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Currently using my Framework laptop with Arch Linux. Was able to get everything working, including Bluetooth. Even got the battery life tamed. So far, my favori

Currently using my Framework laptop with Arch Linux. Was able to get everything working, including Bluetooth. Even got the battery life tamed. So far, my favorite laptop since the Thinkpad T42 I had back in the day (other laptops I’ve owned: 2013 MB Air, Dell XPS 15 9550, and a 2018 MBP)

_4fwd 5y ago
What's the secret on battery life?
- pxc 5y ago
  One thing that helps a lot is mimicking macOS' suspend-then-hibernate behavior
- jonfw 5y ago
  The archwiki has a ton of interesting content on optimizing battery life on linux- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/TLP https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/TLP https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management Even if you're not running arch, the archwiki is an amazing source of information
  - spamizbad 5y ago
    Yep, those are the guides I loosely followed.
v8z7CD3ts5wFq8 5y ago
How’s the trackpad? How does it compare to a MacBook? I can’t find a non apple laptop that comes even close in terms of high sensitivity, yet amazing palm typing reject, and multi finger gestures that work in almost every context.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  To me, Macbooks have the worst trackpad 'feel' so hopefully it's nothing like that.
  - pxc 5y ago
    I imagine the part you don't like must be the acceleration curve, which is generally adjustable on Linux
    - least 5y ago
      The acceleration curve and default scroll speed are pretty horrendous in linux in my experience. The advantage of course is I can just add a command to my init file to adjust it but the scrolling speed isn't exposed in the settings apps of any of the major DEs as far as I know.
      - pxc 5y ago
        Yeah. NixOS has facilities for adjusting those acceleration curves and scroll speed in a universal/pre-DE way, as well. My preference is to disable acceleration in favor of very high sensitivity for physical mice, to disable small touchpads (like on old Windows laptops) and retain a substantial but smooth acceleration curve for large touchpads (like on a Mac). I think the DEs often let you adjust how many lines a single scroll increment scrolls by, but not the size of movement that triggers a scroll increment on the touchpad. I think depending on your touchpad driver (evdev is usually more flexible than, say, synaptics) and maybe your choice of display server (Wayland vs. Xorg), you can adjust the other aspect of touchpad scrolling.
  - bschwindHN 5y ago
    You're definitely in the minority, macbook trackpads are widely accepted as the best ones currently out there. Some good discussion on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485178
    - 5y ago
easygenes 5y ago
I had a 1600x1200 T42p and loved that thing to death too. My fav laptop ever though was the original 15" MacBook Retina from 2012. I pre-ordered mine the hour it came available, as I had been waiting years for a good IPS HiDPI laptop. I had never even owned a Mac before that. Mine was one of the first off the line where the display had a temporary-burn-in (very long ghosting for any pixels that are fixed for more than 30 secs or so) issue. I got that replaced no-hassles under warranty a couple of months in. My eyes were good enough then that I was running it at native 2880x1800 resolution (no HiDPI business), and I was finally happy with the resolution I could get while mobile (I had been using a 30" 2560x1600 as my workstation monitor for a couple of years at that point, and this was an upgrade over even that!) These days I use a 55" 4K OLED and a 32" 6K Pro Display XDR as my workstation monitors. For anyone considering this, I'd say wait for the 40" 4K OLEDs to come out (or wall mount the 55" and set your desk half a meter or so away from the wall). I sit just a little more than arm's length away from mine, and that's great for immersive flight simulator experience, but not so great for normal daily desktop use. (I'm keeping mine on my desk so I can keep using it along with powered sit-stand.) As for why it's not so great; it's mostly a resolution issue. 4K isn't enough these days, and isn't high enough DPI for the amount of my field of view it takes up at this distance. I would also be quite happy with an 8K OLED that's, say, 55" or 65"... but only when I can also get one that drives at 120FPS, so that will be a bit of a wait.
- easygenes 5y ago
  Oh yeah, and I'm running the Pro Display XDR through a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) cable. Plugging that into the VirtualLink port on an Nvidia RTX 20xx card is the easiest way to get the native 6K @ 60hz with 10bpc on Windows. These days you can get these cables at lengths up to 3 meters, which is nice. There's also this weird VR headset cable which works a treat if you need something longer or have a graphics card without the VirtualLink port: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001290509128.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001290509128.html You need to use Brigadier to download the Boot Camp drivers to get the display brightness controls widget. Unfortunately, there isn't an option for Linux.
- easygenes 5y ago
  Just a few more thoughts on setting up a high-megapixels workstation: My ideal would probably be something similar to what Linus has set up. He uses long cables from a nearby closet, so even when the workstation fans are blasting he doesn't hear it. For now, I use 2 and 3 meter cables plugged into a mid tower sitting on the far side of my desk on the floor. For why I'm not doing the workstation-in-another-room approach: The 4K@120fps HDR OLED relies on HDMI 2.0 cables, which are only recently available at 3 meter lengths. Linus is using a not-commercially-available prototype optical HDMI repeater to get longer cabling. For normal use the system is near-silent and at full blast it's below the noise floor with a headset playing something at a reasonably low volume (and not distractingly loud even if I just have the headset on with nothing playing).
canbus 5y ago
What are your thoughts on the 9550? Personally I think it is the worst laptop I have ever used. The battery life was abyssmal, the graphics card constantly had issues. At one point plugging anything into the USB-C port caused sparking.. The worst bit was how loud the fan used to run.. if it had spun any faster you'd think it would start hovering.
- spamizbad 5y ago
  My experience mirrors yours. Its current duty is playing videos and music for my exercise bike but boy was I happy to rid myself of it as a daily driver. Too bad, because Linux worked great on it for me.

_4fwd 5y ago

What's the secret on battery life?

pxc 5y ago
One thing that helps a lot is mimicking macOS' suspend-then-hibernate behavior
jonfw 5y ago
The archwiki has a ton of interesting content on optimizing battery life on linux- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/TLP https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/TLP https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management Even if you're not running arch, the archwiki is an amazing source of information
- spamizbad 5y ago
  Yep, those are the guides I loosely followed.

v8z7CD3ts5wFq8 5y ago

How’s the trackpad? How does it compare to a MacBook? I can’t find a non apple laptop that comes even close in terms of high sensitivity, yet amazing palm typing reject, and multi finger gestures that work in almost every context.

fartcannon 5y ago
To me, Macbooks have the worst trackpad 'feel' so hopefully it's nothing like that.
- pxc 5y ago
  I imagine the part you don't like must be the acceleration curve, which is generally adjustable on Linux
  - least 5y ago
    The acceleration curve and default scroll speed are pretty horrendous in linux in my experience. The advantage of course is I can just add a command to my init file to adjust it but the scrolling speed isn't exposed in the settings apps of any of the major DEs as far as I know.
    - pxc 5y ago
      Yeah. NixOS has facilities for adjusting those acceleration curves and scroll speed in a universal/pre-DE way, as well. My preference is to disable acceleration in favor of very high sensitivity for physical mice, to disable small touchpads (like on old Windows laptops) and retain a substantial but smooth acceleration curve for large touchpads (like on a Mac). I think the DEs often let you adjust how many lines a single scroll increment scrolls by, but not the size of movement that triggers a scroll increment on the touchpad. I think depending on your touchpad driver (evdev is usually more flexible than, say, synaptics) and maybe your choice of display server (Wayland vs. Xorg), you can adjust the other aspect of touchpad scrolling.
- bschwindHN 5y ago
  You're definitely in the minority, macbook trackpads are widely accepted as the best ones currently out there. Some good discussion on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19485178
  - 5y ago

easygenes 5y ago

I had a 1600x1200 T42p and loved that thing to death too. My fav laptop ever though was the original 15" MacBook Retina from 2012. I pre-ordered mine the hour it came available, as I had been waiting years for a good IPS HiDPI laptop. I had never even owned a Mac before that. Mine was one of the first off the line where the display had a temporary-burn-in (very long ghosting for any pixels that are fixed for more than 30 secs or so) issue. I got that replaced no-hassles under warranty a couple of months in. My eyes were good enough then that I was running it at native 2880x1800 resolution (no HiDPI business), and I was finally happy with the resolution I could get while mobile (I had been using a 30" 2560x1600 as my workstation monitor for a couple of years at that point, and this was an upgrade over even that!) These days I use a 55" 4K OLED and a 32" 6K Pro Display XDR as my workstation monitors. For anyone considering this, I'd say wait for the 40" 4K OLEDs to come out (or wall mount the 55" and set your desk half a meter or so away from the wall). I sit just a little more than arm's length away from mine, and that's great for immersive flight simulator experience, but not so great for normal daily desktop use. (I'm keeping mine on my desk so I can keep using it along with powered sit-stand.) As for why it's not so great; it's mostly a resolution issue. 4K isn't enough these days, and isn't high enough DPI for the amount of my field of view it takes up at this distance. I would also be quite happy with an 8K OLED that's, say, 55" or 65"... but only when I can also get one that drives at 120FPS, so that will be a bit of a wait.

easygenes 5y ago
Oh yeah, and I'm running the Pro Display XDR through a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) cable. Plugging that into the VirtualLink port on an Nvidia RTX 20xx card is the easiest way to get the native 6K @ 60hz with 10bpc on Windows. These days you can get these cables at lengths up to 3 meters, which is nice. There's also this weird VR headset cable which works a treat if you need something longer or have a graphics card without the VirtualLink port: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001290509128.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001290509128.html You need to use Brigadier to download the Boot Camp drivers to get the display brightness controls widget. Unfortunately, there isn't an option for Linux.
easygenes 5y ago
Just a few more thoughts on setting up a high-megapixels workstation: My ideal would probably be something similar to what Linus has set up. He uses long cables from a nearby closet, so even when the workstation fans are blasting he doesn't hear it. For now, I use 2 and 3 meter cables plugged into a mid tower sitting on the far side of my desk on the floor. For why I'm not doing the workstation-in-another-room approach: The 4K@120fps HDR OLED relies on HDMI 2.0 cables, which are only recently available at 3 meter lengths. Linus is using a not-commercially-available prototype optical HDMI repeater to get longer cabling. For normal use the system is near-silent and at full blast it's below the noise floor with a headset playing something at a reasonably low volume (and not distractingly loud even if I just have the headset on with nothing playing).

canbus 5y ago

What are your thoughts on the 9550? Personally I think it is the worst laptop I have ever used. The battery life was abyssmal, the graphics card constantly had issues. At one point plugging anything into the USB-C port caused sparking.. The worst bit was how loud the fan used to run.. if it had spun any faster you'd think it would start hovering.

spamizbad 5y ago
My experience mirrors yours. Its current duty is playing videos and music for my exercise bike but boy was I happy to rid myself of it as a daily driver. Too bad, because Linux worked great on it for me.