3 ms·

It was last summer. I bought one of the recommended laptops for running Linux just for the purpose of switching. It sucked hard. (rant following so please don'

It was last summer. I bought one of the recommended laptops for running Linux just for the purpose of switching. It sucked hard. (rant following so please don't read the rest if you don't like ranting about linux desktop) I could probably live with trackpad not being great. But the sound stack, bluetooth stack, driving displays with different dpi (hidpi and non-hidpi) etc. are all terrible. Managing multiple displays (xrandr, xinerama etc.) even without the dpi difference is also just bad. If you like to tinker it's great but I just couldn't make the switch. It didn't give me the confidence that it will work when I need it. I tried all major distros and read almost the entirety of the arch wiki (it is so good). i3 is one of the things that would make me try again in the future. There is nothing like it on macos (some wms try but they always feel duct-taped). And systemd is good.

kaba0 5y ago
If you ever would give it another try, I highly recommend sway, which is almost completely compatible with i3’s config and basically a wayland clone of that. Wayland makes multiple displays with different DPIs possible and basically a huge, much needed revamp on all the technical debt that accumulated in a multi-decade old graphics stack. Similarly, pipewire is pretty much stable now, which fixes both the sound and bluetooth stack singlehandedly.
- neoberg 5y ago
  Thank you. My day to day work involves sharing screen on calls a lot. While I know it's possible to some extent with pipewire, it is still too hacky and too much effort for a simple(from an end-user standpoint) task. Afaik it still doesn't work with Zoom at all. But I am in general excited about Wayland.
  - kaba0 5y ago
    I believe it works well with the browser version now (as it uses the correct APIs) but afaik browser zoom doesn’t have feature parity with the desktop one? So fair enough for not trying it out just yet, hopefully soon we can just easily say that it works splendidly!

kaba0 5y ago

If you ever would give it another try, I highly recommend sway, which is almost completely compatible with i3’s config and basically a wayland clone of that. Wayland makes multiple displays with different DPIs possible and basically a huge, much needed revamp on all the technical debt that accumulated in a multi-decade old graphics stack. Similarly, pipewire is pretty much stable now, which fixes both the sound and bluetooth stack singlehandedly.

neoberg 5y ago
Thank you. My day to day work involves sharing screen on calls a lot. While I know it's possible to some extent with pipewire, it is still too hacky and too much effort for a simple(from an end-user standpoint) task. Afaik it still doesn't work with Zoom at all. But I am in general excited about Wayland.
- kaba0 5y ago
  I believe it works well with the browser version now (as it uses the correct APIs) but afaik browser zoom doesn’t have feature parity with the desktop one? So fair enough for not trying it out just yet, hopefully soon we can just easily say that it works splendidly!