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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

#131

Post by RosanaAnaDana »

otikik wrote: post #123
mid-kid wrote: post #70

Yeah, no. Maybe with old laptops, but newer laptops still have their fair share of issues. When I bought my thinkpad A485 kernels wouldn't boot without additional parameters, the graphics would freeze at times and cause a hardlock, sleep and hibernation have been fixed and broken again intermittently over several kernel versions, the wifi card's AP mode started causing segfaults in kernel 5.2 due to the driver's rewr…

For new laptops, if you have the option, go for something that has some official support out of the door. Something like System76 or your local equivalent. Otherwise yes, it can still be a bit of a lottery. Everything could be smooth, or you might become your own Linux support guy. Some people enjoy that.

Pop has gone from something that was expected to "just work" to deciding it's more of a developer or enthusiast product.

Linux still needs an 'it just works' version. I really thought pop would be it, but the last year of development has been very disappointing with system breaking updates being pushed (I'm on system 76 hardware).

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

#132

Post by drdec »

ai_ja_nai wrote: post #13

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

I have a laptop from System76 (which is a linux vendor). Suspend usually works, but once in a while the graphical UI does not come back. I can ssh into the laptop and restart gdm and it's fine after that.

I needed to do some additional steps to enable hibernate because the drive is encrypted and the default swap was not big enough to hold the RAM. But after that hibernate doesn't appear to work if I have any USB devices plugged into the laptop.

I'd appreciate any tips on either issue.

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

#133

Post by mid-kid »

otikik wrote: post #123
mid-kid wrote: post #70

Yeah, no. Maybe with old laptops, but newer laptops still have their fair share of issues. When I bought my thinkpad A485 kernels wouldn't boot without additional parameters, the graphics would freeze at times and cause a hardlock, sleep and hibernation have been fixed and broken again intermittently over several kernel versions, the wifi card's AP mode started causing segfaults in kernel 5.2 due to the driver's rewr…

For new laptops, if you have the option, go for something that has some official support out of the door. Something like System76 or your local equivalent. Otherwise yes, it can still be a bit of a lottery. Everything could be smooth, or you might become your own Linux support guy. Some people enjoy that.

I've mentioned this in a different subcomment, but I should note that the laptop I mentioned in the parent post is "ubuntu certified"[1]. I realize now that this means much less than having "official" support from the manufacturer, but there's certainly a lot of misleading bits about the way these things are marketed.

[1]: https://ubuntu.com/certified/201808-26387

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

#134

Post by bbertelsen »

Waterluvian wrote: post #45

Someone show me how to get my xps-15 to run Ubuntu with comparable GPU and battery performance to Windows in less than five hours of work and I will be eternally grateful. I gave up and plugged it in permanently for work and use my Mac for mobile.

Hello! I have been using PopOS which is a derivative of Ubuntu that comes with Nvidia drivers baked in. Setup on every XPS since 2018 (I buy a new one every year), has been about 20 minutes. Dell devices have excellent Linux support. Battery is a problem, I can get 5-7 hours in PopOS vs. 5-9 hours in Windows, depending on what I'm working on by using $ powertop --auto-tune and $ tlp start. Disabling touchscreen, and disabling cores directly also works extremely well when I know I need a longer battery life (9+ hours on 2021 xps with half cores disabled, running around 6-8 watts). PopOS also offers the ability to turn discrete graphics on or off which can also increase battery life.

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

#135

Post by yakubin »

smoldesu wrote: post #127
yakubin wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OOM killer is a pseudosolution to an artificially created problem. https://lwn.net/Articles/104185/

Then don't use it. Most distributors don't enable it by default for a reason.

Yes, but that still leaves the problem, which shouldn’t exist in the first place (edit: and on Windows doesn’t).

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

#136

Post by Animats »

albertopv wrote: post #109

Two days ago a friend found Spotify installed on hers Windows 10 laptop, pushed by Microsoft, even on the taskbar. That's insane. Windows 10 will be my last Windows ever.

Windows 7 was my last Windows ever. Ads are unacceptable.

I used to have a Windows 7 system and a Ubuntu system. One day the Windows system broke down, and I switched to using the Ubuntu system for almost everything. Over time, that became "everything". I haven't turned on the Windows system in months.

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

#137

Post by stalfosknight »

bagaswastu wrote: post #64
mikece wrote: post #2

Boring is good when it comes to tech because it means you're not spending time trying to make things work. Save the excitement for the stuff that pays your bills.

Yes, and I don't want to spent my time dealing with bad drivers, so that's why I'm using Windows instead.

I haven’t had to concern myself with drivers, kernels, proper sleep behavior, or any of that other low level bs since switching to a Mac in 2006.

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

#139

Post by iaaan »

mid-kid wrote: post #70

Yeah, no. Maybe with old laptops, but newer laptops still have their fair share of issues. When I bought my thinkpad A485 kernels wouldn't boot without additional parameters, the graphics would freeze at times and cause a hardlock, sleep and hibernation have been fixed and broken again intermittently over several kernel versions, the wifi card's AP mode started causing segfaults in kernel 5.2 due to the driver's rewr…

This has also been my experience with a new ThinkPad P1 G5. Wifi didn't work out of the box with stable releases of any of the distros I wanted to use, I had to use the testing release, and even then the wifi is unusably bad unless I'm sat right in front of the AP (all other wifi devices in my home work perfectly fine from any room).

Putting the OS or even just the display to sleep causes the whole thing to completely freeze, forcing me to hold the power button until it shuts off.

Other than that, usable, but some really bad quirks that would make me switch back to Windows if I didn't have workarounds (use an ethernet cable, never let the display sleep, never close the lid while the laptop is running).

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

#140

Post by ASalazarMX »

mid-kid wrote: post #70

Yeah, no. Maybe with old laptops, but newer laptops still have their fair share of issues. When I bought my thinkpad A485 kernels wouldn't boot without additional parameters, the graphics would freeze at times and cause a hardlock, sleep and hibernation have been fixed and broken again intermittently over several kernel versions, the wifi card's AP mode started causing segfaults in kernel 5.2 due to the driver's rewr…

Dell Latitudes have been relatively painless for years with Ubuntu/Kubuntu LTS, probably because Dell sells a version with Ubuntu preinstalled. Still, Dell doesn't have fingerprint reader support in Linux, and the built-in card reader needed additional setup, but other than that it just works on a fresh install. Even my favorite Windows games work on Steam with Proton, if you accept minor texture glitches, which I gladly do to avoid dual booting.

I love it because these days I have less time to fiddle with it every six months.

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