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Which laptop? Thinkpads and Macbooks tend to be less troublesome than other brands. Please note, I said 'less troublesome' not 'seamless.' Since you've had d

Which laptop? Thinkpads and Macbooks tend to be less troublesome than other brands. Please note, I said 'less troublesome' not 'seamless.' Since you've had difficulty troubleshooting Windows drivers, at least you'll have some vaguely relevant experience when you switch to Linux. But be aware there's no equivalent to right clicking and running a program in XP compatibility mode. As for privacy, Chrome is still Chrome on Linux, logging in with Twitter is still logging in with Twitter, and Github is a Microsoft property. Good luck.

esperent 4y ago
It's an MSI GE66, about a year old. Great laptop for graphics and dev work, although the fan is nasty under heavy load. > Since you've had difficulty troubleshooting Windows drivers Apologies, I was unclear here. I have (almost) zero driver trouble under Windows. I just have Microsoft troubles. I'm afraid of switching those for driver troubles under Linux. I do have a good amount of experience with Linux so it's not that I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it. I'm afraid it'll become a massive time sink.
- brudgers 4y ago
  I have a Dell Precision that was available with Linux from Dell but didn’t have it because it was a scratch and dent I purchased as spec’d directly from Dell. I ran Ubuntu on it for five years until I switched to Windows at the beginning of this year. It has atypical laptop hardware. Like your machine which is why I mention it. Things have broken several times under Linux. The touchpad driver was broken for about 9 months when the Alps driver was deprecated. The WiFi once briefly. Nvidia drivers briefly at least twice…or always if I consider Prime support. Same for Hdpi - 4K was one reason I hopped on the particular deal - except that it’s brokenness goes down to the application-library-compile level under X…never mind Wayland. Note that’s without the compatibility and configuration complexity of WINE or the TTfM of Arch. And again this is a laptop that had factory Linux available and technical support suitable for enterprise customers, not a gaming laptop. I don’t have anything against Linux. I just wasn’t gaining anything from dying on Ubuntu Hill.

esperent 4y ago

It's an MSI GE66, about a year old. Great laptop for graphics and dev work, although the fan is nasty under heavy load. > Since you've had difficulty troubleshooting Windows drivers Apologies, I was unclear here. I have (almost) zero driver trouble under Windows. I just have Microsoft troubles. I'm afraid of switching those for driver troubles under Linux. I do have a good amount of experience with Linux so it's not that I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it. I'm afraid it'll become a massive time sink.

brudgers 4y ago
I have a Dell Precision that was available with Linux from Dell but didn’t have it because it was a scratch and dent I purchased as spec’d directly from Dell. I ran Ubuntu on it for five years until I switched to Windows at the beginning of this year. It has atypical laptop hardware. Like your machine which is why I mention it. Things have broken several times under Linux. The touchpad driver was broken for about 9 months when the Alps driver was deprecated. The WiFi once briefly. Nvidia drivers briefly at least twice…or always if I consider Prime support. Same for Hdpi - 4K was one reason I hopped on the particular deal - except that it’s brokenness goes down to the application-library-compile level under X…never mind Wayland. Note that’s without the compatibility and configuration complexity of WINE or the TTfM of Arch. And again this is a laptop that had factory Linux available and technical support suitable for enterprise customers, not a gaming laptop. I don’t have anything against Linux. I just wasn’t gaining anything from dying on Ubuntu Hill.