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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

#191

Post by monocasa »

pjmlp wrote: post #184
monocasa wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So wait, the AAA developers not supporting don't count against your argument? Even in the case of Blizzard who has famously been one of the biggest Mac supporters? Isn't "all AAA support Mac... except all the ones that don't support Mac" a tautology? Also, just noticed that you lumped in Unity with AAA, lolz. What's next libgdx?

Because their focus is clearly PlayStation, Xbox and PC, not even Nintendo hardware. There are plenty of other AAA studios using Unreal, Unity, CryEngine. Maybe you should check again the names of some studios using Unity, ever heard of Nintendo and Microsoft?

> Because their focus is clearly PlayStation, Xbox and PC, not even Nintendo hardware.

> There are plenty of other AAA studios using Unreal, Unity, CryEngine.

Blizzard's focus had been on Mac in addition to Windows. With the switch to Metal, they're probably abandoning it. FrostBite means that EA AAA games probably won't either. Ubisoft didn't release Assassin's Creed Odessey on Mac. And even looking at Unreal Engine 4 games, only Fortnite and a twoer defense game have been released for Mac. Looking at CryEngine, no games have ever been released for Mac. So where is all this AAA support for Metal that you're talking about?

To lead you to water, Mac support is a nice to have so that their in house tools work with the artists' platforms they're used to. But they don't care enough to finish out the QA, or put in any work to make the game actually shippable on that platform. The switch to Metal means that you can't justify it with "well we can just support OpenGL and get Mac for free" like they used to.

> Maybe you should check again the names of some studios using Unity, ever heard of Nintendo and Microsoft?

AAA is about the games, not the studios. Name a single AAA game on Unity.

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

#192

Post by qu4z-2 »

donttrack wrote: post #102
yanonymous2 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to installing Windows, which often lacks drivers for the network adapters, installing Linux is a breeze. Good luck getting those Windows drivers without a working internet connection. And good luck explaining your solution to the average, non-technical user.

What? That doesn't make any sense at all. Someone goes through the trouble of developing a network adapter and doesn't provide a Windows driver??? What DO they provide drivers for then??

The issue is (used to be) that they'd develop the Windows drivers, and publish them... on their website. Whereas the Linucies would bundle pretty much all the supported drivers on the install disk.

Precisely because the vendors only write Windows drivers, if it's supported on Linux it's probably in the kernel tree.

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

#193

Post by bigger_cheese »

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.

When I purchased my XPS 13 from Dell's website (Australia) only choice I was given was Windows There was no option at all to get the version with Ubuntu preinstalled.

For whatever dumb region Dell decided to region lock the choice of Operating System.

It took me about a few hours too to scrub Windows and get my distribution of choice running and fully configured (hooray for sub par Australian internet speeds).

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

#194

Post by koyote »

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've been using Linux for nearly two decades and the package manager is probably one of the most attractive features it has over other operating systems.

Keeping your software up-to-date on Windows is a massive pain and requires tons of manual work.

I guess people are more used to the package manager's way of working today due their exposure to app stores; but I'd be surprised if anyone wasn't impressed by how easy and convenient a package manager is after using them for a small amount of time.

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

#195

Post by jandrese »

simion314 wrote: post #179
jandrese wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that you bought the laptop with Windows already installed, so the manufacturer went through all of those headaches for you.

It is true not all laptops work with Linux. But a noob can't reinstall windows and resetup his apps in 15 minutes either. A fair comparison is to give a setup Linux and a setup Windows and have them install the apps they need like browser, video player, printer etc. If you are a developer(in general not Windows apps only) you have a much better experience installing compilers,servers on Linux.

Noobs don't reinstall windows. They bring it to BestBuy to have the nerd do it for them for $100.

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

#196

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

neverminder wrote: post #130
linsomniac wrote: post #112

If you don't have specific Windows apps, I'd be tempted to try a Chromebook these days. Around 2 years ago I got a cheap Chromebook and it was terrible. I think it was $250. Fit and finish and keyboard kind of sucked. I found one of those HP Chromebook 13 g1 boxes, which Woot had refurb for half off at just under $500, and it is much closer to the hardware experience I'm used to with Thinkpads, for 1/6th the price. N…

Coincidentally, recently project Crostini has reached Chrome OS stable. To those who don't know what it is - Crostini enables running Linux apps on Chrome OS ( https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/c... ). This makes Chrome OS a lot more appealing than it used to be, especially in combination with top end hardware like Pixelbook or Pixel Slate.

What's the point of even buying a Chromebook if you're just going to run Linux anyway?

What is the advantage of buying a chromebook?

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

#197

Post by wtetzner »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #166
wtetzner wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. One option is to statically link against musl libc [1]. The kernel ABI is about the only stable thing you can rely on (which is something you _can't_ rely on for macOS or Windows). [1] https://www.musl-libc.org/

> The kernel ABI is about the only stable thing you can rely on (which is something you _can't_ rely on for macOS or Windows). In Windows's case, technically accurate but not really relevant, since the interface for working with the base DLLs like kernel32, user32, etc. hasn't changed.

Sorry I wasn't clearer. I just meant that on Windows and macOS, you can rely on certain userland libraries, but not the kernel ABI, while on Linux you can rely on the kernel ABI, but not the libraries.

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

#198

Post by abrowne »

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.

What version of Ubuntu? Libinput, the new touchpad driver, has had major improvements recently, but you only get the new version if you upgrade the system version.

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

#199

Post by btgeekboy »

izolate wrote: post #54
apexalpha wrote: post #12

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

Whoever first brings to market a laptop with Linux that "just works" 100% from the moment you press the on button, is poised to make a lot of money. That day will probably never arrive, but it's fun to think about.

So, Chromebooks?

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

#200

Post by Paraesthetic »

The problem here is steam has a long way to go in terms of a catalog for games, and the games that do run are often buggy ports with little support because developers see less users as less critical for patches.

That said, I can't move to linux purely because the software I need for audio is far superior on Mac or PC

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