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What is it about Dell that you hate? Anyways, Thinkpads are also held in high esteem for running Linux. I'm currently using a Dell XPS (2016 model) at home and

What is it about Dell that you hate? Anyways, Thinkpads are also held in high esteem for running Linux. I'm currently using a Dell XPS (2016 model) at home and a Thinkpad at my current customer project, both running Ubuntu 16.04, and I can recommend both. I chose the Thinkpad over a MacBook Pro, and would do again, but the display and touchpad is no match to Dell's, much less Apple's; that's however no problem because the thing is hooked on a docking station/two monitors/external keyboard.

snazz 8y ago
And once you learn to love the TrackPoint, the touchpad won’t matter any longer.
- rayiner 8y ago
  That’s not true. My work laptop has been a ThinkPad for the last five years, and while I like the TrackPoint for some things, I use the precision touchpad on my X1C6 more. Modern touch pads have good heuristics for fine motions versus large sweeping motions. And the touchpad is way better for scrolling through documents or web pages.
kamarg 8y ago
Three gripes with my Dell XPS13. 1) The docking station is horribly buggy. If I unplug it to take my laptop somewhere and then plug it back in, I have to do a full reboot or none of the USB peripherals on the docking station get power. Monitors, power, ethernet all still work through the docking station after being plugged back in. Dell support took 4hrs of my time installing/uninstalling drivers and firmware updates before finally giving up and sending me a new one. Which suffers the exact same issue. So I can buy a different brand of docking station, not take my laptop anywhere, or constantly reboot my machine. 2) Rebooting takes forever then fails. Every single time. After 8-10 minutes of sitting on the blue "Rebooting" screen it finally crashes and tells me something went wrong while rebooting. Every single time. 3) Sleep still doesn't work about a third of the time. If I put my machine to sleep through the Windows start menu and wait for all the various indicators to power off before closing the lid, there's a good chance that when I boot up tomorrow, the battery has fully drained and the machine has to boot back with all my applications closed down and context lost. It makes me miss my Thinkpad.
- broknbottle 8y ago
  All 3 of these issues appear to be related to one common variable.. Windows. I have a Dell XPS 13 9360 8th Gen i5-8250u running Fedora 29 and I've never experienced any of these issues. Why don't you try another OS instead of blaming the hardware. If it continues with Ubuntu 18.04/18.10/Fedora 29 then contact Dell for support..
  - kamarg 8y ago
    It's almost certainly a driver issue. Drivers that are provided by Dell. I'm not at all blaming the hardware for the issues. I'm blaming Dell. To answer your question, I don't switch OS because the machine belongs to my employer and they set the rules. They say everyone runs Windows so I run Windows. It's actually a very usable OS. You also seem to have missed the part where I spent 4 hours on the phone with Dell support already. Why would you expect that will be more successful with a different OS?
    - mc32 8y ago
      In the thunderbolt docks the issue is firmware updates.
      - merb 8y ago
        not always. they actually removed a dock already because it was too faulty. it was the tb15. my colleague needed a motherboard upgrade and they replaced the tb15 with the new tb16 because it just couldn't handle what it should have. 2x 4k monitors, ethernet, usb and power over a single thunderbold cable. btw. the tb16 is mostly fine
    - tannhaeuser 8y ago
      FWIW, my aforementioned Dell and the Thinkpad both are running Ubuntu flawlessly and without any reboots for months on end, as true workhorses should. In fact, out-of-the-box experience for Linux desktops with first-party support by manufacturers has never been better IMO.
MisterOctober 8y ago
^+1 for Thinkpads running Linux. Switched from MBPs to these a year ago, never going back.
- rayiner 8y ago
  Do you actually use your computer unplugged?
  - MisterOctober 8y ago
    yeah, but not for extended periods -- so I dunno how the battery'd do for daily working-at-a-cafe or similar. I do always carry a spare battery tho
weew1211 8y ago
Also use a thinkpad, X1 carbon from 2015. Run Manjaro with gnome-shell (actually gnome-shell-performance until 3.32 is released). Its lightening quick, reasonably stable, good battery life. I also tried KDE, which works quite well, but the battery life was quite poor and I find the general KDE experience abrupt. Now my 2017 mbp just gathers dust, never going back.

snazz 8y ago

And once you learn to love the TrackPoint, the touchpad won’t matter any longer.

rayiner 8y ago
That’s not true. My work laptop has been a ThinkPad for the last five years, and while I like the TrackPoint for some things, I use the precision touchpad on my X1C6 more. Modern touch pads have good heuristics for fine motions versus large sweeping motions. And the touchpad is way better for scrolling through documents or web pages.

kamarg 8y ago

Three gripes with my Dell XPS13. 1) The docking station is horribly buggy. If I unplug it to take my laptop somewhere and then plug it back in, I have to do a full reboot or none of the USB peripherals on the docking station get power. Monitors, power, ethernet all still work through the docking station after being plugged back in. Dell support took 4hrs of my time installing/uninstalling drivers and firmware updates before finally giving up and sending me a new one. Which suffers the exact same issue. So I can buy a different brand of docking station, not take my laptop anywhere, or constantly reboot my machine. 2) Rebooting takes forever then fails. Every single time. After 8-10 minutes of sitting on the blue "Rebooting" screen it finally crashes and tells me something went wrong while rebooting. Every single time. 3) Sleep still doesn't work about a third of the time. If I put my machine to sleep through the Windows start menu and wait for all the various indicators to power off before closing the lid, there's a good chance that when I boot up tomorrow, the battery has fully drained and the machine has to boot back with all my applications closed down and context lost. It makes me miss my Thinkpad.

broknbottle 8y ago
All 3 of these issues appear to be related to one common variable.. Windows. I have a Dell XPS 13 9360 8th Gen i5-8250u running Fedora 29 and I've never experienced any of these issues. Why don't you try another OS instead of blaming the hardware. If it continues with Ubuntu 18.04/18.10/Fedora 29 then contact Dell for support..
- kamarg 8y ago
  It's almost certainly a driver issue. Drivers that are provided by Dell. I'm not at all blaming the hardware for the issues. I'm blaming Dell. To answer your question, I don't switch OS because the machine belongs to my employer and they set the rules. They say everyone runs Windows so I run Windows. It's actually a very usable OS. You also seem to have missed the part where I spent 4 hours on the phone with Dell support already. Why would you expect that will be more successful with a different OS?
  - mc32 8y ago
    In the thunderbolt docks the issue is firmware updates.
    - merb 8y ago
      not always. they actually removed a dock already because it was too faulty. it was the tb15. my colleague needed a motherboard upgrade and they replaced the tb15 with the new tb16 because it just couldn't handle what it should have. 2x 4k monitors, ethernet, usb and power over a single thunderbold cable. btw. the tb16 is mostly fine
  - tannhaeuser 8y ago
    FWIW, my aforementioned Dell and the Thinkpad both are running Ubuntu flawlessly and without any reboots for months on end, as true workhorses should. In fact, out-of-the-box experience for Linux desktops with first-party support by manufacturers has never been better IMO.

MisterOctober 8y ago

^+1 for Thinkpads running Linux. Switched from MBPs to these a year ago, never going back.

rayiner 8y ago
Do you actually use your computer unplugged?
- MisterOctober 8y ago
  yeah, but not for extended periods -- so I dunno how the battery'd do for daily working-at-a-cafe or similar. I do always carry a spare battery tho

weew1211 8y ago

Also use a thinkpad, X1 carbon from 2015. Run Manjaro with gnome-shell (actually gnome-shell-performance until 3.32 is released). Its lightening quick, reasonably stable, good battery life. I also tried KDE, which works quite well, but the battery life was quite poor and I find the general KDE experience abrupt. Now my 2017 mbp just gathers dust, never going back.