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Comment by Myrmornis | Hacker News Reader

I would love to switch back to Linux but Apple's Retina displays are absolutely beautiful and there is no way I could enjoy going back to anything with noticeably lower pixel density on a laptop. I'd like to be told I'm wrong, but as far as I know it's not really possible to recreate a comparable high pixel density experience under Linux on a laptop.

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Well, it is. However it's much easier with resolutions perfect for 2x scaling, so 4k on 15" XPS works great. As for fractional scaling (needed for 4k on 14/13") it's still kinda work in progress, I think it will be ready when chromium on wayland finally lands (I expect at least 1 more year). If you don't use electron/chrome, you can use it right now.

Obviously you can use less elegant solutions like changing fonts but it won't work with multiple displays with different resolutions.

Two years ago, I helped a friend install Ubuntu Linux on a Retina Macbook Pro, and it worked like a charm. If you're looking for a new laptop entirely, there are loads of 4K+ Linux-compatible laptops out there (ThinkPads are probably your best bet).

It seems the new Dell XPS finally have a touchpad which is close to the ones on the MacBooks. The touchpad and display are the two things which hold me back from switching away from Apple.

Thanks. What do you think about this post? The author sounds knowledgable and I think it contradicts what you said to some degree (in that the experience and app support is not good even though Linux is installed on a machine with a high dpi display):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22958647

I don't know about Ubuntu, but my experience with Gnome on Arch Linux and Arch-derived distributions has been pretty good as far as high-DPI displays go. I've only had to make minor tweaks to a few configurations here and there depending on the application.

If you want to avoid tweaking, stick to native applications, and perhaps more importantly, go for a manufacturer with proper firmware support for high-DPI screens like System76 (Adder WS), Dell (XPS 13), or Lenovo (ThinkPad P1/P53/X1).

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