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You've started with Arch and are judging the entire ecosystem based on that? That's ridiculous. Start with Ubuntu, Fedora, elementary OS, or any of the myriads

You've started with Arch and are judging the entire ecosystem based on that? That's ridiculous. Start with Ubuntu, Fedora, elementary OS, or any of the myriads of actually complete operating systems that let you get some work done less than half an hour since you start an installation.

pjmlp 7y ago
Well, not if doing some work is somehow related to hardware video decoding or taking advantage of latest GPGPU features.
- input_sh 7y ago
  I don't know about your specific situation, but I think we'll both agree that the majority of HN readers need a browser, a terminal, a text editor, and an operating system that gets out of their way.
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    I don't agree and would gladly get some numbers confirming that assessment.
- icebraining 7y ago
  Ubuntu comes with hardware video decoding support out of the box, just install it on a machine with an Intel or AMD gpu, and tick the "Install third-party software" box during installation.
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    If you're lucky with the card. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalyst-fglrx-driver-16-04 https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalys...
    - icebraining 7y ago
      All that article says is that if you use a newer OS version, you have to use a newer driver (amdgpu or radeon instead of the deprecated fglrx), not that you'd lose hardware-accelerated video.
      - pjmlp 7y ago
        Except that newer driver happens to lack features from the old one.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        icebraining 7y ago
        Yet hardware-accelerated video still worked fine out of the box.
        pjmlp 7y ago
        Surely not on my Radeon.
lars_francke 7y ago
I started with Fedora (because basically all my day to day work involves RHEL/CentOS), moved to Manjaro and ended up on Arch for various reasons. Also: I'm not judging an ecosystem, I'm judging the Laptop support of Linux and I know that some of it is not even the fault of Linux itself. Things like: - Windows has 7h battery lifetime, Linux gets 3h on my Laptop (that is with Fedora) - Which driver do I need to disable the NVidia card? Modesetting, xf86-video-intel, nouveau, etc.. .what do these even mean? (that is with Fedora) - Why does the modem not work? (That is with Fedora) - Does my Laptop have a light sensor? - How to disable the "Hot Corner" in Gnome (Fedora) and many more things. Almost everything I'm facing has nothing to do with the distro and I switched to Arch because its documentation is by far the best out there.
- 8draco8 7y ago
  Pretty much everything what you're facing is distro specific. The battery life is solved on Ubuntu by TLP which is installed by default (at least it was on Ubuntu Mate) Ubuntu is now shipping with free and proprietary Nvidia drivers and you can choose during the installation which ones you want to use. Gnome hot corners are disabled by default on Ubuntu. Of course if you prefer vanilla Gnome experience you can always use it, it's just a matter of selecting item from dropdown on login screen. As for the light sensors and modem, I'm not sure but I imagine that it's not a big deal under Ubuntu or Pop!_OS. For me Fedora was always ALMOST there. Most of the times it was working but there was many little tweaks that had to be done in order to make everything working. On Ubuntu even things like fingerprint reader login was dead easy to setup (Thinkpad X230).
  - lars_francke 7y ago
    I disagree. I tried Ubuntu us well. I installed TLP on Arch & Fedora. I didn't even test without and the battery life is still abysmal compared to Windows. Light sensor: I eventually figured that out, thanks. Modem: There's just no driver for linux, the distro doesn't matter. My point is: It shouldn't be this hard. I shouldn't have to know what TLP is or what kind of drivers I need etc.
    - 7y ago
joeberon 7y ago
But we're judging FreeBSD, not "Ubuntu, Fedora, elementary OS". Everyone knows the latter will be easy to set up
- input_sh 7y ago
  The comment I've responded to mentions Arch, not FreeBSD. I've replied to them about Arch, not FreeBSD.

pjmlp 7y ago

Well, not if doing some work is somehow related to hardware video decoding or taking advantage of latest GPGPU features.

input_sh 7y ago
I don't know about your specific situation, but I think we'll both agree that the majority of HN readers need a browser, a terminal, a text editor, and an operating system that gets out of their way.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  I don't agree and would gladly get some numbers confirming that assessment.
icebraining 7y ago
Ubuntu comes with hardware video decoding support out of the box, just install it on a machine with an Intel or AMD gpu, and tick the "Install third-party software" box during installation.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  If you're lucky with the card. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalyst-fglrx-driver-16-04 https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalys...
  - icebraining 7y ago
    All that article says is that if you use a newer OS version, you have to use a newer driver (amdgpu or radeon instead of the deprecated fglrx), not that you'd lose hardware-accelerated video.
    - pjmlp 7y ago
      Except that newer driver happens to lack features from the old one.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - icebraining 7y ago
        Yet hardware-accelerated video still worked fine out of the box.
        pjmlp 7y ago
        Surely not on my Radeon.

lars_francke 7y ago

I started with Fedora (because basically all my day to day work involves RHEL/CentOS), moved to Manjaro and ended up on Arch for various reasons. Also: I'm not judging an ecosystem, I'm judging the Laptop support of Linux and I know that some of it is not even the fault of Linux itself. Things like: - Windows has 7h battery lifetime, Linux gets 3h on my Laptop (that is with Fedora) - Which driver do I need to disable the NVidia card? Modesetting, xf86-video-intel, nouveau, etc.. .what do these even mean? (that is with Fedora) - Why does the modem not work? (That is with Fedora) - Does my Laptop have a light sensor? - How to disable the "Hot Corner" in Gnome (Fedora) and many more things. Almost everything I'm facing has nothing to do with the distro and I switched to Arch because its documentation is by far the best out there.

8draco8 7y ago
Pretty much everything what you're facing is distro specific. The battery life is solved on Ubuntu by TLP which is installed by default (at least it was on Ubuntu Mate) Ubuntu is now shipping with free and proprietary Nvidia drivers and you can choose during the installation which ones you want to use. Gnome hot corners are disabled by default on Ubuntu. Of course if you prefer vanilla Gnome experience you can always use it, it's just a matter of selecting item from dropdown on login screen. As for the light sensors and modem, I'm not sure but I imagine that it's not a big deal under Ubuntu or Pop!_OS. For me Fedora was always ALMOST there. Most of the times it was working but there was many little tweaks that had to be done in order to make everything working. On Ubuntu even things like fingerprint reader login was dead easy to setup (Thinkpad X230).
- lars_francke 7y ago
  I disagree. I tried Ubuntu us well. I installed TLP on Arch & Fedora. I didn't even test without and the battery life is still abysmal compared to Windows. Light sensor: I eventually figured that out, thanks. Modem: There's just no driver for linux, the distro doesn't matter. My point is: It shouldn't be this hard. I shouldn't have to know what TLP is or what kind of drivers I need etc.
  - 7y ago

joeberon 7y ago

But we're judging FreeBSD, not "Ubuntu, Fedora, elementary OS". Everyone knows the latter will be easy to set up

input_sh 7y ago
The comment I've responded to mentions Arch, not FreeBSD. I've replied to them about Arch, not FreeBSD.