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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

#611

Post by yencabulator »

Gigachad wrote: post #457
pessimizer wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would anybody expect that new hardware that has to be reverse engineered and for which no Linux drivers are provided to work out of the box as soon is it is available? It's an impossible expectation, and also one that no other OS would have a chance of fulfilling unless hardware vendors specifically catered to them. It's like asking for a book review of a book that hasn't been published. Yes, other people have pu…

I don't expect it. Which is why I switched from buying Windows laptops to install Linux and now buy MacBooks where I can expect that absolutely everything will work on day one.

My wife's Macbook can't even go to sleep when it's plugged into a Dell monitor via USB-C. The act of sleeping wakes it up, sounds a ding, then it goes idle and soon will sleep again.

My older Mac Mini can't do the HDMI handshake after booting. If the AV receiver isn't on when the computer boots, it will never use full display resolution or play audio over HDMI.

The idea that Apple products do anything "absolutely" is silly fanboyism.

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

#612

Post by Gigachad »

yencabulator wrote: post #611
Gigachad wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't expect it. Which is why I switched from buying Windows laptops to install Linux and now buy MacBooks where I can expect that absolutely everything will work on day one.

My wife's Macbook can't even go to sleep when it's plugged into a Dell monitor via USB-C. The act of sleeping wakes it up, sounds a ding, then it goes idle and soon will sleep again. My older Mac Mini can't do the HDMI handshake after booting. If the AV receiver isn't on when the computer boots, it will never use full display resolution or play audio over HDMI. The idea that Apple products do anything "absolutely" is…

Not doubting that situation but its pretty rare. Currently use a Macbook for work and home use and can't list a single thing that doesn't work. Which is a first for me from a laptop.

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

#613

Post by int_19h »

forgotpwd16 wrote: post #558
coryrc wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows users don't have to reverse engineer anything before their hardware works.

>before their hardware works Linux users don't have to either. (Linux devs do.) Another thing they don't have to do is searching vendor site for drivers which may not even be installed correctly.

It's very rare to have to search for drivers these days on Windows. Last time I had to do so a few years ago, it was for an old IrDA receiver - and I doubt many people these days even know what that is.

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

#614

Post by int_19h »

Gigachad wrote: post #612
yencabulator wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife's Macbook can't even go to sleep when it's plugged into a Dell monitor via USB-C. The act of sleeping wakes it up, sounds a ding, then it goes idle and soon will sleep again. My older Mac Mini can't do the HDMI handshake after booting. If the AV receiver isn't on when the computer boots, it will never use full display resolution or play audio over HDMI. The idea that Apple products do anything "absolutely" is…

Not doubting that situation but its pretty rare. Currently use a Macbook for work and home use and can't list a single thing that doesn't work. Which is a first for me from a laptop.

Did they at least add the ability to make the laptops not sleep when you close the lid without external display attached?

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

#615

Post by int_19h »

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.

https://us.starlabs.systems/

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

#617

Post by brokenmachine »

_skel wrote: post #364
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…

With Wayland, Gnome and KDE have no way to adjust the scroll speed on a laptop trackpad. Not the pointer speed, the scroll speed. In 2022. That is the kind of basic thing that does not work. In addition to that, if you have a high-DPI laptop display and you want to plug it into a low-DPI desktop monitor (or vice-versa), good luck getting the scaling to work in a usable way.

TBF I have that problem on a Windows 11 laptop.

The two-finger gesture scroll speed seems to be at a fixed speed, and way too slow for my liking.

I would like it to scroll faster than the mouse movement speed.

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

#618

Post by int_19h »

avl999 wrote: post #406
pharmakom wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your point here? How does you great Linux experience help those it didn’t work for?

My point is that Linux is a great desktop environment and people shouldn't write it off based on isolated complaints from people for whom it didn't work for as there are a lot of people who never encounter these issues that keep getting brought up in these threads.

The point is that you still have a decent chance of running into issues if you install Linux on any hardware for which you didn't specifically research Linux compatibility beforehand. Whether Linux is great or not in and of itself is a separate point, and kinda moot for anyone who can't get past the broken hardware - which is most non-technical users.

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

#619

Post by brokenmachine »

tomrod wrote: post #384
teva wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Framework laptop is a good option as well.

I had a Framework and really liked it. Unfortunately the components just degraded really quickly for me, and now can't work but 20 minutes at a time until it freezes completely. Swapped out for a Thinkpad last week. Even swapped out the Framework mainboard after a long back and forth with support. Just some poor battery unloading or similar causing shorts. I was very close to committing my company to using them until…

I'd be running a RAM test.

Try out Memtest86 - I think it's also usually an option in the boot menu on Ubuntu live-DVDs.

Let it run overnight, I've had crashes like that before where the RAM only starts failing after a few hours of memtesting.

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

#620

Post by Gigachad »

int_19h wrote: post #614
Gigachad wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not doubting that situation but its pretty rare. Currently use a Macbook for work and home use and can't list a single thing that doesn't work. Which is a first for me from a laptop.

Did they at least add the ability to make the laptops not sleep when you close the lid without external display attached?

There are 3rd party apps that can make it do that. You just have to watch out for overheating since the fans vent out of the hinge.
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