Test report on new Darter Pro and Mint

[AZgl1800]

My daughter asks what I want for supper.
most of the time I just tell her what is easy for you.

we have very similar tastes...so it works out

[MurphCID]

My daughter asks what I want for supper.
most of the time I just tell her what is easy for you.

we have very similar tastes...so it works out

That works for me. But since I do all the cooking, it gets odd at times.

[MurphCID]

On both the Lemur Pro and Darter Pro I have updated to 5.14.0-1020-OEM, after the reboot, I did sudo apt autoremove and removed lots of old kernels from the system. I read somewhere that one needs to do this every often in order to prevent conflicts/bloat. How true is that? Both systems are running fine, but seem a little 'snappier" after I removed 2+MB of old stuff from them. Also the shut down on 5.14.0-1020-OEm seems faster than on the earlier kernels. Both systems are running fine, and now that I am back to health, I plan on going to follow my usual Friday pattern of Black Rifle, then Indian food. Both laptops are AMAZINGLY good. Compared to the earlier Darter Pro, the new one and the Lemur are just the best laptops I have ever owned.

If I wanted to install Windows 11 on them (who in their right mind would want to do this I will never know), I can do it apparently: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... Windows-11

Plus it looks like a new vulnerability is coming: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... d-Jan-2022

[AZgl1800]

I just set Preferences in Update Manager to delete old kernels, leaving 1 old one.
Have done so for at least a couple years.

[MurphCID]

I found a new problem. I don't have enough time to spend on these machines, but in four months, I will have time to spend (I hope).

[MurphCID]

Either the Darter Pro is super popular ( I love mine), or it has small production since it is out of stock again!? https://system76.com/laptops I am sort of waiting to see if they update the Lemur Pro line to the 12th Gen Intel chips...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Either the Darter Pro is super popular ( I love mine), or it has small production since it is out of stock again!? https://system76.com/laptops I am sort of waiting to see if they update the Lemur Pro line to the 12th Gen Intel chips...

Or the ongoing chip shortage is limiting how many of the necessary chips they can get.

[MurphCID]

Either the Darter Pro is super popular ( I love mine), or it has small production since it is out of stock again!? https://system76.com/laptops I am sort of waiting to see if they update the Lemur Pro line to the 12th Gen Intel chips...

Or the ongoing chip shortage is limiting how many of the necessary chips they can get.

Good point, although all their other laptops are in stock, the Darter Pro seems to almost always be out of stock.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Either the Darter Pro is super popular ( I love mine), or it has small production since it is out of stock again!? https://system76.com/laptops I am sort of waiting to see if they update the Lemur Pro line to the 12th Gen Intel chips...

Or the ongoing chip shortage is limiting how many of the necessary chips they can get.

Good point, although all their other laptops are in stock, the Darter Pro seems to almost always be out of stock.

If the Darter Pro is still being made by Clevo, it might just not be a hot seller for Clevo and gets lower priority. Another possibility is System 76 is redesigning it to be made in house (their goal is to build all their computers in house) so they don't want to buy more from Clevo until their production can get started or it's already already being made in house and other models have priority.

I haven't been to their website in quite a while. I'm still unhappy (polite term) that they discontinued my laptop, replaced it with a stripped down model, then discontinued it.

[MurphCID]

Or the ongoing chip shortage is limiting how many of the necessary chips they can get.

Good point, although all their other laptops are in stock, the Darter Pro seems to almost always be out of stock.

If the Darter Pro is still being made by Clevo, it might just not be a hot seller for Clevo and gets lower priority. Another possibility is System 76 is redesigning it to be made in house (their goal is to build all their computers in house) so they don't want to buy more from Clevo until their production can get started or it's already already being made in house and other models have priority.

I haven't been to their website in quite a while. I'm still unhappy (polite term) that they discontinued my laptop, replaced it with a stripped down model, then discontinued it.

Totally understand your upset. I felt the same on the old Darter Pro, but the Lemur Pro that the Spouse Unit and kids got me, restored my faith (somewhat) in System 76. Now with Microsoft's new requirement for a Microsoft account for all versions of Windows 11 I am moving completely to Linux on my laptops I use daily, except for the work laptop. I might even add Linux to the gaming laptop and the (cr)Apple Macbook Pro I have. I don't have to use System 76, I have had very good Linux installations on HP laptops. As for the Darter Pro it might be a less popular model, but I love it, lots of ports and a BIG battery! I love that battery, especially with TLP enabled. The Lemur Pro is my carry laptop since it is so light, but with the same big battery as the Darter Pro. The Darter has a better keyboard though.

[MurphCID]

Very odd that cropped up, I went to far of the Darter pro it booted and then immediately shut down so I tried to boot again and it immediately shut down. So I plugged in the power and discovered I was at zero power. When I had thought I had shut it down the other day I was at 50% power. I wonder if I had a glitch somewhere?

[MurphCID]

I love Linux. It’s really just works for me. If I didn’t need iTunes I would go 100%. I love you guys you’re a great forum

[AZgl1800]

I love Linux. It’s really just works for me. If I didn’t need iTunes I would go 100%. I love you guys you’re a great forum

iTunes?

WTH is that

[MurphCID]

I love Linux. It’s really just works for me. If I didn’t need iTunes I would go 100%. I love you guys you’re a great forum

iTunes?

WTH is that

Regrettably it is where my large music library is stored.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I love Linux. It’s really just works for me. If I didn’t need iTunes I would go 100%. I love you guys you’re a great forum

iTunes?

WTH is that

Regrettably it is where my large music library is stored.

Is there any way you can download it and keep it on your computers or an external drive?

[chiefjim]

I love Linux. It’s really just works for me. If I didn’t need iTunes I would go 100%. I love you guys you’re a great forum

iTunes?

WTH is that

Regrettably it is where my large music library is stored.

Bring them back home. Download to a spare HD. Nice to do before Apple changes terms of the service once again.

[MurphCID]

iTunes?

WTH is that

Regrettably it is where my large music library is stored.

Is there any way you can download it and keep it on your computers or an external drive?

The music can transfer to other drives, and be played in Rhythembox on the Linux machines without issue. The movies cannot. So what I do is use my desktop to get the music, then I download it to the external SSD, and copy to my Linux machines. I think that iTunes is a simple and elegant music shop/player I just wish (cr)Apple would make a Linux flatpak version.

[chiefjim]

iTunes?

WTH is that

Regrettably it is where my large music library is stored.

Is there any way you can download it and keep it on your computers or an external drive?

Absolutely. My friend had used iTunes for years. About 3 years ago Apple was changing the terms of service. She felt they were going to hold hostage her music files. Took awhile, 862 of them.

So pleased with the results photos returned home as well. Great side benefit was no longer having "albums" of photos with content mixed from various years because their algorithm somehow thought they went together. Such as playing with her dogs in the backyard. Images were from a different yard taken 10 years earlier in a another state.

The application Shotwell in contrast did the task very accurately.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Regrettably it is where my large music library is stored.

Is there any way you can download it and keep it on your computers or an external drive?

The music can transfer to other drives, and be played in Rhythembox on the Linux machines without issue. The movies cannot. So what I do is use my desktop to get the music, then I download it to the external SSD, and copy to my Linux machines. I think that iTunes is a simple and elegant music shop/player I just wish (cr)Apple would make a Linux flatpak version.

I use VLC Player to play all my music and the vast majority of my movies (I very occasionally have to use SMPlayer to to play a downloaded movie). I have the EQ in VLC adjusted to compensate for the horrible acoustics in my bedroom where I do most of music listening and, when watching movies, I just temporarily reset the EQ to VLC's Live preset (DVDs always have the bass boosted to compensate for lousy TV speakers, which I don't use for watching movies played from my computer and displayed on my TV; I could reroute the sound from my JBLs to the TV via the HDMI but changing the EQ is easier and sounds better).

BTW, how is your head feeling this morning? You were feeling no pain last night.

[MurphCID]

Is there any way you can download it and keep it on your computers or an external drive?

The music can transfer to other drives, and be played in Rhythembox on the Linux machines without issue. The movies cannot. So what I do is use my desktop to get the music, then I download it to the external SSD, and copy to my Linux machines. I think that iTunes is a simple and elegant music shop/player I just wish (cr)Apple would make a Linux flatpak version.

I use VLC Player to play all my music and the vast majority of my movies (I very occasionally have to use SMPlayer to to play a downloaded movie). I have the EQ in VLC adjusted to compensate for the horrible acoustics in my bedroom where I do most of music listening and, when watching movies, I just temporarily reset the EQ to VLC's Live preset (DVDs always have the bass boosted to compensate for lousy TV speakers, which I don't use for watching movies played from my computer and displayed on my TV; I could reroute the sound from my JBLs to the TV via the HDMI but changing the EQ is easier and sounds better).

BTW, how is your head feeling this morning? You were feeling no pain last night.

No pain. I drank 16 oz. of water before I went to bed, took two multi-vitamins, and I NEVER drink alcohol with any sugary mixers. I only use a little ice, which seems to work really well for me. I am now watching videos on installing Linux on my old 2015 Macbook. My bye-bye date is 6-30-2022. I will be retired, and have time to play with Linux and read.

I just wish that the DRM that (cr)Apple uses on their movies was not so intrusive, because I would like to transfer the movies to Linux and play them in VLC. I have no issues at all with playing iTunes (and ripped CDs) on Linux.