7 ms·

I have the same Z13 laptop with the fancy OLED but (until recently) with the Fedora preload instead of Ubuntu. It had a lot of bugs---to the point where I think

I have the same Z13 laptop with the fancy OLED but (until recently) with the Fedora preload instead of Ubuntu. It had a lot of bugs---to the point where I think it could have had a defect (especially after half of the keyboard stopped accepting keypresses even in BIOS and even after full power down and restart; the solution was to plug in the USB charger. Epic WTF). More likely, Lenovo/Mark Pearson were put in a bad place of, "we're releasing for Windows whether you're ready or not!" I suspect the latter because the support forum would often have "we're waiting on the BIOS team", "Intel doesn't have a driver for that webcam", "the haptic thing will get a utility soon", "the temperature issue is known", "the higher resolution timer is unstable", and so on. The XPS 9370, for me, had ZERO problems. To the point where I wondered often why there aren't more Linux users. It felt like all of my previous Linux pain (especially a life chapter of running Linux on a Chromebook) had gone away. I looked into a recent XPS but for a variety of reasons (keyboard layout availability in Europe, Michael Dell's political beliefs, wanting to switch away from Ubuntu's snaps and UX, reports of hardware issues on Reddit) I decided to try out "the other" major laptop brand with Linux offerings. Maybe I just got lucky with the last laptop? Forcing a BIOS reset and installing Windows made enough problems go away that I now just run Fedora Remix as a WSL distribution. Annoyingly, the thing gets hotter than the XPS and hurts my eyes at night. The Z13 with Linux looked so good on paper, now it's more of a paperweight than anything unless I'm traveling. Also... I wonder to this day if I'm the only Z13 owner who has two separate onboard mic sensitivities (one stereo channel is much more sensitive to nearby sound than the other and has an unusually high DC offset, which simply shouldn't exist on ANY microphone) plus the microphone on my left shows up in Audacity as the right channel (and, of course, vice versa).

popey 3y ago
Interesting experience! I mostly use the Z13 as a desktop replacement. It's on my desk always plugged into a USB C dock, with 2 or 3 displays attached. I use an external keyboard and mouse. So I haven't seen the problems you have with the keyboard. Maybe I got lucky with my Z13, or I just have a different use pattern which doesn't trigger the same issues.
codalan 3y ago
The Dell XPS laptop series (and older Latitudes) seem to be a solid hardware platform for running various Linux distros. I'm running Mint and Arch on some XPSes and Latitudes and they have been very stable. I think part of the reason Linux works so well with Dell machines OOTB was because they used to sell a line of dev-oriented computers to the public, and one of their options was to have Ubuntu pre-installed. Running Mint on an old MSFT Surface Pro 4 has also worked out very well for me. I was pleasantly surprised when the touchscreen just worked after installation. If I was looking for a new Intel-based laptop today, I would probably be looking at Framework or System 76. That said, I'm hoping to see more high-performance ARM platforms hit the market in the next 2-3 years, so I'm holding off for now.
- porridgeraisin 3y ago
  Very much so. Re: Dell being good for linux. Not a laptop, but I have an Optiplex 9020 All in one from 2011 or so. It's so good. Has all the ports you need, a good webcam, speakers, display, for home usage. It works flawlessly with basically every linux distro and bsd out there. Even the CD drive, memory card slot work great. I switched out the HDD for an SSD, and installed 8gb extra ram in the empty dimm slot, for a total of 12gb.
- PennRobotics 3y ago
  My main strategy is avoiding any Clevo derivatives next time around, which unfortunately applies to many of the European manufacturers. I had one before; it had constant hardware issues. I thought it was just Linux being Linux until it was too late to submit warranty tickets.
rbanffy 3y ago
> The XPS 9370, for me, had ZERO problems. I ALWAYS recommend to optimise for boring. Get the boring Dell, the XPS, the Latitude, the Vostro. Get it with the Intel graphics. Get the config an old bank or insurance company would order. I heard Nvidia has improved a lot, but I’ll let others test it to stability. My old-ish Dell with Ubuntu and my Acer with Fedora are boring, but never fail to work. And never crash.

popey 3y ago

Interesting experience! I mostly use the Z13 as a desktop replacement. It's on my desk always plugged into a USB C dock, with 2 or 3 displays attached. I use an external keyboard and mouse. So I haven't seen the problems you have with the keyboard. Maybe I got lucky with my Z13, or I just have a different use pattern which doesn't trigger the same issues.

codalan 3y ago

The Dell XPS laptop series (and older Latitudes) seem to be a solid hardware platform for running various Linux distros. I'm running Mint and Arch on some XPSes and Latitudes and they have been very stable. I think part of the reason Linux works so well with Dell machines OOTB was because they used to sell a line of dev-oriented computers to the public, and one of their options was to have Ubuntu pre-installed. Running Mint on an old MSFT Surface Pro 4 has also worked out very well for me. I was pleasantly surprised when the touchscreen just worked after installation. If I was looking for a new Intel-based laptop today, I would probably be looking at Framework or System 76. That said, I'm hoping to see more high-performance ARM platforms hit the market in the next 2-3 years, so I'm holding off for now.

porridgeraisin 3y ago
Very much so. Re: Dell being good for linux. Not a laptop, but I have an Optiplex 9020 All in one from 2011 or so. It's so good. Has all the ports you need, a good webcam, speakers, display, for home usage. It works flawlessly with basically every linux distro and bsd out there. Even the CD drive, memory card slot work great. I switched out the HDD for an SSD, and installed 8gb extra ram in the empty dimm slot, for a total of 12gb.
PennRobotics 3y ago
My main strategy is avoiding any Clevo derivatives next time around, which unfortunately applies to many of the European manufacturers. I had one before; it had constant hardware issues. I thought it was just Linux being Linux until it was too late to submit warranty tickets.

rbanffy 3y ago

> The XPS 9370, for me, had ZERO problems. I ALWAYS recommend to optimise for boring. Get the boring Dell, the XPS, the Latitude, the Vostro. Get it with the Intel graphics. Get the config an old bank or insurance company would order. I heard Nvidia has improved a lot, but I’ll let others test it to stability. My old-ish Dell with Ubuntu and my Acer with Fedora are boring, but never fail to work. And never crash.