4 ms·

Come back when I can run Linux on a laptop that has 12+ hours battery life, runs fast, that’s lightweight, quiet and doesn’t cause infertility from the heat whe

Come back when I can run Linux on a laptop that has 12+ hours battery life, runs fast, that’s lightweight, quiet and doesn’t cause infertility from the heat when I put it on my lap…. Using an x86 laptop in 2025 is like using a flip phone 6 years after the iPhone came out. Of course if you are a gamer, ignore everything I just wrote.

mecsred 10mo ago
You mean the framework Ive been running for the past 4 years or so?
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  You mean the same ones that consistently get bad reviews for being hot, with poor battery life, heavy and sub par screens? https://community.frame.work/t/fw-16-review-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/56831 https://community.frame.work/t/fw-16-review-the-good-the-bad...
  - smj-edison 10mo ago
    It's important to distinguish between the Framework 13 and the Framework 16. The Framework 16 is by far the most ambitious of the two, and so it has had a lot more issues. I use a Framework 13, and I've loved it. It's light, has a solid frame, and runs Linux great. The battery life isn't great, and the speakers aren't either, but I've been able to mitigate the latter with EasyEffects.
  - mecsred 10mo ago
    If the 16 performs worse in the power efficiency department, that is not great, but it doesnt make my machine run any worse. Calling it heavy is crazy to me, the thing is tiny. If you think it's heavy you'd have trouble using an iPad. The screen thing was a shitty manufacturing issue, they released a kit to fix it, which I luckily didnt need since mine came after they fixed it in production.
- plagiarist 10mo ago
  I've got a Framework I am not too upset with, but the battery life (especially during sleep) is definitely one of my gripes. I still have yet to try powertop or other tools to optimize, maybe I would be proven wrong.
  - dale_glass 10mo ago
    Sleep just ceased to exist in the last few years and got replaced with an always on, low power mode. I believe the reasoning was partly that suspend to RAM had serious reliability issues due to the complexity of saving the state, partly that people starting expecting cell phone-like performance where eg, mail is always received.
    - mixmastamyk 10mo ago
      Depends. The Intel models still support sleep on Linux (at least up to 12 or 13 gen, AMD boards only nap.
yoldshaddup 10mo ago
[dead]
greenavocado 10mo ago
Besides the 12+ hour battery life which is only achievable with ARM processors, everything described can be accomplished easily for the typical slightly above average computer user with Kubuntu today. I installed latest Kubuntu on my old 2015 MacBook Pro and it runs ice cold now when playing YouTube videos with Firefox whereas before it ran hot even with a Mac fan control app
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  So everything but good battery life is achievable on a portable device? “Besides that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?” This isn’t 2015… ARM Macs have been out for six years
  - cogman10 10mo ago
    If you know what to look for, you can also get good battery life. The 268V CPU will give you pretty good battery life.
  - xerox13ster 10mo ago
    Come on, buddy, at this point, nobody could take you seriously. You are attributing to the software and OS a difference that exists because of hardware. You can’t seriously sit here and say Linux battery life on x86 doesn’t reach your par when you’re comparing it to a completely different computing architecture. You’re comparing apples to oranges and complaining the oranges are more sour than the apples. Run Asahi Linux and tell me how it goes.
    - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
      I don’t care why it’s better. Whose fault is it that Linux gets worse battery life on every computer that also runs Windows or MacOS?
      - redeeman 10mo ago
        it doesnt on thinkpad p16s
xerox13ster 10mo ago
Given that this is your stance and demands for laptop hardware I have to assume that you have never once participated in the laptop market prior to the M1 releasing? That’s the only way your unrealistic expectations make sense. Of course, people have been parroting that about Linux on laptops for over a decade. I never understood it, since I’ve never had any significant issues with Linux on my laptops.
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  Yes and I also had a flip phone before the iPhone came out and a 90 pound CRT before large CRTs got affordable. In fact my first computer was a 1Mhz Apple //e with 128KB of RAM.
  - xerox13ster 10mo ago
    I’m not sure what your point is? You were ahead of the curve on displays and behind the curve on phones and I guess congrats on the 2e start, I had an early Mac. What does this have to do with the price of CPU cycles in clamshell PCs? You abstained until ARM because you could see the future and you knew that the specs you demanded we’re gonna be available eventually?
    - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
      My point is that because something is acceptable before something else came along better doesn’t mean it’s acceptable now. Would you have been okay if Android phones had still been BlackBerry clones 7 years after the iPhone came out?
      - xerox13ster 10mo ago
        I don’t know what to say to that other than I pity that mindset.
        raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
deleted 10mo ago
[deleted]
prezk 10mo ago
Linux will run on most platforms, so just pick up a fast, lightweight laptop, and select a conservative power profile for longer battery life and less heat, and don't run 32-thread machine learning jobs on it. A 12-hour laptop battery life is a little bit of a red herring: yes, you can get it on efficient ultrabooks and MacBooks, with light use like web browsing or office work, on low brightness and minimal background apps. This is true on MacOS, Windows and Linux. The first two may be better at handling low power modes on hardware peripherals, but OTOH on Linux I have a better control over background tasks. I have an absolute trash travel laptop from last decade, running Fedora Linux, and it lasts for multiple days if I keep it mostly closed and just open it for whatever browsing/editing I need on the road.
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  And how many laptops running Linux are light, power efficient, fast, quiet with good battery life? My 16 inch M3 MacBook Pro runs 5 hours at 80% brightness doing development with my USB powered (video and power from one USB cord) portable monitor. The Mac battery is powering the monitor https://a.co/d/gHqpcs3 https://a.co/d/gHqpcs3
  - prezk 10mo ago
    Pretty much every laptop on the planet will run Linux. Maybe your optics are tinted because you seem to be a Mac person, and Linux support for newer Macs has known issues with low power modes. I note how your 12+ hour claim was reduced to 5 hours when you actually put it to real work. It's still impressive, of course, but 5 hours aren't out of reach for Ryzen laptops either. BTW, I have a RISC-V platform with 8 1.6GHz CPUs that uses under 5W under full load; on your 100Wh battery it would last for 20 hours. It's not a complete system, and performance lags behind Apple/Intel CPUs, but I think in few years RISC-V may take a bite out of both.
    - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
      It’s not “running Linux” that’s the issue. It’s running Linux and getting good battery lifez And a 1.6Ghz RISC V CPU isn’t exactly “fast” in 2026 or even 2021. You noted that it was 5 hours when powering a second monitor from its USB port. Not just displaying video from the USB port, the monitor is getting power from the USB port. How long do you think your 5 hour laptop would last powering an external display - again not just video out, also supplying power?
tazjin 10mo ago
Xiaomi, Honor and Huawei make ARM-based notebooks like that. The closest to your description is probably the Qingyun line of laptops.
Rayosay 10mo ago
I think that the ThinkPad X13s Gen1 might meet these requirements. It is my favorite ARM Linux laptop I've ever used. It has great support in Debian 13 (trixie), and it feels pretty smooth and fast. It doesn't have any fans, stays cool, and I regularly get a full day's worth of battery life out of it with margin to spare (10-12 hours). It's better than the newer Snapdragon X1 Elite based ThinkPads, in my opinion, even though it isn't quite as fast because it is passively cooled, is easily fast enough that I've never noticed it feeling "slow", has good driver support in mainline Linux and Mesa (which took a few years to be fully worked out, but is there now), and it's readily available for a good price (on eBay).
- oliwarner 10mo ago
  Have you managed to get sleep states to work? I'd love mine but it never sleeps properly. Ubuntu but I'd change for sleep.
  - Rayosay 10mo ago
    I haven't really played around with that much, sorry. I don't typically use sleep on my laptops. I prefer to either hibernate or just shutdown and start up again when I need it. I'd guess that the X13s hardware support in Ubuntu is likely as good as Debian, and switching probably wouldn't help you much. I have noticed that newer kernel versions (notably 6.12 and later) and the latest firmware (as of sometime last year) really fixed a lot of little issues for the X13s. That probably makes a bigger difference than the distro. I'd check to see which versions you're using.
- zekrioca 10mo ago
  It seems this laptop is not available any longer. Are there any ARM alternatives you are aware of?
  - Rayosay 10mo ago
    I'm hoping that the new Snapdragon X2 Elite based laptops coming out this year will beat it. Qualcomm seems to have been trying to upstream driver support for them earlier than the X1. Then it's up to what kinds of laptops OEMs offer with them. Personally I'd still just get a used ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 on eBay at this point if I were going to buy another one today because they're available for around $400, and I don't see anything better that's passively cooled, with great battery life, and great Linux support available at the moment. I hope there will be a better, faster alternative in the near future. I'd gladly upgrade.
bee_rider 10mo ago
Why would anyone come back? Nobody is bothered by you having a device that you like, and nobody cares if you replace it. People without this particular 12 hour battery life requirement (which is quite niche, most of us live near plugs) are talking about what works for them.
- cocoto 10mo ago
  Battery life is the best selling point of MacBooks and the reason these are selling like crazy. I’m a full time Linux user and I’m even considering buying a macbook and running a Linux VM full time because of the battery.
  - bee_rider 10mo ago
    Just to be clear this is entirely a response to what I have in the parentheses, right? Ok, perhaps it is not niche. I don’t know. I have never had to use a laptop for 12 hours without any ability to recharge but if that’s a common use case I’m happy that folks are finding a way to satisfy.
    - bigstrat2003 10mo ago
      No it's pretty niche. Most people don't have a need for super long battery life.
  - pjmlp 10mo ago
    They certainly aren't in Europe, Africa or Asia, as not everyone has the income to afford Apple prices.
- palata 10mo ago
  I am a Linux fanboy and I totally agree that I am almost always near a plug and don't need that kind of battery life. But when I can go for days on my work Macbook without charging (and I am a developer, so I do compile stuff), I kinda wish I could have that on Linux, too. And again, I don't need it. Just like I don't need a fast Internet connection, but well... :-).
rwyinuse 10mo ago
I love my expensive Macbook at work, but at home old my old Thinkpad running Linux is a godsend. The performance is perfectly adequate for all my daily non-work needs, battery lasts several hours, and since the thing has little monetary value, I can be pretty careless with it, in an environment with small kids running around and doing random things. At this rate, I think it will last me well into 2030's. I'm not going to buy a new Macbook with my own money as long as I can't install Linux on it. I don't want perfectly fine machines to turn into e-waste, or at least become insecure once the original manufacturer decides not to offer OS updates anymore.
- wwweston 10mo ago
  Pre-lenovo or post? any particular model?
everdrive 10mo ago
>is like using a flip phone 6 years after the iPhone came out. I was doing this and it was great. I only had to get a smart phone for work, and I hate the stupid thing.
oliwarner 10mo ago
Like the ThinkPad T14s or any other Snapdragon X Elite, or better? Apple chips are great in this space but they're not alone.
faust201 10mo ago
One good thing is choice. You are free to use macOS or even windows. But this battery argument is bull shit 15 years ago it was so difficult to find charging points. Not now. I have never ever been in a situation the I needed to be away from charging for > 6 hours. 6-10 hours is really possible. If your working or life demands that then pity you. I have better life/work. And again choice. You are free to use macOS or even windows.
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  My “work life” involves business travel - consulting. My personal life involves month long stints of me working outside the home and even at home, I am sometimes working on the patio enjoying 80 degree weather in the middle of winter in Florida…
  - faust201 10mo ago
    > travel - consulting That's why pity
    - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
      It’s really nice - I get miles and hotel points I can use for personal travel and I can extend my work trips and bring my wife along and make it a weekend getaway. I pay for my wife out of pocket for the flight.
RiverCrochet 10mo ago
Most of Linux's laptop woes is due to two things: A. ACPI which is a sprawling, overengineered mess created by Microsoft, Intel, and Toshiba, and B. ACPI-specific things like sleep and power being tested only for Windows B is a direct result of two things: 1) crappy outsourced firmware developers, and 2) Microsoft's 1990s strategy of disallowing OEMs from offering systems with other operating systems preinstalled. So, not really Linux's fault. If the interfaces that controlled all the laptop goodies were exposed as normal hardware (and documented) instead of gatekept behind ACPI methods that have to be written by firmware vendors that can often barely spell the menu options correct in the setup screens, then this issue would not exist. UEFI is ACPI's successor and carries on this legacy. It's disappointing that it's seeping into the ARM world.
- timschmidt 10mo ago
  > If the interfaces that controlled all the laptop goodies were exposed as normal hardware (and documented) instead of gatekept behind ACPI methods that have to be written by firmware vendors that can often barely spell the menu options correct in the setup screens, then this issue would not exist. > UEFI is ACPI's successor and carries on this legacy. It's disappointing that it's seeping into the ARM world. Arm (and Risc-V and other arches) Linux has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicetree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicetree instead of ACPI, which is better in that it declaratively documents the hardware in a system and how to access it. However, the hardware support which can be found in the Arm ecosystem is in no way better than that for x86 laptops. Many SoC manufacturers still don't put any effort into upstreaming drivers or device trees, many devices are still only supported by tossing a single release of a heavily patched kernel over the corporate wall and then forgetting about them.
lpcvoid 10mo ago
Just buy any modern Laptop? What you describe hasn't been an issue for at least ten years now.
- azangru 10mo ago
  > any modern Laptop When I looked up Dell Pro Max 16, I found a thread complaining that its camera doesn't work: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=307529 https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=307529 And there are numerous other reports of how various modern laptops have various problems under linux. So no, "any modern laptop" is not a good recommendation. It should be specific models.
  - topocite 10mo ago
    I have two laptops running linux. One is a MSI gaming laptop with RTX card that no one would recommend for linux. I had to try about 10 distros before I settled on linux mint. Everything else had some problem but the driver manager on linux mint made setting up the RTX so flawless. After 8 months of use, it is the best machine I have ever used. If I had just stuck with my old favorite KDE neon though I would have been posting on how not to get MSI if you want to use linux.
nhhvhy 10mo ago
I recently switched to Debian on my laptop (Zephyrus G14) because it was the only way I could get it to NOT run into the problems you described. Went from ~2 hours of battery life to 10, and no more of the constant jet engine level fan activity I experienced with windows.
bigfatkitten 10mo ago
I was doing that on my Thinkpad X220 a decade ago.
bigstrat2003 10mo ago
Bro I don't care how long the battery life is. I use my laptop plugged in 90% of the time. The portability is so I can change what location I'm sitting at, not so I can be unplugged constantly.
- palata 10mo ago
  I am a Linux fanboy. But man, when you try the battery life on the latest Macbooks... it can last for days of work without charging.
- distances 10mo ago
  It's the same for me. I understand that people do want to use them without plugging in, but I would imagine at least most developers prefer external screens, right? For me the battery is good enough when it can last two back-to-back meetings without me getting worried, so about 2.5 hours. Otherwise it stays plugged to USB-C.
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    I have a portable external screen that I carry in my backpack when I travel and when I work away from home. https://a.co/d/6P7gfGA https://a.co/d/6P7gfGA And this stand Metal Tablet Stand, a Portable... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4KH2GH3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4KH2GH3 The monitor is both powered and the video comes from one USB cord. My MacBook Pro can run 5-6 hours while powering the monitor. I couldn’t do that if the laptop by itself only last 3 hours. Every now and then I use my iPad as a third monitor.

mecsred 10mo ago

You mean the framework Ive been running for the past 4 years or so?

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
You mean the same ones that consistently get bad reviews for being hot, with poor battery life, heavy and sub par screens? https://community.frame.work/t/fw-16-review-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/56831 https://community.frame.work/t/fw-16-review-the-good-the-bad...
- smj-edison 10mo ago
  It's important to distinguish between the Framework 13 and the Framework 16. The Framework 16 is by far the most ambitious of the two, and so it has had a lot more issues. I use a Framework 13, and I've loved it. It's light, has a solid frame, and runs Linux great. The battery life isn't great, and the speakers aren't either, but I've been able to mitigate the latter with EasyEffects.
- mecsred 10mo ago
  If the 16 performs worse in the power efficiency department, that is not great, but it doesnt make my machine run any worse. Calling it heavy is crazy to me, the thing is tiny. If you think it's heavy you'd have trouble using an iPad. The screen thing was a shitty manufacturing issue, they released a kit to fix it, which I luckily didnt need since mine came after they fixed it in production.
plagiarist 10mo ago
I've got a Framework I am not too upset with, but the battery life (especially during sleep) is definitely one of my gripes. I still have yet to try powertop or other tools to optimize, maybe I would be proven wrong.
- dale_glass 10mo ago
  Sleep just ceased to exist in the last few years and got replaced with an always on, low power mode. I believe the reasoning was partly that suspend to RAM had serious reliability issues due to the complexity of saving the state, partly that people starting expecting cell phone-like performance where eg, mail is always received.
  - mixmastamyk 10mo ago
    Depends. The Intel models still support sleep on Linux (at least up to 12 or 13 gen, AMD boards only nap.

yoldshaddup 10mo ago

[dead]

greenavocado 10mo ago

Besides the 12+ hour battery life which is only achievable with ARM processors, everything described can be accomplished easily for the typical slightly above average computer user with Kubuntu today. I installed latest Kubuntu on my old 2015 MacBook Pro and it runs ice cold now when playing YouTube videos with Firefox whereas before it ran hot even with a Mac fan control app

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
So everything but good battery life is achievable on a portable device? “Besides that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?” This isn’t 2015… ARM Macs have been out for six years
- cogman10 10mo ago
  If you know what to look for, you can also get good battery life. The 268V CPU will give you pretty good battery life.
- xerox13ster 10mo ago
  Come on, buddy, at this point, nobody could take you seriously. You are attributing to the software and OS a difference that exists because of hardware. You can’t seriously sit here and say Linux battery life on x86 doesn’t reach your par when you’re comparing it to a completely different computing architecture. You’re comparing apples to oranges and complaining the oranges are more sour than the apples. Run Asahi Linux and tell me how it goes.
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    I don’t care why it’s better. Whose fault is it that Linux gets worse battery life on every computer that also runs Windows or MacOS?
    - redeeman 10mo ago
      it doesnt on thinkpad p16s

xerox13ster 10mo ago

Given that this is your stance and demands for laptop hardware I have to assume that you have never once participated in the laptop market prior to the M1 releasing? That’s the only way your unrealistic expectations make sense. Of course, people have been parroting that about Linux on laptops for over a decade. I never understood it, since I’ve never had any significant issues with Linux on my laptops.

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
Yes and I also had a flip phone before the iPhone came out and a 90 pound CRT before large CRTs got affordable. In fact my first computer was a 1Mhz Apple //e with 128KB of RAM.
- xerox13ster 10mo ago
  I’m not sure what your point is? You were ahead of the curve on displays and behind the curve on phones and I guess congrats on the 2e start, I had an early Mac. What does this have to do with the price of CPU cycles in clamshell PCs? You abstained until ARM because you could see the future and you knew that the specs you demanded we’re gonna be available eventually?
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    My point is that because something is acceptable before something else came along better doesn’t mean it’s acceptable now. Would you have been okay if Android phones had still been BlackBerry clones 7 years after the iPhone came out?
    - xerox13ster 10mo ago
      I don’t know what to say to that other than I pity that mindset.
      - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago

deleted 10mo ago

[deleted]

prezk 10mo ago

Linux will run on most platforms, so just pick up a fast, lightweight laptop, and select a conservative power profile for longer battery life and less heat, and don't run 32-thread machine learning jobs on it. A 12-hour laptop battery life is a little bit of a red herring: yes, you can get it on efficient ultrabooks and MacBooks, with light use like web browsing or office work, on low brightness and minimal background apps. This is true on MacOS, Windows and Linux. The first two may be better at handling low power modes on hardware peripherals, but OTOH on Linux I have a better control over background tasks. I have an absolute trash travel laptop from last decade, running Fedora Linux, and it lasts for multiple days if I keep it mostly closed and just open it for whatever browsing/editing I need on the road.

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
And how many laptops running Linux are light, power efficient, fast, quiet with good battery life? My 16 inch M3 MacBook Pro runs 5 hours at 80% brightness doing development with my USB powered (video and power from one USB cord) portable monitor. The Mac battery is powering the monitor https://a.co/d/gHqpcs3 https://a.co/d/gHqpcs3
- prezk 10mo ago
  Pretty much every laptop on the planet will run Linux. Maybe your optics are tinted because you seem to be a Mac person, and Linux support for newer Macs has known issues with low power modes. I note how your 12+ hour claim was reduced to 5 hours when you actually put it to real work. It's still impressive, of course, but 5 hours aren't out of reach for Ryzen laptops either. BTW, I have a RISC-V platform with 8 1.6GHz CPUs that uses under 5W under full load; on your 100Wh battery it would last for 20 hours. It's not a complete system, and performance lags behind Apple/Intel CPUs, but I think in few years RISC-V may take a bite out of both.
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    It’s not “running Linux” that’s the issue. It’s running Linux and getting good battery lifez And a 1.6Ghz RISC V CPU isn’t exactly “fast” in 2026 or even 2021. You noted that it was 5 hours when powering a second monitor from its USB port. Not just displaying video from the USB port, the monitor is getting power from the USB port. How long do you think your 5 hour laptop would last powering an external display - again not just video out, also supplying power?

tazjin 10mo ago

Xiaomi, Honor and Huawei make ARM-based notebooks like that. The closest to your description is probably the Qingyun line of laptops.

Rayosay 10mo ago

I think that the ThinkPad X13s Gen1 might meet these requirements. It is my favorite ARM Linux laptop I've ever used. It has great support in Debian 13 (trixie), and it feels pretty smooth and fast. It doesn't have any fans, stays cool, and I regularly get a full day's worth of battery life out of it with margin to spare (10-12 hours). It's better than the newer Snapdragon X1 Elite based ThinkPads, in my opinion, even though it isn't quite as fast because it is passively cooled, is easily fast enough that I've never noticed it feeling "slow", has good driver support in mainline Linux and Mesa (which took a few years to be fully worked out, but is there now), and it's readily available for a good price (on eBay).

oliwarner 10mo ago
Have you managed to get sleep states to work? I'd love mine but it never sleeps properly. Ubuntu but I'd change for sleep.
- Rayosay 10mo ago
  I haven't really played around with that much, sorry. I don't typically use sleep on my laptops. I prefer to either hibernate or just shutdown and start up again when I need it. I'd guess that the X13s hardware support in Ubuntu is likely as good as Debian, and switching probably wouldn't help you much. I have noticed that newer kernel versions (notably 6.12 and later) and the latest firmware (as of sometime last year) really fixed a lot of little issues for the X13s. That probably makes a bigger difference than the distro. I'd check to see which versions you're using.
zekrioca 10mo ago
It seems this laptop is not available any longer. Are there any ARM alternatives you are aware of?
- Rayosay 10mo ago
  I'm hoping that the new Snapdragon X2 Elite based laptops coming out this year will beat it. Qualcomm seems to have been trying to upstream driver support for them earlier than the X1. Then it's up to what kinds of laptops OEMs offer with them. Personally I'd still just get a used ThinkPad X13s Gen 1 on eBay at this point if I were going to buy another one today because they're available for around $400, and I don't see anything better that's passively cooled, with great battery life, and great Linux support available at the moment. I hope there will be a better, faster alternative in the near future. I'd gladly upgrade.

bee_rider 10mo ago

Why would anyone come back? Nobody is bothered by you having a device that you like, and nobody cares if you replace it. People without this particular 12 hour battery life requirement (which is quite niche, most of us live near plugs) are talking about what works for them.

cocoto 10mo ago
Battery life is the best selling point of MacBooks and the reason these are selling like crazy. I’m a full time Linux user and I’m even considering buying a macbook and running a Linux VM full time because of the battery.
- bee_rider 10mo ago
  Just to be clear this is entirely a response to what I have in the parentheses, right? Ok, perhaps it is not niche. I don’t know. I have never had to use a laptop for 12 hours without any ability to recharge but if that’s a common use case I’m happy that folks are finding a way to satisfy.
  - bigstrat2003 10mo ago
    No it's pretty niche. Most people don't have a need for super long battery life.
- pjmlp 10mo ago
  They certainly aren't in Europe, Africa or Asia, as not everyone has the income to afford Apple prices.
palata 10mo ago
I am a Linux fanboy and I totally agree that I am almost always near a plug and don't need that kind of battery life. But when I can go for days on my work Macbook without charging (and I am a developer, so I do compile stuff), I kinda wish I could have that on Linux, too. And again, I don't need it. Just like I don't need a fast Internet connection, but well... :-).

rwyinuse 10mo ago

I love my expensive Macbook at work, but at home old my old Thinkpad running Linux is a godsend. The performance is perfectly adequate for all my daily non-work needs, battery lasts several hours, and since the thing has little monetary value, I can be pretty careless with it, in an environment with small kids running around and doing random things. At this rate, I think it will last me well into 2030's. I'm not going to buy a new Macbook with my own money as long as I can't install Linux on it. I don't want perfectly fine machines to turn into e-waste, or at least become insecure once the original manufacturer decides not to offer OS updates anymore.

wwweston 10mo ago
Pre-lenovo or post? any particular model?

everdrive 10mo ago

>is like using a flip phone 6 years after the iPhone came out. I was doing this and it was great. I only had to get a smart phone for work, and I hate the stupid thing.

oliwarner 10mo ago

Like the ThinkPad T14s or any other Snapdragon X Elite, or better? Apple chips are great in this space but they're not alone.

faust201 10mo ago

One good thing is choice. You are free to use macOS or even windows. But this battery argument is bull shit 15 years ago it was so difficult to find charging points. Not now. I have never ever been in a situation the I needed to be away from charging for > 6 hours. 6-10 hours is really possible. If your working or life demands that then pity you. I have better life/work. And again choice. You are free to use macOS or even windows.

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
My “work life” involves business travel - consulting. My personal life involves month long stints of me working outside the home and even at home, I am sometimes working on the patio enjoying 80 degree weather in the middle of winter in Florida…
- faust201 10mo ago
  > travel - consulting That's why pity
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    It’s really nice - I get miles and hotel points I can use for personal travel and I can extend my work trips and bring my wife along and make it a weekend getaway. I pay for my wife out of pocket for the flight.

RiverCrochet 10mo ago

Most of Linux's laptop woes is due to two things: A. ACPI which is a sprawling, overengineered mess created by Microsoft, Intel, and Toshiba, and B. ACPI-specific things like sleep and power being tested only for Windows B is a direct result of two things: 1) crappy outsourced firmware developers, and 2) Microsoft's 1990s strategy of disallowing OEMs from offering systems with other operating systems preinstalled. So, not really Linux's fault. If the interfaces that controlled all the laptop goodies were exposed as normal hardware (and documented) instead of gatekept behind ACPI methods that have to be written by firmware vendors that can often barely spell the menu options correct in the setup screens, then this issue would not exist. UEFI is ACPI's successor and carries on this legacy. It's disappointing that it's seeping into the ARM world.

timschmidt 10mo ago
> If the interfaces that controlled all the laptop goodies were exposed as normal hardware (and documented) instead of gatekept behind ACPI methods that have to be written by firmware vendors that can often barely spell the menu options correct in the setup screens, then this issue would not exist. > UEFI is ACPI's successor and carries on this legacy. It's disappointing that it's seeping into the ARM world. Arm (and Risc-V and other arches) Linux has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicetree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicetree instead of ACPI, which is better in that it declaratively documents the hardware in a system and how to access it. However, the hardware support which can be found in the Arm ecosystem is in no way better than that for x86 laptops. Many SoC manufacturers still don't put any effort into upstreaming drivers or device trees, many devices are still only supported by tossing a single release of a heavily patched kernel over the corporate wall and then forgetting about them.

lpcvoid 10mo ago

Just buy any modern Laptop? What you describe hasn't been an issue for at least ten years now.

azangru 10mo ago
> any modern Laptop When I looked up Dell Pro Max 16, I found a thread complaining that its camera doesn't work: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=307529 https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=307529 And there are numerous other reports of how various modern laptops have various problems under linux. So no, "any modern laptop" is not a good recommendation. It should be specific models.
- topocite 10mo ago
  I have two laptops running linux. One is a MSI gaming laptop with RTX card that no one would recommend for linux. I had to try about 10 distros before I settled on linux mint. Everything else had some problem but the driver manager on linux mint made setting up the RTX so flawless. After 8 months of use, it is the best machine I have ever used. If I had just stuck with my old favorite KDE neon though I would have been posting on how not to get MSI if you want to use linux.

nhhvhy 10mo ago

I recently switched to Debian on my laptop (Zephyrus G14) because it was the only way I could get it to NOT run into the problems you described. Went from ~2 hours of battery life to 10, and no more of the constant jet engine level fan activity I experienced with windows.

bigfatkitten 10mo ago

I was doing that on my Thinkpad X220 a decade ago.

bigstrat2003 10mo ago

Bro I don't care how long the battery life is. I use my laptop plugged in 90% of the time. The portability is so I can change what location I'm sitting at, not so I can be unplugged constantly.

palata 10mo ago
I am a Linux fanboy. But man, when you try the battery life on the latest Macbooks... it can last for days of work without charging.
distances 10mo ago
It's the same for me. I understand that people do want to use them without plugging in, but I would imagine at least most developers prefer external screens, right? For me the battery is good enough when it can last two back-to-back meetings without me getting worried, so about 2.5 hours. Otherwise it stays plugged to USB-C.
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  I have a portable external screen that I carry in my backpack when I travel and when I work away from home. https://a.co/d/6P7gfGA https://a.co/d/6P7gfGA And this stand Metal Tablet Stand, a Portable... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4KH2GH3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4KH2GH3 The monitor is both powered and the video comes from one USB cord. My MacBook Pro can run 5-6 hours while powering the monitor. I couldn’t do that if the laptop by itself only last 3 hours. Every now and then I use my iPad as a third monitor.