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In 2021 are there any linux distributions that succeed at delivering the basics of a 'mobile computing' use case for aftermarket installation on a laptop.

I consider a minimum 'mobile computing' baseline for reference is...

  • a laptop linux build with battery life equivalent to its preinstalled Windows build,
  • working wifi and bluetooth
  • closing the lid goes into hybrid sleep

There seem to be plenty of distros which will get laptops to boot and run off mains power, but every distro+hardware combination I have ever encountered has problems such as...

  • the device dies after 25% of its manufacturer stated battery life because some hardware is misconfigured by default, and it's not a focus of the distro to address this
  • closing the lid suspends but doesn't go into low power or hibernate leading to the loss of data within hours, and the distro doesn't support hibernation without extensive work
  • no power management is installed by default, and the distro doesn't have a 'canonical' way of configuring this
  • some component is actually impossible to configure for low power because of proprietary driver issues, and the distro doesn't have up to date information of devices or components which it CAN properly manage for mobile usage to guide installers

These are indications that those distros do not target 'mobile computing'. This makes a typical linux laptop radically worse than an equivalent MacBook in my experience.

I want to identify a distro which targets the 'mobile computing' case, and which is therefore likely to work out of the box without months of effort and likely failure.

I have no experience of the preinstalled Linux market, I don't know what level of mobile-computing support is reliable by default in any of those vendors' distro builds, and I can't realistically afford the 'Developer edition' price tags for preinstalled linux models, so I am looking for an distro that can be installed aftermarket.

Are there any examples of distro builds which fulfil the listed requirements?

BACKGROUND

In recent years I have relied on Chromebooks which have a linux kernel pre-configured correctly for their target hardware, and which will normally run for 10 hours straight. These fulfil the criteria on paper. They can run XWindows and linux apps via containerised crostini.

Unfortunately crostini is not really maintained and is currently unstable on my personal development machine, meaning it routinely experiences hard shutdowns when running or during sleep/hibernation, losing state.

Because of the composition of the closed ChromeOS ecosystem, there's no chance of uncovering or fixing those issues. I would like to find a FOSS alternative that meets the criteria of 'mobile computing'.

cefn
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  • I think you will have problems if your target is as wide as "Dell, IBM/Lenovo, HP, Sony, Toshiba", but if you focus on some particular {computer brand and model IDs}, chances are better with some of the main Linux distros or a custom re-spin. Maybe you can run a live system with a shellscript, that looks for certain hardware details and that way tell if you can expect that particular computer to work with your re-spin. - I am almost sure that you will have problems with your target for the battery life in a 2-3 year old computer unless the battery is replaced with a new one. – sudodus Oct 22 '21 at 10:51
  • Thanks, sudodus. I have no target. I would accept ANY vendor-maintained build. If there is a build X that meets these basics out of the box for machine Y, I aim to purchase machine Y. Right now I don't know what is build X or machine Y. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 11:21
  • Agreed, batteries degrade, but I have found e.g. default configurations of mainstream distros often have WASTEFUL power management (unidentifiable/unfixable). Meanwhile my Chromebook will last 10 or more hours running Debian in Crostini and I have never installed a driver, (but it has unfixable hard shutdowns). Hence trying to gather community insights about ANY maintained distro/build targeting mobile computing needs AND that works for some given hardware. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 11:21
  • By way of illustration, someone in the community might have direct experience that the Dell XPS Developer build of Ubuntu 20.04 is able to install on a DELL XPS 13 9370, CORE i7 8th Gen, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD with core hardware working out of the box and a 10 hour battery life. Right now, this is a wild guess. I would like to be led by people's actual experiences of what maintained builds are out there and what works. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 11:26
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    This doesn't seem opinion based. The OP is giving some very clear criteria and the question should be answerable. Now, whether we here at U&L are the best people to answer is indeed arguable. You might have a better chance at [hardwarerecs.se] since we don't really handle hardware recommendations here. – terdon Oct 22 '21 at 11:50
  • Yes, I was concerned this might be skating close to 'opinion'. I want to emphasise there's a really concrete and non-opinion-based difference between a laptop running windows and lasting for 10 hours on battery, and the same laptop running Ubuntu and lasting for 2 hours with default config. This is the kind of fact I am trying to establish. Is there a linux build that gets approximately the same battery life out of the box as the equivalent Windows build, with proven compatibility with any specific laptop hardware? – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 11:52
  • "Affordable" hardware is entirely opinion-based. That is not an adequate specification. – muru Oct 22 '21 at 11:54
  • I think we can agree that it would be worthwhile for you, @cefn, to start threads at a few different forums. It will increase your chances to find a good solution. And I wish that you can find a good solution using Linux :-). – sudodus Oct 22 '21 at 11:56
  • Thanks, @muru. Can you help me narrow it to your satisfaction? I included the reference case of a 2 year old used laptop for this reason. This was included because examples of preinstalled linux 'developer editions' are routinely twice the price of equivalent hardware. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 11:58
  • @cefn which *particular* 2-year-old laptop? Without a specific model, you're asking us to recommend models to you, and shopping recommendations are also off-topic. – muru Oct 22 '21 at 11:59
  • Unfortunately this is a domain in which unix-based software selection and actual hardware are directly coupled. I accept shopping recommendations are inappropriate. I will simply record 'used' hardware. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 12:03
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    The [Ubuntu Forums](https://ubuntuforums.org/) web site is probably a good place for discussions that might be considered 'opinion-based'. The Ubuntu Forums are not limited to discussions about Ubuntu and we can discuss hardware including brand names and models. – sudodus Oct 22 '21 at 12:13
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    The main problem with the question is that you are not asking for a fix, but for a general recommendation of a vendor approved setup and that isn't really on topic here. A question asking how to improve battery life on a specific machine would be fine, but here the answers would be "brand X model Y" and that isn't something that we deal with. – terdon Oct 22 '21 at 12:18
  • Moved to https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2468244 – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 12:21
  • I would also try [hardwarerecs.se]. Just be sure to read [What is required for a question to be 'high quality'?](https://hardwarerecs.meta.stackexchange.com/q/205) first to understand their guidelines. – terdon Oct 22 '21 at 12:24
  • I disagree that I want a recommendation. I am trying to identify if there exists any software product (a linux distro build) which fulfils some fairly strict criteria (successfully targeting mobile computing usage, especially power management). However, the fact that the target machine is an unbound variable seems to have triggered the asking for a 'sales recommendation' response and I don't want to argue even though I think it's mistaken. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 12:25
  • Oh. Then please edit to clarify because the question I see here is "are there any vendor-maintained linux distributions targeting used laptop hardware that would deliver 1,2,3,4?" So I take that as asking for laptops that come preconfigured with a vendor installed Linux. And there are many of those, but I have no idea how they perform. I can see why you're saying it isn't a hardware recommendation request, fair enough, but it is phrased as a clear sales recommendation. – terdon Oct 22 '21 at 12:28
  • Done some big surgery on the question, thanks for being open to this. – cefn Oct 22 '21 at 12:49
  • "Are there any examples of known-working builds and hardware that fulfil the listed requirements?" is still asking for shopping recommendations. – muru Oct 22 '21 at 14:46

1 Answers1

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One possible reference is the LVFS registry.

This seems to contain vendor-maintained firmware upgrades targeting specific hardware, and has integration with e.g. the fwupdmgr and GNOME Software utilities. https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devices/

If these are indeed maintained, and their corresponding firmware version and drivers are able to be auto-detected and updated within community-maintained distros, it may be that corresponding hardware will be able to be installed and work reliably using e.g. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. It's certainly an indicator of the vendor's intent to support Linux.

For example, I found an entry for a Dell XPS 13 9370 model but I am aware the 9370 model ships with various e.g. CPUs, wireless cards, display drivers, so there may still be a risk that one of the components of any particular 9370 laptop is actually not maintained for Linux.

cefn
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