[Arm-netbook] new development laptop needed, looking at dell xps 13 9350

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On 12/4/16, Russell Hyer <russell.hyer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Luke,
>
> Well, obviously you know that there are a couple more hardware people
> like https://www.thinkpenguin.com/ in the US

 my sponsor, so yes :)  however, they focus on laptops around the $500
give-or-take mark, max screen resolution 1920x1080, weight around
2.5kg... the budget here is around *three times* that amount.

> and novatech.co.uk in the UK,

 yeah i like them... i'm not in the UK though.

> but none of these are particularly interesting from a tech or
> friendliness perspective.

 yeah although i don't like it, the lack of choice here in the libre
department means i have to go "next level down" on priorities.

> If it's just about having a machine that might be compromised whilst
> you bootstrap the new system up,

 no, not at all: that's not a priority, here.  i need something that i
can do the 3D CAD and PCB cadwork on, as well as run two web browsers
and do kernel and u-boot compiles

* openscad takes up about 1.5 GB of resident RAM
* chrome takes up about 2GB
* firefox is nuts and can end up taking up around 3-4 GB of *resident*
memory all on its own
* running the PCB CAD program in a VM takes up 2.5GB resident RAM

... we're well over 8GB already...

> then, the Mac Mini would get my
> upvote (true, it's bad in some respects concerning freedom), but it
> does support multiple screens, but, then it is locked down (soldered
> RAM).

 i need a decent portable machine as opposed to a desktop: i'm moving
around too much to be able to do otherwise.  i can't fit a macmini and
a 4k HDMI screen, keyboard, mouse and power supplies in my Tumi
backpack, otherwise i'd consider it.

> Whatever you decide, I feel I should add that whilst my business is
> improving, I've still not been able to generate any more money for the
> project. (I could sell some items, though, though that's more worst
> case scenario)

 it's really appreciated that you'd consider that, russell.  with the
crowdfunding money in the bank it's fine - no need to push yourself
outside of self-sustainable finance.  i can easily justify getting a
second laptop (keeping the macbook pro as a spare) because without
one, if the macbook pro fails the entire project completely stops dead
for at least a week, maybe two, sorting things out.  i can't have that
happen.

l.