←back to thread

Word documents will be saved to the cloud automatically on Windows going forward

(www.ghacks.net)
310 points speckx | 10 comments | 27 Aug 25 10:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.981s | source | bottom
Show context
127 ◴[27 Aug 25 11:57 UTC] No.45038436[source]▶
Just recently moved onto Linux. Most likely not coming back when these kind of things just keep happening. I'm really surprised how well everything works. 120Hz HDR 4k Nvidia no issues on Wayland. Kubuntu 25.04/Plasma 6.3 is very nice. EasyEffects/PipeWire makes audio better compared to Windows. Steam/Proton/Wine works very well for games outside ones that have kernel level rootkits. Outside DualSense controller having issues connecting to bluetooth I can't think of anything that's worse than Windows while many things are better.
replies(18): >>45038518 #>>45038531 #>>45038590 #>>45038662 #>>45038663 #>>45038739 #>>45038836 #>>45039377 #>>45039614 #>>45039910 #>>45040312 #>>45040373 #>>45040391 #>>45041901 #>>45042557 #>>45045631 #>>45048348 #>>45050913 #
1. 0xffff2 ◴[27 Aug 25 17:36 UTC] No.45042557[source]▶
Meanwhile, I just tried 3 different flavors of Fedora last week and could not even get to the point where I could log in reliably. Never mind getting the handful of Windows-only apps I still rely on to work. I'm despairing that I may have to let Windows update itself to Win11 while I wait for my next hardware upgrade cycle to roll around so I can try to pick more compatible hardware.

If anyone has any recommendations for how to pick desktop components that will "just work" with Linux I'd love to hear them.

replies(3): >>45042819 #>>45043916 #>>45048366 #
2. neobrain ◴[27 Aug 25 17:56 UTC] No.45042819[source]▶
> If anyone has any recommendations for how to pick hardware that will "just work" with Linux I'd love to hear them.

Some vendors sell hardware with Linux preinstalled or specifically tested (besides the obvious ones like System76/Framework/Tuxedo, Dell provides an XPS flavor that comes with Ubuntu). You don't need to actually use the preinstalled distro, but buying such models ensures baseline support is solid and it sends a signal to vendors to continue ensuring so.

Then there's Apple's M1/M2 lineup, which provides the smoothest Linux experience you can have today (specific hardware features are not supported yet, the rest works extremely well!).

Other than that, the Arch wiki is typically a good resource that lists quirks of individual devices with Linux.

replies(3): >>45043343 #>>45043623 #>>45048601 #
3. trelane ◴[27 Aug 25 18:39 UTC] No.45043343[source]▶
At this point, I'm skeptical of any laptop that wasn't specifically designed for Linux.

I have very real doubts that any laptop can support both Linux and Windows well.

> specific hardware features are not supported yet, the rest works extremely well

I would not describe this as "working well," let alone the "smoothest Linux experience you can have today"

Especially compared to System76, which designs their laptops for Linux, customized the firmware for Linux, and ships with Linux already installed.

4. 0xffff2 ◴[27 Aug 25 19:02 UTC] No.45043623[source]▶
I guess I should have clarified, my only personal (i.e. not work supplied) computer is a mid-tower desktop, which I'm absolutely not buying pre-built. More looking for how I can tell if e.g. a specific motherboard is going to play nice with Linux or not.
replies(1): >>45044301 #
5. mhitza ◴[27 Aug 25 19:24 UTC] No.45043916[source]▶
I wonder what issues you've seen (error messages), and what hardware you're using. Fedora has been my goto distribution for more than 15 years. And aside from Nvidia, and Gnome, causing me trouble, it worked great[1]. Though I always install the Xfce spin.

For your Windows applications you can try to use winapps (windows vm behind the scenes, but tucked away from view) https://github.com/Fmstrat/winapps

[1] never update to the latest Fedora version, at least until a couple of months after release. If you don't want to be a beta tester. Yes sometimes they don't a good job with SELinux policies and you'll be dealing with annoying popup notifications from time to time. And yes, if you're using full disk encryption (via LUKS) you really want to enable some flags which Cloudflare engineering contributed back (but are not the defaults), otherwise stuttery desktop behaviour is possible.

replies(1): >>45055138 #
6. neobrain ◴[27 Aug 25 19:52 UTC] No.45044301{3}[source]▶
Oh, that's much simpler. Just buy AMD :)

More seriously, it's only the motherboard and the GPU that can be problematic here in the first place, isn't it? So that's far more manageable using websearch than laptops with their gazillion components. But then again I've only built a new PC once these last 10 years, so maybe I was just very lucky with my choice.

7. EasyMark ◴[28 Aug 25 04:23 UTC] No.45048366[source]▶
Your best bet is to get a brand that is well known to run Linux if you want it bad enough to get a new laptop. Dell business line, lenovo thinkpad, framework, system76 are all good platforms. If it's not working on your old laptop it's probably only one or two drivers, and you should probably try running with debian, endeavour, ubuntu and a few flavors that might have the driver you need working.
8. brewdad ◴[28 Aug 25 05:09 UTC] No.45048601[source]▶
My son hit a showstopper bug with Mac this week where it won't recognize and handle Yubikey 2FA. If anyone has a reliable workaround, I'd love to hear it so he can get off Windows for good.

M3 Macbook Air if it matters.

9. 0xffff2 ◴[28 Aug 25 18:05 UTC] No.45055138[source]▶
I don't think I ever saw an actual error message, just a lot of black screens in various configurations (e.g. switching KVM between machines, waking up from sleep) and lots of weird little glitches in Wayland. I know that my Nvidia 3090 needs to be swapped for an AMD GPU, but I'm not totally convinced that that will solve everything. Particularly the black screen on wake from sleep seems like it could/should be a mobo issue.
replies(1): >>45056736 #
10. mhitza ◴[28 Aug 25 20:33 UTC] No.45056736{3}[source]▶
I would recommend giving Xfce spin a try for comparison, and when encountering similar issues logging in a separate tty (ctrl-alt-F2 to F12) to check the logs for issues. (journalctl --boot=0, for current boot and journalctl --boot=-1, for previous boot, in case of crashes).