
Linus Torvalds is considering the Chromebook Pixel as his primary laptop - ninthfrank07
https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/dk1aiW4JjHd
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modeless
The Chromebook Pixel is exactly the laptop he requested in a rant last year:
[https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/ByVPmsSe...](https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/ByVPmsSeSEG)

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ktsmith
I got a chance to use one this weekend and if it didn't have a cripplingly
small SSD I'd swap out my 17" MBP for one.

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windsurfer
What do you need to store on the built-in drive that you couldn't store
elsewhere?

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Nux
I could move, squeeze and compress my sh*t to fit in the tiny SSD, but not for
this price, thank you. Are we going back in time?

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ktsmith
Part of the price is paying for the google drive allotment. That's great but I
would rather have the local storage which I can get access to anywhere vs the
cloud storage that I might not be able to reach.

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JoshTriplett
I'd consider it too, if not for the size of the drive.

Right now, unless something with a >1080p screen comes out, the ThinkPad Helix
([https://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/thinkpad/thinkpad-...](https://www.lenovo.com/products/us/tablet/thinkpad/thinkpad-
helix/)) will probably remain on the top of my list for when the warranty on
my current laptop runs out. At least it has 1080p on a 12" screen, rather than
making me choose between a 720p I don't mind carrying and a 1080p boat anchor.

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meaty
I can't see anything on a 1080p screen at 12" and considering my eyesight
isn't all that bad, I imagine it's not going to sell for most people.

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JoshTriplett
On any modern OS, resolution and text size have little to do with each other.
If you can't see anything, turn up the DPI to match the actual DPI of your
display, and any well-behaved application will become readable.

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artificialidiot
Except the web likes to pretend everything is 96dpi.

Reading my sentence again, I think we can agree CSS is not well behaved.

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JoshTriplett
I don't know about Chrome, but you can fix that misfeature in Firefox with a
hidden preference, and tell it to actually respect the system DPI setting.
Just go to about:config and set layout.css.dpi to 0.

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jaytaylor
More info on the Chromebook Pixel[0][1] (in case other's missed the press
launch like I did!):

[0] [http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-
pixe...](http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/)

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/21/google-
announces-1299-chrom...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/21/google-
announces-1299-chromebook-pixel-with-2560x1700-32-12-85-touchscreen-
core-i5-cpu-1tb-of-google-drive-storage-optional-lte/)

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hkmurakami
I went through all the links HN'ers have posted in this thread and I couldn't
find the information so I have to beg the question:

_Does it have a good keyboard??_

(Laptop keyboards seem to become worse as the years go on -- with the
exception of macbooks and possibly Thinkpads -- and I'm really hoping that the
Chromebook Pixel has a respectable keyboard)

Some of the pictures on Google's site seem to suggest a macbook-like keyboard
layout and profile so I'm hopeful that they're comparable.

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robinh
What exactly counts as a good keyboard? I've never had any trouble with my
XPS, and don't really see how one could mess up a laptop's keyboard (then
again, I haven't had that many laptops). Although some of the cheaper laptop's
keyboards seem clunky.

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JoshTriplett
> and don't really see how one could mess up a laptop's keyboard

"What's with this ~` key? Nobody uses that, and it offends my designer
sensibilities."

I had a Dell like that, and got used to typing $HOME and $(command) rather
than ~ and `command`.

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robinh
Fair enough. When I'm looking for a keyboard, I always try to make sure that
at least the keys are all in the right place and are of the right size. (For
example, I should not be able to accidentally hit '\' because some hippo
thought the return key was too big.)

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loser777
There used to be some high-res laptops(compared to what's popular today)at
non-16:9 aspect ratios. Anyone remember the IBM T21? 1400x1050 (14.1")... in
'00-01! I guess a combination of waning consumer demand due to OMG WIDESCREEN
and corner-cutting brought 1366x768 to the forefront. Also, it's kind of funny
that 1366x768 is not actually 16:9 anyway.

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jlgreco
1680x1050 was popular for a while about half a decade ago. Unfortunately it
seems to have been primarily replaced with mostly 1366x768, not 1920x1080.

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devy
It seems that Linus was praising the screen of Chromebook Pixel particularly
its resolution. Sorry if I am being ignorant here, but has Linus heard of
Retina Display MacBook Pro? rMBP has roughly the same PPI as Google Chromebook
Pixel and had been available for almost a year by now. And surely you can
install Linux on it. *[1]

[1] <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MacBookPro_Retina>

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viseztrance
> Suspend mode on lid close with nouveau and i915 (does not come out of
> suspend; blank screen).

This makes ANY laptop useless.

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aduitsis
_Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet.We're
working to bring devices to more countries as quickly as possible.Please check
back again soon._

Available countries:
[http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&...](http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2462844)

If I can't buy it, it's practically non-existent. A pity, all those devices
Google has come up with are really interesting.

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JanezStupar
It doesn't have a trackpoint. Pass.

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meaty
Good point. Not a ThinkPad.

I'm rather worried about how Lenovo have gone all experimental. I still want
an old fashioned black brick with a clitmouse.

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jlgreco
Experimental thinkpads are okay with me. Might be nice to see a revisit of
that butterfly keyboard on the 701 for instance...

What really bugs me is thinkpads with shit screen resolution. Like, _really_
shit, even compared to less heavy duty cheaper laptops. Thinkpads should not
cut costs.

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meaty
I'm sitting in front of a 1280x800 14" unit here and am quite happy. I can't
see the pixels thanks to TrueType in Windows. Retina/high DPI displays are no
advantage for my combination of eyes and brain.

I have a 22" 1920x1080 display on my desk which I rarely use as it gives me a
headache.

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jlgreco
I miss the 1680x1050 15.6" thinkpads. Now they're selling 15.6" T-series that
have a pathetic 1366x768 unless you want to spend 2-300 more for 1980x1080.

I should not be _able_ to get on Lenovo's site, look at the current T-series,
think back to my (now half a decade old!) 2007 T60p, and be disappointed and
underwhelmed. If cheaper less powerful computers are being sold with better
screens than T-series thinkpads, there is something very wrong going on.

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liquidise
Nice post but this line really got my attention:

"...I can lug around this 1.5kg monster despite feeling fairly strongly that a
laptop should weigh 1kg or less."

Are there laptops with any respectable screen real-estate weighing in at <
1kg? My primary laptop is a 13" Air. 1kg is only 70% of its weight. I was
unaware they got much lighter while sporting double digit screen sizes.

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hkmurakami
He also mentions that the screen is larger than his needs, so presumably he
prefers the 11" range for his laptops.

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sac2171
Is this a parody?

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recoiledsnake
Interesting aside:

The post 'How I ended up with a Mac' by Miguel[1] got flagged off the front
page while this post is zooming up the front page.

Coincidence?

<http://hnrankings.info/5327247/>

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5327247>

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dfc
How do you know it was flagged? By the drop off in votes? I thought flagged
stories got deleted/"dead"-ed. Are the stories that only show up with showdead
different than stories that are flagged?

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largesse
Sometimes I think this guy just wants to be controversial.

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jlgreco
I'm not sure how this is controversial. I mean, it doesn't seem news-worthy
either, but also not controversial.

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tunnuz
Who cares?

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baq
people who like hi-res displays care, because this guy might add some momentum
to the push.

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rartichoke
Yeah this for sure. We've been stuck with 1080p for so long.

It's retarded to think that in the late 1990s we had 1600x1200 CRTs at 120hz
and great color quality. Now it's almost 15 years later and 120hz isn't even
main stream, color quality is worse and we traded some vertical for horizontal
resolution.

Wtf?

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mirsadm
Sometimes I wonder if he didn't kick off the Linux kernel if he'd just be
referred to as a troll.

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dubcanada
Huh? If some random guy didn't do something to make himself popular
(considering he's really smart, if he didn't make Linux he would have still
probably done something else massive) how would he be a troll?

Your comment makes no sense... considering the only reason you/hn/whoever even
reads his posts is because he's the Linux guy. If he wasn't nobody would even
read it, and you can't troll nothing lol.

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ziffusion
And in related news, he is also considering Cottonelle to wipe his ass.

