[sf-lug] Gamer/educational student laptop running Linux and Windows; Previous thread was: Considering purchasing a lightweight laptop: thoughts Thinkpad X1 carbon vs. Thinkpad T460S

[Jon Lam]

Including the rest of the gang.
Thx.

On Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 9:14 AM, Jon Lam <jonplam at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the excellent suggestions Rick ( I like your name too since my
> youngest twin brother's name is Rick).  I am not much of a gamer so I can
> not explain why I would need one of the Acer V Nitro.  Since I will be
> entering a program at SFSU soon, I believe I will be much more suited with
> a laptop (light weight albeit) for lugging around as I travel from the
> south bay to the city on various occasions.  So, with that in mind, thank
> you for all the postings from everyone else who chimed in.
>
> I would like to switch over to Linux more as a "student" laptop.  Along
> those lines, what is an excellent brand and model for a laptop?  I was
> recently reminded by my wife and several different blogs on the internet
> that note taking is not as effective on the tablet/PC as it is on paper the
> old-fashioned way.   With that said, I have a really "slow" Lenovo G50-45
> machine (model 80e3) that was retrofitted with Fedora.  I guess I could use
> it but would like to keep that at home as it is not responsive as others (I
> am guessing).  Anyway, all of you have thoroughly convinced me not to load
> Linux onto a "gamer" laptop I was suggesting in my initial email.
>
> Thank you.
> Jon
>
> On Mon, Dec 26, 2016 at 10:02 PM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
>
>> Quoting Jon Lam (jonplam at gmail.com):
>>
>> > I do not mean to hijack this discussion. Does anyone have any experience
>> > running dual boot Windows and Linux on the Acer V Nitro?  I have a older
>> > mid 2010 Mac Book Pro and am looking at a different configuration.
>>
>> I'll be very surprised if anyone on this mailing list satisfies that
>> extremely specific request.
>>
>> If as I suspect nobody says "By a freakish coincidence, I happen to
>> dual-boot that exact model.  What do you want to know?", perhaps you can
>> follow up by saying what actual problem you're trying to solve.
>>
>> For example, you might be trying to ask "Would I have Linux driver
>> problems on an Acer V Nitro?"  Part of your problem there is that Acer V
>> Nitro isn't a specific model.  It's the marketing name for a series of
>> laptop models, all of them pitched at gamers.
>>
>> All of those use Intel Skylake-architecture motherboard chipsets and
>> Nvidia GTX960M graphics chips.  I personally wouldn't touch Skylake at
>> this point.  Linux support requires a fairly cutting-edge kernels as
>> Matthew Garrett described this past April:
>> https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/41713.html
>> As far as cutting-edge Nvidia graphics chips aimed at gamers, I'd
>> personally avoid those, too, as they're open source-hostile.  (You would
>> end up needing to retrofit Nvidia's  propritary drivers.)
>>
>> Why Acer V Nitro?  Gamer usage?
>>
>> Also, unless you have something about your use-case that is best
>> addressed with dual boot, consider a VM solution instead, so you can
>> use both OSes concurrently and needn't juggle a complicated bootloader
>> setup.  In my experience, dual-boot is almost always a tactical error,
>> most often chosen mainly because the user didn't consider alternatives.
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Jon
>



-- 

Jon
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