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Discussion on: Do you use Linux? Answer for the chance to appear on the DevDiscuss podcast!

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mandarvaze profile image
Mandar Vaze

I was a long time linux user, so switching would not be difficult.

Only reason I'm sticking to macOS is because of the hardware.

Genuine questions :

  1. Are there any linux distros that truly support retina display ?
  2. What other "hardware" gives 8+ hours battery life with linux ? (With M1 macs, the battery life with macOS is even better than it already was)

If I get good answers to these, I will switch (I've already tried live booting my MBP with various linux distros, so there is that)

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toonarmycaptain profile image
toonarmycaptain

My second hand/repaired HP Envy does about 10 hours on battery running Ubuntu? Workload is rarely too heavy, but my son plays Minecraft on it, and it drives a TV, so not a trivial amount of processing.

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mandarvaze profile image
Mandar Vaze

Wow. Which version of Ubuntu ? Did you do any tweaks ? laptop-mode or something ? (I haven't used linux in over 5 yrs, so not sure if that is still a thing)

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toonarmycaptain profile image
toonarmycaptain

Nah, I mean, the monitor often stays off? The meter says 4.something hrs, but it lasted over 10 hrs after the power went out the other day, and he'd been playing on it for a bit. It's got an 8 cell battery and a non-original SSD, running Ubuntu Groovy. I was very impressed, as I've never had another laptop last near that long.

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denisvalcke profile image
Denis

I don't really notice battery life because I'm mostly at the (home) office. I do feel like PopOS was pretty good on my Dell and so is Manjaro. Especialy when I switch to Intel only.

Hidpi and mainly a mix of hidpi and lodpi screens is still kind of an issue. This should be resolved when Wayland is fully done.

You should give PopOS a try if you're on a hidpi screen. It's pretty good. I switched back to Manjaro with Gnome because I prefer arch based distros and their package management. But I don't feel much difference in performance tbh.

Gnome has optional fractional scaling (which is on by default in PopOS and which you need to add yourself in Manjaro - takes like 5mins) and I use a 4K screen in my Dell with an external 4K monitor and everything works great. Can set different scaling for both screens etc.

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mandarvaze profile image
Mandar Vaze

Thanks. Will try PopOS (I used to think it was mainly for System76 machines)