⛰️:Projects/Laptop Library

thoughts

• wanna standardize on one type of laptop

• how to have money for this?

• physical space?

  • tool library probably not clean enough for laptops

• need to check out laptop from buncombe library and see what the experience is like

• friend suggested hotspots

• thinking about this laptop a lot: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/latitude-14-5400-laptop/latitude_5400_setupspecs/set-up-your-computer

what matters most in a laptop for this purpose?

table stakes:

• runs linux perfectly

• highly repairable

more specific things:

• what types of repairs does this specific laptop need most? for example, battery bloat more scary than keyboard replacement

• are replacement parts highly available?

• are firmware updates supported via fwupd

• has the particular laptop ever had a particularly nerve-wracking regression in firmware updates? ex. https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht508988-critical-intel-thunderbolt-software-and-firmware-updates-thinkpad

what linux do we put on it?

• ubuntu is arguably most widely used, however:

  • bad UX re: ubuntu pro ESM updates

  • uses snap silently (confusing sources of packages, hard to help people troubleshoot over email, also increases the possibility that users install abandonware on their computer, easy to install signal wrong)

• linux mint seems to still be the "easiest"

  • need to test that theory first hand though

notes from first latitude 5400 setup

• has Absolute -- could be turned on, WATCH OUT, disable permanently

• has TPM, TODO: learn about this actually

• Mint install

• bios config: change battery settings so that it never quick-charges

• initial swappiness = 60, changed to 1

1st machine: bunk-asimina (after Asimina trifolia 'pawpaw')