Just ordered a 17.3" Cosmos VII , any tips?

zapdos

Member
Just waiting for the cycle to run through before I get my hands on it.

Currently planning to put Ubuntu MATE 19.04 on it, anyone got thoughts on that, or tips? Or recommend something else?
 

zapdos

Member
Ah yeah I might have mentioned that.

The 6 core i7, onboard graphics (no nvidia card), 16GB RAM, 250GB nvme, 1TB HDD.

Be doing development, docker, code editing with sublime.

I hummed and Ha'ed between the 17 and 15" versions of this laptop, but went for the 17 because the specs on the screen looked better.

My current laptop is a 4GB RAM 1.6GHz celeron based chromebook (Acer cb14).

I think this Cosmos might be a tad faster.

Can't come soon enough, tbh.

I'm hoping I've built enough longevity into this machine. That's the main reason I went for the i7 and the RAM in a single stick.

Don't want to be buying a new laptop for at least 3 years after this one (unless it breaks - [ don't break ] ).
 

zapdos

Member
I did see those threads yeah. I don't expect any problem I can't overcome, I've been installing and using linux on computers since 1994 with slackware on floppies and my day job is all linux based development.
 

hogfish

Bronze Level Poster
Any update? This looks promising in the absence of a decent AMD Ryzen laptop. There is an ethernet port on the rear isn't there? It is not mentioned in the specifications, but the photograph suggests it is there. But then how does the battery detach? I normally run without a battery
(kept separately at low temperature to preserve life for when it is really needed).

What about Linux drivers or any other problems? I expect to use Devuan, but I am happy to compile my own kernel if there are bleeding edge modules not included in the latest Debian kernel.

I am writing this on a Ultranote, under linux of course.
 

zapdos

Member
Uhh, nice to know the Cosmos 7 is already superseded by the Cosmos 8!

Anyway. This 7 has an ethernet on the side, but I don't suppose it's worth while my commenting further on the hardware, given you're contemplating the newer release.

In the end I settled on FC30 as an OS. Suze LEAP wouldn't even boot (graphics crash), and Ubuntu and Debian both had issues with the bluetooth driver not connecting to my external speakers.

FC30 worked though, so here I am. Battery life is so-so, but it's swings and roundabouts, you know. This thing is a hex core i7 with a massive screen and a bunch of RAM, so I'd expect to take a hit on the battery life. Get about 5 hours on battery I suppose.

I'm really happy with it. I swapped out the HDD I got as a factory build (that was a mistake on my part) with an SSD, and that went smoothly. They're pretty easy to work on these laptops.

I do expect to be using this laptop for a long time. I wish the speakers didn't make my ears bleed though. They are truly, truly terrible. Like, I could go to a flea market and buy the worst 50p transistor radio I could find and it'd be better than this. Can't even watch a talking head video on YouTube without either headphones or the aforementioned bluetooth speakers [which is in large part why I wanted the bluetooth audio to work]
 
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