Linus Torvalds Wants All Laptops to Have 2560x1600 'Reasonable Resolution' Displays

Linus Torvalds Wants All Laptops to Have 2560x1600 'Reasonable Resolution' Displays

Most of the buzz surrounding Google’s upcoming Nexus 10 tablet is on account of its WQXGA (2560×1600) display, the highest-resolution screen of any tablet out there. This isn’t the first time this year that a tablet has managed to grab headlines due to its display’s pixel count, though, with the now discontinued 3rd generation iPad also hogging a plenty of limelight for its 2048×1152 screen earlier this year. But even as manufacturers continue to up the display resolution ante in the highly competitive media tablet market, laptop vendors still seem content with 1366x768 displays for the most part. A certain Linus Torvalds has a major problem with that.

Known for speaking his mind, Linux creator Linus Torvalds recently took to Google Plus to do just that on the topic of laptop display resolutions: "So with even a $399 tablet [Nexus 10] doing 2560x1600 pixel displays, can we please just make that the new standard laptop resolution? Even at 11"? Please. Stop with the 'retina' crap, just call it 'reasonable resolution'. The fact that laptops stagnated ten years ago (and even regressed, in many cases) at around half that in both directions is just sad.”

“I still don't want big luggable laptops, but that 1366x768 is so last century. Christ, soon even the cellphones will start laughing at the ridiculously bad laptop displays.”

But he didn’t stop at criticizing WXGA-doting laptop makers, proceeding instead to blast tech journos: “And the next technology journalist that asks you whether you want fonts that small, I'll just hunt down and give an atomic wedgie. I want pixels for high-quality fonts, and yes, I want my fonts small, but ‘high resolution’ really doesn't equate ‘small fonts’ like some less-than-gifted tech pundits seem to constantly think.”

We think he has a point. Do you?