One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) • Hacker News Board

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#361

Post by GekkePrutser » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

rogual wrote: post #357

GekkePrutser wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Europe the clip on plugs (duckheads) are not grounded. The extension cord you get with the MacBook too, is. So use that. Not sure about US. But I think it's the same as the duckheads are only 2-prong iirc so they can't possibly be grounded.

They don't even include the extension cord anymore. I don't know why Apple thinks it's okay for my computer to run a current through my body. I would love to know what happened at Apple that caused this situation. It's just patently insane.

Oh I didn't know that, I haven't bought a Mac recently.

It's been like this since the earliest days of the metal PowerBooks. Though the un-grounded duckheads appeared only with the later models (the "hockey puck" power supply always had grounding and in fact always had an extension cord). In my house the living room sockets didn't have grounding (at that time it was only mandatory in "wet areas") so I noticed it even then.

It's mainly an issue because of the metal enclosure. On a plastic one you wouldn't notice. And it's not serious current, it's just some induction of the power transformer on the internal shielding.

But yeah I agree, even the duckheads should have proper grounding! The grounding is done through the ground 'pin' that the duckhead clips on to, so technically it should be able to get a third-party duckhead with all three pins. Though I never looked to see if they were available.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#362

Post by shmoogy » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

tarasmatsyk wrote: post #94

mustardo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something from https://system76.com/ maybe? Ive never had one, anecdote but the two people i know who got the 16" MBP have had to return them with hardware issues, at least apples support is pretty good. Im hanging on to my 2015MBP for dear life, has great connectivity and reliability, id like the new 16" as it is nice but am waiting for a hardware itteration, suppose by then there might be something arm based releas…

arm released is not going to happen in the next 2 years, IMO mpro 16" is going to get better and it is good enough to switch to it permanently. I was testing a few mpros before purchasing one

Pretty sure we're going to learn about / get a release in October.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#363

Post by GekkePrutser » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 1:55 PM UTC

boogies wrote: post #335

GekkePrutser wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No quite the same thing. None of the Linux vendors make their own laptops, they just use barebones from Clevo etc. So they can never achieve the same integration as Apple.

> None of the Linux vendors make their own laptops Dell, Lenovo, Purism, Pine64 et al. do. The two in your parent may (at least System76’s laptops are said to) use Clevo hardware, but they can still ship with custom open source firmware. It’s also not as if Apple sells their own custom CPU at the moment. Even then, they’ll probably buy other parts from third parties (eg. they buy iPhone OLEDs from Samsung, though the…

Dell's Linux laptops are not custom made for linux (they even still have a Windows key!). They just swap out the wifi card.

I'm pretty sure Purism's are just standard barebones too, but with some extra modifications like hardware switches. They showed how they solder the wires to the motherboard - if they'd designed it themselves they wouldn't have to do that.

Pine64, indeed, that's true. The enclosure is standard (the PB Pro is the same as my Chinese "ChuWi" laptop :') ) but indeed they made a custom motherboard. I really like that company.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#364

Post by ywei3410 » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 5:00 PM UTC

loxs wrote: post #313

jimbob21 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I get some laptop recommendations with similar specs (and most importantly battery time) as the MBP from you? I've been looking around for a new one.

Currently I run the cheapest ThinkPad T495 (AMD hardware) on Arch Linux (but maxed the RAM on my own). Everything works great, except it doesn't remember the screen brightness level after a reboot, which is not a big deal at all for me - I don't reboot very often.

Here's a fix! https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/blob/master/lenovo/t....

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#365

Post by striking » Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

cma wrote: post #352

striking wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> External displays of variable DPI unusable without a paid app like switchresx. Hold Option and click the Scaled radio button again. You'll see a list of options. Yes, I realize that's silly.

Even those weren't enough for what I needed. I think it was getting around 1440p sizes at high dpi by downscaling (2880p -> 4K).

I'm fairly certain it does the equivalent of SwitchResX and its OSS counterpart.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#366

Post by interskh » Sun, Aug 30, 2020, 2:24 AM UTC

Has nobody mentioned Dell xps? I've been using xps for a few years with archlinux.. It's been mostly great so far.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#367

Post by tarasmatsyk » Sun, Aug 30, 2020, 6:03 AM UTC

shmoogy wrote: post #362

tarasmatsyk wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

arm released is not going to happen in the next 2 years, IMO mpro 16" is going to get better and it is good enough to switch to it permanently. I was testing a few mpros before purchasing one

Pretty sure we're going to learn about / get a release in October.

Architecture switch is not a question whether Apple can do it, I am pretty sure they are capable of releasing it asap. Think about all software that have to migrated, it’s not just re-compile and release button click

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#368

Post by loxs » Sun, Aug 30, 2020, 6:08 AM UTC

ywei3410 wrote: post #364

loxs wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently I run the cheapest ThinkPad T495 (AMD hardware) on Arch Linux (but maxed the RAM on my own). Everything works great, except it doesn't remember the screen brightness level after a reboot, which is not a big deal at all for me - I don't reboot very often.

Here's a fix! https://github.com/NixOS/nixos-hardware/blob/master/lenovo/t... .

I know about this, but it's not that big of a deal to me, and I prefer to stick to the out-of-the-box experience on Arch and wait for a fix to arrive.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#369

Post by fomine3 » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 8:05 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #263

cleaver wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've certainly been keeping my eyes open for a MacBook Pro alternative. On my last time looking, I thought I'd try to find something with: - retina-like resolution 15" screen - 32GB RAM - slim and light without a flimsy plastic case - good battery life - good trackpad - keyboard home row centred I could not find anything. I couldn't even find something with the first three items. I'm starting to think it might make s…

For some reason (bad software support? tradition?) the PC laptop market seems to simply not care that much about extremely high resolution displays. There are some, but none in systems with the overall build quality of a MBP.

There are many laptops that has 4K display that's more resolution compared to MacBook Pro, if you choose correct product line.

Cheap laptops don't care HiDPI displays because it's cheap. Gaming laptops less care HiDPI displays because it's too much resolution on current GPU.

Most premium models provide both FHD and 4K model, FHD is for battery life and price.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#370

Post by fomine3 » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 8:22 AM UTC

lmilcin wrote: post #221

danielbarla wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've managed to play slow-paced FPS'es with the trackball (e.g. PUBG) and remain - well, not "competitive" exactly, but not total trash either. You can generally dial it in for great accuracy but slow turning, or less accuracy but fast turning. But not really both at the same time, unlike a mouse. (since there you can your elbow for large movements, and your wrists for smaller ones) With the latter option, you would…

So I just now remembered why I don't use trackball. I have two huge monitors side by side and jumping from the end of one to the end of other was really uncomfortable with trackball whereas it is a snap of the wrist with the mouse I move the width of the mouse to span two monitors yet I have no trouble clicking on a 4 dot cluster on 27inch 4k monitor (which would be equivalent of a single pixel on full HD). Now I am…

I've opposite experience. Moving cursor in wide display is comfortable by thumb trackball rather than mouse. Just move thumb, don't need snap of the wrist.