I’ve been running Linux for 14 months now and loving it.

My laptop is a HP Victus gaming pc, which is bulky and heavy, but Its powerfull.

I find myself laying on the couch more and developing from there half the time or doing laptop stuff more and more from the couch.

Lugging it to work and back is also not great.

In October I can buy a new laptop through work and write off half the price against tax, honestly I want everything a mac book offers.

Good solid build quality, not plastic. No GPU needed, just light weight, long battery life, shouldn’t heat up too much, good trackpad etc.

But fuck apple and their walled garden, so I want something Linux.

ARM is perfect for this, but does Linux play nice with it? What are my options?

Or do I just go with x86 and compromise

  • TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    A phone! That honestly changes everything.

    I haven’t really messed with any distros well suited for a touch-screen interface (and no keyboard/mouse)… except Ubuntu Touch. I’ve got it on my Google Pixel 3a.

    I’m pretty happy with it. But it’s not like a Linux desktop at all. It’s not really set up to run, say, Libreoffice or Gimp or whatever. I’ve only used the built-in browser and haven’t tried any of the other browsers available, but the built-in one is very “mobile-brower-app-y” rather than anything like a desktop browser… It’s got apps and an app store like Android/iOS has apps and an app store. The ecosystem around it is way more open than either Android or iOS. (Like, you don’t have to register with anyone to side-load things.) And the kernel is Linux, not Android or anything. (There is a way with Waydroid to run Android apps on Ubuntu Touch, but I haven’t tried it.)

    There are other Linux-based OSs meant for phones like PostmarketOS, but another thing about the phone distros is that device support is going to be very specific. You’ll want to buy one of the very few devices that is well supported by the distro you want.

    So, whether Linux is good for you definitely depends on what you’re wanting more specifically.

    • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
      1·
      2 hours ago

      Let me rephrase. I could call on a dumb phone flip phone and use the pc nuc or pi for everything else. Similar to a GPD type device even. It doesn’t have to be fully touch based but sometimes the way you interact with a device it changes the speed and workflow. My main reason is backups honestly. I can’t stand phones and prefer device to device backups. It be a do it all device. I am just tired of phones. Even graphene lacks so many options, software, And most importantly good backups. Its truly only a security OS. That’s it. I was thinking like a NUC box with a screen attached to the side and be able to attach it to any size display on the go use the small built in. But at home I could watch media on a large TV. Think of a pc in a bag. I don’t like clamshell laptops. 2 in 1s are meh they really don’t deploy good, wobbly, shit battery, ive tried several.

      It would be nice to transition from a built in small screen to say a mounted large Tv or screen. Because doing intricate content or PDF files for like schematics say on a car engine is difficult on a phone but a laptop is not so portable. I’m really eyeing a GPD type device. Next issue is portable power. I was planning to use a 30k mah usbc battery pack. I’m unsure if I’m explaining my idea right. English isn’t the best.

      Edit: think of it as a pc that’s versatile. A laptop on the go doesn’t sit good, travel, its not a working mans device. I do mechanic work for cars. I need a portable mini work horse. I can keep the keyboard and things are no issue. Just worried that ARM based devices might not have the processing power to say watch movies, sail the high seas, internet research on engines, you see some tasks can be more in depth than others. I want my gaming rig to just be my gaming rig. I tried a Dell laptop but the battery running mint only lasts 3 or 4 hours. This is poor. I need 12 to 24 hours of use capable. Which is why I would rather use Power packs. I am looking at the intel N100 series device. Then keyboard and mouse and small car radio type double din display you see? When I need a larger screen I use an 86 inch TV at home. Versatile you see. The phone is poor is many aspects.