Jean_Lurk_Picard

Best Distro for Laptops?

https://lemmy.world/post/966426

Best Distro for Laptops? - Lemmy.world

I want to know your opinions on the best distro that is convenient for laptops. Main reason is I want to really optimize hardware performance and more specifically battery life for my University classes. I also want to try a tiling manager as they seem perfect for laptops. Things of note: * Convenience/Performance is key * My laptop is a Thinkpad E15 w/ 16 gb ram * On my home desktop I run Archlinux w/ Open box & no DE (I’ve been using Arch for years but haven’t used another distro since Ubuntu in highschool) * I will likely dual boot with Windows 10 for Office * I want to run a tiling manager * I don’t video game * I wont be using a mouse * I don’t necessarily want to use Arch, want to try something new that I don’t have to rely on AUR updates for certain software

Jul 3, 2023 at 12:36amWeb
Show threaddemesisxJul 3, 2023
🧌 NixOS 🧌
Show threadJean_Lurk_PicardJul 3, 2023
Wow these seems really cool, good job and thanks for your contribution! I am gonna check it out!
Show threaddemesisxJul 3, 2023
Glad to help! I’m merely standing on the shoulders of the giants before me.
Show threadLanthanaeJul 3, 2023

Also running NixOS on my laptop. It took longer to configure than most distros since I had to learn more, but now that I understand the ecosystem better I feel like I can tinker with it so much faster that I’d be able to otherwise.

Definitely a distro for more developer types who are fine figuring stuff out in their own, but if it works for you then it really works for you.

Show threadeviracJul 3, 2023
this really makes nixOs so good because I can just make others do the hard work of configing it for me and use it 😂
Show threaddemesisxJul 3, 2023
Unless you want to run a stake pool on Cardano, you’d have to fork and modify my config.
Show threadSteamymoomilkJul 9, 2023
YESS!!! I just switched from vanillaOS to Nix and its been a learning curve but if you screw up you just go back a generation and rebuild. And I haven’t had any package manager BS like ubuntu.
Show threadSmokeyDopeJul 3, 2023
Try the ‘tlp’ command on whatever distro you end up with. It really help with battery optimization. I’m a big Linux mint fan all of my laptops have always had it never had any compatability or driver issues with mint. Something I would maybe recommend is buying some external thinkpad batteries for the laptop off the internet. Else you can buy a big rechargeable car jumper batter pack with 12vdc car output and a car plug charger for laptop.
Show threadJustinJul 3, 2023

Do you really need to dual boot for office?

I’m doing fine compatibility wise with the OnlyOffice flatpak. If you have a school account with Microsoft perhaps the PWA for Word, etc. will meet your needs.

For a laptop distro with a good tiling DE out of the box you might enjoy Pop!_OS.

Show threadArtificialLinkJul 3, 2023
Popos. Surprised no one has said it.
Show threadRecursiveDescentJul 3, 2023
I liked using fedora Sway spin on my Dell XPS 13. Sway because it let’s you utilise the screen space well and fedora spin because it came working out of the box, you can use it in any distro really.
Show threadIncidentalIncidenceJul 3, 2023

specifically battery life for my University classes

try undervolting your CPU/GPU. That was the first thing I did when I got my thinkpad and it improved the thermals and battery life significantly.

Show threadCjkOvPDwQWJul 3, 2023
Hum, any guide you followed ?
Show threadIncidentalIncidenceJul 5, 2023
just the readme for throttled
GitHub - erpalma/throttled: Workaround for Intel throttling issues in Linux.

Workaround for Intel throttling issues in Linux. Contribute to erpalma/throttled development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadflontlocsJul 5, 2023
Any guide for r3 3200?
Show threadIncidentalIncidenceJul 5, 2023

I would use one of the tools listed in the archwiki; I have an intel chip so I've never used any myself.

Once you find a tool that can undervolt, usually the recommendation is to lower the voltage incrementally until you see unstable behavior and crashes, than raise it back to the last good voltage, then run a stress-test to verify.

Ryzen - ArchWiki

Show threadbinocryJul 3, 2023
pop os?
Show threadRaphaelJul 3, 2023

Yes, the best distro I always recommend is Fedora Silverblue, especially the KDE version: Fedora Kinoite. I hate this naming scheme though.

Sadly Fedora is controlled by Red Hat and it may get killed off soon.

Show threadSteamymoomilkJul 9, 2023
I used to enjoy fedora silver blue (daily drove on Lenovo t450) then I switches to Lenovo w540 I sniped of eBay and the DRIVERS ARE AWFUL FOR EVERY DISTRO. Tried manjaro, arch, gaurdua, Debian, Ubuntu its 22.4, Ubuntu 12 and fedora silver blue, and fedora the I tried nix and got the GPU working but the driver was so old I settled on windows (even though it pains me to use).
Show threadPlasmaKJul 3, 2023
Why not something like Debian Testing?
Show threadcoolmojoJul 3, 2023
If you are familiar with Arch, you can use arch on your laptop. You can consider Garuda Linux which is arch with a graphical installer, preconfigured DE and WM plus confirmation and maintenance tools. They also have a PacMan repository called Chaotic-AUR: a repository with huge selection of precompiled air packages. They have - among others - Wayfire, Sway, i3WM and Qtile editions. You can try them out from a live usb and see what you think.
Show threadVirtualBriefcaseJul 4, 2023

My understanding is that it’s not really the disrto, but the software running on it that’d effect battery life and performance. Both Debian and Arch can come pretty bare bones on a blank install (Ubuntu and derivatives tend to come with a fair bit of stuff bundled out of the box).

I’d personally reccomend trying a Debian installation (I’d likely say use stable, but testing or sid are also options if you need quicker updates and don’t care for flatpak/snap/appimage/distrobox). The installer plays nice with Windows, and you can skip installing a desktop during installation then CLI install a tiling window manager to really minimize ‘bloat’.