Laptop Recommendation

[Paul Johnson]

On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 03:41:33PM +0000, Smylers wrote:
> Chris Carline writes:
> 
> > The solution is to run your favourite choice of OS on top of a VM. ...
> > I would also recommend this setup for Windows-based laptops too. ...
> > solves a lot of compatibility issues with non-standard hardware, power
> > management and suspension support

> > I apologise in advance if this solution is insufficiently idealistic
> > for your taste,
> 
> No, it's a good idea, thank you. If I end up buying a laptop with
> Windows or OS X installed I shall definitely give it a go first.

I've been developing primarily on Ubuntu running in VirtualBox for a
couple of years or so now.  I started working this way because Linux
doesn't (didn't?) run well on either my desktop or laptop, though it's
fine on my server.

I find it to be quite a comfortable way or working, with few problems
and some advantages.  The main downsides for me are that deleting large
directories on shared folders sometimes messes up and requires the disk
to be unmounted and remounted (solution, try to remember to do that on
the native OS) and that whenever I do something with Windows and it
wants to be rebooted, I need to stop or suspend the VM.

I tend to use notion as my Window Manager and I leave one frame blank
and view in Seamless Mode.  This means that the host OS is visible in
that blank frame.

I've put the VM on an SSD and given it access to all the CPUs, so it's
quite speedy too.

-- 
Paul Johnson - paul at pjcj.net
http://www.pjcj.net