7 ms·

Some of us have the impression that "Linux doesn't work well on laptops", specifically when it comes to suspend/resume and power consumption. Under that impres

Some of us have the impression that "Linux doesn't work well on laptops", specifically when it comes to suspend/resume and power consumption. Under that impression, you have to find on eBay one particular ThinkPad manufactured in 2005, and spend a day tweaking things. Then it will work. Usually. That impression was accurate, not too many years ago. It looks like it's not anymore? It seems to me that this update is a great way to change that old impression. If only because "X works faster" is a way to reinforce that "X works at all". p.s. To clarify, I'm talking about perception/impression not reality. Changing how people think.

sown 13y ago
On my desktop, a certain desktop produced by a popular linux system reseller manufactured a couple of years ago, modern ubuntu seems to just reboot the machine when I select 'suspend'. So I leave it on all the time. An annoyance, for sure. I have hopes that it will work better in the next LTS release of ubuntu. On my T430 laptop, suspend seems to work when I close the lid just fine.
vidarh 13y ago
It's not at all accurate any more, thankfully. It is worth being a bit careful, but that basically boils down to doing a search for the models you're looking at to identify any particular pitfalls, and you may in particular want to pay attention to the graphics and wifi chipsets. Not so much because you're likely to have any major problems, as because there are annoying quirks with some chipsets from time to time.
- Bill_Dimm 13y ago
  While clearly anecdotal, my own experience is that things have really not improved all that much over the past seven years. I've been using Linux since 1995, so I remember the bad old days, and things had improved a lot leading up to 2007 when I installed OpenSUSE 10.2 on a Dell D620 with relatively few problems. I recently tried installing Linux on a Dell E5430 (another mainstream business laptop, which is certified to work with Ubuntu) and my experience was not nearly as good: OpenSUSE 13.1 was a disaster: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c31 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c31 Mint 16's installer had problems: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=153379&p=803560#p803560 http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=153379&p=80... OpenSUSE 12.3 worked, but I had to mess around to get WiFi working: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c33 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c33 and the touchpad still has issues: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=869722 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=869722 and there is other weird behavior, like the laptop screen not turning off when the laptop is in a docking station with the lid closed (did not have this problem with OpenSUSE 10.2), and the encrypted partition password prompt being off the screen if an external monitor is plugged in: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=862961 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=862961 I'm a big fan of Linux, but things do not seem to have improved over the last seven years. It just feels sloppy and unstable. I'm sure some things have improved, but too much feels unpolished. Maybe I just have bad luck, but I was talking to a guy the other day who has been using Linux since 1996 who had the same impression (he was having problems with disk corruption on a desktop installation).
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    >I'm a big fan of Linux, but things do not seem to have improved over the last seven years. It just feels sloppy and unstable. Is this a conclusion completely drawn from your trying to install two versions of Linux on a particular laptop? If so, I'd say it's a lot of generalization for a single data point.
    - scotu 13y ago
      From a data scientist point of view. But for everyone else I think that's enough data because that's how a user gets to use linux: given a laptop, pick random distro, try, if success: :) else: end. Unless we have linux laptops widely available. Big fan of linux here, too
      - pessimizer 13y ago
        >But for everyone else I think that's enough data because that's how a user gets to use linux: given a laptop, pick random distro, try, if success: :) else: end. That works for me a vast majority of the time, and isn't a standard that either Windows or Macs are held to. Buy a ZaReason or System76 laptop with Linux preinstalled and support, then compare the experiences if you want to call Linux sloppy. You wouldn't dismiss Android because you had a hard time installing it on your iPhone, or if you do, iOS should likewise be judged due to the difficulty in installing it on a Nexus.
      - krick 13y ago
        > But for everyone else I think that's enough data Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure saying that would be "enough data" for someone, but it shouldn't be. Because, in fact, things have improved. It's pretty common to see that something doesn't work (both on Linux and Windows), but it's almost always can be fixed both on Linux and Windows. But what surprised me is the fact that everything just works out of the box (I mean in sense of hardware support) now on Linux more often than on Windows. It wasn't like that not so long time ago. There are few quite common problems (UEFI stuff, Nvidia drivers) that are quite "linux-specific", but range of supported right out of the box devices improved dramatically.
- tonyarkles 13y ago
  I've got a Lenovo T400 that works... mostly great. It suspends and resumes well most of the time, but will occasionally freeze after about a minute of resuming OK. I did some research, sounds like it's possibly a race condition in the Intel video driver. Happens about 1/10 times I resume.
VMG 13y ago
It runs well on some laptops. You can check if Linux compatability is mentioned in the reviews when looking on Amazon. I also avoid anything AMD.
- dhimes 13y ago
  I never had trouble with AMD
- dmm 13y ago
  > I also avoid anything AMD. AMD has excellent, free software, in-kernel drivers for all of their current GPUs. If you boot a linux distribution with a recent kernel the graphics drivers, including accelerated 3d, will "Just work". No need to install anything. The performance is also close to the Catalyst, proprietary drivers: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_radeon_trusty&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_radeo...
valarauca1 13y ago
I currently use a very cheap read ~250 dollar lenovo laptop. Running Ubuntu. Its default power settings are great, at light usage I can easily go a day or two without a charge. Close lid + suspend works perfectly. I think I've booked about 2-3 months of it being continuously on. On open I get a black screen that states system resuming, then a login prompt not 1-2 seconds later (and I hear my hard drive begin to spin again). Perfectly fluid, I'm honestly afraid to move away from unity, lest I lose this feature. The only issue I have is since upgrading to FireFox 28.0.1 it sometimes crashes when it resumes. I've sent several reports to mozilla. I think the issue is flash.
- phaemon 13y ago
  I had some issues with Flash too. I found re-installing it fixed things for me. Maybe try: sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer and see if it helps.
  - valarauca1 13y ago
    I will give this a shot over lunch and report back.
    - valarauca1 13y ago
      Couldn't reproduce the bug after 2 attempts with youtube opened. Considered it fixed after this.
      - pessimizer 13y ago
        Also make sure that you're not holding an old .adobe directory in your home with an old version of flash hiding in it. Flash is the worst thing for my Linux system stability.
  - ThatGeoGuy 13y ago
    Rather than purging and re-installing, have you considered just updating? `sudo update-flashplugin-nonfree --install` This command works on debian based systems (as far as I know) and I typically prefer it in place of using apt, since your distribution's repos may not have the most current version (Debian Wheezy, for example).
aganders3 13y ago
I think part of this comes down to the vast improvements in documentation over the last ~10 years. The Arch Wiki is an incredible living document for installation and configuration of all Linux flavors. The Debian Wiki isn't as clean or up-to-date, but all the AskUbuntu stuff is helpful in that realm. Installing Debian on a desktop was a headache for me in 2002, but just last week I got it dual booting on my (recently abandoned by Apple) Macbook with 100% functionality. I don't want to downplay the great work that's been done on the software side, but my experience really reinforced the fact that improving documentation is a real contribution to FLOSS projects.
nfoz 13y ago
Some things will screw you, especially if it has cutting-edge hardware. My last laptop had switchable-graphics (Intel and Nvidia graphics cards), it took a few years for that to be reasonably supported. Of course that's what I expected.
- nemof 13y ago
  Yeah I have a laptop with intel/nvidia. I foolishly assumed it would work... several days of research and cursing later after installing ubuntu and I finally came to the realisation that the support just wasn't there. This was pretty recently too.
  - shpxnvz 13y ago
    For what it's worth I just put an Ubuntu 14.04 nightly on my Nvidia Optimus laptop, and contrary to previous versions the dual-GPU setup Just Works (including choosing which GPU using the Nvidia utilities) after selecting the latest binary driver from the "Additional Drivers" page. Quite a relief after fighting with the dual-GPU for so long.
goalieca 13y ago
To be fair, a few years ago it was pretty obvious that windows XP/vista does not work well on laptops. Sleep was often horribly broken.
odonnellryan 13y ago
Works fine on every Dell (5 models) that I've tried it on. Not conclusive, but can be a check against "getting better."
zanny 13y ago
Nobody else mentions this, but it is important: If you aren't buying a notebook for Linux intending to have to fight with it to work right, then DON'T buy a Windows computer and complain it isn't a good Linux one. Instead, just buy from system76 https://www.system76.com/ https://www.system76.com/ or Thinkpenguin https://www.thinkpenguin.com/ https://www.thinkpenguin.com/ or you can get something like that Dell Developer notebook. A lot of OEM manufacturers are starting to either support Linux preinstalled or will provide support information on product pages. You know, laptops that already come with Ubuntu so you know the retailors make sure that the power management works right, all the ports work, gpu switching works, etc. That is a linux notebook, not the newest Lenovo that was never tested to run Linux and has no support.
- rplnt 13y ago
  I see they (system76) added a model without an optical drive. Good for them. Though I see they still sell models with one. What is the reasoning behind that today, or anytime in the past couple years, is beyond me. Edit: Same goes for the other manufacturer. I understand there are people that will buy this, or OpenMoko, or anything like that.. but most of us are not ready to sacrifice basic needs just because we want to use Linux. (Not saying we need to, just as a response to suggestion to buy this kind of hardware)
  - zanny 13y ago
    > I understand there are people that will buy this, or OpenMoko, or anything like that.. but most of us are not ready to sacrifice basic needs just because we want to use Linux. (Not saying we need to, just as a response to suggestion to buy this kind of hardware) What "basic needs" are you sacrificing on these notebooks?
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    These are excellent, powerful computers. The hardware is not special other than being a known good Linux configuration. Also, I'd like to add zareason.com, who I've had a great experience with.
tyleregeto 13y ago
I have a Dell XPS 13, and its been a great Linux (Ubuntu) laptop. Suspend resume is blazing fast, partially due to the SSD. Power consumption is pretty decent too. I usually charge in at night and its good until I get home. I don't use it all day, but its just in standby mode when I'm not. I think the perception is changing because laptops are just getting so much better. With SSDs and battery technology making a huge difference. Linux laptops had a bad perception, but I think all laptops were pretty bad not too many years ago.
- Already__Taken 13y ago
  why is hibernate not a thing? first thing i do to all my computers is change poweroff to hybernate. my laptop has like 40 day up times from this.
  - moheeb 13y ago
    Because they invented suspend.
    - claudius 13y ago
      I still hibernate from time to time when away from power for long periods of time without use. Once a year or so, maybe :)
- runejuhl 13y ago
  I recently got a new work laptop. I've used a Lenovo X200 for a few years and been immensely happy with it, but it was starting to show its age and the display was becoming less and less bright. The recent Thinkpads are utter crap, IMHO. Give me some fucking mouse buttons instead of going the Apple route and hiding them underneath the touchpad. The 'clit' is still there, but it's almost unusable. The resolution is too low. I initially bought a T440, but it died in BIOS on second boot, and after 2 motherboard changes and 1.5 months in Lenovo's own lab they were still unable to even put in the serial numbers (needed for the Windows license that came with it). In the end, and after much delay, the gave me a new one. I promptly gave it to an employee running Windows instead of even trying. For my new, new laptop I chose a Dell XPS 13 (9333) Developer Edition. No Microsoft tax! I'm not an Ubuntu person, so I ditched the pre-installed (though not after booting it up and noticing that Dell wanted me to sign some EULA before continuing on to the desktop). Instead I went with Debian. The monitor shows up as "Synaptics Large Touch Screen". Bluetooth and wireless works after installing non-free drivers. Suspend and resume works. It's fast. There are only two problems. One is the irritating coil whine that the series exhibit. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Usually I can remove it by toggling the keyboard backlight, but it doesn't seem to matter if it's from on to off or the other way around. The second, and somewhat worse, is that keys seem to get stuck. Sometimes, and I haven't actually found out the cause, the keys seem to get stuck and repeat until another key is pressed. It happened in emacs a few days ago and was almost catastrophic (I do keep my backups, but still..). The last issue is with Dell rather than the computer. It seems weird to offer a Developer Edition with decent drivers and a pre-installed Ubuntu, and then only offer their BIOS upgrades as a Windows and a DOS executable. I used a USB stick with FreeDOS to apply the update, but seriously, why couldn't they just give me a utility that works? My little sister, my wife and my mother-in-law all run Linux, and they'd probably be able to work a simple program that had a one-click BIOS upgrade button. Boot FreeDOS with Grub, apply the update, reboot. Why do I have to do this by myself?
briantakita 13y ago
I still have an issue where my laptop (Toshiba EliteBook) sometimes does not hibernate when I close the lid. This causes overheating when I don't make sure hibernation happened & I put the laptop in my backpack. Hopefully, the update will fix the issue. Other than that, my installation of Crunchbang on Debian Sid is working great! If you havn't tried Crunchbang, give it a shot. It's lightweight & the UX is wonderful. IMO, better than Ubuntu ever was.
ambrop7 13y ago
Suspend runs perfectly on my 3 Linux systems. That is, laptop and desktop with Nvidia and closed source drivers, and a HTPC box thingie (Zotac Zbox nano) with Radeon and open source drivers. Suspend and resume takes about 2 seconds. Don't know about hibernate, probably works but takes longer.
dnr 13y ago
One more data point: I'm using an X220 with Ubuntu. I suspend/resume at least once per day, and I've had two suspend/resume glitches in over two years. As far as I'm concerned, it works perfectly. My X60 before this worked about 90% of the time.
nnq 13y ago
I followed these rules of thumb for laptops that run Linux well and didn't have any problem 99% of the time: - no ATI graphics - low end models that are manufactured and sold in high volumes (so if you encounter a problem you'll find an instant fix by googling for it, or most of the time the problem was already fixed and the fixes are in one of the popular distros), OR - high end models that are popular among techies and are known to work well with Linux ...and never buy something that has/is: - ATI hybrid graphics - mid range models: stick to low end (had good luck even with ultra low end - think Acers with Intel B9xx cpus) or high end ...I don't know why but there's always tons of bugs that crop up on so called "mid range" or "well rounded" systems, not only with Linux, but with ...everything :) I don't have an explanation, but my advice is simple: dirt-cheap and massively sold/produced OR high-end. Also, openSUSE is known to be kind of quirky and with a smallish user base nowadays. You'll have much better luck with Ubuntu and derivatives, Fedora, Debian (if you have the time to read the manuals or hunt the forums when you have a problem) or Arch if you want to get down-and-gritty.

sown 13y ago

On my desktop, a certain desktop produced by a popular linux system reseller manufactured a couple of years ago, modern ubuntu seems to just reboot the machine when I select 'suspend'. So I leave it on all the time. An annoyance, for sure. I have hopes that it will work better in the next LTS release of ubuntu. On my T430 laptop, suspend seems to work when I close the lid just fine.

vidarh 13y ago

It's not at all accurate any more, thankfully. It is worth being a bit careful, but that basically boils down to doing a search for the models you're looking at to identify any particular pitfalls, and you may in particular want to pay attention to the graphics and wifi chipsets. Not so much because you're likely to have any major problems, as because there are annoying quirks with some chipsets from time to time.

Bill_Dimm 13y ago
While clearly anecdotal, my own experience is that things have really not improved all that much over the past seven years. I've been using Linux since 1995, so I remember the bad old days, and things had improved a lot leading up to 2007 when I installed OpenSUSE 10.2 on a Dell D620 with relatively few problems. I recently tried installing Linux on a Dell E5430 (another mainstream business laptop, which is certified to work with Ubuntu) and my experience was not nearly as good: OpenSUSE 13.1 was a disaster: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c31 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c31 Mint 16's installer had problems: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=153379&p=803560#p803560 http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=153379&p=80... OpenSUSE 12.3 worked, but I had to mess around to get WiFi working: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c33 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=835277#c33 and the touchpad still has issues: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=869722 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=869722 and there is other weird behavior, like the laptop screen not turning off when the laptop is in a docking station with the lid closed (did not have this problem with OpenSUSE 10.2), and the encrypted partition password prompt being off the screen if an external monitor is plugged in: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=862961 https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=862961 I'm a big fan of Linux, but things do not seem to have improved over the last seven years. It just feels sloppy and unstable. I'm sure some things have improved, but too much feels unpolished. Maybe I just have bad luck, but I was talking to a guy the other day who has been using Linux since 1996 who had the same impression (he was having problems with disk corruption on a desktop installation).
- pessimizer 13y ago
  >I'm a big fan of Linux, but things do not seem to have improved over the last seven years. It just feels sloppy and unstable. Is this a conclusion completely drawn from your trying to install two versions of Linux on a particular laptop? If so, I'd say it's a lot of generalization for a single data point.
  - scotu 13y ago
    From a data scientist point of view. But for everyone else I think that's enough data because that's how a user gets to use linux: given a laptop, pick random distro, try, if success: :) else: end. Unless we have linux laptops widely available. Big fan of linux here, too
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      >But for everyone else I think that's enough data because that's how a user gets to use linux: given a laptop, pick random distro, try, if success: :) else: end. That works for me a vast majority of the time, and isn't a standard that either Windows or Macs are held to. Buy a ZaReason or System76 laptop with Linux preinstalled and support, then compare the experiences if you want to call Linux sloppy. You wouldn't dismiss Android because you had a hard time installing it on your iPhone, or if you do, iOS should likewise be judged due to the difficulty in installing it on a Nexus.
    - krick 13y ago
      > But for everyone else I think that's enough data Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure saying that would be "enough data" for someone, but it shouldn't be. Because, in fact, things have improved. It's pretty common to see that something doesn't work (both on Linux and Windows), but it's almost always can be fixed both on Linux and Windows. But what surprised me is the fact that everything just works out of the box (I mean in sense of hardware support) now on Linux more often than on Windows. It wasn't like that not so long time ago. There are few quite common problems (UEFI stuff, Nvidia drivers) that are quite "linux-specific", but range of supported right out of the box devices improved dramatically.
tonyarkles 13y ago
I've got a Lenovo T400 that works... mostly great. It suspends and resumes well most of the time, but will occasionally freeze after about a minute of resuming OK. I did some research, sounds like it's possibly a race condition in the Intel video driver. Happens about 1/10 times I resume.

VMG 13y ago

It runs well on some laptops. You can check if Linux compatability is mentioned in the reviews when looking on Amazon. I also avoid anything AMD.

dhimes 13y ago
I never had trouble with AMD
dmm 13y ago
> I also avoid anything AMD. AMD has excellent, free software, in-kernel drivers for all of their current GPUs. If you boot a linux distribution with a recent kernel the graphics drivers, including accelerated 3d, will "Just work". No need to install anything. The performance is also close to the Catalyst, proprietary drivers: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_radeon_trusty&num=1 http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_radeo...

valarauca1 13y ago

I currently use a very cheap read ~250 dollar lenovo laptop. Running Ubuntu. Its default power settings are great, at light usage I can easily go a day or two without a charge. Close lid + suspend works perfectly. I think I've booked about 2-3 months of it being continuously on. On open I get a black screen that states system resuming, then a login prompt not 1-2 seconds later (and I hear my hard drive begin to spin again). Perfectly fluid, I'm honestly afraid to move away from unity, lest I lose this feature. The only issue I have is since upgrading to FireFox 28.0.1 it sometimes crashes when it resumes. I've sent several reports to mozilla. I think the issue is flash.

phaemon 13y ago
I had some issues with Flash too. I found re-installing it fixed things for me. Maybe try: sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer and see if it helps.
- valarauca1 13y ago
  I will give this a shot over lunch and report back.
  - valarauca1 13y ago
    Couldn't reproduce the bug after 2 attempts with youtube opened. Considered it fixed after this.
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      Also make sure that you're not holding an old .adobe directory in your home with an old version of flash hiding in it. Flash is the worst thing for my Linux system stability.
- ThatGeoGuy 13y ago
  Rather than purging and re-installing, have you considered just updating? `sudo update-flashplugin-nonfree --install` This command works on debian based systems (as far as I know) and I typically prefer it in place of using apt, since your distribution's repos may not have the most current version (Debian Wheezy, for example).

aganders3 13y ago

I think part of this comes down to the vast improvements in documentation over the last ~10 years. The Arch Wiki is an incredible living document for installation and configuration of all Linux flavors. The Debian Wiki isn't as clean or up-to-date, but all the AskUbuntu stuff is helpful in that realm. Installing Debian on a desktop was a headache for me in 2002, but just last week I got it dual booting on my (recently abandoned by Apple) Macbook with 100% functionality. I don't want to downplay the great work that's been done on the software side, but my experience really reinforced the fact that improving documentation is a real contribution to FLOSS projects.

nfoz 13y ago

Some things will screw you, especially if it has cutting-edge hardware. My last laptop had switchable-graphics (Intel and Nvidia graphics cards), it took a few years for that to be reasonably supported. Of course that's what I expected.

nemof 13y ago
Yeah I have a laptop with intel/nvidia. I foolishly assumed it would work... several days of research and cursing later after installing ubuntu and I finally came to the realisation that the support just wasn't there. This was pretty recently too.
- shpxnvz 13y ago
  For what it's worth I just put an Ubuntu 14.04 nightly on my Nvidia Optimus laptop, and contrary to previous versions the dual-GPU setup Just Works (including choosing which GPU using the Nvidia utilities) after selecting the latest binary driver from the "Additional Drivers" page. Quite a relief after fighting with the dual-GPU for so long.

goalieca 13y ago

To be fair, a few years ago it was pretty obvious that windows XP/vista does not work well on laptops. Sleep was often horribly broken.

odonnellryan 13y ago

Works fine on every Dell (5 models) that I've tried it on. Not conclusive, but can be a check against "getting better."

zanny 13y ago

Nobody else mentions this, but it is important: If you aren't buying a notebook for Linux intending to have to fight with it to work right, then DON'T buy a Windows computer and complain it isn't a good Linux one. Instead, just buy from system76 https://www.system76.com/ https://www.system76.com/ or Thinkpenguin https://www.thinkpenguin.com/ https://www.thinkpenguin.com/ or you can get something like that Dell Developer notebook. A lot of OEM manufacturers are starting to either support Linux preinstalled or will provide support information on product pages. You know, laptops that already come with Ubuntu so you know the retailors make sure that the power management works right, all the ports work, gpu switching works, etc. That is a linux notebook, not the newest Lenovo that was never tested to run Linux and has no support.

rplnt 13y ago
I see they (system76) added a model without an optical drive. Good for them. Though I see they still sell models with one. What is the reasoning behind that today, or anytime in the past couple years, is beyond me. Edit: Same goes for the other manufacturer. I understand there are people that will buy this, or OpenMoko, or anything like that.. but most of us are not ready to sacrifice basic needs just because we want to use Linux. (Not saying we need to, just as a response to suggestion to buy this kind of hardware)
- zanny 13y ago
  > I understand there are people that will buy this, or OpenMoko, or anything like that.. but most of us are not ready to sacrifice basic needs just because we want to use Linux. (Not saying we need to, just as a response to suggestion to buy this kind of hardware) What "basic needs" are you sacrificing on these notebooks?
- pessimizer 13y ago
  These are excellent, powerful computers. The hardware is not special other than being a known good Linux configuration. Also, I'd like to add zareason.com, who I've had a great experience with.

tyleregeto 13y ago

I have a Dell XPS 13, and its been a great Linux (Ubuntu) laptop. Suspend resume is blazing fast, partially due to the SSD. Power consumption is pretty decent too. I usually charge in at night and its good until I get home. I don't use it all day, but its just in standby mode when I'm not. I think the perception is changing because laptops are just getting so much better. With SSDs and battery technology making a huge difference. Linux laptops had a bad perception, but I think all laptops were pretty bad not too many years ago.

Already__Taken 13y ago
why is hibernate not a thing? first thing i do to all my computers is change poweroff to hybernate. my laptop has like 40 day up times from this.
- moheeb 13y ago
  Because they invented suspend.
  - claudius 13y ago
    I still hibernate from time to time when away from power for long periods of time without use. Once a year or so, maybe :)
runejuhl 13y ago
I recently got a new work laptop. I've used a Lenovo X200 for a few years and been immensely happy with it, but it was starting to show its age and the display was becoming less and less bright. The recent Thinkpads are utter crap, IMHO. Give me some fucking mouse buttons instead of going the Apple route and hiding them underneath the touchpad. The 'clit' is still there, but it's almost unusable. The resolution is too low. I initially bought a T440, but it died in BIOS on second boot, and after 2 motherboard changes and 1.5 months in Lenovo's own lab they were still unable to even put in the serial numbers (needed for the Windows license that came with it). In the end, and after much delay, the gave me a new one. I promptly gave it to an employee running Windows instead of even trying. For my new, new laptop I chose a Dell XPS 13 (9333) Developer Edition. No Microsoft tax! I'm not an Ubuntu person, so I ditched the pre-installed (though not after booting it up and noticing that Dell wanted me to sign some EULA before continuing on to the desktop). Instead I went with Debian. The monitor shows up as "Synaptics Large Touch Screen". Bluetooth and wireless works after installing non-free drivers. Suspend and resume works. It's fast. There are only two problems. One is the irritating coil whine that the series exhibit. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Usually I can remove it by toggling the keyboard backlight, but it doesn't seem to matter if it's from on to off or the other way around. The second, and somewhat worse, is that keys seem to get stuck. Sometimes, and I haven't actually found out the cause, the keys seem to get stuck and repeat until another key is pressed. It happened in emacs a few days ago and was almost catastrophic (I do keep my backups, but still..). The last issue is with Dell rather than the computer. It seems weird to offer a Developer Edition with decent drivers and a pre-installed Ubuntu, and then only offer their BIOS upgrades as a Windows and a DOS executable. I used a USB stick with FreeDOS to apply the update, but seriously, why couldn't they just give me a utility that works? My little sister, my wife and my mother-in-law all run Linux, and they'd probably be able to work a simple program that had a one-click BIOS upgrade button. Boot FreeDOS with Grub, apply the update, reboot. Why do I have to do this by myself?

briantakita 13y ago

I still have an issue where my laptop (Toshiba EliteBook) sometimes does not hibernate when I close the lid. This causes overheating when I don't make sure hibernation happened & I put the laptop in my backpack. Hopefully, the update will fix the issue. Other than that, my installation of Crunchbang on Debian Sid is working great! If you havn't tried Crunchbang, give it a shot. It's lightweight & the UX is wonderful. IMO, better than Ubuntu ever was.

ambrop7 13y ago

Suspend runs perfectly on my 3 Linux systems. That is, laptop and desktop with Nvidia and closed source drivers, and a HTPC box thingie (Zotac Zbox nano) with Radeon and open source drivers. Suspend and resume takes about 2 seconds. Don't know about hibernate, probably works but takes longer.

dnr 13y ago

One more data point: I'm using an X220 with Ubuntu. I suspend/resume at least once per day, and I've had two suspend/resume glitches in over two years. As far as I'm concerned, it works perfectly. My X60 before this worked about 90% of the time.

nnq 13y ago

I followed these rules of thumb for laptops that run Linux well and didn't have any problem 99% of the time: - no ATI graphics - low end models that are manufactured and sold in high volumes (so if you encounter a problem you'll find an instant fix by googling for it, or most of the time the problem was already fixed and the fixes are in one of the popular distros), OR - high end models that are popular among techies and are known to work well with Linux ...and never buy something that has/is: - ATI hybrid graphics - mid range models: stick to low end (had good luck even with ultra low end - think Acers with Intel B9xx cpus) or high end ...I don't know why but there's always tons of bugs that crop up on so called "mid range" or "well rounded" systems, not only with Linux, but with ...everything :) I don't have an explanation, but my advice is simple: dirt-cheap and massively sold/produced OR high-end. Also, openSUSE is known to be kind of quirky and with a smallish user base nowadays. You'll have much better luck with Ubuntu and derivatives, Fedora, Debian (if you have the time to read the manuals or hunt the forums when you have a problem) or Arch if you want to get down-and-gritty.