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Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

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Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#31

Post by skydhash »

ofalkaed wrote: post #3

I would recommend spending some time with a none rolling release/less fiddly distro and see what you think. I haven't had to fiddle with linux since I switched to slackware and settled on a wm ~20 years ago; since then the only time I have had an update affect my workflow was when slackware went PulseAudio which only caused me maybe 2 minutes to deal with. I have config files old enough to vote. My original reasons f…

I didn’t have issues with rolling release distro in the beginning, as most updates were security updates. But nowadays, I’m on versionned distro. What you’ve started with is what you’re going to get everytime you turn the conputer on. I have debian 12 on my home server and it never crashes or have any issues, just chugging along.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#32

Post by al_borland »

One thing to keep in mind is that to move to macOS you need to be willing to do things the Apple way. The people I’ve seen have a lot of trouble with macOS, and Apple’s ecosystem in general, is they are used to doing something one way and they stubbornly want to keep doing in that way on the Mac. This leads to a lot of pain. If you’re this kind of person, you’re going to have a bad time. If you’re open to change and learning how Apple does things, it will likely be OK.

Apple tends to like to deliver solutions, while others tend to deliver a toolbox and that has you cobble your own solution together. If you don’t like the way Apple solves a problem you care about, swimming against it can range from easy to painful, depending on what it is.

I switched to a Mac in 2003, and this is the most common issue I see with people having a hard time. I switched after I was bored with Windows, and Linux wasn’t ready for prime time (especially on laptops), though I made attempts with several distros over the course of many months… and still ran my laptop on Linux after getting a desktop Mac as my first). I was seeking out a change, so doing things a little differently was what I wanted and I enjoyed that process. It was also the early days of OS X, so I got to learn a little more each year over more than 20 years now. Jumping straight in today would probably take me more time than it did back then, as there is a lot more in the OS.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#33

Post by exe34 »

I have a mid-2012 mac book air on which I run nixos - but even if I ever give in and buy a M-series laptop, I'd probably run nixos in a vm for my daily drive. It does what I need and nothing else. It doesn't tell me what I need or how I need it.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#34

Post by exe34 »

jauco wrote: post #18
palata wrote: post #15

It's a question of preference. * Recent Macbooks have an incredible battery life, that's for sure. * macOS is not Linux, and Linux is not macOS. I personally like Linux a lot more than macOS, therefore I run Linux on my laptop. It's not a pain at all: just make sure you get a laptop that is well supported (seems a lot easier than 20 years ago, I personally run on ThinkPads). The way you write (e.g. you see running Li…

Just to provide a counterpoint (and to show that there is no 1 true answer) I switched from my linux machine to a mac when my carefully selected hardware kept having a graphics card crash when closing/unclosing the lid. And this was the last straw, it’s an endless sequence of micro cuts (power throttling bugs, scroll being different across apps, issues with crappy hardware at a client) On the other hand most of these…

> With my mac I have far fewer, but the ones you have, you’re often stuck with. Generally these are about flakiness with the automagic stuff. Like the camera feed switching to your iphone for a while (whether you want it or not), then suddenly refusing for weeks even when you do want it

This is the kind of thing I could absolutely not stand unless I was getting paid for it. I paid for the laptop. This button does X. When I press this button, it needs to do X. Let me at least fix it so that it does X. If it was a free laptop or I was getting paid to sit around waiting for X to work again, that's absolutely fine. But if I paid for it, it should either work or let me fix it.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#35

Post by rowanG077 »

I have been using a MacBook with asahi Linux for almost two years. For me it's absolutely worth it. Wouldn't use it with Mac OS. There are some serious limitations like external displays not working of thunderbolt/usb-c. But other than that my experience has been rock solid.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#36

Post by sombragris »

In 2015 I got a Toshiba Satellite Radius convertible laptop with a SSD, touchscreen, USB 3.0... pretty good for the time. I installed Slackware-current and *everything* was supported and recognized. Even the touchscreen under X11.

I'm now using a Dell Inspiron with more updated specs (from 2019), but again, everything is recognized.

*And* I got to upgrade my RAM with a rather simple procedure, zero soldiering required. All of this, running a largely Free (as in freedom) operating system.

Thus I'd answer: yes, a Linux laptop is worth the trouble these days. YMMV of course.

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#38

Post by yoyojojofosho »

jauco wrote: post #18
palata wrote: post #15

It's a question of preference. * Recent Macbooks have an incredible battery life, that's for sure. * macOS is not Linux, and Linux is not macOS. I personally like Linux a lot more than macOS, therefore I run Linux on my laptop. It's not a pain at all: just make sure you get a laptop that is well supported (seems a lot easier than 20 years ago, I personally run on ThinkPads). The way you write (e.g. you see running Li…

Just to provide a counterpoint (and to show that there is no 1 true answer) I switched from my linux machine to a mac when my carefully selected hardware kept having a graphics card crash when closing/unclosing the lid. And this was the last straw, it’s an endless sequence of micro cuts (power throttling bugs, scroll being different across apps, issues with crappy hardware at a client) On the other hand most of these…

For i3 WM on macOS, what about https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace?

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#39

Post by daoistmonk »

kjellsbells wrote: post #30

Doable and even pleasant if: you pick mainline hardware, a good distro, and are ruthlessly hygienic about what you install/ how you install it. Eg: pick corporate model laptops from major vendors like Dell. Something whose hardware has been battle tested by an army of Windows users. I like refurbished models from the Dell Latitude line, others are ThinkPad people. These lines have spare parts and are repairable/upgra…

This last point is a good one. Having /home on a separate partition can make your life much easier if you change your mind on which distro you want to run. If you are having a hard time with Ubuntu snaps, blow it all away and install Fedora.. :)

Re: Ask HN: Is Linux for laptop worth the trouble?

#40

Post by lormayna »

I have Linux as primary OS since 4 laptops. No issue, especially now that all the devices are detected without any problems and works out of the box. My actual setup is a Thinkpad T430 running Debian Bookworm with XFCE as DE.

What I have experienced in my 15 years of using Linux on laptops daily is that the life of a Linux laptop is really long and you don't need to replace it to fight obsolence. My old Sony Vaio lasts for more than 10 years, running Ubuntu and just replacing HDD to SSD.

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