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I've been debating Linux vs WSL2 recently and this is exactly the type of issue that has me pausing on embracing Linux Desktop. I've paid thousands to the Mac

I've been debating Linux vs WSL2 recently and this is exactly the type of issue that has me pausing on embracing Linux Desktop. I've paid thousands to the Mac ecosystem over the years purely to avoid these problems. I just want the OS to work, and i've literally never had that experience on Linux. I'm sure it's much much better these days than it was the last time i tried, but - everything i hear tells me they still exist to some degree. 4k and 1080p is my exact setup btw haha. I was debating installing PopOS this weekend.

SweetestRug 6y ago
If this is an issue, try using Wayland instead of X11. I run PopOS on a similar setup and it works flawlessly under Wayland. Give PopOS a try, you won't be disappointed! Edit: there was no configuration needed. I selected Wayland from the menu and it just worked right out of the box. No bells and whistles, just a great desktop experience.
- adsjhdashkj 6y ago
  I'll give it a look. Admittedly it doesn't sound attractive, because it sounds like the exact bells and whistles of configuration that i _don't_ want haha. The longer i'm a software engineer the less energy i have for dealing with my OS, i guess.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  I never tried Pop OS, I might look into it as well since it's based off Ubuntu LTS, which I quite like. I'm too old for the rolling releases that change constantly. I've been using Ubuntu and Redhat for a long time now.
- d3nj4l 6y ago
  GGP here - I run Pop (20.04), too, but wayland doesn't work for me. As I've said earlier, it might be because of my laptop GPU.
  - paulsmal 6y ago
    it is, once I install nvidia drivers I get no wayland support
    - adsjhdashkj 6y ago
      What's the material advantage of Wayland? I've done a tiny bit of research on what it is, but not how it materially provides a better UX to the end users. Thoughts?
stjohnswarts 6y ago
It is much better. Run it in a VM for a while and get a feel for it. Pick one of the stable versions like Redhat (Centos) or Ubuntu LTS so that you don't have to worry about constant updates as you would in Manjaro/Arch. And buy linux compatible hardware or system if you plan on using it professionally. A preinstalled machine/laptop is great for that. Dell and Lenovo have several.
- adsjhdashkj 6y ago
  Any recommendation for linux compatible hardware? I'll be building a new machine next year and i'd like to make it work with Linux, so a buying list would be nice. I know the CPU/Ram/GPU i want, but i imagine most of the trouble is motherboard, since so many features are there. I'm also curious how my current hardware rates on compatibility.
  - d3nj4l 6y ago
    Go with AMD for graphics for sure! Support is so much better overall than nVidia.
    - adsjhdashkj 6y ago
      Interesting, i've heard Nvidia is the way to go. Closed source, yes, but still great drivers. I saw some very concerning behavior from AMD GPUs, like not releasing decent drivers for ages after new cards were released, etc. I also have an Nvidia right now, so.. hopefully it works great hah. Otherwise i'll be on Windows.
      - chupasaurus 6y ago
        tl;dr: AMD - if a particular GPU is supported by your kernel and Mesa versions, it works flawlessly, NVIDIA - way more ifs and randomness. AMD: check in which kernel version AMD added the support for your GPU, and which Mesa version has feature parity (most of the time it's already there because there weren't any big shifts since Vega, RDNA2 might be that one) and you're good to go on any distro. NVIDIA: Wayland support isn't there for years and foreseeable future, random issues with driver updates. Supports only 3 distros (Red Hat family, SUSE and Ubuntu without derivatives, I even made a page for devs how to add Debian flavour of it on any deb distro since Mint users were constantly struggling), Debian makes it's own decoupling of blob which works flawlessly but new version might not be there for a month because maintainers aren't there. I still remember that full support for Pascal has landed 6 months after the release.

SweetestRug 6y ago

If this is an issue, try using Wayland instead of X11. I run PopOS on a similar setup and it works flawlessly under Wayland. Give PopOS a try, you won't be disappointed! Edit: there was no configuration needed. I selected Wayland from the menu and it just worked right out of the box. No bells and whistles, just a great desktop experience.

adsjhdashkj 6y ago
I'll give it a look. Admittedly it doesn't sound attractive, because it sounds like the exact bells and whistles of configuration that i _don't_ want haha. The longer i'm a software engineer the less energy i have for dealing with my OS, i guess.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
I never tried Pop OS, I might look into it as well since it's based off Ubuntu LTS, which I quite like. I'm too old for the rolling releases that change constantly. I've been using Ubuntu and Redhat for a long time now.
d3nj4l 6y ago
GGP here - I run Pop (20.04), too, but wayland doesn't work for me. As I've said earlier, it might be because of my laptop GPU.
- paulsmal 6y ago
  it is, once I install nvidia drivers I get no wayland support
  - adsjhdashkj 6y ago
    What's the material advantage of Wayland? I've done a tiny bit of research on what it is, but not how it materially provides a better UX to the end users. Thoughts?

stjohnswarts 6y ago

It is much better. Run it in a VM for a while and get a feel for it. Pick one of the stable versions like Redhat (Centos) or Ubuntu LTS so that you don't have to worry about constant updates as you would in Manjaro/Arch. And buy linux compatible hardware or system if you plan on using it professionally. A preinstalled machine/laptop is great for that. Dell and Lenovo have several.

adsjhdashkj 6y ago
Any recommendation for linux compatible hardware? I'll be building a new machine next year and i'd like to make it work with Linux, so a buying list would be nice. I know the CPU/Ram/GPU i want, but i imagine most of the trouble is motherboard, since so many features are there. I'm also curious how my current hardware rates on compatibility.
- d3nj4l 6y ago
  Go with AMD for graphics for sure! Support is so much better overall than nVidia.
  - adsjhdashkj 6y ago
    Interesting, i've heard Nvidia is the way to go. Closed source, yes, but still great drivers. I saw some very concerning behavior from AMD GPUs, like not releasing decent drivers for ages after new cards were released, etc. I also have an Nvidia right now, so.. hopefully it works great hah. Otherwise i'll be on Windows.
    - chupasaurus 6y ago
      tl;dr: AMD - if a particular GPU is supported by your kernel and Mesa versions, it works flawlessly, NVIDIA - way more ifs and randomness. AMD: check in which kernel version AMD added the support for your GPU, and which Mesa version has feature parity (most of the time it's already there because there weren't any big shifts since Vega, RDNA2 might be that one) and you're good to go on any distro. NVIDIA: Wayland support isn't there for years and foreseeable future, random issues with driver updates. Supports only 3 distros (Red Hat family, SUSE and Ubuntu without derivatives, I even made a page for devs how to add Debian flavour of it on any deb distro since Mint users were constantly struggling), Debian makes it's own decoupling of blob which works flawlessly but new version might not be there for a month because maintainers aren't there. I still remember that full support for Pascal has landed 6 months after the release.