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Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

linux-howto.org

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Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#11

Post by Terr_ »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #4

Linux in a nutshell: Just awful in a laptop, meh in a desktop, and first-class as a server.

Ubuntu works fine on the Dell XPS 15 9500 laptop I use for work. It came preinstalled with Windows, but I shrank the partition so I can dual boot. (Having all data encrypted-at-rest was a requirement which made things a little trickier.)

The only weirdness I've encountered is some crashing in some lid-open-or-closed software, probably because I tried to make sure it wouldn't sleep just because I wanted to carry it to a conference room.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#12

Post by 1970-01-01 »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #9
1970-01-01 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'the modern experience' is dogshit sliding down a wet stick for laptops. average it all out.

As a ThinkPad user, I disagree. I've been using Linux (Fedora + Arch) on my Z13 Gen 1 for three years now and it's been a first-class experience. Everything worked out-of-the-box, with literally zero issues. I can't think of a single thing that I'd want to improve, from a laptop user's perspective. For me, this is the definitive Linux laptop experience. I had a similarly good experience with my previous laptop, an HP…

It is disingenuous, yet also accurate.

HN mostly agrees:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32964519

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42569926

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42122686

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#13

Post by kjellsbells »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #4

Linux in a nutshell: Just awful in a laptop, meh in a desktop, and first-class as a server.

Presumably because servers have components that are predictable and stable over their production runs, whereas laptops seem to be assembled out of whatever bits the supplier has on hand that week?

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#14

Post by tmtvl »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #10
syntacticbs wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run Linux on my laptop and desktop and have a MacBook. I wouldn't recommend it for your laptop unless you're an enthusiast. Suspend/sleep is still janky, power saving is poor and dock support is hit and miss depending on the day. And this is after applying a lot of tweaks. For desktop it's fantastic and I would recommend. It's not without some issues but what OSes is actually without any issues. For server, I can't…

As a ThinkPad Z13 user, I've had none of the issues you've described. I've been running Linux (Fedora + Arch) on it for three years now and it's been a first-class experience. Everything worked out-of-the-box, with literally zero issues. I can't think of a single thing that I'd want to improve, from a laptop user's perspective. For me, this is the definitive Linux laptop experience. I had a similarly good experience…

I have a Slimbook Elemental 15 (or some such) and it's crap. The keyboard has a backlight you can change the colour of... with an application which is only available on specific distros (it isn't even on the AUR) and even then half the time it doesn't work.

Its audio system is also fucked, if you plug in headphones tte thing will play from the headphones at the volume of the speakers. The system doesn't see the headphones, it only has a generic audio output and switching between speakers and headphones happens IN HARDWARE.

The battery life ain't great, though I don't know about hibernate 'cause I ain't wasting 32 gigs on swap. Suspend seems to work fine, though I don't know how much power it'd drain over the course of, say, a night.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#15

Post by dehrmann »

I'm in the middle of sorting out my next laptop (leaning towards an M4 Macbook). I've used a Thinkpad for years, but the the product direction of Windows has been annoying, and while WSL is decent, it's not great. Someone suggested I try Linux, and I did. This was on a 6-year-old X1 Carbon, so it's relatively well-supported. I ran into a few hard blockers. 1) Couldn't pair my Airpods Pro after 15 minutes of googling 2) Would get stuck on the lock screen on resume, sometimes for a minute, sometimes indefinitely 3) VMware kernel modules were a headache 4) Occasional lockups (could have been VMware modules). The soft blockers were 1) Less consistent UI than Windows 2) Poor hidpi support (but it's improved) 3) The UI feels 5% off in a lot of ways, and I'm not sure how to describe it 4) full-disk-encryption is an adventure. I didn't even make it to testing my webcam.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#16

Post by dehrmann »

kjellsbells wrote: post #13
1970-01-01 wrote: post #4

Linux in a nutshell: Just awful in a laptop, meh in a desktop, and first-class as a server.

Presumably because servers have components that are predictable and stable over their production runs, whereas laptops seem to be assembled out of whatever bits the supplier has on hand that week?

There are two main issues.

Servers are configured differently (config files, puppet) with static configs. This works great for server deployments. On laptops, too much is always changing--new networks, powering on and off, etc.

The other issue is yes, drivers, but not only because of supplier pressure. There seem to be more peripheral devices (sound, webcam, bluetooth) from low-end vendors, so the devices are buggier and less likely to get support. Servers care about disk and network. There aren't as many vendors, and the have incentives to have decent Linux support.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#17

Post by synack »

allears wrote: post #3

Unfortunately, there aren't any Linux drivers for the audio hardware I use. The hardware replacement cost to switch to Linux would be prohibitive. I also would have a much narrower choice of audio and DAW apps.

Could you email the hardware vendor and ask nicely for Linux support? They won’t develop it if customers aren’t asking.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#18

Post by 7mediaws »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #4

Linux in a nutshell: Just awful in a laptop, meh in a desktop, and first-class as a server.

I always buy Lenovo laptops. Never really had an issue until the latest Lenovo I purchased. The suspend/sleep gets weird sometimes. Other than that, I am pretty satisfied with my dev box.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#19

Post by zb3 »

Normal people will probably not read these long essays, but they might complain about their M$ OS getting worse.. and that is a great opportunity to present linux as the solution (because it is), you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work (it's 2025, they will in most cases) and how there's nothing to fear.

For me, it actually worked! Of course I did offer some help just in case she got stuck or something, but it went relatively smoothly.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#20

Post by Dalewyn »

zb3 wrote: post #19

Normal people will probably not read these long essays, but they might complain about their M$ OS getting worse.. and that is a great opportunity to present linux as the solution (because it is), you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work (it's 2025, they will in most cases) and how there's nothing to fear. For me, it actually worked! Of course I did offer some help just in case she got stuck or…

>you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work

Microsoft Office and games. No, not LibreOffice and Tux Racer.

Wine has gotten a lot better compared to years past, but if you need/want Windows software you still need Windows.

You also only get one shot at convincing them, since first impressions are everything. A better argument might be recommending MacOS, at least Microsoft Office works just fine there.

Also, if you're using esoteric hardware: Forget it.

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