5 ms·

I use a Macbook and a Linux (Kubuntu 19.10) desktop, and I vastly prefer the Linux desktop for UX. There are more knobs to fiddle with, naturally, but the desk

by cheald 8y ago

I use a Macbook and a Linux (Kubuntu 19.10) desktop, and I vastly prefer the Linux desktop for UX. There are more knobs to fiddle with, naturally, but the desktop Linux experience has vastly improved over the last few years, and I'm happy enough with it that I don't see myself willingly going back to OS X or Windows as my primary anytime soon. My desktop feels like the synthesis of all the things I like from both Windows and OSX, with the added benefit of an actual package manager and first-class support for all my development toolchains. The amount of time my coworkers spend fighting oddities in their brew installs becomes really apparent when I'm not fighting those battles. The hardware (particularly) touchpad is the single biggest advantage Macs have left. I use a mouse rather than touchpad, but if the touchpad is solved, I'd have nothing I'd say that OS X does better.

solomatov 8y ago
I completely agree with you. For me this list of the problem is the following: * Touchpad * Sleep mode * USB-C display
- zymhan 8y ago
  ACPI has been the bane of Linux on laptops for two decades. If I can't trust that my laptop will go to sleep when I shut the lid and put it in my bag, it's not useful as a portable device.
  - andrewshadura 8y ago
    I haven’t had issues with suspend since 2009.
    - penagwin 8y ago
      As a counter point, I've had repeated issues with my several different laptops in the last few years with them not going to sleep (2015~2018?). I have a new laptop now that I primarily run windows on now...
    - war1025 8y ago
      There was an issue with hibernate memory mapping that broke hibernate on my work Thinkpad for the first year or two that I had it. Then at some point they fixed the issue, which if I remember correctly came down to "stop trying to be fancy and just do the straight-forward thing, which is correct". And since then I've had no issues. I'm unclear why I had an issue with the Thinkpad but never had issues with any of the 5 or so Dell Inspirons I've had over the years.
    - int_19h 8y ago
      As usual, it all depends on how lucky you get with your hardware, unless you specifically buy a Linux laptop.
  - noelsusman 8y ago
    FWIW my Dell Windows laptop at work can't accomplish this correctly either.
  - mikelpr 8y ago
    my retina MBP 15" 2012 would wake up with the lid closed on macOS. prolly hardware related and still linux acpi should get to 100 but I think it's gotten good
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      Are you sure this wasn't just Power Nap?
      - zymhan 8y ago
        To be fair you shouldn't notice the laptop waking up for power nap, if I'm not mistaken.
- aembleton 8y ago
  Touchpad - my work Dell touchpad is not as good as my old Macbook Pro, but my Xiaomi Air touchpad feels just as good to me. The only gestures are use are two finger scrolling so I don't make use of the touchpad as much as others do. Sleep mode. It's failed on my a couple of times in the last year, but my Macbook Pro failed about as often. I'm not sure what the issue is here. USB-C display. Using one right now. Got a USB-C hub plugged into my Xiaomi Air that is providing it with power, keyboard, mouse, HDD and display. What is the issue you're seeing with this? My Dell is running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Xiaomi Air is running Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia.
- 13rac1 8y ago
  Sleep and USB-C display work out-of-the-box on my Lenovo T470s running Ubuntu 18. I've even used a USB-C hub with Ethernet, HDMI, USB3, and power delivery. Just one wire for everything. Sleep has worked for years now. YMMV
  - tinnet 8y ago
    what's missing to bring my private t470s on par with my work macbook is "hybrid sleep". the macbook seems uncannily smart of sleeping when i close the lid, then eventually hibernating, so that even after a whole weekend unplugged it has an almost full battery when i open it on monday. meanwhile the sleeping t470s drains the battery by keeping the RAM alive and eventually runs out. the arch wiki has some content on this, but it did not make me hopeful to get it to work
    - MayeulC 8y ago
      Well, on a systemd-based distro, you can systemctl hybrid-sleep And configure it as the lid close action trough logind conf (or your DE's). It works differently, though (AFAIK). It saves the state to both RAM and disk, so when battery eventually runs out, you can resume from disk. The solution you offer seems interesting. It would just need a RTC wakeup event, so that the system goes all the way to S5 after a set time.
darpa_escapee 8y ago
> I use a Macbook and a Linux (Kubuntu 19.10) desktop, and I vastly prefer the Linux desktop for UX. How's the battery life? I used to use Linux as my daily driver until about 2015, but grew tired of replacing batteries in laptops that weren't made to have their batteries replaced.

by cheald 8y ago

solomatov 8y ago

I completely agree with you. For me this list of the problem is the following: * Touchpad * Sleep mode * USB-C display

zymhan 8y ago
ACPI has been the bane of Linux on laptops for two decades. If I can't trust that my laptop will go to sleep when I shut the lid and put it in my bag, it's not useful as a portable device.
- andrewshadura 8y ago
  I haven’t had issues with suspend since 2009.
  - penagwin 8y ago
    As a counter point, I've had repeated issues with my several different laptops in the last few years with them not going to sleep (2015~2018?). I have a new laptop now that I primarily run windows on now...
  - war1025 8y ago
    There was an issue with hibernate memory mapping that broke hibernate on my work Thinkpad for the first year or two that I had it. Then at some point they fixed the issue, which if I remember correctly came down to "stop trying to be fancy and just do the straight-forward thing, which is correct". And since then I've had no issues. I'm unclear why I had an issue with the Thinkpad but never had issues with any of the 5 or so Dell Inspirons I've had over the years.
  - int_19h 8y ago
    As usual, it all depends on how lucky you get with your hardware, unless you specifically buy a Linux laptop.
- noelsusman 8y ago
  FWIW my Dell Windows laptop at work can't accomplish this correctly either.
- mikelpr 8y ago
  my retina MBP 15" 2012 would wake up with the lid closed on macOS. prolly hardware related and still linux acpi should get to 100 but I think it's gotten good
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    Are you sure this wasn't just Power Nap?
    - zymhan 8y ago
      To be fair you shouldn't notice the laptop waking up for power nap, if I'm not mistaken.
aembleton 8y ago
Touchpad - my work Dell touchpad is not as good as my old Macbook Pro, but my Xiaomi Air touchpad feels just as good to me. The only gestures are use are two finger scrolling so I don't make use of the touchpad as much as others do. Sleep mode. It's failed on my a couple of times in the last year, but my Macbook Pro failed about as often. I'm not sure what the issue is here. USB-C display. Using one right now. Got a USB-C hub plugged into my Xiaomi Air that is providing it with power, keyboard, mouse, HDD and display. What is the issue you're seeing with this? My Dell is running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Xiaomi Air is running Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia.
13rac1 8y ago
Sleep and USB-C display work out-of-the-box on my Lenovo T470s running Ubuntu 18. I've even used a USB-C hub with Ethernet, HDMI, USB3, and power delivery. Just one wire for everything. Sleep has worked for years now. YMMV
- tinnet 8y ago
  what's missing to bring my private t470s on par with my work macbook is "hybrid sleep". the macbook seems uncannily smart of sleeping when i close the lid, then eventually hibernating, so that even after a whole weekend unplugged it has an almost full battery when i open it on monday. meanwhile the sleeping t470s drains the battery by keeping the RAM alive and eventually runs out. the arch wiki has some content on this, but it did not make me hopeful to get it to work
  - MayeulC 8y ago
    Well, on a systemd-based distro, you can systemctl hybrid-sleep And configure it as the lid close action trough logind conf (or your DE's). It works differently, though (AFAIK). It saves the state to both RAM and disk, so when battery eventually runs out, you can resume from disk. The solution you offer seems interesting. It would just need a RTC wakeup event, so that the system goes all the way to S5 after a set time.

darpa_escapee 8y ago

> I use a Macbook and a Linux (Kubuntu 19.10) desktop, and I vastly prefer the Linux desktop for UX. How's the battery life? I used to use Linux as my daily driver until about 2015, but grew tired of replacing batteries in laptops that weren't made to have their batteries replaced.