I'm nearing a year of using this Linux laptop as a 50% daily driver and I really have to say…

Linux's quality of life on an ordinary laptop is *embarrassing*.

Like, I'm able to use it. But it is embarrassing. No normal person would put up with the garbage desktop Linux puts me through. I put up with it because I'm stubborn and ideologically motivated.

I see problems including, but not limited to

- When I close the laptop lid and open it again, a shocking percentage of the time it does not wake up and I have to force power it off ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-6.8/+bug/2064595 , ongoing since April)
- Every time I briefly brush my fingers against the screen, GNOME enters an entirely broken "touchscreen mode" in which it pretends my keyboard and mouse don't exist. It fixes itself after an unpredictable amount of time ranging from 5 to 30 seconds. Can't be disabled

Bug #2064595 “AMD Rembrandt & AMD Rembrandt-R: Suspend hangs sys...” : Bugs : linux-oem-6.8 package : Ubuntu

[Impact] On some OEM platforms observed bad suspend occurs on lid close and power LED stays on without normal sleep behavior at that time. Needs to call GFXOFF to the right state during the suspend stage. https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/ca299b4512d4b4f516732a48ce9aa19d91f4473e Closes: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/amd/-/issues/3132 Fixes: ab4750332dbe [Test case] test that s2idle works after installing the update [Regression potential] minimal

Launchpad

- Firefox can't show image previews when selecting attachments (because of "security", somehow)

- Often, when I direct a program to open a new window, GNOME refuses to let the program do it, and instead opens the window at the back of the stack and shows a top-of-screen notification letting me know there's a new window (I guess also "security")

- Just fresh weird stuff happening at random intervals. Since last week, when I right click in Firefox, I can't click on the menu. It's happening RN

I can use even a very poorly functioning OS because the OS, to me, is just a thin support system that allows a web browser to run. Linux is not succeeding well at this very minimal goal.
Note: I assume that I will get responses to these posts (okay, I was GOING to say that, but I have got two such responses so far, I didn't even get to finish typing the thread) saying I wouldn't have problems if I didn't use Ubuntu. *I don't believe you!* Using a different distro means yanking an arm on a slot machine. MAYBE I get a functioning system. MAYBE it gets worse! And the cost of *trying* is a few days of intensive work and maybe screwing up my daily-use computer.
Someday Cosmic DE will get released, and I will switch to Pop!_OS, and then all the problems on my laptop will be because Cosmic DE is an unfinished product rather than because GNOME is a finished product which made design decisions I disagree with, and I will be Happy because the problems with my laptop will be happening for the correct reasons

@mcc I didn't see it in the thread, but what laptop are you using?

(Not that it's relevant to your case, but I've used Ubuntu on Thinkpads -- never, ever the latest model, however -- for a long time with good results.)

@dangillmor @mcc I'm running Linux on a Lenovo Carbon X1 and maybe one time out of five if I sleep it when not connected to external power/monitor, it won't wake up and I have to power-cycle. I've been assuming it's a Lenovo problem; I've been happily using desktop/laptop Linux for a quarter century (though not with gnome or wayland) and all the non-Lenovo machines could wake up reliably.
@akkana @dangillmor There was a regression in the 6.8.x kernel series somewhere around April and that's what's causing me problems now.
@akkana @dangillmor But ofc sleep/wake problems can have lots of causes and show up in a lot of OSes/configurations, some people seem to have problems with this even on Windows. I have learned the root problem is something called "S0ix", but apparently S0ix chipsets are all you can buy now