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Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

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Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#281

Post by Jonnax »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #167
jeswin wrote: post #142

If you're complaining about Linux drivers please do so after using a Laptop that supports Linux (Thinkpads for example). Just like it wouldn't be fair to complain about macOS on a Hackintosh - sound didn't work well and had to patch the DSDT. > but there are rough edges for the power user. > I am an extreme power user, ... > In the end, I was able to replicate most of my macOS power tools setup via input hooks and sh…

If you're complaining about Linux drivers please do so after using a Laptop that supports Linux (Thinkpads for example). So I Googled “laptops supported by Linux”. There is no official site. Ubuntu has a page. But it’s not on the first page of results. I only know about it because I’m familiar with it. Supporters keeps arguing people should jump through hoops. I’m on Linux right now, but people have better things to…

https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/pd031426-linux-fo...

This is Lenovo's list of laptops with the minimum versions of Redhat, Suse and Ubuntu they support.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#282

Post by shaan7 »

galkk wrote: post #176
jeswin wrote: post #142

If you're complaining about Linux drivers please do so after using a Laptop that supports Linux (Thinkpads for example). Just like it wouldn't be fair to complain about macOS on a Hackintosh - sound didn't work well and had to patch the DSDT. > but there are rough edges for the power user. > I am an extreme power user, ... > In the end, I was able to replicate most of my macOS power tools setup via input hooks and sh…

I own Thinkpad X1 extreme, that I bought with my own money, and chose as working laptop Thinkpad Carbon. Both are not working well with linux. 1. Carbon, due to it's intel chip, can not drive 4K and 2K external monitors via thunderbolt adapter. 2. I need to authorize dock (Lenovo's thunderbolt dock) after every reboot. 3. The screen tearing sucks. 4. I need to have pulse audio volume control window opened all the tim…

> 2. I need to authorize dock (Lenovo's thunderbolt dock) after every reboot.

If you're still facing this, there is UI for remembering the authorization https://christian.kellner.me/2018/04/23/the-state-of-thunder...

I'm on a AMD device right now so I can't test it myself, just sharing the link in case its useful :)

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#283

Post by bengalister »

carlesfe wrote: post #186

Hello, author here. I knew that if this got posted to HN I'd need to explain myself more :) To address some of the top comments: - I clarified now in the article that the "Linux Laptop" is a Dell XPS 13" Developer Edition, which is marketed indeed as a Linux laptop, and the Ubuntu is marketed as "Ubuntu Dell". However, this is missing the forest for the trees, because only a couple of the issues I mentioned were rela…

I have been running Linux (Arch) with Gnome on a Dell XPS 13 9380 for the past 2 years and I did not face major issues.

My first major complaint is the lack of fingerprint reader driver. It simply does not work.

My desktop environment is Gnome on Wayland.

The support of multiple monitors with different pixel densities is also problematic. You can set fractional scaling but the rendering was really blurry. So now I have a script that runs when I connect an external monitor that just changes text scaling in Gnome (usually when connected on an external monitor I don´t use the laptop screen).

Other than that I have better battery life than on Windows 10 even if video hardware acceleration is less efficient than on Windows (firefox is the only browser supporting it). And for server side development which I occasionally do on my personal laptop, I vastly prefer Linux over Mac or Windows (even with WSL2).

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#284

Post by gorgoiler »

For all their faults there is one compelling feature of open and free systems: you have the source code for everything at your fingertips.

The command line might give a similar feeling of having the whole system at your control but that’s not really a differentiator these days with macOS.

If (and realistically, only if) you are an engineer, having the source code is a killer feature.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#285

Post by rjzzleep »

LIV2 wrote: post #253
galkk wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own Thinkpad X1 extreme, that I bought with my own money, and chose as working laptop Thinkpad Carbon. Both are not working well with linux. 1. Carbon, due to it's intel chip, can not drive 4K and 2K external monitors via thunderbolt adapter. 2. I need to authorize dock (Lenovo's thunderbolt dock) after every reboot. 3. The screen tearing sucks. 4. I need to have pulse audio volume control window opened all the tim…

> 1. Carbon, due to it's intel chip, can not drive 4K and 2K external monitors via thunderbolt adapter. Is this a Linux only issue? I saw people reporting on Reddit that they are using 4k @ 60hz external monitors. Was thinking of getting an X1C but not if it can't do 4k

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a thunderbolt linux issue. The dell "docking station" usb-c hubs don't really work well with anything else than dell windows machines. Same with some lenovo bluetooth mice.

I do remember however that contrary to macos my 2012 macbook air could drive higher resolution external monitors when running linux. So I'd put this into the Thunderbolt is a hackjob on linux box.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#286

Post by read_if_gay_ »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #271
nmlt wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I am wondering about that too. Finder can rename multiple files and has a goto folder option. Edit: I couldn't find a goto option in Nautilus. I don't know how I missed batch rename in Nautilus... Still, if Nautilus has any advanced features, they're well hidden.

I agree, I’ve always found the Finder extremely usable, especially once you’ve taken a couple minutes to browse the menus and learn the Keyboard Shortcuts. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that people don’t seem to bother to look at the menus anymore: one of the first things I’ve always done with a new application (ever since Windows 3.1 on a Pentium 90) is open the menus and skim the menu items to figure out th…

The feature I miss most on Linux is hitting space to get a preview of any file.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#288

Post by andor »

boogies wrote: post #52
vngzs wrote: post #30

You complain about power user tools, then list a bunch of Xorg tools. Xorg is dying; move to Wayland. I use Sway, but if you want something that's closer to a macOS power user experience, you should probably go with KDE[0]. Tearing? Fundamental Xorg problem. Fixed in Wayland. Wayland has some rough edges, but the reality of the ecosystem is Xorg is dead and not coming back, and it's better to be a little ahead of the…

> Tearing? Fundamental Xorg problem. Fixed in Wayland. TFA: > Screen tearing with the intel driver. Come on. This was solved on xorg and now with Wayland it's back.

Tearing is one of the reasons why Wayland was started. "Every frame is perfect" was the goal, and they baked it into the design by making all updates atomic.

That's why I doubt the author had a full Wayland setup running. Maybe the app ran via Xwayland or there was no Wayland at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(display_server_protoc...

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#289

Post by shaan7 »

salamandersauce wrote: post #40

Eh. I've ended up with the opposite conclusion, at least for my purposes. Running Word is neat, but having to spend half a day figuring out what Apple did to C++ headers after an Xcode update so R will compile packages again is not fun. Unfortunately I can't really install Linux on the damn thing because of the hardware. Also mailspring is a pretty good Linux email client with conversation view...

Oh and one day Xcode will suddenly stop updating. Why? Because I lost my credit card yesterday and blocked it, so now App Store will not update a free app. Whaa?

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#290

Post by gknoy »

beckman466 wrote: post #277
pjmlp wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even when bought with support, it might come with surprises. I got the Asus 1215B with Linux, then Ubuntu decided to replace the perfectly working wlan driver with a FOSS one, except it took half an year to reach parity with the proprietary one. Likewise, they decided to replace AMD driver with the open source one, goodbye OpenGL 4.1 now it doesn't do more than OpenGL 3.3, and hardware video decoding is still not a t…

I get your frustrations, yet your problem is with proprietary software and proprietary drivers. I’m sure there’s a way for you to go back to using the old drivers if you’re set on using the latest capabilities of your hardware (without it being FOSS). You don’t have to be the guinea pig, let others do it if it’s not your thing (many programmers do seem to enjoy it, and see it as a challenge).

That sounds a little like telling someone that their problems are that their cows are not spherical. For graphics drivers specifically, having tochoose between FOSS and something that works is very frustrating.
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