[clug] Modern laptops, nVidia, Optimus and Linux

[Hugh Fisher]

Kevin Pulo wrote:
> 
> I'd love to have a bit more screen real-estate, and so I'm wondering
> if there are any laptops that can drive 2 external screens (preferably
> both at 1920x1200) *as* *well* *as* the laptop's internal screen.  The
> laptop screen could be at a smaller size and/or lower resolution,
> since it would probably be just for my mail window and other bits and
> pieces.  But it would be great if it wasn't too low res, for those
> times when the laptop is used on its own (however, a small screen
> size, meaning a smaller/lighter laptop overall, would be good).
> 
> Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

Thunderbolt, the new Apple/Intel connector replacing DisplayPort,
is a bus rather than a single connection and in theory allows
daisy-chaining external monitors.

Right now there are laptops with Thunderbolt but A) graphics drivers
haven't been updated to handle daisy chaining and B) monitors don't
have the extra "pass-through" ports either. I've also seen back of
the envelope calculations saying there's not enough bandwidth for
more than one HDTV res monitor on a single connector anyway.

Maybe in 6 months?

	cheers,
	Hugh