As the title says, I am currently learning to be a programmer, and my tablet does not suffice for the job.

I have already finished a small MEAN-Stack application for learning Typescript, learned some Java syntax (I expect nothing more exciting than a sorting algorithm, but exam language is Java, so…) and the next stop will most likely be plain vanilla C to learn about handling hardware.

Windows I hate with a passion, and I don’t know squat about Macs, so I am thinking of getting myself a decently sized laptop for a sensible Linux install.

History (I started my Liux journey with SuSE Linux 4.4.1, way back when) taught me to be very wary of driver issues on laptops, so I thought I could ask you for recommendations that play fair with Linux.

(as an aside, if I could play GuildWars2 on it in the evening and attach my two big monitors when at home, that would be super cool)

  • @[email protected]
    3•1 year ago

    I disagree with your take on the framework. The inferior build quality alone is not a good enough reason to say they aren’t worth it over an X1 Carbon or XPS. Neither of those offer easy repairability and the XPS has atroucious IO.

    I use a Framework and have run it primarily using Plasma Wayland and Hyprland. Both of these have had fantastic HiDPI support. Both can scale Wayland and Xwayland apps seperately so that you do not have any fuzziness and both support Wayland’s newest fractional scaling protocol.

    If you’re running a modern distro (one with good wayland support), you should have no problem with hidpi. The more recent comments in the thread you linked support this.

    • @jg1i
      1•1 year ago

      I bought (and returned) a Framework laptop like 1 or 2 years ago. I ran Arch Linux with GNOME on Wayland. At the time, the GNOME apps that I used worked without any configuration. Another portion of apps half worked after setting experimental flags. These apps still had some fuzzy text or parts of the app scaled weirdly. Finally, a few unfortunate apps did not work and would crash on startup when using Wayland env vars.

      Linux can technically do everything, yes, but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna go well or be easy.

      If OP is a student and a Linux newbie who wants the least amount of trouble, then I stand by the XPS and X1 recommendations. With the XPS or X1, OP can pick any distro, use any apps, and everything will work. With a Framework, OP will have to pick the “right” distro, the “right” apps and figure out and manage configuration.

      Recent comment, 14 March 2023:

      I think some of this does depend on distro. On Fedora I have no blurry text, but on Ubuntu it is horrendous. I have not had time to dig into why. I.e. whether it has to do with aliasing, choice of font, base font size, etc

      Still seems like a problem to me. That thread was started in 2021 and years later people are still trying to figure out how to not have blurry text. That thread wouldn’t exist if they offered a supported display.

      P.D. I do like the Framework concept. If they just offered a better supported display, I’d be on board.