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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

#81

Post by rbanffy »

jjoonathan wrote: post #78
Wehrdo wrote: post #70

Glad that Ubuntu works well for the author, but I've used Ubuntu on and off for a good 5+ years, and could fill a book with small things that just don't work quite right, and cumulatively makes it feel like I'm fighting the computer instead of working with it. As a brief taste: * No trackpad swipe gestures (plus many more subtle trackpad issues) * Pre-Wayland the only way to attach a second screen at a different DPI…

On my Dell Precision 6800: * "Supported" ubuntu was so old that neither Chrome nor Firefox would update * Latest ubuntu constantly toggled the backlight at 30fps (yes, really). * They didn't provide a driver package, instead they provided a utility to bake drivers into install media. Naturally, it didn't work, the documentation described a significantly different version. * All these problems were well-represented in…

Usually Ubuntu takes care of browser updates by itself - you don't (shouldn't) update browsers yourself.

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

#82

Post by cix_pkez »

kurtisc wrote: post #7

The author praises the package manager as a positive, not a negative as I usually see from people used to downloading *.exe installers. He's used other distros, plus a Mac, in the past, but I wonder if phone app stores (plus Windows' own software store) have made this become a more natural method of installing software for the average user?

I switched from Windows to Linux before I had a smartphone and appreciate the package manager. I got a Macbook for work and lamented the lack of package manager (homebrew is a weak substitute in several ways).

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

#83

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

Keyframe wrote: post #80
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard, it's just stupid that the platform has such a remarkable lack of consistency that you can't rely on anything but the kernel ABI.

How about AppImage?

What about it? It doesn't solve the problem, it just allows you to conveniently package everything you can't rely on the distro having, which is basically everything.

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

#84

Post by dilatedmind »

bhhaskin wrote: post #66
emptyfile wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are assuming the XPS is the developer edition. I am also running Ubuntu on my XPS, but it came with windows orginaly. I also don't have any hardware issues to speak of.

How is your battery life?

I also installed ubuntu on my xps, and I'm only getting about 2 hours max, although I always keep it plugged in, so it's not a real issue for me.

As for hardware issues, I had to download wireless drivers, which was a slight pain since there is no ethernet port.

I was able to get my video card working with optimus, but that wasn't non trivial.

I wound up disabling my track pad and using a mouse since I couldn't type without the cursor doing something, and it seems like one of the trackpads buttons broke after a days use.

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

#85

Post by cix_pkez »

zhte415 wrote: post #68

On reflecting the writer's use-case, and my own use-cases for enjoying both Linux (Ubuntu, but Gnome3 no Unity) and Windows: I've used Linux for 15 years. It truly was a pain getting things like ADSL modems (wired) connecting. But that was 15 years ago and not the point of this post. I use Linux at home - Gnome gives me no task-bar, or a highly customisable one if I want that. I'm focused in the application that I'm…

Exactly. I've used all 3 major OSs and when we get into these discussions, you have to look at how each has its own pain points to be fair. Overall, Linux is a clear win for me. But YMMV, indeed.

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

#86

Post by rbanffy »

daledavies wrote: post #75

I really have tried to use Ubuntu Destop as my daily driver after using the server varient for many years in work. It's not great for any "design" related task where I would normally jump into Adobe CC, no problem I'll just reboot to Windows for that. Until one day it just stops working... won't boot, logs you out immediately after logging in, random UI components become corrupted etc. At this point I always end up t…

> Well I've got reboot into Windows now anyway so why bother sifting through Stack Overflow for hours trying to fix Ubuntu.

For the rare occasions I wanted to wipe clean my Linux install without inflicting any pain on myself, I keep everything that lives under my home folder on a separate filesystem. This way, I can easily wipe the OS clean and not worry about my data.

A similar setup for dual booting can be handy, provided the other OS can use the filesystem I keep my important data in.

Having said that, the only times I experienced problems like the ones you describe was when I was so bored I decided Debian Sid would be a fine work OS. In other words, I was asking for it. What have you been doing to your machine?

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

#87

Post by Theodores »

Ubuntu works great for me and has done on every machine I have installed it on over the last decade or so. I find that the support for drivers is much better than with Windows except for when it comes to wi-fi. This means I have a drawer full of external wi-fi dongles and miscellaneous folders full of drivers that don't quite work.

Despite this I find Ubuntu to be a much more productive OS than the alternatives available.

What I do not understand is why people are so willing to give Ubuntu a hard time. On any discussion there are people from Windows or OSX that point out their negative experiences of Linux whilst being blind to the deficiencies of their own paid-for OS. It seems as if it is easy to write 'yeah I tried Linux for a couple of weeks five years ago and I thought the start menu was naff plus I couldn't get x to work' or to moan about the command line aspect.

It is much harder to write constructively so any discussion of Linux comes down to many subjective judgements.

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

#88

Post by bitwize »

I freakin' love Linux as a personal workstation OS. I got into it in 1995, back in the days when Linux was punk rawk and you had to dig around on tsx-11 and sunsite to find things to run on it. I still dual-booted Windows there for a few years. Then I noticed something: Windows would, suddenly and without warning, stop working. As in, blue screen on first boot. All the way up through Windows 2000 -- 9x, NT, didn't matter. Windows would find a way to fail and, often as not, take the whole disk partition with it.

So I decided, okay, Microsoft, if that's the way you're gonna be, fuck you. Yeah, yeah, I know. Windows "Just Works" out of the box. Except when it doesn't, in which case you're up shit creek. The extra tweaking I had to do to get Linux fully going was well worth it because once Linux was configured, it would stay that way -- forever if need be.

For that reason I still run the same distro today as I did back then -- Slackware. Where other distros try to win you over with newness and shininess, Slackware is shibui. Shibui is the Japanese aesthetic of crafting simple objects out of natural materials, in such a way that the natural texture of the material shows through and gives the object an understated beauty. Slackware is a simple distro put together in such a way that the "natural texture" of Unix shows through, making it easy to configure to your liking provided you're willing to learn the command line and some basic configuration files. It's very much like a BSD in that regard.

I know I'm not a typical user, but I fit the profile of an ordinary Linux user from another era. I'm glad to see more and more Windows users give Linux a try, but I just hope there'll still be room for people like me in the vast and changing Linux ecosystem.

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

#89

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

plq wrote: post #79
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hard, it's just stupid that the platform has such a remarkable lack of consistency that you can't rely on anything but the kernel ABI.

I honestly don't see the problem. It's a different platform so it's got different quirks, that's just life. Having said that, I strongly prefer Linux's explicit shared object search paths and very user-friendly dynamic linker to Window's implicit search scheme (aka the DLL hell). If that means I need to add my dynamic linker along with a couple lines of wrapper script so my binaries work, so be it. And, you can even…

> I honestly don't see the problem. It's a different platform so it's got different quirks, that's just life.

If Linux Desktop were one singe different platform there wouldn't be a problem. Instead it is effectively some ridiculously large number of platforms.

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

#90

Post by rbanffy »

cix_pkez wrote: post #82
kurtisc wrote: post #7

The author praises the package manager as a positive, not a negative as I usually see from people used to downloading *.exe installers. He's used other distros, plus a Mac, in the past, but I wonder if phone app stores (plus Windows' own software store) have made this become a more natural method of installing software for the average user?

I switched from Windows to Linux before I had a smartphone and appreciate the package manager. I got a Macbook for work and lamented the lack of package manager (homebrew is a weak substitute in several ways).

Macs have the App Store, which works well for GUI programs. On the CLI side I have played with Brew (and Fink a long time ago), but I prefer MacPorts because it feels more solid (at the expense of not having all of the bleeding edge stuff.
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