5 ms·

> this resolution is perfect for 2:1 scaling, which is especially convenient for Linux That is one hell of a way to say “Linux sucks at fractional scaling and

> this resolution is perfect for 2:1 scaling, which is especially convenient for Linux That is one hell of a way to say “Linux sucks at fractional scaling and we’ve given up”

Rinzler89 2y ago
It's the nice way of saying it.
curt15 2y ago
Doesn't MacOS also use integer scaling?
- colejohnson66 2y ago
  They also use much higher PPI displays than your typical laptop. IIRC, Mac displays are so high-PPI that macOS just ignores the pixel-snap hints in fonts, letting anti-aliasing handle it.
Lisdexamfeta 2y ago
"Picking the simpler solution" is not equivalent to "we've given up."
mixmastamyk 2y ago
I've been using fractional scaling on mint and fedora for a couple of years now. It's a checkbox in the display control panel.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  You're not contradicting him since he's never saying the feature doesn't exist. He saying it's not working great.
  - mixmastamyk 2y ago
    It works great. Have also had two 4k panels for a decade... while the same folks here kept repeating that it doesn't work.
    - Rinzler89 2y ago
      They never said it doesn't work. They said it has issues which it does. If it works for you fine but you can't tell anyone with a straight face fractional scaling on Linux is flawless for everyone on all apps because it definitely isn't, proof being the dozens of users who will testify to this. That's what people are saying. Please follow HN rules when making arguments and assume good faith instead of accusing everyone you disagree with of being wrong.
      - mixmastamyk 2y ago
        The comment I replied to wasn't in good faith. I've been using this stuff for almost a decade and it just works. Maybe you've found a broken app—that's certainly possible. But that's a problem of the app, not "linux."
        Rinzler89 2y ago
        >Maybe you've found a broken app Apps aren't broken, the scaling is. Check How do KDE apps scale on Gnome?
        mixmastamyk 2y ago
        gtk and qt apps working fine here. I only have one kde box but scaling is working fine there on a 4k screen as well.
- wolrah 2y ago
  It's not that it doesn't work at all, and it might even work pretty well in most apps. The problem with non-integer scaling is the moment you run an app that has a custom UI element that thinks in pixels you start having to do ugly things. There's a reason even Apple chose to implement their "Retina" displays by doubling the DPI compared to their predecessors. It makes backwards compatibility so much easier. All the system-provided UI elements can work at the new resolution while the custom elements get doubled unless they explicitly declare hiDPI support. AFAIK if you use a non-Apple display on a Mac or set it to a non-standard scaling factor it's still implemented by using a virtual display resolution that's higher than the actual display resolution where legacy apps still get doubled and then the resulting image is scaled back down to the actual display which gets the best possible result at the cost of processor/GPU resources. Windows and Linux to my knowledge use "cheaper" but significantly uglier methods (also seen on Macs when using X11 apps).
rbanffy 2y ago
What I would love is to have lower than 1 scaling values for 1080 screens where I don’t mind being able to read the small text, but where I need to cram a lot of data and graphs.

> this resolution is perfect for 2:1 scaling, which is especially convenient for Linux That is one hell of a way to say “Linux sucks at fractional scaling and we’ve given up”

Rinzler89 2y ago

It's the nice way of saying it.

curt15 2y ago

Doesn't MacOS also use integer scaling?

colejohnson66 2y ago
They also use much higher PPI displays than your typical laptop. IIRC, Mac displays are so high-PPI that macOS just ignores the pixel-snap hints in fonts, letting anti-aliasing handle it.

Lisdexamfeta 2y ago

"Picking the simpler solution" is not equivalent to "we've given up."

mixmastamyk 2y ago

I've been using fractional scaling on mint and fedora for a couple of years now. It's a checkbox in the display control panel.

Rinzler89 2y ago
You're not contradicting him since he's never saying the feature doesn't exist. He saying it's not working great.
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  It works great. Have also had two 4k panels for a decade... while the same folks here kept repeating that it doesn't work.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    They never said it doesn't work. They said it has issues which it does. If it works for you fine but you can't tell anyone with a straight face fractional scaling on Linux is flawless for everyone on all apps because it definitely isn't, proof being the dozens of users who will testify to this. That's what people are saying. Please follow HN rules when making arguments and assume good faith instead of accusing everyone you disagree with of being wrong.
    - mixmastamyk 2y ago
      The comment I replied to wasn't in good faith. I've been using this stuff for almost a decade and it just works. Maybe you've found a broken app—that's certainly possible. But that's a problem of the app, not "linux."
      - Rinzler89 2y ago
        >Maybe you've found a broken app Apps aren't broken, the scaling is. Check How do KDE apps scale on Gnome?
        mixmastamyk 2y ago
        gtk and qt apps working fine here. I only have one kde box but scaling is working fine there on a 4k screen as well.
wolrah 2y ago
It's not that it doesn't work at all, and it might even work pretty well in most apps. The problem with non-integer scaling is the moment you run an app that has a custom UI element that thinks in pixels you start having to do ugly things. There's a reason even Apple chose to implement their "Retina" displays by doubling the DPI compared to their predecessors. It makes backwards compatibility so much easier. All the system-provided UI elements can work at the new resolution while the custom elements get doubled unless they explicitly declare hiDPI support. AFAIK if you use a non-Apple display on a Mac or set it to a non-standard scaling factor it's still implemented by using a virtual display resolution that's higher than the actual display resolution where legacy apps still get doubled and then the resulting image is scaled back down to the actual display which gets the best possible result at the cost of processor/GPU resources. Windows and Linux to my knowledge use "cheaper" but significantly uglier methods (also seen on Macs when using X11 apps).

rbanffy 2y ago

What I would love is to have lower than 1 scaling values for 1080 screens where I don’t mind being able to read the small text, but where I need to cram a lot of data and graphs.