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Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

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Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#41

Post by stemc43 »

ericcholis wrote: post #17

I recently switched to an XPS 15 9570 from my Macbook Air. I'm giving windows a shot for my secondary dev machine (python, docker, php, etc...), while being fully aware of the persistent Windows 10 issues. So far, the hardest part was adjusting my keyboard workflow from Mac to Windows. For the time being, I'm extremely happy with the hardware and satisfied with Windows. I'll give dual boot a shot in my spare time.

windows for docker & dev box? seems like perfect scenario for Linux here :) Fedora 29 is great tbh - u should give it a try.

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#42

Post by simion314 »

For power users I would suggest Kubuntu LTS, try the live image, if your hardware works then install it and for a few years you should be good. KDE is more configurable then GNOME and it does not suffer by the GNOMEs architecture and memory issues(aggravated if you customize it with extensions)

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#43

Post by chupasaurus »

majewsky wrote: post #34
Insanity wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The drivers for gpus are a bit annoying but only if you want to game on Ubuntu. Nouveau drivers are horrible for performance and the nvidia ones are not always great, if you can find a compatible one. That being said - I can't compare with AMD as my last system of Linux with an AMD gpu for gaming was back when it was an ATI gpu. :p

I have two systems with AMD GPUs: a desktop with a 2015 R9 Nano and a 2018 Thinkpad with a Ryzen APU. The amdgpu driver works perfectly on both of them. The Ryzen APU has one issue where you need to set `iommu=soft` in the kernel parameters to get it to boot, but that seems to be more related to the CPU than the GPU.

I don't have that parameter set, everything works fine. Ryzen 2400G.

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#44

Post by majewsky »

davidbanham wrote: post #19
kanishkdudeja wrote: post #5

The only issue I face with Linux on my Dell XPS 13 is the sub-par touchpad experience. If I use Ubuntu with XOrg, I don't have features like touch rejection while typing etc. If I use Ubuntu with Wayland, my cursor is all over the place.

It's a bit of a pain that it doesn't work well out of the box, but the situation can be fixed with a little tuning of your xorg configuration file. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Usin...

For reference, this is what I use on my notebook (Thinkpad E485): https://github.com/majewsky/system-configuration/blob/30dbd7...

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#45

Post by dazzawazza »

Zhyl wrote: post #18

There was an interesting thread on Reddit [1] the other day which did a breakdown of the state of gaming in terms of native games and games that can be run easily via Steam Play (aka 'Proton', Valve's in-built WINE+DXVK layer). The results were quite interesting and, as one of the replies pointed out in another breakdown, Linux now competes with (and in some ways beats) gaming on macOS in terms of size of catalogue.…

As someone who has just released[1] a first access game across Windows, macOS and Linux:

10 years ago developing on linux as a game developer was way worse than windows and MacOS, now there is no real difference at all. I speak as a long time UNIX user, Linux was terrible for C++ devleopment, debugging and asset creation/viewing (compared to the others) making gamedev tougher than it needed to be.

10 years ago linux's OpenGL drivers were behind even MacOS and way behind Windows OpenGL which was behind DirectX by quite some way. Now Linux's drivers are fairly good although it's still a nightmare upgrading radeon drivers and NVidia's drivers seem to be fickle. This leads to a lot of bugs from users and supporting various distro/hw/driver combinations.

Libraries like libSDL(2) were less mature 10 year ago, multi monitor, input and sound support were patchy because the Linux landscape was fragmented and buggy. Now libSDL2 is pretty much spot on. Mutli-monitor is doable (not as good as macOS but as good as windows), input is pretty good and sound is OK (but most people use FMOD which is superb).

Where Linux falls behind is deployment. No I am not going to ship my source for you to compile. itch.io and Steam go a long way to make it easy to deploy and crucially update the game. It's still a PITA to deploy a compiled app on Linux with unclear glibc versions and amazingly it's worse than MS DLL hell of MSVC redistributable shambles.

It's not impossible to overcome but it's a PITA for a small market. Not a good position to be in. I support macOS and Linux as well as Windows because I believe in plurality but I can see why many chose not to. Don't think that using Unity or Unreal make anything easier either. In many ways they are worse than a well written custom engine.

[1] https://executionunit.itch.io/smith-and-winston

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#46

Post by jammygit »

emptyfile wrote: post #16
rospaya wrote: post #9

I'm writing this from my XPS 13 using the latest Ubuntu and once I've spent a few hours configuring everything, it works almost perfectly. There's still a few bugs, like Ubuntu not remembering the audio settings.

What? So XPS 13 which you can buy with Ubuntu preinstalled still has parts of the hardware not working after "a few hours configuring everything"? I can't understand how that's acceptable to anyone. Literally every laptop I've installed Linux on had a litany of driver problems.

I have an xps 13 dual booted with ubuntu and windows without any driver issues. Everything works great besides the lousy keyboard and trackpad, and that's all Dell.

Actually, there are a few problems: windows can't render fonts clearly a lot of the time for some reason, and it keeps losing the current time, and it keeps erasing GRUB after windows updates.

Ubuntu itself runs great

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#47

Post by jammygit »

rawfan wrote: post #20
funkythings wrote: post #11

The only thing that is stopping me to jump to a linux laptop is battery life. MacOs is just optimised to a crazy extent. Nothing really comes close to the same battery performance if you don't want to get your hands dirty with tlp.

From what I heard, this is not true for the Dell XPS 13 and other new Notebooks that supposedly run well with Linux. I get almost 5 hours out of my decade-old Thinkpad T410 (original battery). My 2018 Macbook Pro 13" with touchbar only gets me through 2/3rds of the workday (older models or 15" work way longer). Apple put in smaller batteries and optimized their own (!) apps to compensate. You're pretty much forced to…

I find its all WiFi. On an xps 13 with ubuntu, I get 10-12 hours on low brightness without wifi, but often 4-6 otherwise with wifi. Its really nice for roadtrips.

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#48

Post by addicted »

izacus wrote: post #14
apexalpha wrote: post #12

>once I've spent a few hours configuring everything This is what stops noobs from using it.

Configuring my Mac to my liking also takes a few hours and it doesn't seem to stop noobs from using it.

The difference is that “noobs” can be useful with their Mac without any configuration.

That’s harder with Linux, although as the author of this article points out, this isn’t true anymore, especially with Ubuntu.

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#49

Post by ericcholis »

stemc43 wrote: post #41
ericcholis wrote: post #17

I recently switched to an XPS 15 9570 from my Macbook Air. I'm giving windows a shot for my secondary dev machine (python, docker, php, etc...), while being fully aware of the persistent Windows 10 issues. So far, the hardest part was adjusting my keyboard workflow from Mac to Windows. For the time being, I'm extremely happy with the hardware and satisfied with Windows. I'll give dual boot a shot in my spare time.

windows for docker & dev box? seems like perfect scenario for Linux here :) Fedora 29 is great tbh - u should give it a try.

There are a few occasions where some images don't work with file syncing between windows shares and docker. MongoDB comes to mind.

Re: Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks with Ubuntu Linux on the Dell XPS 13

#50

Post by klohto »

VadimPR wrote: post #40
gnufied wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Runs 5000 games run on Linux vs runs well on Linux. Unfortunately - Linux still has some way to go. Generally, you get lower FPS on Linux(could matter for competitive gaming). There are graphical glitches and artifacts even on well supported games(I am looking at you Dota2). It is far more likely for game to be entirely broken via an update on Linux than Windows and it can take quite awhile to get the fix.

Competitive gamers lower graphics, especially on Dota2, and the game runs great on Linux - especially on good drivers like nVidia.

Competitive games are not only Dota
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