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One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

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

#41

Post by lmilcin »

jeffbee wrote: post #34
lmilcin wrote: post #3

I am also running Linux on Thinkpad (Debian unstable on T440s). As to the battery life, this typically requires some work but I found it is generally possible to get good battery life. I am able to get my T440s to run for total 24 hours with the highest option 9-cell, the built in 3-cell and another 3-cell that came original with the laptop. This I did to be able to work on a long yacht cruise with no extra power and…

I find that I can tune the battery life on a ThinkPad to be pretty amazing, but it is hard to get my change to stick after a reboot or even a suspend/wake cycle. One of the things that seems to make a big impact is PCIe ASPM. But where do you change your config files so it's always on? At least on Ubuntu there are numerous config files that formerly controlled power management settings, are still referenced in Stack…

I have a bunch of scripts that run on every start and wakeup. Some of those scripts do things like configure my machine depending on where I am (for example, detect presence of my home WiFi).

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

#42

Post by ekianjo »

boogies wrote: post #38
bogwog wrote: post #19

I love Thinkpads and I love Linux. My current "daily driver" laptop is an old X220T from 2011, which is a tablet hybrid (including touchscreen and Wacom pen/digitizer). I don't use it because of nostalgia or a love for retro computers, I use it because it's still an excellent experience all these years later. No modern laptop in the current price range can beat it. I don't know if that's because the build quality was…

> No modern laptop in the current price range can beat it. > I'm also super interested to try out the new ARM-based Macbooks I’m having a hard time choosing between an old Thinkpad and the Pinebook Pro for a GNU/Linux laptop. Thinkpads have a better battle-tested durability + repairability reputation and Libreboot is a significant selling point to me. But x86 seems like it’s just beginning to fade into the past in fa…

Pinebook Pros are nice and cheap, but the hardware support is still very far from equivalent from what you have on x86 desktops. (GPU acceleration is hardly supported, sound issues, etc...)

https://boilingsteam.com/a-complete-look-at-the-pinebook-pro...

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

#43

Post by addicted »

thebean11 wrote: post #20
midrus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Mac touchpads are light years ahead of any other trackpad. I believe this is because they control both, the hardware and the software side of it. For me this is the only reason holding me from moving too.

I never really got this argument, what exactly is stopping a manufacturer from writing a great trackpad driver?

Frankly I think this argument has been wrong IMO.

Let’s take Dell for example. There is nothing stopping them from investing in the touchpad controller and designing it themselves if they want full control. And the OS level work is in the driver which is basically controlled by Dell themselves.

Originally Windows treated all touch pads as USB mice, at which point it was understandable that they couldn’t make their touch pads better. However, now Windows has an excellent and full fledged API that allows far more control, equivalent to what Macs can do. Further, if Dell wanted changes to Windows to improve their touchpad I hardly doubt MS would resist.

Personally, I suspect the real reason touchpad haven’t improved in the Windows world is that the vast majority of windows laptops are used for work and business, so they are either docked, or they have mice plugged in and their customers are happy using it that way.

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

#44

Post by AnthonyMouse »

thebean11 wrote: post #20
midrus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Mac touchpads are light years ahead of any other trackpad. I believe this is because they control both, the hardware and the software side of it. For me this is the only reason holding me from moving too.

I never really got this argument, what exactly is stopping a manufacturer from writing a great trackpad driver?

I think that argument has become the default claim for whenever Apple does something well, even when it doesn't make any sense. It particularly doesn't make sense in this case because we're talking about Linux, where anybody can make any changes they like to not only the drivers but the entire operating system. OEMs already commonly have their own distributions.

Apple have a good trackpad because they developed a good trackpad. There is nothing really stopping anyone else from doing the same, whether or not they actually have.

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

#46

Post by hashedout »

Macbooks have nailed down the basics when it comes down to the user experience:

1. Best touchpad period.

2. Good overall keyboards (Ignore the 2016-2020 butterfly keyboards)

3. Best sounding speakers.

4. Every display has 400+ nits of brightness with good color accuracy.

5. Very good battery life per watt-hour of the battery and lasts better with time as well.

The package is what make the macbooks great. I don't have to go through a list of laptops and go through pros and cons of laptops and there are a LOT of cons.

You may think that bad sounding speakers or 250 nits screen is not a very big deal but just try using a macbook for a while and you'll see how these these make a drastic change in the user experience.

People go on about how macbooks are over-hyped and expensive (they are!) but I think that what they offer is a level above anything else on the market.

I am using a MBA 2015 for my dev purposes and sometimes the 8Gigs of RAM feels like it could use an upgrade. (I want to upgrade but it is so much expensive moving on to the new ones). I've tried so many laptops and none of those impress me. This is the only reason that Macbooks, even though they cost a bomb, last for well over 10 years.

Edit: It "seems" windows laptops are catching up, but please list one laptop that would be usable after, say 8 years. For eg. a MBP 2012 will still work very good in 2020 compared to any of the laptops from even 2015. Are there any windows laptops in 2020 that you can say the same for?

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

#47

Post by jamil7 »

kylecazar wrote: post #5

Cool. I'm running Linux on a Dell Vostro I purchased during their quarterly business sale as my daily driver -- I can't believe the machine I got for the price, and strongly encourage people to look at these sales.. How big of an issue is it to target iOS as a platform on a PC these days with the rise of Flutter, etc? I'm looking to get into app development, but don't have a Mac, nor would I like to buy one if I can…

If you want to get into mobile development there isn't really much choice but to own a mac. You could pick up a used or refurbished mac mini at a reasonable price.

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

#48

Post by imglorp »

jeffbee wrote: post #34
lmilcin wrote: post #3

I am also running Linux on Thinkpad (Debian unstable on T440s). As to the battery life, this typically requires some work but I found it is generally possible to get good battery life. I am able to get my T440s to run for total 24 hours with the highest option 9-cell, the built in 3-cell and another 3-cell that came original with the laptop. This I did to be able to work on a long yacht cruise with no extra power and…

I find that I can tune the battery life on a ThinkPad to be pretty amazing, but it is hard to get my change to stick after a reboot or even a suspend/wake cycle. One of the things that seems to make a big impact is PCIe ASPM. But where do you change your config files so it's always on? At least on Ubuntu there are numerous config files that formerly controlled power management settings, are still referenced in Stack…

Crontab has an @reboot key which is convenient for quick hacks without making a whole systemd unit.

Speaking of systemd, "man systemd-rc-local-generator" alleges you can still create an rc.local and it will handle it.

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

#49

Post by rkangel »

bogwog wrote: post #32
jeroenhd wrote: post #4

> Can't debug issues in Safari without borrowing a Mac > Can't do iOS development Not legally , no. These can be worked around with a VM, just like with the Windows issue. It sucks, but Apple is never going to support their development toolchain on any other platform. All in all, I think this is a pretty positive review for an "I switched to Linux" blog post. Usually they're more negative about the lack of finish a l…

The homebrew/jailbreak community have a custom toolchain called Theos ( https://theos.dev/ ) which enables you to cross-compile to iOS devices without a Mac. I don't know how legal it is, but it's really frustrating that we aren't seeing more efforts to develop tools like this since so many companies and individuals are scared of pissing off Apple.

I think you're going to struggle to publish to the App Store without a mac of some form. There's too much signing and stuff that requires apple devices for authentication.

I solved this with a Mac Mini that lives at home on my desk and was only used for the occasional bit of testing, debug and publishing (I was building using Flutter).

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

#50

Post by benologist »

k__ wrote: post #45

Half-OT: I'm using a MBP13"(2013) for years now and really like it, but it's not upgradable and it's getting cumbersome to do some more intesive things with it. Would you recommend buying a new MBP or getting a laptop?

I find my dual-core 2013 to still be alright if I SSH into a six-core NUC to work. Visual Studio Code makes this super easy to do and almost exactly the same as working locally, it can be done without it too. I used a remote VM this way as well for about 9 months while wondering what to buy and on wired connection it was also pretty seamless.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh

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