[PD] Computing advice for Pd outreach project
Hi all, I run Pd Vanilla on a MacBook Pro, so I am at a loss here... I'm looking for the lowest-range laptop running a flavour of Linux to install Pd Vanilla needed for a specific use described below. As I've never purchased this, I'm looking for hive-mind experience. I don't need heavy hitting power, because it will be for outreach groups (kids from disadvantaged areas). We won't get into extremely intensive patching. I'm happy with built-in stereo out. The more laptops I can afford on a €12,000 grant (minus speakers, projectors and screens for the actual art installation) the better. At this stage, I just need to get quotes for the Irish Arts Council funding application. What laptop? What Linux distribution? Any gotchas I need to worry about (sound card issues, etc.)? Enquiring minds want to know... Cheers, Kerry www.kerrylhagan.net www.spade.ul.ie www.dmarc.ie www.issta.ie ___ Pd-list@lists.iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management - http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
Re: [PD] Computing advice for Pd outreach project
Hi, On 16/07/2015 08:42, Kerry Hagan wrote: Hi all, I run Pd Vanilla on a MacBook Pro, so I am at a loss here... I'm looking for the lowest-range laptop running a flavour of Linux to install Pd Vanilla needed for a specific use described below. As I've never purchased this, I'm looking for hive-mind experience. I don't need heavy hitting power, because it will be for outreach groups (kids from disadvantaged areas). We won't get into extremely intensive patching. I'm happy with built-in stereo out. The more laptops I can afford on a €12,000 grant (minus speakers, projectors and screens for the actual art installation) the better. At this stage, I just need to get quotes for the Irish Arts Council funding application. What laptop? What Linux distribution? Any gotchas I need to worry about (sound card issues, etc.)? For this scenario I would go for any off-the-shelf consumer laptop. AFAIK Dell offer rather cheap laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed, and I guess Pd easily available on Ubuntu (but have no direct experience nor am I affiliated with Dell whatsoever). For your scenario I'd see machines with Linux preinstalled particularly useful as you'd have them working 'out of the box' compared e.g. to computers with windows pre-installed (and even secure boot etc.) and risk of incompatible hardware. My two cents. Lorenzo. ___ Pd-list@lists.iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management - http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
Re: [PD] Computing advice for Pd outreach project
Thanks to all who replied off and online. Many options. Great advice. Best, Kerry www.kerrylhagan.net www.spade.ul.ie www.dmarc.ie www.issta.ie ___ Pd-list@lists.iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management - http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
Re: [PD] Computing advice for Pd outreach project
2015-07-16 8:42 GMT+02:00 Kerry Hagan klha...@gmail.com: ...I'm looking for the lowest-range laptop running a flavour of Linux to install Pd Vanilla ...The more laptops I can afford (...) the better. Hi Kerry. It seems like you need the most affordable just enough for Pd Linux-friendly laptop; that you can purchase right away in volume; because i guess you would prefer to avoid the second hand market to save you the burden of disparate equipment out of warranty. Do they have to be laptops ? Because if they mostly remain fixed on a table (with external speakers?) and connected to an outlet, a Raspberry Pi would be just fine with a cheap usb audio interface, and it's easier to look for a serie of refurbished LCD screens previously owned by some company. There are tons a sub-300€ laptops these days, but most of them come with an Intel Bay Trail chipset, Linux support is still experimental but much better with latest kernel, and finallly efforts have led to a better handling of those tablet-like hardware implementations The best candidates in this category could probably be the ACER Aspire ES1 / E3 / E11 (and V3 too) line. They are just variants of the same hardware (available in a number memory, storage and touchscreen options, and different sizes) and some models sold in emergent countries come with Linpus Linux installed. Most issues have now been adressed (Arch Linux wiki provides all the techical details) and many report show that recent versions of the main distributions work about flawlessly on models equiped with mechanical drive, once EFI boot has been well tuned in bios. This blog sums it up pretty well : http://www.zdnet.com/article/installing-opensuse-fedora-and-ubuntu-on-my-new-acer-aspire-e11/ However, entry-level versions are equiped with eMMC flash storage (instead of HDD; and internal SATA connector is removed) which was not correctly supported until a recent fix, so they should be safely avoid (but could worth a try with newer releases, like recent arch isos). Sure, these are low-cost laptops with limited cpu, battery life and quality (some touchpad instability may occur), but there are still many units on the market in Europe and you could find some deals around 250€ for 11.6 inch versions (have a look at laptopsdirect.ie website). Cheers, Nicolas ___ Pd-list@lists.iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management - http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
