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I've been using WSL and a lot of unix tools on Windows. I have a simple reason: Windows is a much better desktop environment. I tried to switch from macOS to L

by eknkc 6y ago

I've been using WSL and a lot of unix tools on Windows. I have a simple reason: Windows is a much better desktop environment. I tried to switch from macOS to Linux. I've found workarounds / alternatives to almost all of my issues on Linux. One issue seems to be unfixable though; I have a 4K monitor and pretty much required to use fractional scaling. Windows and macOS does it perfectly. I had good luck with Pop!_OS but 1.5x scaling is always blurry on Linux. Apparently it can not do non integer scaling so the current hack is to scale 3x and then resize the framebuffer to half the size. Nope. So I switched to the next best thing: Windows with WSL.

diarrhea 6y ago
This is the exact reason I switched back as well (next to Lightroom). It just works. But it is extremely sad to ditch an entire OS for lack of what seems a manageable issue, fractional scaling. I wish it wouldn't be necessary.
0-_-0 6y ago
I do 2x scaling on a 4K monitor (on Windows).
- eknkc 6y ago
  Yeah it does integer scaling. I need 1.5x though.
square_usual 6y ago
I'm on Pop! 20.10 and, the fraction scaling option is available. I don't use fractional scaling, though, not even on my mac. Integer scaling is always going to be sharper and less resource intensive, no matter the DE.
- eknkc 6y ago
  Well I have a 27" 4k monitor. On 1x, the text is not readable. On 2x everything is absurdly large. My windows display settings lists 150% as recommended and it works the best: https://s3.eknkc.com/x/2020/12/25/Bv55iSLhjp.png https://s3.eknkc.com/x/2020/12/25/Bv55iSLhjp.png
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
wayneftw 6y ago
I actually switched to XFCE a couple years ago because I think it's a much better desktop environment than Windows with regards to activities that I do for work like running lots of Docker images. XFCE has features that you need 7+ Taskbar Tweaker for on Windows, like being able to middle-click a taskbar button to close it's window. Any feature XFCE didn't have such as "move a window to another monitor with a hotkey" were easy to script with xdotools or other similar utilities. With the recent release of XFCE (4.16 I think?) we got fractional scaling as well. I also found it easier to add custom commands to Thunar's context menu than Windows Explorer. Thunar also has tabs and so does the XFCE terminal emulator. Beyond that, I'm no longer constantly fighting with Windows Updates, Windows Firewall or Windows Defender or navigating the fragmented landscape of shells (PowerShell, Cmd, Git-Bash, Cygwin, etc.) just to get my job done. When I setup a Linux workstation (Manjaro is my preferred distro), it stays the way I configured it without Microsoft constantly changing things out from under me - so I feel like I actually own the system.
- 0xfeba 6y ago
  I'm a big XFCE fan but multimonitor support is still iffy, especially if one is a HDPI one and another not, as the scaling applies to all monitors.
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    Yeah - my solution was to not do that because I don't like having multiple monitors with mismatched resolutions anyway and I don't care for HiDPI for work. Every monitor I own is 1080p, even my laptop screen. My Macbook Pro is the only HiDPI computer screen here. I'm not even sure what the point of HiDPI is though. It never made a difference for my work as a web developer. I understand it's more pixels per inch and less pixelation for high-res images, but if everything is getting scaled up what's the difference? My (Windows 10) gaming rig used to be hooked up to a 4K 50" Samsung TV but I think the max I could get was 60Hz. Games and movies look pretty good there, but eventually I switched to a cheap 1080p/144hz gaming monitor because I play Rocket League mainly and that is a fast action e-sports game where you want to see as many FPS as possible.
trm42 6y ago
Haven't used desktop Linuxes or Windows for about decade as macOS + Linux servers has provided useful common ground for both use cases. But even ten years ago KDE was a lot more nicer to use than Windows and I would assume they have gone a lot further in the mean time. For HiDPI stuff that sound real PITA if that hasn't been yet worked out :/
- pzone 6y ago
  Fractional scaling will require Wayland, which is only usable on Gnome or Sway right now.
jpeloquin 6y ago
> I have a 4K monitor and pretty much required to use fractional scaling. On Linux, another workaround is to set the font scaling to 1.5× (or whatever) but leave the display scaling at 1×. This leaves everything sharp with big enough text to read easily.

by eknkc 6y ago

diarrhea 6y ago

This is the exact reason I switched back as well (next to Lightroom). It just works. But it is extremely sad to ditch an entire OS for lack of what seems a manageable issue, fractional scaling. I wish it wouldn't be necessary.

0-_-0 6y ago

I do 2x scaling on a 4K monitor (on Windows).

eknkc 6y ago
Yeah it does integer scaling. I need 1.5x though.

square_usual 6y ago

I'm on Pop! 20.10 and, the fraction scaling option is available. I don't use fractional scaling, though, not even on my mac. Integer scaling is always going to be sharper and less resource intensive, no matter the DE.

eknkc 6y ago
Well I have a 27" 4k monitor. On 1x, the text is not readable. On 2x everything is absurdly large. My windows display settings lists 150% as recommended and it works the best: https://s3.eknkc.com/x/2020/12/25/Bv55iSLhjp.png https://s3.eknkc.com/x/2020/12/25/Bv55iSLhjp.png
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

wayneftw 6y ago

I actually switched to XFCE a couple years ago because I think it's a much better desktop environment than Windows with regards to activities that I do for work like running lots of Docker images. XFCE has features that you need 7+ Taskbar Tweaker for on Windows, like being able to middle-click a taskbar button to close it's window. Any feature XFCE didn't have such as "move a window to another monitor with a hotkey" were easy to script with xdotools or other similar utilities. With the recent release of XFCE (4.16 I think?) we got fractional scaling as well. I also found it easier to add custom commands to Thunar's context menu than Windows Explorer. Thunar also has tabs and so does the XFCE terminal emulator. Beyond that, I'm no longer constantly fighting with Windows Updates, Windows Firewall or Windows Defender or navigating the fragmented landscape of shells (PowerShell, Cmd, Git-Bash, Cygwin, etc.) just to get my job done. When I setup a Linux workstation (Manjaro is my preferred distro), it stays the way I configured it without Microsoft constantly changing things out from under me - so I feel like I actually own the system.

0xfeba 6y ago
I'm a big XFCE fan but multimonitor support is still iffy, especially if one is a HDPI one and another not, as the scaling applies to all monitors.
- wayneftw 6y ago
  Yeah - my solution was to not do that because I don't like having multiple monitors with mismatched resolutions anyway and I don't care for HiDPI for work. Every monitor I own is 1080p, even my laptop screen. My Macbook Pro is the only HiDPI computer screen here. I'm not even sure what the point of HiDPI is though. It never made a difference for my work as a web developer. I understand it's more pixels per inch and less pixelation for high-res images, but if everything is getting scaled up what's the difference? My (Windows 10) gaming rig used to be hooked up to a 4K 50" Samsung TV but I think the max I could get was 60Hz. Games and movies look pretty good there, but eventually I switched to a cheap 1080p/144hz gaming monitor because I play Rocket League mainly and that is a fast action e-sports game where you want to see as many FPS as possible.

trm42 6y ago

Haven't used desktop Linuxes or Windows for about decade as macOS + Linux servers has provided useful common ground for both use cases. But even ten years ago KDE was a lot more nicer to use than Windows and I would assume they have gone a lot further in the mean time. For HiDPI stuff that sound real PITA if that hasn't been yet worked out :/

pzone 6y ago
Fractional scaling will require Wayland, which is only usable on Gnome or Sway right now.

jpeloquin 6y ago

> I have a 4K monitor and pretty much required to use fractional scaling. On Linux, another workaround is to set the font scaling to 1.5× (or whatever) but leave the display scaling at 1×. This leaves everything sharp with big enough text to read easily.