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First Impressions: Lenovo T14s with Qualcomm Snapdragon ARM64 CPU

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213 points cnst | 2 comments | 15 Nov 24 20:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.402s | source
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0xbadcafebee ◴[15 Nov 24 23:22 UTC] No.42152436[source]▶
I upgraded from a 10-year-old Lenovo to a MacBook Pro M1 w/Asahi Linux for a while recently. It convinced me that we're not ready for ARM Linux desktops for general-purpose, regular-person use.

Besides all the crappy Linux desktop software today (I have been trying multiple recent distros out on multiple new laptops... all the Linux desktop stuff now is buggy, features are gone that were there 10 years ago... it's annoying as hell). The ARM experience is one of being a second-class citizen. A ton of apps are released as AppImages or Snaps/Flatpaks. But they have to be built for both X86_64 and ARM64, and extremely few are built for the latter. Even when they are built for it, they have their own bugs to be worked around, and there's fewer users, so you wait longer for a bugfix. The end result is you have fewer choices, compatibility and support.

I love the idea of an ARM desktop. But it's going to cause fragmentation of available developer (and corporate/3rd-party) resources. ARM devices individually are even more unique than X86_64 gear is, so each one requires more integration. I'm sticking to X86_64 so I don't have to deal with another set of problems.

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flkiwi ◴[16 Nov 24 01:02 UTC] No.42153220[source]▶
Counterpoint: I've been on an M2 Macbook running NixOS-via-Asahi-installer for about a year, and I've run into maybe 2 applications that I cannot find in the Nix repos or flathub. I have a stable, fast, long-lasting machine running Hyprland and all the productivity software I've needed. I'm currently missing an internal microphone and, I believe, Thunderbolt (USB-C works fine) but this machine is faster than and as stable as it was when it had macOS on it.

I am as general purpose, regular person as you're going to find, in this world at least. I stare at a sentence like "In a functional programming language, everything is a function" and just blink. But a few months of blood and suffering to learn Nix/NixOS and I am managing the family's computers from a single repository and working faster than ever.

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1. paulryanrogers ◴[16 Nov 24 02:45 UTC] No.42153682[source]▶
What software do you add your family use on these machines? Do you need or use parental controls? Gaming?
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2. flkiwi ◴[16 Nov 24 03:32 UTC] No.42153910[source]▶
No and, currently, no, though Asahi has the accelerated graphics and an x86 compatibility layer sort of working now, so I imagine that will come soon enough.

The usuals are there, like Libreoffice, though I use browser-based MS Office too. Firefox and all my plugins Just Work.

I do a ton of photo work with Darktable, which I have come to appreciate after years of fighting it. Writing tools. Software development tools. It's arguably overpowered for my needs, but that also translates into 16-hour battery life (less than macos, but plenty), dead quiet, and a machine that does everything I ask without complaint.

For the kiddo, it's mainly about configuring and locking down the machine ... and getting it back up and running quickly if he breaks something. I've been using off-lease, years-old Thinkpads for him. No games to speak of, but he's more of an xbox kid anyway. I should probably do parental controls, but I have that largely handled at the DNS level anyway.