Switch entirely to Linux (probably Ubuntu)

[BustinJustin]

So I've recently come to possess a wonderful machine known as the Lenovo Y500 laptop. It has one fatal flaw: Windows 8. Me no likey. SO.

I was thinking about creating myself a nice little Ubuntu USB drive and installing Linux on this bad boy and seeing how that goes. I'm only worried about a few things:

Driver support for Nvidia SLI (laptop has 2 650m gpus)

wifi???

webcam

Also, this "Ultra Bay" business lenovo is so fond of. Wussup wid dat?

Anyways, before I jump head first into this, I wanted to know what the LTT forum thought. Good idea? Bad idea? Is this something you guys would be interested in me documenting?

I'm looking forward to responses!

[t0wer]

good idea, I tend get frustrated when I go back to windows. I miss the small things like window snapping, always on top, and workspaces.

wifi should be good, webcam should be good, but no idea on sli as I avoid dual gpus.

I'd run off a live cd for a few days and play with the settings to get used to linux, or create a small partition and dual boot.

[cyberlocc]

good idea' date=' I tend get frustrated when I go back to windows. I miss the small things like window snapping, always on top, and workspaces. wifi should be good, webcam should be good, but no idea on sli as I avoid dual gpus. I'd run off a live cd for a few days and play with the settings to get used to linux, or create a small partition and dual boot.[/quote']

LoL, I cannot stand windows 8 its worst than vista IMO.

[AMICLG]

I prefer Mint has a real nice ui and is based on ubuntu.

[GoodBytes]

Why did you buy a gaming system, if you not going to play games or run workstation level software?

This laptop has no Linux option... therefore some hardware, and possibly (if any) advance custom power setting will not be available. For example, on my laptop, I can set my laptop to reduce USB power or cut it, cut power on firewire, optical drive, SD card reader, reduce the monitor to 40Hz, reduce the wireless strength, fan mode (Active or Passive), and sleep the Ethernet card when I am on battery, from the Windows Vista/7/8 power plan which shows up once you install all the laptop drivers. These features, which help me get 11h of battery life with Win8 (10h on WIn7, 9h on Vista), on my near 5 year old laptop powered by an Nvidia Quadro GPU. Can't be used under Linux. Reducing the battery life of the system, if you have similar features.

Moreover, if your laptop has any special keyboard keys, as this is a consumer grade laptop, they might not be defined at the hardware level, and require custom software from the OEM, which won't run under Linux as its for Windows. This is one of the big issues with linux on many laptop.. the screen is at max settings. Can only be adjusted on the BIOS. Now, it does not apply to all laptops.. it varies, it all depends on how well it was implemented or cost cutting measure was used. Usually, business class laptop aren't an issue, but in your case it's not a business class, so just expect that.

The UltraBay is a Lenovo technology that allows you to swamp the optical drive with a second battery.

Windows supports multiple battery as you can see here:

Linux might be able to show you both, but the system considers the status of battery 1, for time remaining, and even put the system to sleep if low on battery.

Beside all these issues, and the fact that Linux learning curve is extremely high, compared to Windows 8, which you refuse to pass over it (hence why you are not enjoying it, like people that passed over it and end up preferring Win8 to Win7), you are good to go. :)

What don't you like about Windows 8? It's just the start menu put full screen, with more power for customizing it. That's the big visual change.

[GoodBytes]

I prefer Mint has a real nice ui and is based on ubuntu.

Mint is one of the better looking default Gnome tweaked xWindows environment. Shame they don't focus on improving Linux font rendering engine, which hasn't been touch since ages, and is terrible. Hopefully, either Ubuntu or Mint (as it looks its the only ones that thinks about the end user of Home PCs usage), will work on that one day. I am disappointed in Ubuntu, where they made their new OS GUI, changed everything, yet left the crappy font rendering engine. I know it's very boring thing to work on, but come on.

Anyway, if you like Windows 2000/XP mix layout, Mint is an excellent choice if you want the closest experience as the old Windows days. It's funny, because I recall KDE did that until KDE3 with the widget thing going on for it, which seams to not work too well.

[t0wer]

little exaggerated imo, battery life was about the same on win 7 and linux for me. I didn't have a business class laptop and all the function keys were fine. brightness adjusted fine.

I can't however commend on 2 batteries or video cards.

[azeotrope]

Shame they don't focus on improving Linux font rendering engine' date=' which hasn't been touch since ages, and is terrible[/quote']You obviously Don't understand how font rendering works in linux. the freetype engine handles ttf font rendering, not the kernel. the infinality patchset is far superior to cleartype and can emultae rendering from multiple operating systems including windows 7, OSX and iOS. I'm guessing you've never tried it.

Battery life on my laptop is about an hour longer on linux than on windows 7, even when setting setting the low power option.

[GoodBytes]

You obviously Don't understand how font rendering works in linux. the freetype engine handles ttf font rendering, not the kernel. the infinality patchset is far superior to cleartype and can emultae rendering from multiple operating systems including windows 7, OSX and iOS. I'm guessing you've never tried it.

I did, and no mather what you do, it sucks really bad. The default one is better, but it still crap. The only time I saw the font appear better, is when I setup a Beaglebone with the LCD7 capacitive touchscreen for a hobby project. The screen is so crap (i expected that, it cost almost nothign) that for some reason you can adjust the font to make it look nice. It's like 2 crap canceled itself out. Strange.

Battery life on my laptop is about an hour longer on linux than on windows 7, even when setting setting the low power option.

That because you probably installed ArchLinux almost barebone with OpenBox. Congrats, you now have a black screen with a cursor and a right-click menu to lunch some apps.

And MAYBE you installed a file manager. I am sorry, but that's like installing DOS or Windows 1. For sure you'll get more battery life, but what cost?

[azeotrope]

I did' date=' and no mather what you do, it sucks really bad[/quote']Then you must have it configured wrong. There are plenty of examples on the net showing the comparison between infinalty and cleartype. Infinality is far more configurable and far better looking when it is. Booting into windows 7 or 8 and reading text is almost painful

That because you probably installed ArchLinux almost barebone with OpenBox

LOL. my WM is set up to be a full fledged desktop that does everything that I would do on windows. I use it for everything except gaming. I'm not a multimedia guy though, I just consume media and windows has better support for that kind of stuff. My linux set up does everything other than gaming that I do, better and faster than windows 7 or 8.

[azeotrope]

And MAYBE you installed a file manager.

Maybe? I run 4 file managers: mc ,vifm, ranger and spacefm, all superior and faster than explorer in one way or another

[GoodBytes]

I already had a look. I speed a entire week-end on it (again, the simplest things.. always complicated), while you can get it close.. it's not even close to Vista's one. I could get it to XP level.. or extremely close.. but that's not nice either (I mean XP clearType).

For those who don't know what I am talking about:

Here is a comparison. The first picture shows the default fault in Linux.. this is what you usually get once you install Linux from a distro all packed up with a GUI layout, like Ubuntu. What you see is KDE environment.

[url=http://www.helpweaver.com/linux.png]http://www.helpweaver.com/linux.png[/url=http://www.helpweaver.com/linux.png]

Now I took this picture, and change all it's text (except for the recent button), to if it was Windows 7 drawing it.

[url=http://www.helpweaver.com/windows.png]http://www.helpweaver.com/windows.png[/url=http://www.helpweaver.com/windows.png]

Notice how the font is much clearer, sharp and crisp, easier to read, the distance between each character is right and doesn't vary, and how the font doesn't need to put big ('cause it is bigger under Linux) to try and make it readable... allowing you to see more. Also, although not related to font, under Windows, most programs pay attention to details, little details, like the "Recent" text, the one under the blue high-light is properly aligned with the icon, unlike Linux, where this kind of things are practically everywhere. There is no simply no care that was taken.

And it brings me up to another point with Linux. Instead of fixing things, they add options, and basically go "Here are the options, go fix it yourself". And I get that.. people who work on Linux aren't paid. People don't go "Man, I have to fix this, it potential revenue loss of my software. I'll make that priority one. Maybe I should even try a new method". You just don't have this motivation incentive.. I mean look at gedit. It was crap in ~2000, and still just as crappy in 2013. It still carries a lot of bugs. Yes you'll tell me: use VIM. Well I don't want to use VIM. I think VIM sucks.. it's mu opinion.. I just don't like Terminal like environment editing, even thought it's apparently "faster". In any case, even thought I want VIM, it still doesn't change the fact that gedit will not get better.

Now I want to make something perfectly clear:

-> I like Linux. I use Linux. But I don't pretend it's this utopia OS where everything is perfect. It has issues, especially at the end-user GUI levels. Yes, Windows is also not perfect. They both have their strength and weaknesses. It's for you to decide.

In my opinion, if you do general computer usage, and not something really specific like a Server, or running on a super weak computer, or want Linux strength, or running on an ARM processor ('cause you can't with Windows. Windows RT only support select ARM processors, require powerful ARM processors with lots of RAM and storage space on the system, and well.. it's not available in stores).

[azeotrope]

By windows 7, you mean the emulated windows 7 rendering in infinality? I am still referring to native cleartype, not infinality's window 7 emulation which is better than cleartype. I use custom options which look better than both of those IMO. One of them is too blurry, the other is way too sharp and pixelated. The glyphs are also not aligned correctly in either one. I'm guessing you haven't taken the time to configure it.

Windows' date=' most programs pay attention to details, little details, like the "Recent" text, the one under the blue high-light is properly aligned with the icon[/quote']You don't seem to understand whats going on here. That the "windows" rendering has nothing to do with windows. it's simply the freetype engine rendering it a little different, not to mention the text is just smaller in the second pic.

people who work on Linux aren't paid.

You do realize that intel, IBM, AMD, Samsung etc all have full time linux devs, right?

Well I don't want to use VIM

Each to their own i guess. I am far more productive in vim than in any other editor. the learning curve is steep, but it was worth it for me in the end.

[Galgotha]

I got to laugh on those moving to Linux due to Windows 8 "learning curve". I love my Linux PCs, but I spend more time in forums reading to correct issues with software or hardware compatibility on updates than any of my 6 Windows 8 machines. My wife hands me her laptop with Ubuntu and says, "can you get this to work for me?", much more than with the Windows 8 machine she is running Ubuntu 12.10.

Nvidia SLI is possible on Desktop GPUs see here [url=http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/180.22/README/chapter-25.html]http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/180.22/README/chapter-25.html[/url=http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/180.22/README/chapter-25.html]. However, it is not supported in Mobile GPU's so your losing one of your GPU's immediately on moving over and if your just keeping Linux your gaming options won't even need that single GPU power. Steam works on Ubuntu but still got glitches and the Library was only 50-75 mostly indie games.

I love Linux in all its Distro variations and GUI customization, I could spend hours tweaking GUI options, I love that is free and community supported but be ready to use that community to fix issues you come across and be ready to dive into the Terminal some issue are only correctable there.

And good luck on folder navigation in Linux if you don't like Windows 8 lol

They have added power consumption features to Ubuntu 12.10. They were great improvement over 12.04 gave wife's laptop a good 2 hours. But finding the options are not intuitive or easy to find. I read about them in the notes, then had to search for them and find them, then read online what each feature specifically did as the tools don't explain as well.

[lord4163]

Go run the Live CD and try if all the hardware works -> if it does install it :-)

[Jonny]

What Specs do you have?

ubuntu is probably best if you intend to use steam because they don't officially support any other distro at the moment. But you could try Mint if you want a more windows like experience. Also you may want to install it in dual boot or Virtual Machine to see if you like it.

[BustinJustin]

I wiped it and am installing Win 7 Pro. I'll install an Ubuntu VM (I usually install at least a couple Linux VMs) and see how the hardware works out. I really do wish that Linux distros had easier ways to install software/drivers.

[Crion]

I don't think you'll have an issue. The only machine I've ever had issues for hardware support in linux was an eeePC and that's because both the wired and wireless nics were not supported at the time. I had to create a custom kernel for that machine and compile the drivers from source. That problem went away in the next version of the OS I was using at the time which was Ubuntu. There is actually a Nvidia driver for Linux.

[zoltan]

You obviously Don't understand how font rendering works in linux. the freetype engine handles ttf font rendering, not the kernel. the infinality patchset is far superior to cleartype and can emultae rendering from multiple operating systems including windows 7, OSX and iOS. I'm guessing you've never tried it. Battery life on my laptop is about an hour longer on linux than on windows 7, even when setting setting the low power option.

+1, on modern distros, fonts actually look much better than on Windows 8. I run Fedora 18 with Gnome Shell 3 and quite a few packages from testing and rawhide, and everyone keeps asking me why everything looks so good on my laptop (17" Asus), it really looks like print, it's a serious upgrade from both Windows 8 and MacOS font rendering.