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One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

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Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#161

Post by yaantc »

lmilcin wrote: post #3

I am also running Linux on Thinkpad (Debian unstable on T440s). As to the battery life, this typically requires some work but I found it is generally possible to get good battery life. I am able to get my T440s to run for total 24 hours with the highest option 9-cell, the built in 3-cell and another 3-cell that came original with the laptop. This I did to be able to work on a long yacht cruise with no extra power and…

Getting excellent battery life on Linux nowadays should be as simple as installing the "tlp" (the laptop project) package. I can't compare to a Mac, but I use both Thinkpad and Latitude and on both get better battery life on Debian than colleagues on Windows 10 (also and related: much less fan noise...).

Now he complains about battery life after one year. There is a Thinkpad feature that helps a lot: one can limit the charge level to a configurable value. And tlp does support this for Thinkpad. By just limiting the charge level to 90% for example, and making sure never to discharge the battery completely, one can greatly extend a laptop battery life. You can't use the range fully, but then the battery is much less stressed: Li-Ion batteries suffer at the extreme of the charge range. As the battery last enough for me (and charges quickly) I never found this range reduction to be a problem. And my 5 years TP battery is just fine.

The Dell Latitude also supports this BTW, but it's in the BIOS and not integrated with tlp.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#162

Post by esalman »

krooj wrote: post #69
alexktz wrote: post #61

I recently purchased a 16” MBP despite significant personal concerns over the future of MacOS, being a strong open source advocate and Linux paying my mortgage. I did this ultimately for a few reasons. MacOS lets me run Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc), Fusion360, has a good terminal (iTerm and zsh unix like shell) and Logic. Mac hardware is still some of the best in the business, no other vendors seem to be able to…

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

The OP review is very patronizing of MBP but I could not take it after this. Colleagues at our lab meetings have been harassed by external display issue week after week at lab meetings. Some of them reported external display failing immediately after Catalina upgrade.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#164

Post by justusthane »

fsh wrote: post #131
kitsunesoba wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve experienced the grounding thing, but almost always only in houses with dodgy wiring. It never happens in office buildings or newer apartments. I’m not sure that is actually the MacBook’s doing.

USB-C and proprietary laptop chargers are double insulated Class II devices. This means that the metal chassis is essentially floating and can charge up if there is some leakage in the charger circuit. I don't see any way how the wiring of the building can influence this behavior.

My anecdotal experience: I’ve never noticed this with my 2014 MBP until I was at my parents’ recently, plugged into an extension cord from their garage.

With my feet on the ground, the metal body of my MacBook was “tingly” all over. Feet off the ground, no more tingling.

I’d love to better understand what was going on (and whether it’s potentially dangerous).

FWIW, I was using the Mac power cord with the ground pin. Does this just mean that the wiring in their garage isn’t properly grounded?

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#165

Post by quadrifoliate »

x87678r wrote: post #71

I was looking at larger laptops to run Linux but they aren't cheap so MBP doesn't look such bad value. I want 15in screen with higher than 1080 resolution, 16GB memory, good battery life and there really isn't much less than $1500 from the main brands that will run Linux well. Any suggestions? Otherwise the MBP16 looks not such bad value as I know it'll be reliable.

I have no idea why Lenovo doesn't offer the Carbon X1 in a larger and slightly heavier configuration for people that like larger screens and use them for full-time work. Clearly the 15" and 16" MBPs show that the market exists.

A 16" or 17" (remember 17" laptops?) Carbon X1 would get me to move away from the Macbook Pro in a heartbeat.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#166

Post by lallysingh »

jeroenhd wrote: post #4

> Can't debug issues in Safari without borrowing a Mac > Can't do iOS development Not legally , no. These can be worked around with a VM, just like with the Windows issue. It sucks, but Apple is never going to support their development toolchain on any other platform. All in all, I think this is a pretty positive review for an "I switched to Linux" blog post. Usually they're more negative about the lack of finish a l…

The small things have gotten better for Linux, and haven't moved much further ahead on other platforms.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#167

Post by KptMarchewa »

diminish wrote: post #57

What are the cons of mac? for me: - Sluggish UI - Inadequate package manager - Unintuitive ways to install stuff - Slow and large updates - Can't do Linux development - Can't try server tools - Slow boot-to-work time - Hard to add memory and ram - Limited interfaces - Hacker unfriendly - Can't have a minimal desktop - High memory usage of base system

Extremely bad thermals. My i9 mbp spends more time throttled then working full power, even though I'm using cooling pad.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#168

Post by boring_twenties »

jeffbee wrote: post #143
lmilcin wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what you mean. As bad as it is, systemd actually supports running stuff on wakeup. One figures, it has support for everything.

What I mean is that when the machine wakes up, it's not associated with a wifi network until later, so isn't it a race if such a thing runs at wakeup?

OK so we sleep for 30 seconds and try again, maybe give up after 5 or 10 iterations of this. What's the problem?

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#169

Post by cercatrova »

ideals wrote: post #163

What are everyone's thoughts on buying a new MBP this year with the announcement of Apple Silicon replacing Intel in the near future?

I bought one this year because I need Windows (Bootcamp or Parallels) support, something that was confirmed to not be on the ARM Macs.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#170

Post by funkaster »

alexktz wrote: post #61

I recently purchased a 16” MBP despite significant personal concerns over the future of MacOS, being a strong open source advocate and Linux paying my mortgage. I did this ultimately for a few reasons. MacOS lets me run Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc), Fusion360, has a good terminal (iTerm and zsh unix like shell) and Logic. Mac hardware is still some of the best in the business, no other vendors seem to be able to…

how can you be an open source advocate and still work with adobe & friends? - no question on the quality/productivity of those, just on your argument.

A more consistent argument would’ve been: “open source advocate, Gimp, Inkscape and others run even better on my mac than on linux” (would disagree on that, but at least it would be a more consistent argument)

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