System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life • Hacker News Board

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#301

Post by Volundr » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 5:57 PM UTC

Gareth321 wrote: post #297

Volundr wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least on my Arch KDE setup it's System Settings -> Input Devices -> Mouse and I've got an Acceleration Profile option between Flat or Adaptive. I can also just open up the settings and search for "acceleration" to get there. I can also just pop open the "start menu" (or whatever you choose to call it for KDE) and type "acceleration" and the first option is "Mouse" I'm not sure if Windows has finer grained control…

Sadly this isn’t so easy on Ubuntu. And it’s not like we can tell everyone to “just use Arch,” because Arch has its own tough edges.

Oh yeah, Arch isn't for the faint of heart, but this should work on any distro running KDE. A quick check tells me Ubuntu is running Gnome 3 by default where you need Gnome Tweak Tool to access the same setting. That sucks, I agree, and I hate that Gnome is trying to go the direction of mobile by locking things down and removing configuration, but considering the OSX doesn't expose this setting at all and you need either the terminal or a 3rd party app to modify it, I also don't think that not having this setting readily available disqualifies Linux from being usable without the terminal, unless we're going to claim the same is true of Macs.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#302

Post by MBCook » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 5:57 PM UTC

throwawaymaths wrote: post #241

jmondi wrote: post #150

I had this laptop, but ultimately replaced it with a 14” M1 Max. Some thoughts: - The screen is so much worse, in every way, than a MacBook. A “low resolution” (more like, not high dpi) matte screen vs the M1 screen, there is no comparison. When I first got this machine, my eyes would have to adjust to the screen, and it felt so blurry compared to my works retina Touch Bar Mac - PopOS is great! It is definitely one o…

I went from a lemur 14" to a Mac m1 and the following things broke: - dual monitors were detected only as one monitor, and we're mirrored. - USB mouse (I disprefer Bluetooth mice) would have to be unplugged and plugged back in if the laptop went to sleep - no home/end keys - I had installed all of my corporate 2FA stuff on safari and safari would randomly drop me from Google meets. No other browser had this issue. Th…

> no home/end keys

Command + left or right will do it. Works great on a laptop or small keyboard where you don’t have home/end.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#303

Post by Volundr » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:00 PM UTC

tourist2d wrote: post #237

hedora wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you name one thing that a NOOB-friendly Linux requires the command line for that a technically illiterate user can accomplish in MacOS / Windows?

Installing NVIDIA drivers?

Last time I ran Ubuntu, (which has admittedly been years) it'd start with the open source drivers by default and prompt you with an to install the proprietary drivers. Doing so was two clicks.

Is this no longer true?

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#304

Post by trelane » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:05 PM UTC

Gareth321 wrote: post #299

trelane wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not require CLI. https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/mouse-sensiti... GNOME tweak tool has even more options, also from a GUI: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Tweaks

That adjusts speed, not acceleration. Tweak Tool is indeed what’s needed, but it’s not apparent to a newbie. I spent hours finding that particular app when I first used Ubuntu. It’s absurd that that kind of functionality isn’t built in.

I thought that was a acceleration.

Perhaps they'd not know of gnome tweaks, though they could remember Power Tools from Windows....

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#305

Post by ekidd » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:11 PM UTC

twawaaay wrote: post #212

cycomanic wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to comment much on the rest, but the whole trope of: a Linux machine is not for someone who isn't comfortable with the cli" needs to die. My partner is essentially computer illiterate (she didn't know about keyboard shortcuts, even for copy paste before we met and still doesn't really use them) and has been using my old Ubuntu laptop for years. The only thing I do is tell her from time to time not just t…

Unfortunately, you are wrong. I have quarter of century experience working on Linux including running it on all my laptops and desktops for 23 years. Over the years keeping it working started becoming what seems like a full time job and I jumped the ship for M1 MacBook Pro. It still has a lot of problems but at least I have more time to do my actual work. I understand I might just becoming less tolerant of wasting ti…

I've been running Linux for most of the last 25 years, too. But I've mostly learned how to keep things simple.

I buy high-DPI Dell Precision laptops. They're pricey, and the build-quality is meh, but they come preloaded with Linux. Everything works. I leave all but a few settings on factory defaults, and I never run anything but a "Long Term Support" release of the OS. In case of hardware issues, I buy an on-site service plan.

I won't claim that it's perfect. But I spend less than 20 hours a year "keeping it working." Which is less than some of my MacOS coworkers spend fighting with Docker and other Unix tools on the Mac, so it's a wash. It's not like getting the Python development ecosystem to work on an M1 Mac is all sweetness and joy.

One secret to my success is that I try very hard not to customize anything. To paraphrase Yoda, once you start down that path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

I do not recommend Linux for casual users. But for developers who deploy on Linux, it can be a very reasonable choice.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#306

Post by Ruq » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:14 PM UTC

dugmartin wrote: post #46

I'm wondering with the (permanent?) switch to work from home if laptop sales will go down. I've replaced both my personal and work laptops with System76 Meerkat mini PCs both running stock Unbuntu using Regolith for the desktop environment ( https://system76.com/desktops/meerkat ). They are stacked on top of each other on my desk and take up next to no space. I work from home (and have since 1999) and don't travel fo…

I doubt laptop sales would go down.

It really depends on the use-case, and need for convenience. With a laptop (assuming it's not a desktop-replacement style brick) it's easy to use it in a lounge chair outside, or on a couch in the living room, or to take it over to a friend's house to show something.

Many people don't even use computing-intensive tasks.

So, I don't really see the switch to working at home really changing user preferences. I could be wrong, but we'll see.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#307

Post by Dylan16807 » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

nominusllc wrote: post #263

ta8903 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if there's data to support this but from what I can tell Linux users are just poorer on average. So it's not like they think low res screens are "sufficient", most of them just don't think it's justified to pay twice as much for a better screen and the market just reflects this. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own views on the issue. Doesn't matter though because things are changing, native Linux device…

> I don't know if there's data to support this but from what I can tell Linux users are just poorer on average. > Or maybe I'm just projecting my own views on the issue.

Bringing a flat nothing to go against an anecdote isn't very helpful at figuring out what's right.

Sometimes it's useful to point out flimsy evidence, but they already did that. You need to bring your own thoughts in this situation.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#308

Post by bstar77 » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:18 PM UTC

cycomanic wrote: post #175

jmondi wrote: post #150

I had this laptop, but ultimately replaced it with a 14” M1 Max. Some thoughts: - The screen is so much worse, in every way, than a MacBook. A “low resolution” (more like, not high dpi) matte screen vs the M1 screen, there is no comparison. When I first got this machine, my eyes would have to adjust to the screen, and it felt so blurry compared to my works retina Touch Bar Mac - PopOS is great! It is definitely one o…

I don't want to comment much on the rest, but the whole trope of: a Linux machine is not for someone who isn't comfortable with the cli" needs to die. My partner is essentially computer illiterate (she didn't know about keyboard shortcuts, even for copy paste before we met and still doesn't really use them) and has been using my old Ubuntu laptop for years. The only thing I do is tell her from time to time not just t…

The command line is a problem for intermediate users. I consider Linus from LTT to be at the upper end of intermediate and he was borderline incompetent in Linux. When you have enough knowledge to be dangerous and the hubris to assume you know everything you should need to know, you will find yourself in deep trouble quickly.

The most computer illiterate will be fine, but they will not be buying a machine like this. The most advanced people will probably be fine mainly because their expectations will be in check. I'm personally having a hard time getting my 13 year old to debug issues in windows and linux because his expectations are just too high (probably years of ipad use). He expects things should just work and get frustrated too quickly.

Anyway, I think success in linux is more mental than anything. The terminal shouldn't be the frightening thing people like to think it is. It's just FUD. I'm in the terminal all the time on my Mac and no one seems to have an issue with that.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#309

Post by toastal » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC

hedora wrote: post #208

sneak wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue is much less shiny/matte and much more high-res/low-res. It seems to be a point of pride in the Linux community that low-res screens are sufficient. Maybe it's because only Apple has figured out how to do both high-res and long battery life/low weight in a single system. The ultrabooks (air clones) are all struggling to replicate it. My 4k XPS13 has atrocious battery life. The only way that this mac…

There's also this weird meme that Linux HiDPI isn't ready or something. Back in 2001 I had a small 1600x1200 dell desktop monitor at work, and an even higher DPI Sony Trinitron CRT at home. They were both unusable under Windows, and probably MacOS 9/10.0, but worked fine out of the box in Debian (once you set the DPI correctly in xfree86's config file). High DPI support for Linux has strictly regressed since then, si…

It's not just resolution. Color gamut and accuracy is also derided for no reason. You might get downvoted for suggesting a screen in 2022 should have P3 coverage when 4-year-old mid-range smart phones do. It's really odd to me too because many web developers are working in browser with designers, game devs have graphics, people do graphical hobbies, etc. so it's an important feature to 'doing work' but last I checked zero Linux laptops were shipping with gamuts beyond sRGB.

Re: System76 Lemur Pro Linux laptop with 14 hours of battery life

#310

Post by bstar77 » Sat, Jul 09, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC

Gareth321 wrote: post #290

cycomanic wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to comment much on the rest, but the whole trope of: a Linux machine is not for someone who isn't comfortable with the cli" needs to die. My partner is essentially computer illiterate (she didn't know about keyboard shortcuts, even for copy paste before we met and still doesn't really use them) and has been using my old Ubuntu laptop for years. The only thing I do is tell her from time to time not just t…

No one is claiming Linux is bad for very basic users. It’s fine for people who only ever use bowsers. Linux is also great for developers. It’s most of us in between who struggle. The last time I booted up Ubuntu I couldn’t even adjust the mouse acceleration without spending 10 minutes on Google and more time installing an additional tool. I tried to install Radarr - a very popular home media server app. The instructi…

I've had these issues with Gnome and Gnome derivatives. Give KDE Plasma a try. The UI/UX situation is vastly different (this is coming from a Gnome lifer).