Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: OT: advice sought on new laptop for Gentoo
Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:43:31
Message-Id: i619sh$gp9$2@dough.gmane.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: OT: advice sought on new laptop for Gentoo by Alan McKinnon
1 On 2010-09-05, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote:
2 > Apparently, though unproven, at 17:18 on Sunday 05 September 2010, Grant
3 > Edwards did opine thusly:
4 >
5 >> On 2010-09-05, John Blinka <john.blinka@×××××.com> wrote:
6 >> > Hi, all,
7 >> >
8 >> > My trusty Inspiron 8200 is on death's door and so I'm looking for a
9 >> > new laptop - one that will run Gentoo straightforwardly, of course.
10 >> >
11 >> > I really liked the 1600x1200 display on this machine, which I greatly
12 >> > prefer to the 1600x900 display on the more modern Inspiron 1545 I own.
13 >> >
14 >> > Most of what I do now is through a web browser, and I can see much
15 >> >
16 >> > more of a web page with 1200 lines of display than I can with 900.
17 >> > And I dislike the massive width of the 1545 which makes it much less
18 >> > portable than the old 8200. I'd love to replace my 8200 with a
19 >> > machine of similar dimensions, but thinner and lighter. However, I
20 >> > cannot find any machine on Dell's website with a 4x3 aspect ratio -
21 >> > they all seem to be approximately 16x9 now.
22 >> >
23 >> > So, is 16x9 all that's available now in laptops?
24 >>
25 >> Yup, and 16x9 sucks -- it's just an excuse to ship smaller,
26 >> lower-resolution displays labelled with bigger numbers.
27 >>
28 >> Complete ripoff.
29 >
30 > If you have 16:9 at 1280*720, then yes, it is going to suck. There is nothing
31 > inherently wrong with the aspect ratio, please desist from trying to make it
32 > so.
33
34 Yes, there is an inherent problem: in order to get what I consider
35 acceptable vertical size/resolution you have to buy something that's
36 rediculously wide.
37
38 > There are good reasons for it. It most easily fits the overall
39 > dimensions of the machine, you have a wide and not very deep keyboard
40 > plus space for a touchpad and palm rests. It's all approximately
41 > 16:9.
42
43 No it's not. At least only on any of my laptops. I suppose you can
44 tack on a useless numeric keypat to try to take up some of the extra
45 horizontal space that's required in order to get a screen that's tall
46 enough to be useful.
47
48 > I paid the extra to get 16:9 @ 1920x1200. Best thing I ever did
49 > laptop-wise - I can get two webpages side by side on the screen
50 > looking very natural.
51 >
52 > Did you know that 16:9 is the eye's natural aspect ratio?
53
54 How do you explain the widespread popularity of portrait mode for
55 printed material? Text is much easier to read in tall, narrow,
56 columns. The more lines of code you can see at once when editing
57 source code, the fewer the bugs. Both those have been experimentally
58 verified.
59
60 > Test it sometime with outstreched fingers.
61
62 I still vastly prefer 4:3 for all of the work I do. I guess if you
63 want to watch movies, and you don't mind hauling around a useless
64 numeric keypad, 16:9 is nice.
65
66 --
67 Grant

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: OT: advice sought on new laptop for Gentoo Al <oss.elmar@××××××××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: OT: advice sought on new laptop for Gentoo Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>