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Comment by jasonlotito | Hacker News Reader

> If you need to spend time on Unix/Linux machines, why not just run that on the desktop? I've been Linux only for 10 years and have no issues.

Because at least for Linux, its desktop support is still severely lacking. Maybe it's the distribution I was using (Ubuntu), but all i wanted to do was hook my laptop up to my monitors and use the external monitors alongside my laptop monitor, like I do on Mac or Windows laptops.

I failed.

I remember hand coding an XFree86Config file almost two decades ago to get three monitors setup.

So yeah, that's why I don't work with Linux on the desktop. Because it doesn't work for me on the desktop.

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> "I remember hand coding an XFree86Config file almost two > decades ago to get three monitors setup."

Yeah, it's come a long way since then ;) It's 100% plug and play, at least with fedora/ubuntu/debian. Haven't played much outside that realm.

It's 100% plug and play

Is it still necessary to research whether a piece of hardware is supported on Linux, and how well it's supported, before buying the hardware?

The only hardware I've seen having problems recently were Macbooks. I'd research the model before I would try to put Linux on one. The ones having two graphics processors are really finicky, as I can attest to about my work laptop.

That said, I'd probably check out a laptop in general if I were going to buy one to see if anyone has major problems. I was bitten about 5 years ago with one where the touchpad was too sensitive, no matter what I did.

linux hardware support is pretty good these days and will work on most machines that don't have particularly esoteric hardware configurations.

But if you want to save yourself potential trouble, it's a good idea to research beforehand to make sure there's no obvious compatibility issues.

Also, these days various vendors sell machines with linux pre-installed so that's an option.

Best general advice I can give is to stay far, far away from anything with switchable graphics, and if possible anything that requires proprietary drivers.

> Also, these days various vendors sell machines with linux pre-installed so that's an option.

I have one of those machines. It's from Dell. Hooking up an external monitor doesn't just work. The scaling across the Ubuntu UI is all messed up.

Sorry, you misunderstand. I remember when it was difficult. Having tried it 2 weeks ago, it should not be as difficult as it is.

Two decades ago you had to fiddle with config.sys, autoexec.bat and win.ini too. Do you still judge Windows based on that experience?

Otherwise, multi-monitor setup is plug-and-play. I even have an anecdote, where Thinkpad with Fedora saved a meeting ;)

I'm not judging it on an experience two decades ago. I'm judging it on an experience 2 weeks ago.

Just as another anecdote, I use my Linux laptop with an external monitor every single day. Even have StumpWM configured with keystrokes to switch between portrait and landscape modes (using arandr).

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