meanwhile in Thinkpad land... honestly I never understand why people go for Macbooks or XPS. X/T model user since 7 generations. I did look at the XPS but there are so many disadvantages with those modern one-body-all-closed-no-mods laptops. Before you down vote me, I still applaud Dells decision to get Ubuntu Laptops out there. But I don't really see what the big game changer is whether a laptop comes preinstalled w…
> But I don't really see what the big game changer is whether a laptop comes preinstalled with Ubuntu or if I do it myself. A laptop sold with Ubuntu means that you don't have to pay for Windows (>100€). So it's cheaper. Furthermore, you have guarantees that linux support will be better than average.
Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
71–80 of 319 posts
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#72As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…
I’ve a dual boot set up on one of my machines with Ubuntu 17.04. I’m consistently having Ethernet issues related to having two network cards, and the multi monitor support is lacking. I can’t use my triple monitor setup, and if I forget to disconnect my third monitor I have to reboot with only one monitor attached to get it work. Meanwhile, on the same machine, windows handles it in its stride. There’s still some imp…
This is so common I wrote an article and fix [0] for it containing 4 shell commands that we refer users to whenever we get these 'works OK in Windows but not in Linux' type of reports.
By far the biggest cause of these hardware issues relating to power (suspend/resume, power-states, platform device enablement, ports - including GPU outputs) not working correctly is not caused by Linux but by the PC firmware itself and is down to the manufacturers.
In short - manufacturers customise the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) DSDT (Differentiated System Description Table) via it's _OSI() method to recognise only Microsoft Windows OSs and enable functionality based on the Windows version.
The version strings are of the form "Windows 2009" "Windows 2015" etc., where the later the year the more functionality is enabled. This is a total misuse of the purpose of _OSI but almost all manufacturers are doing this now.
As a result when Linux is the OS often only a minimal or incomplete set of functionality is enabled which causes all sorts of problems.
For a long time Linux has had code to report itself as various Windows versions to try to solve the worst of these but in many cases unless it claims to be the exact 'best' Windows version for each model/DSDT there will still be problems.
From silly things like some devices not working if the PC starts on battery (but fine starting on AC) - recently saw this was the cause of an external HDMI port not being enabled - through not handling power-state switching correctly and thus draining the battery rapidly, to suspend/resume/shutdown freezes and other symptoms.
The solution has frequently been to set the OSI string to match the most recent Windows version the PC's ACPI DSDT recognises, on the basis that the most recent is likely to enable the most functionality, using the DSDT OSI string via kernel command-line acpi_osi="...".
Checking the supported OSI version strings is quite easy from Linux:
sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT | grep -i windows | sort
You'll get a sorted list with the most recent version generally at the end. E.g: Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows NT
Microsoft WindowsME: Millennium Edition
Windows 2001
Windows 2006
Windows 2009
Windows 2012
Windows 2015
Adding the most recent version to the kernel command-line, either via the boot-menu at start-up to test it, but usually permanently via GRUB, in this form: acpi_osi=! "acpi_osi=Windows XXXX"
where XXXX is the latest year reported. The initial =! tells Linux not to offer any of it's hard-coded version strings via OSI - this guarantees the one that gets used is the one specified.On most GRUB-based systems this is done by editing /etc/default/grub and adding the options into the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX variable (there may be other kernel options there too) thus:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=! \"acpi_osi=Windows XXXX\""
(note: the two \" are required to ensure the double-quote gets inserted onto the kernel command line surrounding the space in the version string)then:
sudo update-grub
Reboot and test.[0] http://iam.tj/prototype/enhancements/Windows-acpi_osi.html
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I develop for Windows, but I use Linux. I find Windows to be a hindrance (I've used it from v3.1 to 7, so it's nothing to do with unfamiliarity). Microsoft may be trying to become developer friendly - but their OS certainly is not, and increasingly so.
Some developers enjoy a graphical IDE worlds, keyboard shortcuts + mouse, not everyone feels likes developer == "UNIX user/CLI".
Windows isn't the only OS that has a graphical IDE - likewise Bash is available on Windows.
(all of my tools are available on both systems)
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#74meanwhile in Thinkpad land... honestly I never understand why people go for Macbooks or XPS. X/T model user since 7 generations. I did look at the XPS but there are so many disadvantages with those modern one-body-all-closed-no-mods laptops. Before you down vote me, I still applaud Dells decision to get Ubuntu Laptops out there. But I don't really see what the big game changer is whether a laptop comes preinstalled w…
The T420 I owned on the other hand had a rather plasticy feel.
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you're a developer there's no UX reason to go Windows anymore. I am a developer serving Windows customers, that rely on native UI/UX for their workflows.
I develop for Windows, but I use Linux. I find Windows to be a hindrance (I've used it from v3.1 to 7, so it's nothing to do with unfamiliarity). Microsoft may be trying to become developer friendly - but their OS certainly is not, and increasingly so.
Until there're Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator for Linux, no professional UI development is possible on that OS.
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#76meanwhile in Thinkpad land... honestly I never understand why people go for Macbooks or XPS. X/T model user since 7 generations. I did look at the XPS but there are so many disadvantages with those modern one-body-all-closed-no-mods laptops. Before you down vote me, I still applaud Dells decision to get Ubuntu Laptops out there. But I don't really see what the big game changer is whether a laptop comes preinstalled w…
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#77meanwhile in Thinkpad land... honestly I never understand why people go for Macbooks or XPS. X/T model user since 7 generations. I did look at the XPS but there are so many disadvantages with those modern one-body-all-closed-no-mods laptops. Before you down vote me, I still applaud Dells decision to get Ubuntu Laptops out there. But I don't really see what the big game changer is whether a laptop comes preinstalled w…
I personally cannot fathom why anyone would ever use a factory-installed operating system of any kind. It's only your computer if you installed it yourself.
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#78As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…
As another 20+ (24 actually, 0.99pl15) Linux user let me counter: with the Linux subsystem for Windows there's no reason to wrestle with Linux any more. While Linux certainly works on laptops it doesn't work well. Wifi and battery life are absymal and for me seemingly every other update either breaks the printer half or the scanner half of the MFC device (and if not, then it's time for another bluetooth breakage, you…
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#79As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…
Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off
#80They should have taken the Latitude 6 or 7 series for Linux laptops. XPS is a toy, the other two are mid-range and high-end workhorses, exactly the kind professional developers and corporate buyers acquire.