new laptop

Brucehankins

Another vote for Lenovo. They make a quality product and I haven't had any issues with Linux.

brent

Brucehankins:
@elfprince still refers to them as IBM and half the time, so do I 🙂

elfprince

brent My ThinkPad T60 is actually labelled IBM, no Lenovo in those days. 😄

tomscharbach

I'm not sure that a particular OEM brand or model is all that important -- assuming that the build is relatively vanilla (no oddball components), it should work fine.

I've worked on friends' Lenovo laptops and they are a quality product. I personally use Dell desktops and laptops exclusively, and have had a good experience, both with Linux and Windows, over the years. I've worked with Acer and and HP computers, as well, but but only in the context of Windows. I generally like Acers but HP's drive me crazy because HP seems to love locking them down.

Bottom line: Any middle of the road computer from a major OEM should work, but nothing is guaranteed. If you do a forum search by OEM (e.g. "lenovo", "dell" and so forth) you'll find that none of the major OEM brands are entirely problem-free. My advice, for what it is worth, is to look at major OEM computers (less chance of an oddball build), and look for vanilla.

My new laptop is a Dell Latitude 7520 (i7-1185G7/IrisXE/16GB/512GB NVMe, AX201wifi) laptop, coming (G-d and Federal Express willing) tomorrow.

Brucehankins

tomscharbach I haven't had issues with HP products, have two HP desktops. Really don't like Dell, not sure why. My biggest gripe is how can you still make a in 2022 with 1366x768 resolution!!!

brent

tomscharbach Dell is an industry name, and in my professional life, I have used them heavily for a couple decades. Never a problem. Would endorse a Dell as well.

tomscharbach

Brucehankins My biggest gripe is how can you still make a in 2022 with 1366x768 resolution!!!

I think that 1366x768 is fine for a 11-12" display, and fine for a low-end 13" display, but 14" or above needs at least 1920x1080. Dell uses 1920x1080 or better on everything except 11" and 13" education market laptops. Lenovo seems to follow the same practice. Do other OEM's still use 1366x768 on 14" or bigger displays? That's just wrong.

My gripe with most laptop OEM's, including Dell, is that too many laptop displays have 200 +/- Nits. 300 Nits is the minimum as far as I am concerned, and I think that 400 Nits or better should be standard on all but budget laptops.

WetGeek

tomscharbach 300 Nits is the minimum as far as I am concerned

Tom, you make "nits" sound like something good. What the heck are they in this context? Besides something for pickey people to pick, I mean.

Brucehankins

tomscharbach I have a new Dell Latitude 3520 company laptop that's 15" and 1366x768.....it's absolutely horrible to work on. It's always hooked to a hub and a 27" FHD monitor. or if I do have to use it on the go, I carry a 15.6" usb-c display that's 1920x1080 with me and use that. I find 1366x768 almost unusable in this size range. And it's only 250 nits, so better have the right lighting conditions or too bad.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Tom, you make "nits" sound like something good. What the heck are they in this context? Besides something for pickey people to pick, I mean.

In a relatively low-light environment like an office environment away from windows or atriums, the display doesn't need to be particularly bright, and 200 +/- Nits is adequate. Add a window or atrium anywhere close, and a 200 +/- Nits display washes out, increasing eyestrain risk. That's particularly true with anti-glare, non-touch screens. Industry studies support my conclusion, although 250 + Nits is usually the bright line, 300 + Nits an outlier. Obviously, the brighter the display, the more power it draws, so there is a tradeoff. The question is the appropriate balance. My own view is that for most all-day users, 300 Nits is the minimum.

WetGeek

tomscharbach Industry studies support my conclusion

I never doubted you. I'd just never heard that word used that way. Is it an abbreviation or acronym of some sort?

tomscharbach

Brucehankins I have a new Dell Latitude 3520 company laptop that's 15" and 1366x768.....it's absolutely horrible to work on.

I had no idea. I see that Dell uses 1366x768 on a few real low-end ($300 USD +/-) 3000-series 15" laptops. That makes no sense at all, particularly for a business that wants employees to do actual work.

Brucehankins I find 1366x768 almost unusable in this size range.

Yup. Dell shouldn't offer that combination. There's a point where low-end shoots you right in the foot, and a 15" display at 1366x768 is at that point.

tomscharbach

WetGeek I never doubted you. I'd just never heard that word used that way. Is it an abbreviation or acronym of some sort?

Nits is a standard measure of brightness for displays. I don't think is is an acronym, just an industry (slang?) term for "candela per square meter", in the sense that 1 Nit = 1 Candela.

From a Digital Trends discussion: "The nit is the standard unit of luminance used to describe various sources of light. A higher rating means a brighter display. Displays for laptops and mobile devices are usually between 200 and 300 nits on average. A rating over 300 nits is solid and a rating above 500 nits is extremely good."

Higher-end laptops for creative use (e.g. Dell XPS laptops and Apple MacBooks) have 500-Nit displays. Higher-end business laptops generally run 300-400 Nits. I think that 250 Nits is common for consumer laptops. Budget laptops often drop down to 200 Nits, and that is a problem if you don't live in a cave.

In comparison, cellphone displays typically run 500-600 Nits and TV's 800-1000 Nits.

WetGeek

tomscharbach The nit is the standard unit of luminance used to describe various sources of light

Thanks ... I just learned a new meaning for an old word. Until now, I always thought lumens were a standard unit of luminance.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Until now, I always thought lumens were a standard unit of luminance.

Lumens are still standard, but Nits measures something slightly different -- lumens measure the intensity of light coming from a source like a light bulb, while Nits measure the intensity of light over a measured distance coming from something that you are looking at. Here's a way to keep the difference straight: Lumens are a measure of the intensity of light emitted from a projector, Nits are the measure of light coming off the projection screen.

brent

tomscharbach lumens measure the intensity of light coming from a source like a light bulb, while Nits measure the intensity of light over a measured distance coming from something that you are looking at.

fascinating dialogue, I love the learning. the way you explained nits is conceptually identical to how we measure light years.

tomscharbach

brent the way you explained nits is conceptually identical to how we measure light years

Okay, I'll bite. How do you measure light years? I thought it was just the distance that light would travel in a year, based on the "speed of light", whatever that is ...

brent

tomscharbach oh, there's no revelation. it was 'the intensity...over a measured distance' that struck me as basically the same (right or wrong). I saw the parallel and ran with it hastily? maybe. the time/distance light travels has to do with intensity I believe---as its measured.

WetGeek

tomscharbach based on the "speed of light", whatever that is ...

It's C, unless that's changed to squats, or something.

tomscharbach

brent it was 'the intensity...over a measured distance' that struck me as basically the same (right or wrong).

I think I understand. Distant objects (stars, galaxies, whatever) are intensely bright up close but perceived brightness gets dimmer and dimmer over a million light years here, a million light years there. What I can't wrap my head around is how scientists figure out how far away an object is, because it would seem that an assumption would have to be made about the up-close brightness in order to make the calculation. But my total sum of knowledge comes from watching NOVA.

brent

elfprince I gotcha. I read recently that after the acquisition many Lenovo's still used branded IBM parts in the internals/board well into the 00's. If you believe Wikipedia, then they (and other key computer hardware makers) still use IBM parts today.
It changed hands in 2005 so your T60 makes sense. I had thinkcentre boxes from '04, '06, and 09 but they were branded lenovo.
you got lucky🙂!