Labs for Linux

AzraAnimating · July 25, 2023

Hey everyone! I don't really know if this is the right category for this, but I hope it is. Correct me if I'm wrong!

I jumped in head first to Linux a few months ago after buying a Framework Laptop because I was really fed up with Microsoft's way of dealing with us customers.
The thing that I stumbled upon was that, umong a mountain of outdated, or outright incorrect Information about the Linux Desktop there really wasn't any way of knowing if the thing i just bought would even work with Linux.
This is, more or less, inline with the sentiment I got from Linus' and Luke's Linux-Challenge a few months back: Information being so scarse, conflicting or even outright missing for somebody not "in the know".

So I was wondering if there would be any Interest from the greater Community in LTT Labs dealing with Hardware (& Software) Compatibillity charts (or something) regarding Linux.

As an avid watcher of the WAN-Show (and everything else LTT) I picked up, that the "greater" goal with Labs lies within being umong the best, if not the best sources for Tech on the internet, and I really think that adding a Section concerning Linux (or MacOS for that matter) would make a tremendous step in the direction of reaching this goal.

So, I'm asking you whoever you are, reading this: Would you appreciate such a section?

Cheers!

(ps. Framework has an amazing documentation for Linux on their laptops! Shame, that this isn't the norm)

Verklickt · July 25, 2023

OMG WE NEED THIS

Shimejii · July 25, 2023

Linux will pretty much always be in the position its in. Its not good for most people, it doesnt have what it takes to become main stream, and they are okay with that. Distros that are designed with a purpose in mind can be helpful, but in general Linux is just not good enough.

Compatibility? If its not older then 6 months, its not going to be compatible with most linux distros. The top few will probably get a bit better support, but thats about it.

Linux people just are not worth the time and effort for benchmarks, they just dont view the content to make it worth while. Other companies have benchmarks, and the People behind the distros tend to do their own benchmarks. At the end of the day the userbase is just too small to make it worth while, and by the time it matters they would have either done some testing on their own, or just looked on wherever they go for their linux news.

Linux is for people who really enjoy tinkering with every last bit of their OS, and most people dont like that. Microsoft is awful, i want a new windows 7 type OS that isnt as intrusive as w11 is, and as bloated as it has become, but if it hasnt happened now it simple wont happen.

Also kind sus that a brand new account responded to your post saying we need this, i hope thats not you making multiple accounts lol

ImAlsoRan · July 25, 2023

While it's an idea that is great in concept it fails when some of the most crucial attributes of the Linux desktop are considered.

Linux runs on pretty much everything. It was only a few years ago that i386 support, an architecture released in 1985, was dropped. You can name any component and there's a solid chance there's already a driver available for it. In fact, driver support on Linux is actually better in some ways than Windows, since most drivers will be available even in the setup process. Pretty much the only thing to consider when picking "Linux-friendly" components is the GPU (Nvidia works and works great, but AMD cards are known to have better support).

Then there's the issue of distributions. If you take an old Power Mac, it'll run PPC versions of Debian. But does that make it a Linux laptop? It doesn't work well with modern Linux software, but it does run Linux. Is a laptop Linux friendly if it can only handle KDE with software rendering?

And would you consider something that may require a bit of tinkering to work as a laptop that works with Linux? Sure, out-of-the-box "it just works" is great, but if you're diving into Linux you should probably be ready for some of that anyways, regardless of hardware. Is it worth it to consider it not compatible with Linux?

LogicalDrm · July 26, 2023

Level1 is your main source for Linux compatibility testing. Pretty much everything that Wendell tests is done with both Windows and Linux, with Linux being his main driver. Laptops, being mainly proprietary hardware and there being multiple versions just within one company active line-up, would really need to be community powered and curated database. To which, you can make suggestion if Labs would think of adding it here: