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0 pointscrispinb7y ago0 comments

> But the old cliche that getting hardware to work on GNU/Linux is not true these days

That's only true if you make a point of buying hardware you already know there's linux drivers for. I work with a few headless linux boxes, but not a GUI. Every year or two I try a distribution or two on whatever hardware I have, hit a problem, sigh after reading through numberless blog/SO/reddit posts contradicting each other on what's possible, and abandon the attempt.

I have a 2018 Dell XPS 15. From what I've read, there's only an 'experimental' (ugh) driver for the fingerprint scanner. To switch between integrated/GPU graphics, you have to log in and out (or you don't - depending on who you read). Not sure about the touchscreen, but I can't summon the motivation to find out. So much depends on fiddling, experimenting, and reading. I'd rather go for a run, and put up with Windows (which I loathe, but loathing seems to be a precondition of computer use in 2018).

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stevesimmons7y ago

I bought the new 2018 Dell XPS 15 the day they were released. I knew the Linux support wasn't perfect on day 1 but fully expect the rough edges (mostly around switching between integrated graphics and GPU, as you say) to be solved in a month or two.

I had the same experience with my 2015 Dell XPS 13... a few annoying quirks for the first month (mainly trackpad) which the combined efforts of Dell and the community quickly solved. Since then it has been rock solid. I used it for 3.5 years and only upgraded to the new XPS15 to get more RAM.

> So much depends on fiddling, experimenting, and reading.

How about not stressing about it now? My approach this time round is to not spend my own time fiddling with it. I'm going to wait patiently for others to figure it all out and get their fixes into upstream distribution. As my main problem is with GPU switching, I've got plenty of non-GPU projects to do in the meantime...

P.S. If you do want gpu switching on the XPS15, check out this repo:

https://github.com/matthieugras/Prime-Ubuntu-18.04

crispinbOP7y ago

> How about not stressing about it now?

Well that's what I'm doing by using Windows. I don't like it, but it doesn't consume any of my time - even after not having used Windows for many years, I was productive on my new machine within an hour. Windows is a mess compared to OS X, but a fairly productive one for me.

I haven't had time to try a Linux install on this machine yet, but have set aside some SSD space for doing so at some point. I have to say though from past experience, I'm not optimistic that it will ever be more than an experiment.

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