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

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

#101

Post by ASalazarMX »

admax88qqq wrote: post #66

Linux still can't handle out of memory issues gracefully. Sometimes I create memory leaks or use too many electron apps and when you hit a low memory situation Linux starts trashing and your system becomes unusable for minutes to hours unless you reboot your machine. Mac and windows both manage to handle this gracefully by force suspending background processes it seems. This makes Linux on the laptop hit or miss, mul…

> Linux starts trashing

You mean intensive use of swap memory? You could turn off swap and get OOM errors instead if you like a snappy system, but I don't know if it's fair to criticize an OS for running out of memory. It's the user fault for using software that demands more resources than the equipment has, or for not expanding the RAM when it's clearly needed.

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

#102

Post by smoldesu »

aarpmcgee wrote: post #10

I installed PopOS (I know there’s some absurd punctuation involved in the name but I don’t remember what it is) on my 5 year old MacBook Pro and it feels like a brand new machine. The UX feels better to me than MacOS which is starting to feel more and more like Windows imo.

You should look into enabling Wayland, which PopOS! disables by default. That should give you silky-smooth 60fps desktop transitions like MacOS, as well as 1:1 trackpad gestures. Happy hacking!

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

#104

Post by _8j50 »

Perhaps if you leave the defaults alone this is correct. Even defaults aside sleep and hibernate don't work well. Don't even get me started on secure boot.

I've used Linux for over a decade so I am used to turning off random things I don't need, changing defaults, hardening my setup,etc... and it is more unpleasant than ever before. There is less debuggability( if that's a word) and it really does take a while to get things operational.

For example on my debian laptop, I have secure boot and apparmor working. A lot of things broke when I removed software I don't need that is running by default which meant a lot of googling and searching for help but it all works now, I mean, to be fair I only struggled for one whole weekend only on it, which is an improvement, but, regardless of the DE I have to wait for at least 5 minutes after login staring at the wallpaper. I just accepted my fate now. Nothing in X11/xsession logs, dmesg, journalctl, lxdm logs, I have tried everything short of stracing random processes or attaching gdb.

I mean, for personal use it beats windows and isn't locked down and unfriendly like macos.

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

#105

Post by CyberDildonics »

smoldesu wrote: post #84
whatever1 wrote: post #63

No it does not. Give it to me for 5’ and I will find at least 10 things that are broken. Energy management, monitor color profiles, external monitors, discrete gpu / integrated switching, Bluetooth, webcam settings all these are broken. Stop defending the state of Linux in personal computing. The best we can do is to put it in a VM and run it in a OS that has actual hardware support.

Can you name a kernel with more robust hardware support?

Windows for starters. Also the title claims that things work well not that linux is the best.

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

#107

Post by AshamedCaptain »

whatever1 wrote: post #63

No it does not. Give it to me for 5’ and I will find at least 10 things that are broken. Energy management, monitor color profiles, external monitors, discrete gpu / integrated switching, Bluetooth, webcam settings all these are broken. Stop defending the state of Linux in personal computing. The best we can do is to put it in a VM and run it in a OS that has actual hardware support.

> OS that has actual hardware support.

Give me 5' with such an OS and I will find at least 20 things which are broken.

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

#108

Post by NavinF »

throwaway09223 wrote: post #82
noirbot wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, my Framework Laptop that the Fedora OS team is specifically developing for has had busted microphone drivers for months. It's all a little random on how well different internal components decide to play nice.

Is it because of their switch from a realtek chip to tempo? It's broken on Windows too ... https://community.frame.work/t/no-driver-for-tempo-audio-chi... All platforms have issues, especially with uncommon hardware combinations. But if you buy any mainstream device odds of it working in linux are probably similar to the odds of it working in windows. For older hardware the odds are much better that it will work out…

That forum thread you linked does not say microphone drivers are broken on Windows. The first reply sounds on point.

I'll add that all laptops produce noise on the headphone jack as the audio amplifier is preemptively switched on and off. Only difference is that it's normally just barely audible. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say they just choose a crappy IC.

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

#110

Post by onetimeusename »

londons_explore wrote: post #69

I have the reverse... Unless you have a thinkpad or some other popular hardware, you'll find Linux barely works at all out of the box, and even with hours of fiddling around, you'll still have to live without some features. For example, power saving features, sleep and hibernate, screen brightness controls, fingerprint readers, keyboard hotkeys and backlights, etc. rarely work. Prepare for broken external hdmi ports…

That has been my experience too. Even then if you get a next generation thinkpad that is slightly newer than what has been "blessed" by the community, there is a good chance that a lot of essential hardware won't work. Fortunately, in the case of Lenovo they do actively track issues with hardware and issue new bios versions that fix compatibility but even having to install new firmware when you are using Linux can cause major headaches and worries.
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