The Laptop Thread

[srrxr71]

It's hard to say what any of these big tech companies do with your data. The next best thing is to reduce the number of companies who have access to it. That's an advantage of staying in the Apple ecosystem with a Mac and iPhone. In that regard a Pixel phone is better than a Samsung phone as the later puts the user in a second ecosystem.

Since retiring I rarely need office style applications. If required I use the free Libre office.

Yeah I need to look into Libre office. MSFT products are getting very intrusive these days.

Agree 100% on reducing the number of companies who have access. I stay away from Google and Facebook. I don’t sign into those ever.

Yet still Google tracks you anyway. They know who you are no matter what you do especially since I can’t get off of their search product. It’s still better than signing in I suppose.

I feel a bit more comfortable with Apple and MSFT since i’m paying for those but that’s just a feeling.

 

[mhardy6647]

Yeah I need to look into Libre office.

It's fine. The "apps" just look and feel busier (lower signal to noise ratio on the user interface) and more tedious to use than (yes, even) their MS Office equivalents. I can, of course, only speak of my own perspective & assessment.
YMMV.

 

[Ron Texas]

Yeah I need to look into Libre office. MSFT products are getting very intrusive these days.

Agree 100% on reducing the number of companies who have access. I stay away from Google and Facebook. I don’t sign into those ever.

Yet still Google tracks you anyway. They know who you are no matter what you do especially since I can’t get off of their search product. It’s still better than signing in I suppose.

I feel a bit more comfortable with Apple and MSFT since i’m paying for those but that’s just a feeling.

Google keeps a record of every search. With them you really can benefit from a VPN. I use Duck Duck Go which uses the Bing database. I'm less worried about Microsoft than I am about things like MSI's Nehemic audio and Dell's data vault.

 

[srrxr71]

Google keeps a record of every search. With them you really can benefit from a VPN. I use Duck Duck Go which uses the Bing database. I'm less worried about Microsoft than I am about things like MSI's Nehemic audio and Dell's data vault.

I’m not sure you can even benefit with a VPN because they fingerprint your device(s).

Privacy imho is a human right just on principle.

But we’re at this point where I guess the people who say “i’m not doing anything wrong so I don’t care if they have my data” are probably winning.

The convenience and even necessity we’ve all traded away our privacy for can’t be escaped anymore. Can’t function in society without some entity knowing your every move.

All we can do at this point, as you pointed out, is to minimize our footprints and keep other entities out of it all.

 

[Ron Texas]

I’m not sure you can even benefit with a VPN because they fingerprint your device(s).

Privacy imho is a human right just on principle.

But we’re at this point where I guess the people who say “i’m not doing anything wrong so I don’t care if they have my data” are probably winning.

The convenience and even necessity we’ve all traded away our privacy for can’t be escaped anymore. Can’t function in society without some entity knowing your every move.

All we can do at this point, as you pointed out, is to minimize our footprints and keep other entities out of it all.

How does fingerprinting work? I know newer browsers have anti-fingerprinting protections built in.

 

[srrxr71]

How does fingerprinting work? I know newer browsers have anti-fingerprinting protections built in.

I’m not really very knowledgeable on this topic but I found this:

https://fingerprint.com/blog/browser-anti-fingerprinting-techniques/

The ironic thing is that sometimes the more you do to prevent being tracked makes you stick out more and hence more easily trackable. The more exotic settings or programs you use use to prevent being tracked actually make you “not part of the herd” and hence you are more easily tracked.

So some people say to try to blend in. However it’s hard. Say you use a graphics card that only 5% of people use that info right there makes you stick out. Since we are sort of “snobs” the stuff we use does make us stick out.

What if your browser sends out that you use USB audio out to a Topping device? Probably less than 1% of people would do that. Everyone else using the usual Realtek onboard audio.

Honestly people like us vs Google or Facebook we cannot win. They have so much money and talent tied into tracking people. Their entire business model depends on it and this are multi trillion dollar corporations with entire teams devoted to this.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Yeah I need to look into Libre office. MSFT products are getting very intrusive these days.

Agree 100% on reducing the number of companies who have access. I stay away from Google and Facebook. I don’t sign into those ever.

Yet still Google tracks you anyway. They know who you are no matter what you do especially since I can’t get off of their search product. It’s still better than signing in I suppose.

I feel a bit more comfortable with Apple and MSFT since i’m paying for those but that’s just a feeling.

You can use StartPage in place of Google search. It is Google search, but supposedly done so you are anonymous.

A spreadsheet I like is Gnumeric, but it is Linux only.

I've seen one called CryptPad which encrypts your spreadsheet for privacy. I've not used it. Part of Only Office suite.

 

[JeffS7444]

What little gaming I do can mostly be done on my DS, Switch or PS4. More game, less fuss. When it comes to gaming hardware, I don't want to be on the bleeding edge, I want to be in the fat part of the bell curve where the development and support resources are.

My 15" HP Spectre was a Windows Experience showcase product, and it was pretty much pure Windows from the start. Was kind of bummed to discover that while the screen has 4K resolution, the Sky Lake i7 CPU wasn't up to the task of smooth 4K video playback, but not bummed enough to consider replacing it just yet - it runs W11 just fine.

My efforts to de-crapify Windows are very basic: I periodically review what's installed, and uninstall items which no longer seem relevant. If the computer seems to be slowing down, or I notice a lot of disk activity, I call up Task Manager to see if there's mystery process consuming resources (typically, it's just Windows Update or Adobe Creative Cloud updates). Before closing Task Manager, I click on the Startup tab and disable items which don't seem to make sense, like Microsoft Edge. Although I use Edge to translate web pages, it runs perfectly fine without being a Startup Item.

I switched off the W11 bottomless scrolling news feed, and W10's search-bar trivia icons and other features which mostly seemed to create distractions. No Registry hacks needed.

That Windows feature which installs random new apps automatically? Off.

By default, the setup process for both Windows and MacOS creates an Administrator-level user account, but I only use it for those items which cannot be sudo'd from a standard-level account.

Misc: Firefox or Chromium (not Chrome) web browsers, Protonmail, Duckduckgo as my search engine. And since I'm not in an environment which relies on Outlook/Excel/Word and other Microsoft products, I use OpenOffice.

Streaming video normally goes via Apple TV, and I do not share logins across different services.

"Smart" TV and UHD disk player: Occasionally connected via Ethernet to check for software updates, otherwise not networked.

Marantz AVR: Option to send reports back to mothership switched off. am able to use it's internet radio feature in a limited capacity without creating a Heos account.

Revo Superconnect: Works OK without creating a Frontier Semi (backend provider) account.

Windows, Apple accounts: Required in order to either set up the computer or utilize features including App Store, iPhone, or Apple TV. I don't do anything special, except to create unique user IDs which I don't use to sign into any other company's services.

Am still using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, but periodically review my free and non-free alternatives.

 

[Prana Ferox]

I am still an Olympus (aka OM Systems) shooter and their OM Workspace app is pretty great, and if I need to, Photoshop Elements does the little editing I need, and in any case, the processing time is completely acceptable for me - when I need it. I actually like camera shots, just how I took them, as a rule.

I shoot m4/3 (along with APS-C and FF) and use DXO Photolab with their DeepPrime NR. It massively improves the performance / quality of m4/3 images at high ISO, wiping out a lot of the advantage of the bigger sensors. But it is compute intensive and benefits by orders of magnitude with a dGPU. I can't imagine trying to process RAW from a 61Mpx Sony without one, it'd take forever.

 

[Ron Texas]

Here is another cautionary tale about something I learned the hard way. A little over 2 years ago I bought a Dell XPS 13. It was Intel Gen 10 with Iris Xe graphics and loaded with a 1 TB SSD and 32 GB of memory. It had little narrow strips of rubber for feet. Those peeled off. I tripped over the charger cord and it fell about 2'/60cm onto a thickly padded carped. That was the end. I kept the SSD because I had no way to clear it and sold the bones to a repair shop who would part it out. I had other problems which caused me to replace the charger and keyboard.

The main takeaway is check out the rubber feet on any laptop purchase. If they look dinky, skip it. You may note that my next Dell purchase, an Inspiron 16, got sent back to Dell. They did give me a fast no questions asked refund. I have mixed feelings about Michael Dell. His business philosophy is profits are mainly attributable to his skills. Equity investors are not entitled to significant returns because he believes that he is such a great manager investors are not taking much of a risk. He isn't the only one like that. The other side is he has made significant philanthropic contributions to Austin, Texas. I have a close relative who benefits from this. Nobody is perfect.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The main takeaway is check out the rubber feet on any laptop purchase. If they look dinky, skip it.

If this is the only complaint usually an easy fix. Add some rubber feet of your own. I've done that on a couple. One I added large felt pads to both raise it a bit, quiet it down a bit, and keep it from marring whatever surface I put it on.

 

[mhardy6647]

Apropos of robustness: My two "real" laptops are quite vintage (now/by 'tech' standards) Lenovos: a T430 and a T440s. I've put SSDs in both of them.

The T430 is my "cannon fodder" lappie, which I use for the course I teach in Boston as well as some stuff I do for our church.
I have a tendency to put it in my bag and forget to close the zipper. As a consequence, it's suffered numerous drops onto hardwood (maple), cement, and ceramic tile floors, and, yes, asphalt. Nary a scratch.



^^^ There's the T430 in situ. After some grumbling about my hygiene when I posted this photo (or a similar one) to another thread last year, I replaced the touchpad surface (which was indeed overdue).

I use the T440s for my consulting business, and general-purpose stuff (as it's quite light compared to the T430, and a bit faster). T440s is slightly less robust, but travels a lot with me and is still doing fine. I did replace the keyboard a few weeks ago. One of the little nubbins that hold the "e" keycap on had broken. There was a time that replacement keycaps were available, but I couldn't find any that looked legit, so I bought an aftermarket keyboard that - so far - seems OK. Typing on it now, I am...

 

[Ron Texas]

If this is the only complaint usually an easy fix. Add some rubber feet of your own. I've done that on a couple. One I added large felt pads to both raise it a bit, quiet it down a bit, and keep it from marring whatever surface I put it on.

For what I paid for that POS, it could have come with proper feet. My view, if you haven't noticed is the purchase of a new laptop should not be a DIY project.

 

[Blumlein 88]

For what I paid for that POS, it could have come with proper feet. My view, if you haven't noticed is the purchase of a new laptop should not be a DIY project.

While I agree it is what it is. Lots of expensive cars come with special new car tires that last about half as long as normal. Then you put good tires on.

Plus if the answer is Apple, man those little rubber feet at the hardware store sure look cheap to me. $6 or $600, I think I can choose. Besides the last one I purchased has a rubber strip running almost the full width at the front and back. I didn't add anything.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

It's fine. The "apps" just look and feel busier (lower signal to noise ratio on the user interface) and more tedious to use than (yes, even) their MS Office equivalents. I can, of course, only speak of my own perspective & assessment.
YMMV.

Libre Office is a one-time only affair I had years ago. What a Pyle of Schiit.

If you use spreadsheet every day in professional matters you use Excel.

It's of course "okay" in private. But there will be some files that need importing that fails to open, show or calculate correctly if it comes from Excel. This is also an issue the other way around.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Libre Office is a one-time only affair I had years ago. What a Pyle of Schiit.

If you use spreadsheet every day in professional matters you use Excel.

It's of course "okay" in private. But there will be some files that need importing that fails to open, show or calculate correctly if it comes from Excel. This is also an issue the other way around.

Yes, Libre is fine for private use. It is an issue going into and out of Excel. I've been using OnlyOffice a little bit. This seems much better as it can save or open xlsx files very well in my limited use of it. And they make it for Mac, Windows and Linux.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Here is another cautionary tale about something I learned the hard way. A little over 2 years ago I bought a Dell XPS 13. It was Intel Gen 10 with Iris Xe graphics and loaded with a 1 TB SSD and 32 GB of memory. It had little narrow strips of rubber for feet. Those peeled off. I tripped over the charger cord and it fell about 2'/60cm onto a thickly padded carped. That was the end. I kept the SSD because I had no way to clear it and sold the bones to a repair shop who would part it out. I had other problems which caused me to replace the charger and keyboard.

The main takeaway is check out the rubber feet on any laptop purchase. If they look dinky, skip it. You may note that my next Dell purchase, an Inspiron 16, got sent back to Dell. They did give me a fast no questions asked refund. I have mixed feelings about Michael Dell. His business philosophy is profits are mainly attributable to his skills. Equity investors are not entitled to significant returns because he believes that he is such a great manager investors are not taking much of a risk. He isn't the only one like that. The other side is he has made significant philanthropic contributions to Austin, Texas. I have a close relative who benefits from this. Nobody is perfect.

Surely the small rubber feet that stops it from sliding when you work on it isn't going to stop it from being dragged down the table. Maybe ten years ago when a laptop was twice the weight it is now it would've been prevented. And yes, they can be so small that the adhesive really hasn't much to say and it flings off.

A tip: Use the USB-C port to charge. That will be much less likely to drag it anywhere.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Surely the small rubber feet that stops it from sliding when you work on it isn't going to stop it from being dragged down the table. Maybe ten years ago when a laptop was twice the weight it is now it would've been prevented. And yes, they can be so small that the adhesive really hasn't much to say and it flings off.

A tip: Use the USB-C port to charge. That will be much less likely to drag it anywhere.

This is something Apple had the right idea about with their magnetic power plug (Magsafe). It went away for a few years, but is coming back in some models. Why everyone didn't do this immediately on anything other than the cheapest laptops I don't know. Perhaps there was a patent on it.

 

[Keith_W]

This is something Apple had the right idea about with their magnetic power plug (Magsafe). It went away for a few years, but is coming back in some models. Why everyone didn't do this immediately on anything other than the cheapest laptops I don't know. Perhaps there was a patent on it.

I don't see how they could patent something like that when it has been available on Asian rice cookers since the 70's. But I wouldn't put it above Apple to try to get a patent on something they didn't invent.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

This is something Apple had the right idea about with their magnetic power plug (Magsafe). It went away for a few years, but is coming back in some models. Why everyone didn't do this immediately on anything other than the cheapest laptops I don't know. Perhaps there was a patent on it.

Or the neodymium was an added cost?

Perhaps practical tests showed it detach when moving the laptop around the table?

Or a combination of the three.