Comment by bacon_waffle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bacon_waffle | Hacker News Reader

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I made the MacBook Pro (mid-2011) to XPS (15" i7 9570 4K) switch a few months ago, after putting off an upgrade about as long as possible. I'm still not liking the XPS with Kubuntu 18.04 - to the extent that I'm seriously considering switching back to Apple. At this point, I've got all the major issues sorted (like, not going to sleep when closed, docking station weirdness, etc), but there are constant smaller issues with the sort of things that "just work" with Apple hardware and MacOS.

Hardware wise - it's most of the way to being a great laptop, but has a few aspects that seem "designed by committee". The 4K screen looks really nice, keyboard is pretty good, it's quite fast, battery life is good. But, the trackpad is massively irritating - it's constantly picking up the heel of my hands while typing and causing the cursor to jump and click. The webcam is terribly located, the TB16 dock is a piece of junk, speakers only sound OK if you're working on a hard surface. They still use a barrel connector for power - would've preferred to get power over USB-C (which the dock uses to provide power), and have a second USB-C port on the laptop.

There are several issues with Linux support - if you're successful making an XPS Hackintosh, then those won't be a problem, but I'd encourage getting the lower resolution screen if you're considering the Linux route.

Linux won't be a good choice for desktop os on a laptop for a long time. It is not a priority for any vendor to fix issues and the community won't support 10.000 different hardware effectively. Hackintosh is an interesting option. I am wondering if you can run it on XPS properly.

For most of the last 15 or so years, I've been running Linux on the desktop on a work or personal computer, actually, and wouldn't say it has always been a bad choice.

Some hardware + distro combinations have certainly made that easier than others, but the general trend has been towards a good experience. Certainly there's been less headache with the average Linux desktop, than some Windows (plus whatever Antivirus that the IT higher-ups have mandated) machines I've had...

This particular laptop though, has highlighted the poor Linux support for "DPI Scaling" (a 15" 4K screen was the only option at the time), and touch screens. Combined with some questionable hardware design decisions (webcam, speakers), and some generally crap design (the TB16 dock) though, this whole package just isn't a purchase that I'm really happy about - and that's only partially about Linux. The touchpad might well be the sort of issue you describe, where a better driver could better adjust the sensitivity, but even there I'd look first at the vendor before blaming "the community".

It's a shame really, because as these MacBook Pro threads attest, there are a lot of folks looking for something that's totally feasible, but no manufacturer seems to be aiming at...

Why don't you just use Windows with the included Ubuntu subsystem?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

Because the I/O performance sucks, there's an AV process that goes haywire whenever anything is compiled, the terminals suck, I've not found a non-bad way of SSH'ing into WSL remotely, it's about as clunky as using Wine on Linux some years ago, there's spyware and ads on the enterprise install of Windows 10, software I can't remove by using the tools to remove all other software (installers for Office and the like), but above all, when I'm running the NT kernel, it's mostly to run software that only runs on the NT kernel. I've not run NT on bare metal in a while, but looking at the struggles of people around me, I don't intend to in the near or long term.

Have you tried to use WSL?

It is its own silo on Windows. Yes, it is native from an implementation standpoint, but does not play well (yet) with the rest of the Windows environment.

Install Visual Studio Code, the usual Windows version.

Explain to VS Code that it is really a good idea to use the Linux subsystem as its command-line environment. Not only interactive sessions like Bash on its integrated terminal, but also for git, compilers, Node, etc.

Once you have got that set up and your development workflow going ok, try setting up the same on Linux or macOS.

Which one would you prefer?

The Windows Subsystem for Linux is brilliant. PowerShell is brilliant. The dotNET universe can be brilliant.

I wish it was easy.

Are you talking out of experience? I've used a linux laptop for the last 6 years and have had only small issues.

Hackintoshes tend to break (more specifically, the OS) with every OS update.

I've switched from Linux (Thinkpad X240) to macOS (Macbook Pro 2015, and now 2018) because of those small issues [1]. However, nowadays I feel like your experience with Linux laptop really depends on what kind of work you are doing, and how often do you have to interact with 3rd party tools. I've been primarily desktop Linux user for something like 13 years before switching to Mac, and those small issues had only become a problem once I've started encountering them on a daily basis.

[1] For me issues were mostly interaction with random conference software and screen sharing (e.g. webex), or random hangs when connecting external displays (e.g. doing a presentation before CTO).

FWIW I've found the Dell xps 13 with ubuntu very pleasant

I am not sure how it is relevant to the subject that you can use a Linux desktop.

If you're worrying about the long term use of Linux on a Dell or Lenovo machine you are going to hate trying to run Mac OS on it.

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