4 ms·

Wanted to chime in and say Pop!_OS is the leader when it comes to HiDPI on Linux I believe. Especially if you have 4K monitors or a 3K/4K mix where the monitor

by tony 7y ago

Wanted to chime in and say Pop!_OS is the leader when it comes to HiDPI on Linux I believe. Especially if you have 4K monitors or a 3K/4K mix where the monitors need a different DPI set. PopOS uses a system to manage the scaling very well. https://support.system76.com/articles/hidpi-multi-monitor/ https://support.system76.com/articles/hidpi-multi-monitor/ The closest comparison I've seen elsewhere is fractional scaling in Gnome 3.32+: https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/FracionalScaling https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/FracionalScaling If you have a configuration / workflow for HiDPI on Linux, it'd be nice to see if there were other options / any other things out there.

minxomat 7y ago
Thanks for that info. If the OS is pleasent otherwise, I'll switch immediately from elementary OS. Their position on fractional scaling is: - it's bad because pixel perfectness! - you're wrong for wanting it - we don't care that MacOS does it well So annoying.
- benologist 7y ago
  You can enable fractional scaling in the elementary settings: https://elementaryos.stackexchange.com/questions/15057/can-i-scale-everything-at-125 https://elementaryos.stackexchange.com/questions/15057/can-i...
  - ac29 7y ago
    That's just fractional scaling of text. It does make a useful difference, but its not full fractional scaling.
- jancsika 7y ago
  > - we don't care that MacOS does it well At least in 2017 they claimed MacOS didn't do it well[1]. Do you have a link to something more recent where they changed their position? 1: https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-hidpi-f5ef493d7bf8 https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-h...
  - minxomat 7y ago
    Oh yes, that's my opinion. They are biased because they see only the defects, I'm biased because it works well enough for me (and many people I have spoken to about this who run MacOS) on MacOS. Add to that the implicit assumption that it's good enough which is encoded in Apple's decision to include it at all. Ymmv
- mushufasa 7y ago
  one of the founders of Elementary worked at System76 until recently, and worked on designing Pop!. Pop! shares some components with Elementary including the "app store." (his blog about it: https://medium.com/@cassidyjames/a-new-chapter-af85f4e64179 https://medium.com/@cassidyjames/a-new-chapter-af85f4e64179) Typing this from Pop! now. I like it.
rzzzt 7y ago
Just played around with it temporarily on Linux, to see if it'd work: use the next integer step for scaling UI, then downsample the result to match the display's actual resolution. This worked by enabling Virtual Super Resolution for an AMD card on Windows, and an equivalent looking result could be achieved with xrandr incantations. Sadly, the mouse ended up being confined to a subsection of the screen, which was a bug, but that should be fixed now: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/883319 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/8...
axaxs 7y ago
Can you touch on what features, if any, Pop has added that don't exist in Gnome 3? Genuine question from an observer.
- aunetx 7y ago
  Well, beauty I believe
- skinkestek 7y ago
  I think one (small) difference is they fixed the default keyboard shortcuts. Several small things like that and it makes a big difference.
chocolatkey 7y ago
The multiple-DPI monitor support has been holding me back from Linux for a long time. Is it possible to install this on other distributions?
mushufasa 7y ago
System76 engineers wrote a song about their work on HiDPI. If this isn't the right audience for it, I don't know what is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFGG18c6As https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFGG18c6As
- mackrevinack 7y ago
  so much cringe it hurts
jonny383 7y ago
Fractional scaling has been available in Ubuntu on both Xorg and Wayland since 19.04. For Wayland run gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']" For Xorg run gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['x11-randr-fractional-scaling']"
- pacoverdi 7y ago
  I've tried it (ubuntu 19.10 / Xorg / Dell Latitude 5491 + 4K Samsung monitor) and it is useless: - the scaling applies to BOTH monitors - even the 125% mode looks ridiculously big (like 200%) I was not able to enable Wayland on my system so don't know if it is better :/
  - jonny383 7y ago
    I run 125% and I agree it does look closer to 150% over 125% on Xorg. On wayland, 125 is definitely 125.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  The typical GNU/Linux UI/UX friendliness.
- Shorel 7y ago
  I agree with other posters that Fractional Scaling in 19.04 is useless. It is useless in particular if you want to have one (bigger) monitor at 100% and the laptop monitor at 125%, a configuration that works particularly well in Windows. But my argument is that FS is not hardware accelerated, it overheats the laptop and even then makes everything run extremely slowly. You can't watch a Youtube video in any of the screens, it becomes a PowerPoint slideshow.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

by tony 7y ago

minxomat 7y ago

Thanks for that info. If the OS is pleasent otherwise, I'll switch immediately from elementary OS. Their position on fractional scaling is: - it's bad because pixel perfectness! - you're wrong for wanting it - we don't care that MacOS does it well So annoying.

benologist 7y ago
You can enable fractional scaling in the elementary settings: https://elementaryos.stackexchange.com/questions/15057/can-i-scale-everything-at-125 https://elementaryos.stackexchange.com/questions/15057/can-i...
- ac29 7y ago
  That's just fractional scaling of text. It does make a useful difference, but its not full fractional scaling.
jancsika 7y ago
> - we don't care that MacOS does it well At least in 2017 they claimed MacOS didn't do it well[1]. Do you have a link to something more recent where they changed their position? 1: https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-hidpi-f5ef493d7bf8 https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-h...
- minxomat 7y ago
  Oh yes, that's my opinion. They are biased because they see only the defects, I'm biased because it works well enough for me (and many people I have spoken to about this who run MacOS) on MacOS. Add to that the implicit assumption that it's good enough which is encoded in Apple's decision to include it at all. Ymmv
mushufasa 7y ago
one of the founders of Elementary worked at System76 until recently, and worked on designing Pop!. Pop! shares some components with Elementary including the "app store." (his blog about it: https://medium.com/@cassidyjames/a-new-chapter-af85f4e64179 https://medium.com/@cassidyjames/a-new-chapter-af85f4e64179) Typing this from Pop! now. I like it.

rzzzt 7y ago

Just played around with it temporarily on Linux, to see if it'd work: use the next integer step for scaling UI, then downsample the result to match the display's actual resolution. This worked by enabling Virtual Super Resolution for an AMD card on Windows, and an equivalent looking result could be achieved with xrandr incantations. Sadly, the mouse ended up being confined to a subsection of the screen, which was a bug, but that should be fixed now: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/883319 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/8...

axaxs 7y ago

Can you touch on what features, if any, Pop has added that don't exist in Gnome 3? Genuine question from an observer.

aunetx 7y ago
Well, beauty I believe
skinkestek 7y ago
I think one (small) difference is they fixed the default keyboard shortcuts. Several small things like that and it makes a big difference.

chocolatkey 7y ago

The multiple-DPI monitor support has been holding me back from Linux for a long time. Is it possible to install this on other distributions?

mushufasa 7y ago

System76 engineers wrote a song about their work on HiDPI. If this isn't the right audience for it, I don't know what is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFGG18c6As https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFGG18c6As

mackrevinack 7y ago
so much cringe it hurts

jonny383 7y ago

Fractional scaling has been available in Ubuntu on both Xorg and Wayland since 19.04. For Wayland run gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']" For Xorg run gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['x11-randr-fractional-scaling']"

pacoverdi 7y ago
I've tried it (ubuntu 19.10 / Xorg / Dell Latitude 5491 + 4K Samsung monitor) and it is useless: - the scaling applies to BOTH monitors - even the 125% mode looks ridiculously big (like 200%) I was not able to enable Wayland on my system so don't know if it is better :/
- jonny383 7y ago
  I run 125% and I agree it does look closer to 150% over 125% on Xorg. On wayland, 125 is definitely 125.
pjmlp 7y ago
The typical GNU/Linux UI/UX friendliness.
Shorel 7y ago
I agree with other posters that Fractional Scaling in 19.04 is useless. It is useless in particular if you want to have one (bigger) monitor at 100% and the laptop monitor at 125%, a configuration that works particularly well in Windows. But my argument is that FS is not hardware accelerated, it overheats the laptop and even then makes everything run extremely slowly. You can't watch a Youtube video in any of the screens, it becomes a PowerPoint slideshow.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]