I'll do my actual post later on, I wanna see what people come back with, but what do you tend to do on the daily with your laptop? Is it a secondary system? Primary? Is it new or old? Do you have a fleet? What's your daily task list?
my laptop (a lenovo y700) is my primary system, it is arround a year old. i mostly do study related stuff and browsing nowadays but i also do some casual gaming on it when i have the time.
I have a late 2016 MacBook Pro as my work laptop. Mostly use it for remoting into client computers and fixing stuff, Workgroup Manager, Apple Configurator for bulk iPad updates and restores, work emails, testing switches and drops, and cruising the internets in my down time.
Outside of work I use my custom desktop 99% of the time. I do have an Asus GL702VM (laptop) for taking over to friends' houses and stuff, and that's pretty much only used for gaming and surfing the web.
I have a Dell Inspiron 15R / 2012 model running Fedora 25
I find myself reading the many books I have (.pdf / .epub) and some occasional comic books.
I also use it to code in Python and any other language that can get work done, using Idle3.5 or sublime Text with REPL and other things like Linters.
Running a SeLinux sandbox for Firefox is normal for me on my Laptop. Since I occasionally use it to check spam emails or other questionably things my co-workers get and poke around in.
I have on occasion run a systemd-nspawn of another distro to play around in as well. I also exclusively use it to update the noobsofpython and knightsofpython tutorial series on the forums.
I have tried several times to replace the laptop, but I just can't justify replacing a machine that does everything I need. At 2.7Ghz it does it all for a portable solution. It's not 1080p but I hardly watch anything over 25min on it. The upgrade for this machine is an SSD, and 4Gb of ram (currently 6GB 4x2)
Run 5 sessions of Gnome Documents ( pdf viewer )
Firefox with 10 tabs
Idle3.5
Sublime Text3
Terminal
one laptop for school, 2015 X1 Carbon. Never sees more than 3 chrome tabs and a OneNote document. I need something with more power for Quakecon. And then move the Carbon.
Porn.
Welp I guess I'll post now because fuck it. I'll start with something random and go through my machines as I use them.
iBook G4: I have to start here because I love it. Its largely for experiments, but with good battery power it serves as a good lappy for net and writing. A faster one than 1.07GHZ can play emulators, but the one I have that is dead (getting replaced) can't play emu's well.
HP NW8000: Its basically my main windows machine. It runs W2K with the XP mod so it can play anything on my steam that at minimum needs XP. I use it, for the moment, for my older steam games and to see what I can actually play on it. My most demanding title to date is Lord Of The Rings Online at 30FPS, and for 2 or 3 years playing that game it was the machine I played it on. Then they reset all the accounts with the changing of hands in the owning business 3:
Macbook 1,1: I don't know anymore. It seems to have gotten worse than when I got it. It used to run 10.6.8 pretty OK but now it just freezes up constantly. I think theres some dead solder on the board somewhere but I have 0 clue. It would otherwise be my actual writing machine. If I could get 10.4.11 on it I would be happy but it seems that I can't find a working image 3:< very annoying.
Asus G50V: Temporarily my windows machine until I don't care about playing Empyrion Galactic Survival anymore. Its my mod machine at this point. I don't really have a specific use for it? If I could make it my permanent OSX lappy that would be ok I guess, but it doesn't have good 10.11 support, if it could run icaros well then it would be an amiga but it has meh hardware support, if it was a good gamer in linux it would do that for me but.... I mean fuck it does shit with windows! My resolve for any of the problems I have speed wise is to get SSD's eventually. For the moment though, it covers my shitty windows games. It'll be replaced soon though because it weighs 18 fucking pounds.
Acer 8370: It doesn't have a screen anymore, the backlight singed a wire right at termination, but its otherwise a server. I'll probably end up with the BBS on this and a Tekkit server. Has a P8600 and 4GB of ram. It'll do fine for what I want it for.
Lenovo Y40-70: Its a piece of shit as far as I'm concerned. Its the lappy I got myself for xmas because I wasn't going to be getting presents and I knew it. Well, its garbo. I can't get the dgpu to work EVER, the keyboard is starting to die (supposedly on-board components are the cause ffs), and the screen is bleh (I like big res's on smaller screens, meaning, 1366X768 is my target which is easy to get to). Other than that, its a game server. I'd run it in linux if the system didn't run like shit in anything except OSX and windows 10. It'll just be a game server from now on. I've never been as disappointed in a purchase as I have with this. Not worth it.
Dell Inspiron 1000: This... Heh... This is my amiga. The power plug is starting to go so I have to set it in front of a fan, charge it, and I can only use it for about an hour before the battery dies. Its my experiment machine I pulled out of the garbage. Not much wore to say about it.
Toshiba Portege 3500: A nifty machine, it basically hase a desktop Pentium 3 in it. I use it as a net terminal to manage my server. My actual server. As in a HP Proliant ML370 that lives under my old desk. Since I don't have ram in it and barely any drives both machines remain dormant until I move out.
IBM Transnote: I have a fully functional IBM Transnote which is apparently a rare thing to have. Seems like crap to me; I have no clue who would want one of these as it has a 500MHZ P3M MMX which are notorious downclockers and it runs at 250MHZ. I use it for inventory. If anyone wants to buy it as a collectors piece the only thing I don't have is the pen, but it has the original paper and I have the charger. 500 bucks shipped in the US.
IBM 600X: I love this pile of shit. It too has a P3M MMX clocked to 650MHZ but the cooling is so good it stays at 650. Has 512 ram, or something like that, and is my main backup machine. I want a new battery for it so that I can throw Xubuntu or Manjaro back on it. In high school I used this machine when my original laptop took a shit on me (the heat exhaust was awful on it) and I needed SOMETHING to do my work on. I couldn't afford anything as I had just got out of surgery and started a volunteer job at the high school which got me that machine. I tried XP and the drivers were awful. Tried Xubuntu, never had a problem with it. Its really only good for writing, but I can make it do 480p youtube videos. I just have to let it wait and load for a half hour.
Uhhhh, I know I am missing something gets up to look
Oh yeah.
Toshiba Satellite Pro 460CDX: This was my grandparents computer until 2006/7. Its my dos gaming machine.
I have other stuff too like my Powerbook G4, my old Lenovo B575, some netbooks that are technically, and some purchases that will be happening soon, but I am listing what matters to me most or what I actually use.
Notebook: HP Envy DV6 - i7 3630QM - 12GB DDR3 - Samsung Evo 500GB SSD
I do everything I do at home on my desktop but on the go, except for gaming (throttling and low powered Nvidia GT635M doesen't help). I write down documents, coding, VMs, browsing, read books and notes, entertainment and comms (I hate sending or reading message through my phone when I have a comfortable keyboard and screen to read and write them on).
I have two "laptops" that I use on a regular basis these days (quotes on 'laptops' because one of them is a Surface)
The first one is my trusty Lenovo W500. Everything about that laptop says business-grade. It's running a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, so it's not fast, but I only really use it for writing and maybe some light surfing and under Linux it runs like greased lightning for its age. The old IBM/Lenovo keyboard is one of the best laptop keyboards I've ever used.
My other laptop is my Surface Pro 2 that I use for drawing and writing when I'm on the go. The reason I went with a Pro 2 rather than a Pro 3 is because the Pro 3 uses an N-trig digitizer and the 2 uses a Wacom digitizer. N-Trig displays often have problems with juttering and compatibility problems with Paint Tool SAI and Krita, from what I've heard, whereas the Wacom digitizer basically works perfectly. Needs some calibration, but that can be fixed. Since picking up Minecraft again, I've found that the SP2 is surprisingly competent at running it. Could be a very nice portable indie game player (i.e. for Factorio and Stardew Valley.). The fact that it can run straight off of 12v power is a nice touch as well.
I have a few others that I don't use all that much anymore.
a dozen identical T400 laptops. One of them is fully assembled and is just kind of a backup to the W500 in case I want the same laptop for a trip that doesn't weigh quite as much. The rest are barebones, I keep them around in case I find someone who just wants a basic but reliable laptop, they give me $40-50 for the parts, I order them, install them and they get a competent computer they can also use to bash someone's head in. Magnesium frames, yo.
My X220T that I used to use for drawing before I realized that the display was crap and the digitizers Lenovo used were B-grade pieces of garbage that can't calibrate properly. Probably gonna sell it.
MSI GE40 - My gaming laptop. Damn, that thing is fast. I used it as a kind of Wii replacement since Dolphin works really well on it. But after being spoiled rotten by business-grade laptops and their build quality, I don't really like using it anymore, and I never use its power for anything these days since I have a desktop and rarely game on the go. Will likely sell this one as well.
When I had a desktop, a Lenovo T420 for Linux fun. Business laptop so just worked, turning it into a getto server utilising external power for HDDs and data via every SATA port available (3 in total inc eSATA)
Now with my ASUS FX502VM, everything I did with my desktop. Linux fun, gaming, web. Sadly it seems laptops are becoming as un enthusiast friendly as iPads. Everythings soldered even the iGPU is blocked on this so no passthrough-ability.
I was aiming to use the iGPU for Linux host via the laptop display and Windows GPU passthrough via the 1060 maybe using steam stream, or HDMI. Even if it was impossible it would have been a fun week. But nope, no iGPU. Playing Fallout 4 again so stuck on Windows, desperately wanted MATE as my main OS like on my T420.
My laptop is a 4.5 year old Gazelle Pro from System76.
I do some SNES emulation on my laptop, but the vast majority of the time my laptop is used for work. It’s currently running Ubuntu GNOME 17.04. Work involves working with various small businesses around the city I live in. Usually deploying Proxmox, FreeNAS, and/or pfSense. I also do some scripting, Windows work, talking people off of the ledge of running their own Exchange server, or buying Dell or HP hardware, or whathaveyou.
Samsung n210 = retro gaming box that is attached to a monitor by my bed.
Dell Inspiron 1750 = Got it for free from some one on this forum, was the daily laptop for a few years until I got the t61
Thinkpad t42 = Mostly just for reading. My second oldest Thinkpad and the only one that has a good battery.
Thinkpad t61 = Replacement for the Dell and since replaced by a x201
Thinkpad t61 = Higher specs than the other t61, I keep it as a backup to the other t61.
Thinkpad x201 = Main laptop, used for everything short of gaming. Found a new old stock x200 ultrabase for $15 about a week after I got it and have spent almost every day afterwards keeping myself from modding it.
Panasonic CF-29 = magnesium alloy case is good for keeping my feet cool during summer, Yeah I only really use it for a foot rest. Can’t stand the keyboard on it…
read this forum and watch youtube videos but becaused of stupid peer pressure(because yeah, videos have to be 60 fps now) I now have to watch videos in 480p because this laptop, while it can handle 720p60 will ramp up it’s fans and I’m misophonic so I’d rather suffer the loss of video quality.
Its my secondary and it’s an asus n56vv.
My primary system right now is an FX8300 system with 16gb ddr3 HyperX Fury at 1866mhz cl9, with an rx 470 nitro+ 8gb for graphics. This gets used for 3D modeling and rendering.
and last but not least I have my very first computer from the nineties it’s an HP OmniBook with a pentium MMX at 166mhz, 64mb ram and some kinda rudimentary 8mb 3D graphics card, still works but the cd-rom is dead so all that still works is the floppy drive. Would make for a great DOS games driver.
Got a Lenovo Y910, basically a desktop replacement beast which I use as my primary system: mostly just web browsing and occasional gaming CS:GO & Star Citizen, don’t need to do any “work” on a computer.
I just prefer a laptop since I move around a lot, just at home I plug it to a kb and monitor and it’s golden.
Reason why I jumped to a laptop from PC was pascal. As much as I would’ve preferred amd for linux reasons (1 year ago), nvidia really outdid themselves with the 10 series so I made the leap.
Starting to get really tired of needing adapters for literally EVERYTHING except charging on the new MacBook Pro. Sadly, because it’s my work laptop and I need ARD, I have no choice.
Plugging in to a drop, need an adapter. Testing a smart board, need an adapter. Connecting to a projector, need an adapter. External hard drive, need an adapter. Holy fuck Apple. If I ever needed a reminder of why I don’t buy their stuff, this is it.
I like the older machines. I plan to get a 2009 or 2010 MBP refurb and get it onto 10.11. It’ll be really nice :3
I liked the 2012 I had before this one. I replaced the stock 5400 RPM drive with an SSD and it was perfectly fine. I would like the new one as well if it weren’t for the fact that Apple decided it would be a good idea to remove all common ports in favor of making it a few millimeters thinner. Really, all they need to do is add an ethernet port and one USB 3 port and I’d be perfectly happy with it for work, but only having two USB-C ports sucks.
Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh theres a reason I like my hackintoshes.
2016 12" Space Grey Macbook. yes, the one with the single USB-C port.
Bought it used but it was in mint shape and had a few extras in the box. Paid $1200CAD($970 FreedomBucks) for it, even though it cost at the time $1649CAD +13% Tax($1510 FreedomBucks after tax). For $1200, its an excellent machine. For $1650+tax, not even close.
I use mine primarily for mobile web browsing when by phones screen is too small, i also use it as my backup desktop for whenever my main rig is out of service. For my needs its an excellent machine.
I do mostly the same things as my desktop/HTPC, which is watch videos, web surfing, and very light gaming. The added bonus is that it is small enough (Dell Inspiron 11, Pentium 3700) to easily carry around with me, and occasionally gets jammed under the hood of a car so I can see wiring diagrams and things of that nature. The design of the cooling system is fairly stupid, so I may add a sheet of aluminum in there with some Ceramique II as an interface to avoid dissimilar metal contact, and Amazing Goop to hold it in place.
I did something very similar to an old netbook. I wanted to greatly increase the thermal mass of the heatsink on a Samsung netbook with an Atom N450 CPU, so I added a ~3/16" aluminum plate on top of the heat spreader. I got creative and made it as big as possible while still fitting under the plastic case. I drilled a hole in the middle to fit around a coil and cut square notches at the edges to fill in as much space as I could. It helps moderate the temperature so the fan doesn’t spike the moment it sees a load, and should add a tiny bit of radiant heat loss to cool things down. That plus the new TIM helped lower max temps a little.
The netbook had a broken screen and wasn’t really great at anything. I was going to buy an SBC like a Pine Rock64, Orange Pi Prime or similar, but this thing uses hardly any more energy and has sufficient I/o ports. In order to spend no money to get the ball rolling, I took the 500 GB drive from the Inspiron and put it in the Samsung, then got Syncthing working. I then set up an ASRock N3450M with a 500 GB drive, syncthing to send copies of files to the Samsung, and hooked up a couple webcams to do an off-grid surveillance system. The Samsung netbook will simply be used as remote backup storage.
The N3450 has an M3-ATX PicoPSU, and I only need a boost converter to replace the AC power pack for the Samsung to complete the system. I got it all working and then had to dismantle everything and take it with me during the hurricane evacuation.