this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] extremeboredom 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I hope Framework takes note and is working on their own ARM laptop.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Seconded, also bring those laptops to more countries than those who're available now.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago

I'm very interested in these.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I hope that when my current laptop dies, a somewhat libre and linux-friendly alternative with an ARM chipset will be on the market.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Mine already died. Now i have to wait...

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

A Thinkpad will have to do

[–] warmaster 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You mean Libre ARM or Libre-friendly ARM?

[–] bruhduh 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] warmaster 6 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, I was thinking RISCV. There's no thing such as libre ARM. Unless he was talking about Libre-friendly which could mean a proprietary SOC company submitting driver code to the kernel.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I really wonder if they got any better, I had such a bad time with my tuxodo computer, had to send it for repair twice and replaced it with a used ThinkPad after less than a year.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What kind of problems did you have?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's like 8 years ago or so, I had the InfinityBook with a skylake processor.

Bluetooth stopped working, send it in then it worked and stopped again, then send it in and it worked and stopped again.

The microphone had broken noises, tested it even under windows to be sure it's a hardware problem.

Discoloration where the hands are left and right of the trackpad.

Plastic bezel around the screen fell off, the tape was bad quality.

Ah I wrote it down last year here:

https://tube.jeena.net/w/wJGQBMj2wDCJRwBH4bYPiz;threadId=14965

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What was the best Linux laptop you've had so far?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Probably any of the ThinkPads I had. They were sturdy and just ran everything I put on them. Second place would be the Dell XPS 13, I like it because it is very small and light, but in the one I have now they already had to replace the motherboard after a month and when holding it with one hand it bends and sometimes does a click on the trackpad, but I don't want to send it in a second time because I normally don't use it like that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh, cool. I've been planning to get a second-hand L14 Gen 1 with AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U, 16GB (2x8) SODIMM RAM and 512GB storage, although I do have a choice to pick a slightly expensive X390 with Intel Core i7-8665U, 16GB soldered RAM and 512GB storage.

At least from my perspective, I could upgrade the L14 to 32GB and 1TB, but if I were to get the X390, I could use it as my main device to SSH through another second-hand ThinkCentre or a similar mini-PC.

Since they're both imports from the USA, I wanted to avoid paying duty and tax by having it bought through a distant relative from the US. Only if there was a way to buy second-hand laptops from China to India.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Do not get the L-models. They're cheap, have crappy build quality and I daresay that thinkpad skimps on the non-obvious parts that will hinder performance - even though the machine looks powerful on paper.

Put your money into a better product instead.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I’ve only heard good things about them so I’m interested to know too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

I've mostly been very satisfied with my InfinityBook 14 Gen7 that I got about 1.5 years ago. There have been some hardware issues (something wrong with the audio subboard that causes the sound from the speakers to go out once in a while, but they sent a new one that I haven't installed yet...). The mic is also not very good (some background noise), and the speakers when they work (which is most of the time) are also quite weak. I decided to spec it out as much as possible, and it does get hot under high loads, like gaming. The case is sleek, but perhaps a little flimsy?

But mostly it works perfectly fine, and it is such a great upgrade over my old MacBook that I finally get to do stuff on my computer now, and run into very few limitations (running newer games and other GPU-intensive tasks requiring more than 4 GB VRAM are the only things). Not to mention that I've had very good experience with their customer service when I n00b out and can't troubleshoot my way back.

[–] TCB13 6 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Will they feature an UEFI?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

There has been lots of reporting the X Elite will use UEFI.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (23 children)

Without UEFI, the boot process is different for each device, requires a custom boot loader, or at least explicit support by the operating system. Is your laptop going to be supported by the distribution you want to use? What about in 5 or 10 years? With UEFI, the boot process is standardized, so it should just work.

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[–] bruhduh 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Because how do you install Linux without ability to choose boot from USB (changing boot order)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Man. I bought Lenovo ARM. I wanted to buy a tuxedo so badly. Now I'm stuck with this thinkpad.

[–] balder1991 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What’s the experience so far?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

It is bearable but feature complete. Every month linaro and the community add functionality. The most recent things include a custom power-domain mapper implementation and apparently camera support.

If you are running wayland you can simply install any os and its working oob.

The laptops weight and heat production is awesome. Very practical. Also the body is exceptional sturdy and worth mentioning (even in comparsion to a T14, e.g.).

But:

  • external monitors are not detected at boot
  • no hibernation
  • battery time is very depended on the task. It ranges from 4 to 13 hours.
  • no virtualization support, so one is stuck with tiny code generator runtime when using kvm
  • audio is pretty quiet, so depending on the environment an external source is required.

I followed almost all patches on the lkml. It appears to me that the upcoming chip can benefit from the sc8280xp hugely. It sufficies for my use cases but I promised myself a little better, yet.

[–] PreciousPig 4 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

When will we see fanless models? That is one of the defining features of the M1 Air.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I like silent laptops but sometimes I want to max out the power budget and get work done without worrying about thermal throttling. Having a fan and customizable power settings gives users a choice. Apple takes that choice away.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

When I got my first Raspberry Pi (4B), I was kind of shocked at how hot even my passive Argon case would get. Though I am guessing a more powerful and efficient ARM or RISC-V CPU would not spike to 100% so fast. But when I got my Pi 5 I made sure to get the official case that came with a fan while I waited for the more powerful active cooling fan to release. So much better at running stuff like YouTube or other media without hitting thermal issues (got the active cooling Argon One for my 4B with similar results too).

Having more powerful ARM/RISC-V CPUs that can actually handle stuff I expect a full on laptop or especially a desktop will be awesome. But while we are in the "still not as good" period of these CPUs both matching x86_64 and programs for them being full versions. The inefficiencies of either needing emulation or just very un-optimized code as devs are getting the hang of ARM/RISC-V coming from x86 mean those temps are easy to hit.

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[–] balder1991 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I see it more of a limitation, you don’t want your laptop to warm (and it shouldn’t in light use), but you want to cool it for the few times it does.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And they thermally throttle due to the heat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Not necessarily. I own a passively cooled x86 laptop that runs just fine without throttling - granted, it's based on Celeron series CPU, but when we talk of ARM laptops, we normally don't talk powerful machines - Macs are rather an exception.

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