Pangolin Performance questions

[?#Yhf%*&]

I'm planning on buying the Pangolin Performance very soon, and I had a few questions:

First, if I did a fresh install of Ubuntu (64-bit) on this, would there be limited functionality? Does the bundled version of Ubuntu have special drivers that could not be downloaded? Second, does the weight affect portability? Third, how is the battery life?

Thanks in advance!

[w1ll1am]

I am not sure what the post above me was about not sure if he even read your post. Anyway I am considering purchasing one too. I have read that their drivers and be downloaded from their website all in one .deb package. as for your other questions I am not sure I don't have one unfortunately.

[drewbenn]

First, if I did a fresh install of Ubuntu (64-bit) on this, would there be limited functionality? Does the bundled version of Ubuntu have special drivers that could not be downloaded?

You should read http://knowledge76.com/index.php/System76_Driver which is System76's own page about the System76 Driver. The pre-installed version of Ubuntu just adds System76's current partitioning plan and the System76 Driver. If you reinstall Ubuntu yourself, you can install the System76 Driver, too, to get whatever functionality it has for your system. System76 pushes their fixes upstream, so hopefully after an Ubuntu release or two you'll find that the System76 Driver is just a no-op for your laptop and you can stop using it.

There is a link on that web page so that you can, if you want, download the driver right now and install or extract it to examine (it's just a collection of python scripts; if you're comfortable reading some scripts or grepping for search strings you shouldn't have many problems understanding it) what it does for the current Pangolin.

System76 seems to do most, if not all, of their testing on 64-bit Ubuntu, so since you're planning on sticking to that version you shouldn't have any issues at all.

]Second, does the weight affect portability?

I had the older-model Pangolin Value 3 and it was a similar weight (I think roughly 6.5 pounds, though I'm not positive about that number) and I never had a problem with portability. That said, I'm using an even heavier laptop now and don't have any problems with it for portability, either... but I'm over 6-feet tall and weight about 200 pounds: I'm not linebacker-huge but I'm not small, either. Portability is so subjective that I guess all I can say is: it'll be bigger than a netbook but easier to carry around than a desktop-and-monitor combination.

No idea about the battery life, sorry. Hopefully the official System76 representatives can chime in with the latest battery life numbers for you.

[?#Yhf%*&]

Thanks drewbenn, you are very kind!

Also, which version of Windows 7 would be best for this machine? I only need Internet Explorer (I'm a web developer) and Steam (so I can play Portal ). I was planning to dual-boot Win7 and Ubuntu. I saw a 'System Builders' version, but I didn't know what it did. Any ideas?

[nothingspecial]

I am not sure what the post above me was about not sure if he even read your post.

The post in question has gone.

[Muhammad El-Saeed]

is it able to be installed on 32-bit system

[?#Yhf%*&]

Is what able to be installed? The drivers?

[3Miro]

I recently got Pangolin (the latest with Intel HD 3000). I don't need to get the System76 driver to get full functionality, in fact, I can run everything straight from a LiveCD.

The Ubuntu that comes with the laptop is not in any way special. It is just regular Ubuntu with System76 driver installed. The System76 driver is good on some models (like the ones with Nvidia), but for Pangolin, you should not need it for anything other than debugging.

[isantop]

The Driver does fix an issue with the Fn+FX hotkeys, but that's all that is required for Ubuntu 11.10. In 11.04, you also need it for enhanced touchpad functionality.