My point is not to limit your LTS list to US laptops. US has *extraordinary* availability for a lot of gear.
There's also the matter of procurement and warranty. A company won't bother importing some laptop from outside the EU just because a developer wants it -- they will look locally and as a last resort within the EU. Except some brands (Apple comes to mind) warranty becomes a hassle if the laptop breaks. Transport costs, long wait time and language issues complicate matters. Amazon Germany seems to have 2 laptops in stock with A10. Amazon Spain/France/Italy/Netherlands has none. Only Amazon UK seems to have it without giving a stock warning (but it's sold by a 3d party). Anyhow, I don't want to sidetrack this, but the first criteria for the LTS laptop is "reasonable availability"... Perhaps you should have some metric for availability (this could even be automated somewhat). Pick a list of top electronics sites/stores from a list of countries and define a formula based on model availability. Alternatively, it would be great to support the A8 too! To me the the G505S would clearly be a better machine to recommend compared to an ancient Thinkpad X2xx! --emi On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 3:28 PM, Vladimir <[email protected]> wrote: > If I am not mistaken, your country is Romania... Unfortunately - if I > didn't skip something - it looks like Romania went out of A10 stock just a > couple of weeks ago! However, I found many offers from Hungary, which is > very close! Some offers are listed on "price list"-type websites (e.g. > http://www.arukereso.hu/CategorySearch.php?st=g505s+a10 ) while others > are not listed anywhere (e.g. > http://www.notebookspecialista.hu/lenovo_ideapad_g505s_59_422983_notebook-11928.html > ) > Nice thing is that these offers usually have A10 + R5 230M, slightly > faster dual graphics. But the majority of G505S models selling in Europe > have Win8 pre-installed, so I'm afraid it would be hard to avoid paying > extra for this bloatware, in your case :P > > As for other European countries, it is difficult for me to look through > the entire EU because there are many countries with many languages. I only > know English as foreign language, and thats why the majority of foreign > offers I'm able to find, are in UK/US... > > On 6 April 2015 at 23:12, Emilian Bold <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Well, the G505S with A10-5750M is explicitly listed as no longer being >> sold. So it's the A8 or nothing. >> >> Could you provide links within the EU with (online) shops still selling >> the A10 variant and having some actual stock? >> >> --emi >> >> On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 6:45 PM, Vladimir <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> Yes, in addition to A10-5750M based G505S there are also A8 and A6 ones. >>> But there are some possible problems regarding them: >>> 1) their price is just slightly lower than with A10 - as result, >>> price/performance ratio seems to be worse for these models >>> 2) I'm not sure if it is possible could upgrade their APU from A6/A8 to >>> A10-5750M after purchase >>> 3) most importantly: some parameters inside a coreboot source code for >>> G505S could be A10-specific ; >>> I am not sure if a current "A10-inclined build" would run on A8/A6 out >>> of the box, without additional tweaking >>> >>> A question from my last letter - about compatibility of G505S coreboot >>> build with various graphics solutions found in different modifications, is >>> not addressed yet... to remind, there are three groups of modifications: >>> *) only 8650G (no dual graphics) >>> *) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) >>> *) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) >>> >>> P.S. Below is an =incomplete= list of SKUs for A10 G505S models that I >>> was able to find. If there is a shortage in your country, maybe this list >>> could assist you in search (those mods with windows 8 are about $50 more >>> expensive and support evil M$, please dont get them ;-) ) >>> >>> 1) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 4GB + FreeDOS = 59-410323 >>> 2) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 8GB + FreeDOS = 59-405169 >>> 3) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 4GB + Windows 8 = 59-380131 >>> 4) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 6GB + Windows 8 = 59-373010 / >>> 59-406417 >>> 5) only 8650G (no dual graphics) + 8GB + Windows 8 = 59-403088 >>> 6) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 4GB + FreeDOS = 59-405168 >>> 7) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 6GB + FreeDOS = 59-409773 >>> 8) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 8GB + FreeDOS = 59-380146 / >>> 59-387536 >>> 9) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 4GB + Windows 8 = 59-407135 / >>> 59410966 >>> 10) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 6GB + Windows 8 = 59-382102 >>> 11) 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) + 8GB + Windows 8 = 59-401209 >>> 12) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) + 4GB + FreeDOS >>> = 59-410881 >>> 13) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) + 8GB + FreeDOS >>> = 59-410885 >>> 14) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) + 4GB + >>> Windows 8 = 59-408604 >>> 15) 8650G + AMD R5 M230 (dual graphics, slightly faster) + 8GB + >>> Windows 8 = 59-410883 >>> >>> On 6 April 2015 at 14:20, Emilian Bold <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> I can confirm I'm still able to buy a G505S in my country but it seems >>>> to have the quad core A8-4500M (not the A10) with a dedicated Radeon HD >>>> 8570M. >>>> >>>> It's a decent machine and it would be great to have it on the official >>>> LTS list. >>>> >>>> Speaking of the list, I cannot find any store selling the Toshiba >>>> Satellite C50D-A mentioned in the wiki. >>>> >>>> --emi >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 1:45 PM, Vladimir <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Dear coreboot developers, >>>>> >>>>> Francis Rowe (main Libreboot developer) has hinted an idea about >>>>> adding Lenovo G505S to Coreboot LTS Candidates list of laptops, which is >>>>> hosted at MrNuke's User talk coreboot wiki page. I believe it is an >>>>> excellent idea, because: >>>>> >>>>> *1)* Lenovo G505S contains AMD APU, so there is no need to deal with >>>>> Intel ME/AMT so-called "features" >>>>> *2)* this APU has Richland architecture: as result (unlike the more >>>>> recent AMD offerings) it doesn't have "AMD Secure" feature -- based on ARM >>>>> Trustzone technology which already has some exploits against it; there are >>>>> security concerns about ARM Trustzone that are similar to concerns about >>>>> Intel vPro "feature" (remote management etc.) >>>>> *3)* this APU is A10-5750M, the most powerful mobile APU among >>>>> Richland designs - as result, this laptop is still very competitive >>>>> regarding its performance, and also price/performance >>>>> *4)* Unlike the older HP M6-1035DX amd laptop, Lenovo G505S seems to >>>>> be a very popular model: even now, more than 1.5 years after its' >>>>> introduction, there are >200 Internet shops in my large city still selling >>>>> it new in box - not used/refurbished >>>>> *5)* Lenovo G505s works without microcode updates, and already has a >>>>> working Coreboot build (although Video BIOS and SMU firmware have blobs >>>>> that are still not reverse-engineered; and some minor issues - e.g. ACPI >>>>> not perfect yet ) >>>>> >>>>> These great points are making me wonder, why this interesting laptop >>>>> still haven't been added to that LTS Candidates list? Does it fail to meet >>>>> some requirement for LTS candidates in a not-obvious way >>>>> (RYF-certifiable,Sturdy,Long shelf-life,Cool factor) or there is some >>>>> not-listed AMD laptop that could be a better candidate? >>>>> >>>>> By the way, I have discovered that there are many modifications of >>>>> Lenovo G505S, which could be divided into three primary groups by their >>>>> major difference - GPU *(minor differences, such as different size of >>>>> RAM or hard drive, are not interesting)* >>>>> GPU modification groups: >>>>> *1)* only 8650G, which is built-in into APU (no dual graphics) >>>>> *2)* 8650G + AMD HD 8570M (dual graphics) >>>>> *3)* 8650G + AMD R5 M230 ( dual graphics, slightly more powerful than >>>>> "2)" ) >>>>> Are these modifications all supported by Coreboot? And would be there >>>>> any additional difficulties regarding modifications with dual graphics? >>>>> >>>>> Your answers and opinions will be very welcome >>>>> Best regards, >>>>> Vladimir Shipovalov >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> coreboot mailing list: [email protected] >>>>> http://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >> >
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