So this is the official thinkpad newsgroup now?

[joecool]

Posting in to see if anyone still monitors this.

I’m still using a X201. I also picked up a GPD Pocket some months ago for
carrying around super portable.

What’s everyone else using these days?

[Visiblink]

I'm using an R500 at home. I like the 16:10 aspect ratio and it's still
a fairly snappy machine with Debian LXDE installed.

I have a ThinkPad Yoga 260 at work and it's exactly what I've been
wanting. The tablet mode is great for annotating PDFs,
the keyboard is excellent (but of course, not the classic style, if that
matters), and I hook up an external monitor when in my office to
overcome the lack of screen real estate (it's a 12.5" screen).

How do you find the GPD Pocket? Is it very usable. I have a Jornada 680
in a drawer in my basement, but it never saw a lot of use.

[Visiblink]

On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:09:46 GMT
joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:

> Posting in to see if anyone still monitors this.

There's also comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad. I monitor that group too.
It's similarly slow.

[joecool]

The Pocket is nice but has its quirks. I’d say the most frustrating thing
at the moment is if one is to use Windows, GPD has no intentions of pushing
a bios update and Microsoft isn’t distributing spectre/meltdown microcode
patch yet. I’m assuming on linux that the update is available. This is the
same situation that my X201 is in. On gentoo it’s fine.

The things I love about the pocket are the size, the fact it has a
trackpoint, is 16:10, and gets over 10hr of battery. The keyboard is
surprisingly good for its size, it’s actually much better than the current
macbook pro keyboards. I would say due to the size, I type around 85%
speed.

The things not so good are the batt does sometimes lose calibration and you
need to reconnect it inside. Also the SSD is the primary bottleneck.

GPD is releasing a new version that’s more powerful. I have a friend
purchasing one, so will maybe do a review on it once its in.

[visiblink]

On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:09:06 GMT
joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:

> GPD is releasing a new version that’s more powerful. I have a friend
> purchasing one, so will maybe do a review on it once its in.

Totally OT, but no one's here to complain, so....

I'd be interested in hearing what the new model is like. Some people
discussed the original a bit over at the HPC:Factor website.

The Planet Computers Gemini looked interesting too and one of the
versions came with cellular connectivity.

[Computer Nerd Kev]

joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:
> Posting in to see if anyone still monitors this.
>

> I?m still using a X201. I also picked up a GPD Pocket some months ago for
> carrying around super portable.
>
> What?s everyone else using these days?

I'm still using an R31. Pentium III with 1GB RAM, pre-Lenovo. I
use Dillo (www.dillo.org) for most of my web browsing and it's
over-powered for that, even if Firefox is a bit slow. Other
software works great and there's no need to change it.

I also think that 4:3 screens are much more suitable for my
usage (which is to say - I watch videos on my TV, not my
laptop) than the modern widescreen formats. If I upgrade,
it would probably be to an T/X/R61 or similar for this
reason.

I might have a look at modifying the firmware on an internal
WiFi card so that I can install it despite the BIOS whitelist
some day. That way my USB 2.0 PCMCIA card won't be displaced
by my PCMCIA wifi card, so I can leave it in all the time.
But USB 1.1 is fine for a printer and a mouse, which is all
that I normally connect anyway.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

[joecool]

visiblink <visi...@mail.invalid> wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 18:09:06 GMT
> joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:
>
>> GPD is releasing a new version that’s more powerful. I have a friend
>> purchasing one, so will maybe do a review on it once its in.
>
> Totally OT, but no one's here to complain, so....
>
> I'd be interested in hearing what the new model is like. Some people
> discussed the original a bit over at the HPC:Factor website.
>

Primary things I’d expect are increased performance, decreased battery
life, better port selection, and microsd.

The new one looks like GPD added some touchbar crap and replaced trackpoint
with some optical touch thing. I’m wary of those changes.

What they likely changed that helps is voltage support on the USB-C
connector. The original Pocket only seems to charge off 5V (which takes a
long time, tops out at 15W) or 12V (which is an optional voltage per spec
and only the included charger outputs it, this goes to 28W I think)

Finally, the new one isn’t carrying official Linux support as the original
did. Not that it will stop anyone, but it might take longer to get
everything working.

> The Planet Computers Gemini looked interesting too and one of the
> versions came with cellular connectivity.
>
>

Hard pass as it only runs Android to the best of my knowledge and so
wouldn’t get proper laptop OS’s.

[visiblink]

On Sat, 25 Aug 2018 04:06:30 GMT
joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:

> visiblink <visi...@mail.invalid> wrote:
> > The Planet Computers Gemini looked interesting too and one of the
> > versions came with cellular connectivity.
>
> Hard pass as it only runs Android to the best of my knowledge and so
> wouldn’t get proper laptop OS’s.
>

According to The Register, it does dual boot Linux, but the experience
is disappointing.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/11/life_with_gemini/

[joecool]

So there was some brilliant dude in charge of engineering at SailfishOS
project. He made this project called libhybris that allowed you to use
native linux libraries on top of android HALs.

It’s great stuff used by Ubuntu touch and probably this, but the reality is
you’re still sorta emulating.

So yeah I passed for the Pocket. No regrets.

[Ralph Spitzner]

Still on a T60/Code2duo here :-)

-asp

[visiblink]

On Sun, 26 Aug 2018 03:44:14 GMT
joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:

> So there was some brilliant dude in charge of engineering at
> SailfishOS project. He made this project called libhybris that
> allowed you to use native linux libraries on top of android HALs.
>

I didn't know that. I used to run Sailfish on my Nexus 4. The
typography and transparency were so elegant and beautiful. Too bad it
has never caught on.

LuneOS and several other projects are making use of libhybris. The
most interesting/promising is Project Halium.

[Archer]

On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:09:46 GMT, joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid>
wrote:

>What’s everyone else using these days?

R50e 2005

I use it everyday for all my needs and with XP loaded I rarely use my
Lenovo G45 + Win10

--
Sandy

[joecool]

XP on an internet facing machine sounds like a bad time.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets slammed with ransomware, make sure you
have backups being made.

[Computer Nerd Kev]

joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid> wrote:
> Archer <i...@here.com.invalid> wrote:
>> On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 10:09:46 GMT, joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>

>>> What?s everyone else using these days?

>>
>> R50e 2005
>>
>> I use it everyday for all my needs and with XP loaded I rarely use my
>> Lenovo G45 + Win10
>>
>

> XP on an internet facing machine sounds like a bad time.

Plenty still do. I have one XP machine which is still online, but
I hardly use it. It's firewalled and the virus scanner still gets
definition updates. I believe Firefox's new rendering engine
doesn't work on XP, so future Javascript vulnerabilities may be
an easy way in once the current ESR release goes unsupported.
I'm a firm believer in NoScript, which at least limits the
exposure.

> I wouldn?t be surprised if it gets slammed with ransomware, make sure you
> have backups being made.

From memory, security updates for embedded XP systems are
still available until 2019 if you modify a registry setting to
allow them to be installed.

[joecool]

Computer Nerd Kev <n...@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
<snip>

> From memory, security updates for embedded XP systems are
> still available until 2019 if you modify a registry setting to
> allow them to be installed.
>

Heh you learn something new every day I guess:
https://betanews.com/2014/05/26/how-to-continue-getting-free-security-updates-for-windows-xp-until-2019/

[Archer]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2018 15:03:44 GMT, joecool <joe...@this.is.invalid>
wrote:

>XP on an internet facing machine sounds like a bad time.
>
>I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets slammed with ransomware, make sure you
>have backups being made.

I have absolutely no problem using XP SP3 for several years now.
--
Sandy