"Laptop too powerful for linux"

[michael louwe]

It's wrong because the Big Box either did not have any laptops available with linux or would rather sell something with Windows - I really don't know if there are incentives to sell Windows laptops and PCs vs ones with linux installed - I suppose probably though.

.
It is the same reason many business software and AAA games are not available for desktop Linux, ie because of desktop Linux's very low world market share of about 2%. IOW, it's a waste of company resources and little ROI to sell new computers and software/apps/games for desktop Linux. It's also the same reason why Win 10 Mobile died.

Desktop Linux was developed by techgeeks for techgeeks to tinker with, because they could not tinker with closed-source Windows 3.1 and MacOSX. So, desktop Linux, by its birth, "genetically" does not seek to be popular in the world market but tinkerable or customizable/forkable. So, blame desktop Linux and her developers for the above buyers' dilemma.

.That is a good thing - Keeps the target surface small less than 2% even better - I want Windows to be a fat juicy target so they ignore me.

Same reason most hackers do not target desktop Linux.

[catweazel]

From 2.21 % to 1.72 % in a year. A slight slide. But I hereby predict an increase because of the upcoming demise of Windows 7.

It's a nonsense figure, like distrowatch numbers. It's already back to 2.14.

[sphyrth]

That sales man's arrogance is rubbing me the wrong way. He is basically saying "You shouldn't install a 'Toy OS' to such a 'professional machine' like this!"

[Spearmint2]

At least they have the Major to straighten them out about it.

[majpooper]

At least they have the Major to straighten them out about it.

or Spearmint2

[AndyMH]

the implication is that a crappy $700 laptop with a cheap CPU and 4-8G of RAM and a tiny HDD is too powerful and therefore cannot run linux is bs

My last 'crappy' laptop cost me $120 and came with an i5-3320M, 8G RAM, 500G HDD and no OS. I paid $40 for a 240G SSD and put mint on it and moved the HDD into the ultrabay ($20 for the caddy) as a backup drive. Why so cheap - because I bought a second hand Thinkpad T430. Performance with Mint - more than adequate, it will even run win10 okay.

The UK equivalent of the store with the bad advice would be Currys/PC World. I would never, ever, go into a one of their stores or any of their competitors and trust the advice of sales staff, nor would I ever buy a 'consumer grade' laptop.

I do have a desktop as well, i5-8400 + GTX1080 which I built myself, perhaps that's 'too powerful for linux' and I should downgrade to win10?

[murray]

Maybe what the salesperson meant was that the laptop was overkill for running Linux, that you could get away with buying a much less powerful machine and still get good performance?

[Spearmint2]

Maybe what the salesperson meant was that the laptop was overkill for running Linux, that you could get away with buying a much less powerful machine and still get good performance?

Possible lately with all the immigration that the sales person didn't have English as his native tongue, so it came out a bit strange?

[RollyShed]

Arrh, language and usage and meaning. A "can of worms" would be a good description.
"Overkill" would, as suggested, be the word to use, not "too powerful".

So how many words / options do we have? The first response in a Google search is -
Language Approx. no. of words
Slovak 200,000
Romanian 180,000
English 171,476
Russian 150,000

It is not as simple as this and a bit more digging questions "what makes a defined word".

This rates English as the most -
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/whi ... words.html

This quotes English with 500,000
https://blog.ititranslates.com/which-la ... t-in-words

These two point out things are complicated -
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/language-most-words/
https://www.economist.com/johnson/2010/ ... vocabulary

Sorry, you probably didn't want to know all of that anyway.....!

[Minux1]

Right or wrong there is the idea afoot that Linux is a crutch O/S whereby you can flog marginal legacy computers beyond their best before date.
I have a couple of jurassic pcs running light Linux distros that certainly wouldn´t run any secure modern windows O/S.
They are capable of the rudimentary functionality that some people call ¨normal use¨ (emailing, web surfing, movie watching).
It seems to me that Linux does very well at both ends of the computer power spectrum enabling both miniscule and muscle machines.

[ColdBootII]

Maybe what the salesperson meant was that the laptop was overkill for running Linux, that you could get away with buying a much less powerful machine and still get good performance?

I concur to this point of view. They would be probably rebuked later on, if overheard by the boss, for offering cheaper hardware and can only insinuate when speaking of cheaper options.

Right or wrong there is the idea afoot that Linux is a crutch O/S whereby you can flog marginal legacy computers beyond their best before date.

So true, just check the hardware specs of the machines some forum members here use with Cinnamon on.

[bob466]

Not long ago I went into a Computer store and said to the guy...I want an SSD Bracket...this guy didn't know what I was talking about.

The guy says...you don't need a Bracket...I had to explain to him that my Towers Drive bay is 3.5" and an SSD is 2.5"...so I need a Bracket and screws to hold it in...or do I use bloody sticky tape ?

This clown then says...we don't have any To which I replied...you have them advertised on the store's Web Site...don't worry I'll go somewhere else and this clown works on people's Computers...scary isn't it.

[Spearmint2]

I wonder if this guy ran into a sales person at a box store? Yes, I could imagine someone coming in for a cheap laptop and the sales man says, "You might be interested in this chromebook", but never telling him it didn't have windows on it. I could hear every misdirected dollar screaming out in his reply.

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions ... tting-ssd/