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Comment by bla3 | Hacker News Reader

It's possible to install Linux, but it requires a bunch of fiddling. And even then power management tends to not work great.

I'd love if Linux has as officially supported and just worked.

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I bought a DIY Framework and installed Pop_OS, everything was working well after 5 minutes of "fiddling".

So if that's a reason for you to not buy a computer, I'd suggest that Linux may not be for you.

A pre-install option for linux would increase user trust that it'll "just work"

As someone with a Dell XPS 9310 for work where Linux is a pre-install option, I can tell you it definitely doesn't mean it "just works".

The Framework I got for personal use, on the other hand, worked OOTB with a Linux USB installer.

I have an XPS 13 (forget the model number but I think it had an 8th-generation Intel CPU) that came with Linux and it definitely wasn't "just works" when I bought it (sleep/wake was kind-of broken and such) but a month or so later, it did magically start working (and nothing else was really broken).

The 9310 is an 11th generation Intel CPU, that I've had for over a year now. While it certainly was even more broken when I first got it, after the first quarter improvements seem to have stopped happening. Things like WiFi, Bluetooth, sleep, power management, and video output are still fairly flaky.

People elsewhere in this thread complain about the battery in sleep for the Framework, and I confirm the same with mine, but losing a few percent a night is nothing compare to the Dell, which goes from 100 to 0 overnight.

People have been waiting for a Linux that "just works" for decades. And they'll probably still be waiting for the next 20 years. But that's not really the point of using Linux.

"But that's not really the point of using Linux."

That philosophy is probably part of the reason, why linux on the desktop stays in its small niche inside tech circles.

Most people, myself included, indeed want a system that "just works" - to get the actual work done. And then if the basics work, I can enjoy the full freedom to tweak it to my needs in infinity.

But only very few people enjoy "freedom to tinker", when it means "mandatory tinkering" to get basic functionality.

My best linux times were indeed, when stuff just worked. I was really surprised the first time I used a live Linux cd and everything "just worked". No manual driver installing, like I had known from windows. It booted up and everything was just there.

It was different, but it worked. And then I discovered the endless possibilities and freedom to change ANYTHING.

But fast forward to today: my quite modern laptop still has standby/resume issues on linux, making it hard to enjoy it at times. And I don't feel like compiling the kernel myself to maybe see a slight improvement.

I'm pretty competent/qualified to tinker with my Linux, but I still much prefer a "just works" approach too. I think most in the community do. I don't want a "Just works because everything is hyper-locked down" but that's a much different thing IMHO.

Fortunately most distros have gotten to where we are. Fedora works amazingly well OOTB on so much hardware, and I've heard great things about Pop and other popular distros.

I can confirm that Pop works on a Framework without about 10 minutes of adjusting a few settings. Which is not that different than any other OS imo.

They have it now. The trick is to stop buying Windows hardware. Looks like this is just more of that rather than Linux (or just not broken) hardware.

I have DIY Framework that came without an operating system. Installed Pop_OS on it from a flash drive and in 10 minutes all the necessary tweaks were made.

So if 10 minutes of installing an OS and tweaking a few settings stops someone from spending years with a computer, I'm a bit confused by their attitude.

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