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Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

clivethompson.medium.com

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Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#42
I have a feeling that the overall reality is far more hit-or-miss than the author implies. If you happen to be lucky to have all hardware that Linux supports well, then everything does work nicely (which is infact a nice improvement over the early days). If you get unlucky on your hardware, well buckle up, it's gonna be a ride. You are of course more likely to have good hardware support on very old devices.

Windows has its faults for sure, but it's much better in my experience as far as just working on any type of hardware and accessories. If it doesn't just work already, drivers are generally easy to find and install.

Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#43
post #15

I have been running Ubuntu on laptops for over a decade. No major issues, at least as of past 8 years. Great hardware compatibility.

Whenever I try, it works 90% great, but little things are problematic enough that I switch back. The power management doesn’t quite work, so fans stay on and it doesn’t sleep when you close the lid. The screen doesn’t quite have the same quality graphics. The trackpad isn’t as smooth.

Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#46

Uhm, how about suspension/hibernate? That was pretty lame even 2 years ago and I'm not seeing it improve

The HP laptop I was running Fedora on had some kind of low power mode on the CPU that would cause linux to crash and require a hard-reset to recover. That meant no idling/sleeping/hibernating without a kernel crash.

Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#47

In 2018 I was in college, working on a Linux degree, and studying for certifications such as CompTIA Linux+. I had allocated some funds to purchase a new machine; my desktop was already over 8 years old and I obviously wanted a good machine I could bring to campus. I chose the Lenovo ThinkPad T580, because it was on the Red Hat certified list. It came with Windows 10 but I immediately installed CentOS. This turned ou…

Sad to hear that. I hope you will find your way back again.

Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#48

I can't believe I'm saying this, but after a decade of claiming I didn't have driver issues, I absolutely cannot figure out how to get decent audio on newer Lenovo laptops (usually IdeaPad line). Supposedly there's numerous speakers, some of which aren't active under Linux, and/or a similair issue with woofers. I've tried everything from half a dozen pages of results from Google and I'm running 5.19... From what I ca…

No audio device at all is detected on my Lenovo IdeaPad 5. (running Arch Linux)

Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#49

I can't believe I'm saying this, but after a decade of claiming I didn't have driver issues, I absolutely cannot figure out how to get decent audio on newer Lenovo laptops (usually IdeaPad line). Supposedly there's numerous speakers, some of which aren't active under Linux, and/or a similair issue with woofers. I've tried everything from half a dozen pages of results from Google and I'm running 5.19... From what I ca…

I have an IdeaPad Flex 5 running Fedora 36 with zero audio issues - in fact, it is where I run Bitwig (a DAW) and Arturia V Collection 5 (an emulation of classic synths spread across a couple dozen VSTs that I run inside WINE). You may just be out of luck there.

Re: Linux on the laptop works so damn well that it’s boring

#50
post #42

I have a feeling that the overall reality is far more hit-or-miss than the author implies. If you happen to be lucky to have all hardware that Linux supports well, then everything does work nicely (which is infact a nice improvement over the early days). If you get unlucky on your hardware, well buckle up, it's gonna be a ride. You are of course more likely to have good hardware support on very old devices. Windows h…

Anecdote time. I have a gaming laptop from Asus, 2022 model. It keeps hard crashing on Windows (both 10 and 11) while working fine on Linux.

Windows doesn't clearly have such an advantage anymore.

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