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0 pointstrimbo6y ago0 comments

I've been trying since the Pentium III to use Linux on a laptop and have finally given up completely. I've tried on a variety of hardware, even with official support. Driver problems and battery life have always been an issue.

But... are we talking about the same XPS laptop? My wife's 13" XPS purchased ~2016 has had horrible reliability. The charging port died a long time ago, fortunately, it charges over USB-C. But now it no longer keeps a charge, won't sleep/hibernate properly (will cook with the lid closed), and more. A friend of mine bought the same one at the same time and his is also breaking down (keyboard problems).

I've tried to get her to switch to Mac, but she prefers Windows, so next time I'm buying her a Surface Laptop. HTH anyone considering the XPS.

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9 comments · 2 top-level

wpietri6y ago· 6 in thread

For what it's worth, I've been running Linux on Lenovo laptops for years and years, and lately it has been fine. No weird tweaks, no special kernel builds. It just works.

trimboOP6y ago

Is the battery life any good? That has always been the Achilles heel for me. The battery life is like half or 3/4 of what windows gets on the same hardware.

Last I tried this was on a 2016 X1 Carbon.

bproven6y ago

Carbon X1 (6th gen ), I can get 8-9 hours light stuff and solid 6 doing work. That is pretty much equivalent to the macbook 13.

I have a macbook 15 for work and am extremely disappointed in its battery life, so I think the Lenovo matches up well.

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kmorgh6y ago

Could get close to a full day of work on the X1 Carbon Yoga Gen2. T480s not so much, but also packs a lot more punch. x1s seem to have best portability

wpietri6y ago

I don't run Windows, so I have no idea. On the T-Series machines I get the larger battery and it lasts long enough for my purposes.

ngcc_hk6y ago

Any page you can point to. Have an old T I want to try this.

wpietri6y ago

I literally just installed stock 18.04. In your shoes I'd start with a USB key and this page: https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

You might check out your old model here, just to see if there are important tweaks: https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

intopieces6y ago· 1 in thread

>I've tried to get her to switch to Mac, but she prefers Windows, so next time I'm buying her a Surface Laptop. HTH anyone considering the XPS.

If HW reliability is a concern and you want to choose Apple, couldn't you BootCamp it or run Windows in a full screen VM?

selectodude6y ago

Windows runs on a Mac, but I hesitate to say it runs well. The trackpad is pretty mediocre and I have lots of issues with Bluetooth. Additionally, the laptop only exposes the GPU so it never switches to integrated graphics and my battery life sucks.

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