devices sometimes disconnect if I wiggle or bump the plug.
4. Ports are too close together. I have 3 or 4 flash drives (some fairly slim - http://www.testberichte.de/imgs/p_imgs/Mushkin+Ventura+Pro+%...), and none of them fit in the left port, because they hit the power cable. In the right port, they're also tight if I have headphones plugged in. You really need to be careful with the cables and devices you own, because you only have a millimeter or two of clearance between them.
5. The power cable on the side is annoying. When I move the laptop when it's plugged in, the cable always wants to fold under the device. I guess it's better than my dell, where the cable would pull out the back at the slightest movement.
6. Battery life is poor. I keep the battery saver enabled, which only charges the device to 80%. It goes from 80% to dead in about 1 to 1.5 hours, with just general browsing on the internet.
On the plus side, the screen is perfect, it's extremely lightweight, very quiet, it's now my favorite keyboard, and it's fast enough for everyday work. So, it has flaws, but it's the best laptop I've owned to date, and I'd either buy the newer model or one of apple's offerings the next time around.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/03/14/1454240/tested-l...
It is, with Crouton. https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton
Or to be more precise, run the two concurrently.
I read somewhere, however, that without a hardware developer-mode switch, running out of juice can cause the device to revert from developer-mode and wipe your non-chromeos environment. Check the recent Hacker News thread on the new Pixel for more details.
anyway this is what i am trying to say: define your needings then go shopping, or ask with that way.
my needings was as yo can figure, was listed above. so i bought an lenovo a z5070 < http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/z-series/z50/?sb...: >
you know there is a huge scandal and they are trying to cope with that with giving huge discounts! i think it is a good time for buying a lenovo, if only you'll run it as a linux box. by the i hate windows and i'm so lucky they don't care. i think windows should be a keyboard company, their keyboards are definitely awesome. < update was for keyboards >
Nothing compares to apple hardware for me.