4 ms·

I got this model refurbished or resold (not sure) from Newegg for 500USD and it's worked perfect under Debian out of the box[1]. For those wondering about using

I got this model refurbished or resold (not sure) from Newegg for 500USD and it's worked perfect under Debian out of the box[1]. For those wondering about using Linux, you don't need fancy mac hardware. You don't need the retina display and multi-gesture touchpad and you don't miss them when they're gone. This things got a battery that lasts forever, all kinds of ports, lightweight, and a nice keyboard. But most importantly, everything just works and was trivial to setup if it required it: UEFI secureboot, full disk encryption with luks, suspend and lid close, WiFi, sound, function keys. My model is the one without the finger print reader, so as far I know, everything is supported. "The Law of Linux Threads" states that every anecdote will replied with an equal and opposite anecdote, but this was a night and day experience from the old 2012 MacBook Air that I ran and a suite of weird Asus 200-300USD range laptops that were always sketchily supported at best. [1] Using the firmware ISO image instead of the regular one so that the intel-wifi package would be in the image at install time.

criddell 6y ago
> You don't need the retina display and multi-gesture touchpad I may not need those things, but I definitely want them. When you work with text all day, a high dpi screen is wonderful. I'd like to see it get to the point where it's comparable to a page out of a laser printer.
- aeronaute 6y ago
  I agree. I've tried using various distros on a Lenovo T480 recently. The laptop itself is decent though the screen is a little small for my tastes. Regardless, no matter what combination of OS and hardware that I've tried, nothing holds a candle to a Macbook. I'd really like to be able to use Linux on whatever piece of hardware I want, though things like the retina display and trackpad (among other things) keep me from leaving. Macbooks are such a joy to use, which I can't say about most other hardware/software unfortunately.
  - leotaku 6y ago
    What does "Retina" mean to you? I use a ThinkPad T480S with the WQHD display option and have never been able to spot individual pixels.
    - aeronaute 6y ago
      I will agree that the WQHD screen is nice. If you only compared the screens themselves (Retina vs WQHD) then I don't think there would be a significant difference. But the problem for me comes from resolution scaling. Fractional scaling on the distros I tried was poor. I think that this is a software issue more than a hardware issue, but Retina screens come with software that supports them well. Another thing that didn't work well at all was when I tried to use an external monitor with the T480. I had to go back and adjust the fractional scaling settings to make it look decent, and then revert those changes when I went back to just the laptop screen. Edit: forgot about the aspect ratio too, that's a nice feature of the Retina screens.
      - ferzul 6y ago
        i've just got an upgrade and gnome on xorg on ubuntu seems to have really great retina support, such that i feel like i must be dreaming. last week, windows was better (altho important programs occasionally crashed). right now, gnome/xorg seems perfect. just wheo i was thinking of switching to a tiling wm if i could find a mouse-friendly one
    - foldr 6y ago
      Thin laptops with QHD displays generally cost around the same as a MacBook (and still have crappy trackpads).
    - Joeri 6y ago
      Apple defines retina as 220 dpi for laptops. WQHD at 14 inch is 210 dpi, so basically retina. FHD at 14 inch, the most common resolution these days, is 157 dpi, and quite clearly not retina. Another big difference is aspect ratio. Lenovo ships 16:9 displays. WQHD gives an effective vertical resolution of 720px at 2x. FHD at 1.5x is also an effective vertical resolution of 720px, or 864px at 1.25x. Apple on the other hand ships 16:10 displays with an effective vertical resolution of 900 px at 2x. That means a 13 inch macbook pro fits more lines of code on the screen than a 14 inch FHD or WQHD thinkpad.
- pepemon 6y ago
  I've got Dell XPS 9575 with 4k display and full Prime support via DRI_PRIME=1. This thing is a truly nice Linux experience, except some problems with HiDPI and external monitors.
  - WoodenChair 6y ago
    > This thing is truly nice Linux experience, except some problems with HiDPI and external monitors. So except the thing that was important to OP.
    - dungdang 6y ago
      except literally not.
    - pepemon 6y ago
      Please show me where OP was talking about HiDPI and scaling.
bdcravens 6y ago
For me the issue hasn't been losing things like the display or the touchpad as much as the ecosystem. The ability to copy and paste between my devices, the ability to receive a text that I can interact with, the ability to quickly switch my earbud connection between my phone and laptop, the ability to use one device to tell me where another device is or made a locating sound, the ability to use my tablet as an external display, etc
- MonaroVXR 6y ago
  I can do the same with my OnePlus 6 and Fedora 32 with GSConnect or KDE connect. Display screen, you will need another program for that, but it's possible.
  - bdcravens 6y ago
    It does look like KDE Connect would give me a lot of what I'm looking for, and is worth a look.

criddell 6y ago

> You don't need the retina display and multi-gesture touchpad I may not need those things, but I definitely want them. When you work with text all day, a high dpi screen is wonderful. I'd like to see it get to the point where it's comparable to a page out of a laser printer.

aeronaute 6y ago
I agree. I've tried using various distros on a Lenovo T480 recently. The laptop itself is decent though the screen is a little small for my tastes. Regardless, no matter what combination of OS and hardware that I've tried, nothing holds a candle to a Macbook. I'd really like to be able to use Linux on whatever piece of hardware I want, though things like the retina display and trackpad (among other things) keep me from leaving. Macbooks are such a joy to use, which I can't say about most other hardware/software unfortunately.
- leotaku 6y ago
  What does "Retina" mean to you? I use a ThinkPad T480S with the WQHD display option and have never been able to spot individual pixels.
  - aeronaute 6y ago
    I will agree that the WQHD screen is nice. If you only compared the screens themselves (Retina vs WQHD) then I don't think there would be a significant difference. But the problem for me comes from resolution scaling. Fractional scaling on the distros I tried was poor. I think that this is a software issue more than a hardware issue, but Retina screens come with software that supports them well. Another thing that didn't work well at all was when I tried to use an external monitor with the T480. I had to go back and adjust the fractional scaling settings to make it look decent, and then revert those changes when I went back to just the laptop screen. Edit: forgot about the aspect ratio too, that's a nice feature of the Retina screens.
    - ferzul 6y ago
      i've just got an upgrade and gnome on xorg on ubuntu seems to have really great retina support, such that i feel like i must be dreaming. last week, windows was better (altho important programs occasionally crashed). right now, gnome/xorg seems perfect. just wheo i was thinking of switching to a tiling wm if i could find a mouse-friendly one
  - foldr 6y ago
    Thin laptops with QHD displays generally cost around the same as a MacBook (and still have crappy trackpads).
  - Joeri 6y ago
    Apple defines retina as 220 dpi for laptops. WQHD at 14 inch is 210 dpi, so basically retina. FHD at 14 inch, the most common resolution these days, is 157 dpi, and quite clearly not retina. Another big difference is aspect ratio. Lenovo ships 16:9 displays. WQHD gives an effective vertical resolution of 720px at 2x. FHD at 1.5x is also an effective vertical resolution of 720px, or 864px at 1.25x. Apple on the other hand ships 16:10 displays with an effective vertical resolution of 900 px at 2x. That means a 13 inch macbook pro fits more lines of code on the screen than a 14 inch FHD or WQHD thinkpad.
pepemon 6y ago
I've got Dell XPS 9575 with 4k display and full Prime support via DRI_PRIME=1. This thing is a truly nice Linux experience, except some problems with HiDPI and external monitors.
- WoodenChair 6y ago
  > This thing is truly nice Linux experience, except some problems with HiDPI and external monitors. So except the thing that was important to OP.
  - dungdang 6y ago
    except literally not.
  - pepemon 6y ago
    Please show me where OP was talking about HiDPI and scaling.

bdcravens 6y ago

For me the issue hasn't been losing things like the display or the touchpad as much as the ecosystem. The ability to copy and paste between my devices, the ability to receive a text that I can interact with, the ability to quickly switch my earbud connection between my phone and laptop, the ability to use one device to tell me where another device is or made a locating sound, the ability to use my tablet as an external display, etc

MonaroVXR 6y ago
I can do the same with my OnePlus 6 and Fedora 32 with GSConnect or KDE connect. Display screen, you will need another program for that, but it's possible.
- bdcravens 6y ago
  It does look like KDE Connect would give me a lot of what I'm looking for, and is worth a look.