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Most of these pain points go away if you purchase the iGPU only version. I own a Thinkpad T470 and Ubuntu works like a charm.

The only issue I still have is that the Gnome interface (Ubuntu 17.04+) does not support factorial scaling, meaning that I am stuck between 100% (which is way to small on a 14 inch screen) and 200% (which is way too big).

Ubuntu 16.10 still supports factorial scaling though, which means I am stuck with it until a better version comes along.

Using 200% and scaling the screen with xrandr has worked quite well for me on a 27" 4K screen. It's pretty much what macOS as well.

you can use the "arandr" program to set any possible resolution. No idea what is "factorial" scaling, though.

Factorial scaling means being able to set the entire desktop scale to 120%, 140% and so on.

It is important to me because most of the work I do in my PC is text based (coding and research), so being able to scale text and ui elements 'globally' is critical for good visibility.

Edit: It's supposed to be 'fractional', my bad.

"scale with factor 1.4" to increase the display size by 40%

The word "factorial" makes no sense here. Maybe "fractional"?

Besides, what is the fucking point of "scaling" at the display level? Isn't it exactly equivalent to setting the font size in points using your physical resolution?

No, it's not like setting font size. Actual fractional scaling as done by macOS and Wayland compositors is rendering at 2x and downscaling.

e.g. 1.5 scale on a 3840x2160 display means you have 2560x1440 logical pixels (3840x(1/1.5) = 2560), applications render for 5120x2880 (2560x2=5120) and get downscaled for 3840x2160.

Ah, mon dieu! This is the first time I read about "logical pixels". It is horrifying.

Yeah, I just realized it's called fractional scaling too, my bad.

It is still important though, because on 14inch desktops the Ubuntu interface looks way too small on 100% scale and way too big on 200%. At the end of the day you can think of fractional scaling as giving yourself more screen real-estate while at the same time keeping everything in a readable state.

I don't understand what you mean by the interface. Is it the font size? You can change it independently of everything else.

Most programs aren't coded to have all of their elements scale properly. You have icons, buttons, pictures, etc that may be bit mapped images, then you have other elements that are vector mapped. So if you just change the font size, you can read the text, but it may be in a text box that is too small (so it overflows).

So the best thing you can do, other than re-write all the applications that have been around for the last 30 years or more, is to make the app think it is writing to a display with a specific resolution. Then scale that up to whatever resolution your screen actually is. Then, any element that is bit mapped in the app may not look very crisp, but things like fonts or any element drawn by a UI library can be drawn at the screen's native resolution (because those libraries have been updated to know about the "fake" vs "real" resolution).

This is very similar to when you hit "ctrl +" in a modern web browser. If the web app says "place this element 25 pixels to the right", those are logical pixels and has little to do with actual screen pixels anymore.

Not only the fonts. Size of UI elements, borders (a 1pc border in 4k is nearly invisible), this kind of things. But yeah it's similar to font size.

Can confirm that the T470 has been rock solid under Linux (I got one from work; running Slackware 14.2 with a -current kernel). Even OpenBSD ran reasonably well (had to switch off it because my work required me to use things like Google Hangouts that required Linux, but I might switch back pretty soon and try using an X-forwarded Linux VM).

19.04 supports factorial but it's experimental.

I would've been much happier with the intel only version, the nvidia card is not worth it at all but at the time they didn't have 32gb of memory. Now the latest does, but too late.

iGPU usually drops frames on fractional scaling(I think I enabled it via tweaks app), I don't mind it that much but it still is an inconvenience.

I'm assuming that you are using something in unity, which can be easily installed in later versions. Just do apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop

I own an t490, also with ubuntu 19.04+gnome + dual boot.

I consider my problems are more basic than yours, and more hardware related.

- Under linux, the power management is VERY bad. I'm honestly starteled how it can be so bad. I loose 10-13% overnight while in 'deep sleep', compared to only 3% with 7.5 yo MBA. I get 5-6.5 hours of battery life. Less than the 2011 MBA. With windows it it much better - almost on par with my MBA.

- Trackpad has a big deadzone on the left+right + bad palm recognition.

- The display is very slow. More so on windows than on linux for some reason.

- Installing software is way too difficult compared to how it should be. Some software you install from the store, some from the command line, some offer AppImage. Sometimes the store has old versions that no longer works, things are not available for ubuntu 18.04/19.04, or you have to manually created a link such that the software is available in the desktop launcher.

I hope Apple finally fixes the Keyboard+durability issues with their next MBP iteration. Personally, I came to think that the 500$ Apple tax is worth it compared to all the (software) convenience + (hardware) quality that they offer.

> I hope Apple finally fixes the Keyboard+durability issues with their next MBP iteration. Personally, I came to think that the 500$ Apple tax is worth it compared to all the (software) convenience + (hardware) quality that they offer.

I agree, I bought the X1-e as the replacement of my rMBP because I just couldn't live with the keyboard and the touchbar of the new MBP. But the experience of the X1 didn't live up to it's expectations, mostly on the software side.

Don't get met wrong though, the X1 is a great piece of hardware. The keyboard is awesome and I really like upgradability. But the experience on Windows (or Linux for that matter) is just not so good. A macbook is just more polished, and that is coming from someone who generally doesn't like Apple products.

In the end, this is a work laptop for me, and I just want stuff to work. And for that, the $500 Apple tax is worth it.

For power management you need to install tlp https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/tlp.html

> You can't update the bios through Linux, the update tool is windows only.

Are you sure?

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netb...

This lists both a bootable image and a Linux utility. I've got standard X1 carbon and have been using the bootable bios updates successfully.

Also on an older X1 Carbon (5th gen) and fwupdmgr supports it out of the box.

> No upgrades for 20HRCTO1WW System Firmware, current is 0.1.39: 0.1.39=same, 0.1.37=older, 0.1.36=older, 0.1.35=older, 0.1.34=older

> You can't update the bios through Linux, the update tool is windows only.

I run Fedora on a T480s and BIOS updates come automatically through the software update channel (in fact, the frequency of BIOS updates is a little annoying).

Same for me on a Dell XPS 15. Strange that it wouldn't work on another flagship model such as the X1.

I think it's due to modern stuff such as UEFI and the TPM.

There are hacks you can do to flash the BIOS from Linux though, but I always fear bricking my laptop, so I prefer to use the OEM tool.

UEFI makes bios flashing easier & with fwupd (thanks RedHat / Richard Hughes!) it “just works” for those manufacturers that do the work to integrate with the fwupd infrastructure.

> You can't update the bios through Linux, the update tool is windows only.

They offer ISO-images for these updates too. You can also create a USB-bootable version from these using the geteltorito tool (which is available via apt).

https://workaround.org/article/updating-the-bios-on-lenovo-l...

Edit:

> OK, so all these problems are all due to my specific situation (running dual boot

Why are you using GRUB to dual-boot at all? Your machine has UEFI for that.

> Why are you using GRUB to dual-boot at all? Your machine has UEFI for that.

As far as I know, dual booting through UEFI requires me frantically hitting the F12 button during powerup to get into the boot menu. And then it won't remember your last chosen OS, so stuff like windows updates (requiring multiple reboots) become really annoying.

But I'll look into this, maybe I can just ditch grub all together, that would be great! My last linux/grub experience was on non-UEFI machines so I was just so used to installing grub that it didn't cross my mind that I might not need it.

Get rEFInd, much nicer UI for selecting between various EFI bootloaders, remembers the last one you selected

I've done that in the past but apparently now there's even native support for updates from Linux:

https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devicelist

And if you use stock Ubuntu with GNOME it should be preinstalled and your updates should appear in Software Center

guix sd is using grub to create restore points

Sure. Use grub to manage your advanced Linux needs, but you don’t need to use it to manage dual-booting of other OSes.

Fwupd works on all recent thinkpad generations, but you need to run without bios emulator

I own an X1 Yoga with the WQHD screen.

- grub has no problems

- Bios updates work through LVFS

- this has no dual gpu.

- power usage and fan usage is about the same as windows, running a bit cooler.

- Suspend has a linux and windows option in the UEFI options, works fine.

I dual boot Windows and Fedora on a laptop with a NVIDIA dGPU and an Intel iGPU, don't use the NVIDIA one in Linux but when I boot to Windows I can game.

As far as I know, Ubuntu has even better NVIDIA support than Fedora so you should be good

You may need to install proprietary drivers though

Also I get really, really good battery life in Linux, I think it's accomplished with sudo powertop --auto or similar

What laptop is this? A Lenovo?

A gigabyte actually (which definitely has its downsides - I just wanted the new generation of CPU early)

I'm stoked about the upcoming AMD-based T series, which hopefully resolves the thermal throttling in the A series and has more ports and battery options than the E series. This would eliminate most of your issues since AMD GPU drivers are first class citizens on Linux.

> - You can't update the bios through Linux, the update tool is windows only.

Does hwupd work with Thinkpads?

All of your problems will magically disappear if you don't buy laptops with nvidia gpus. People really ought to do some basic basic research before dropping a couple of grand on hardware.

>TB3 dock never works properly

Do these even work on Windows?

My Lenovo 40AN workstation dock has worked very reliably under Windows.

Can you undock while it is booting up, powering down or during a 2 hour windows update, that you did not plan on before clicking shut down? Does it BSOD the next time windows boot up ?