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Steve sounds like a Windows user, always thinking of Linux back when the Pentium Pro was the shitz.

Compile from source? Fark that. ;)
 
I'm gonna be a little more serious: I strongly advise any PC owner to have a Linux bootable media option available and up to date...and HANDY...for those times when Windows melts down on you. Linux bootable media, whatever the distro, can help you get back up and running, or at least allow you another way to get online (most of the time) and get to the places where you can scream, plead, or beg for help.

Linux bootable options have saved my butt at least half-a-dozen times in the last few years. There are other ways back when you've suddenly found yourself cast into the darkness (off the web)...but there are none as cheap certainly, and not many as easily accessed.

So don't knock it until you have to try it (because your other options are gone).

----

In my most recent case, Linux Mint 18.3 saved my bacon, installed onto a pair of USB sticks. It copied VERY quickly, got me online in just a few minutes, and...this wasn't always the case with Linux, but seems to be increasingly true of recent versions (in my experience)...everything just...worked. The headphones (which were my only audio option, because I had to move the PC downstairs, away from the speakers and speaker equipped monitor and next to the router)...worked perfectly right off the bat. Took me five days to get a replacement set for those working in Windows, AFTER finally doing the command line thing to get Windows 10 working again at all.

I type this tonight back up and running in Win10...but it wouldn't have been possible to be here again this quickly without the Linux (Mint) options.

Just sayin'......
 
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kekewons said:
I'm gonna be a little more serious: I strongly advise any PC owner to have a Linux bootable media option available and up to date...and HANDY...for those times when Windows melts down on you. Linux bootable media, whatever the distro, can help you get back up and running, or at least allow you another way to get online (most of the time) and get to the places where you can scream, plead, or beg for help.

Linux bootable options have saved my butt at least half-a-dozen times in the last few years. There are other ways back when you've suddenly found yourself cast into the darkness (off the web)...but there are none as cheap certainly, and not many as easily accessed.

So don't knock it until you have to try it (because your other options are gone).

----

In my most recent case, Linux Mint 18.3 saved my bacon, installed onto a pair of USB sticks. It copied VERY quickly, got me online in just a few minutes, and...this wasn't always the case with Linux, but seems to be increasingly true of recent versions (in my experience)...everything just...worked. The headphones (which were my only audio option, because I had to move the PC downstairs, away from the speakers and speaker equipped monitor and next to the router)...worked perfectly right off the bat. Took me five days to get a replacement set for those working in Windows, AFTER finally doing the command line thing to get Windows 10 working again at all.

I type this tonight back up and running in Win10...but it wouldn't have been possible to be here again this quickly without the Linux (Mint) options.

Just sayin'......
Click to expand...

Just got home from a holiday friends and family gathering. Or course some people bring their tech problems when they know I'm there. Nice mix this time, an iPad, Android phone and cheapo Windows 10 laptop. The iPad and Android phone issues were "I forgot my password" issues and gee that's fun but got them resolved. The Windows 10 laptop issue was technically much more severe. It happens with small storage devices and Windows 10 can update because it's out of space. The trick to that is just running a Media Creation Tool setup from a big enough USB drive. Very slow but actually took less real time than the password issues. Was kind of impressed that full Office ran as well as it did on a 2 GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC Bay Trail Atom Lenovo 100s. I can't see anyone that doesn't even know how to recover a password being saved by a bootable Linux USB drive. And that's easy enough to with Windows as well: https://www.disk-partition.com/features/windows-to-go-creator.html.

If a bootable Linux USB device saved your bacon then awesome. How that would actually save a non-technical person in the real world I have no idea. Anyone that knows how to do that probably can strip a PC to parts anyway.

I agree that Linux is better at recognizing hardware. That it just works is depends very much on what it is. High DPI under Ubuntu 18.04 has been all over the damned place. Granted the device is a Surface Pro 3 but the odd thing is that high-DPI and Intel CPU/iGPU are like pretty common hardware. Ubuntu actually gets the accelerometer, I can rotate the screen and that works, but then all kinds of video tearing. And even the Type Cover and touchpad work. Though no precision support, fair enough, that one Windows 10 proprietary.
 
Hey pro tip keep a Linux bootable around for recovery purposes.....

Que Heatle.... But but but that bootable oh shit stick won't have great hiDPI support.

LOL Missing the point to prostate himself before MS, he just can't help it.
 
ChadD said:
Hey pro tip keep a Linux bootable around for recovery purposes.....

Que Heatle.... But but but that bootable oh shit stick won't have great hiDPI support.

LOL Missing the point to prostate himself before MS, he just can't help it.
Click to expand...

LOL! I actually do listen to Linux folks. This is far from the first time I've heard about a Linux Live USB device being a god send. I've had one for however long they've been around and keep one or two along with my Windows installers and To Go USBs. Took them all with me this weekend because I knew I was going to see some busted devices. In the case of the Windows machine that wouldn't updated because of space problems, run Windows Home/Pro installer with space to handle the install. Took like three hours but worked perfectly with little effort.

I'm not a PC tech but I've dealt with a good amount of Windows devices over the years. A Linux Live CD can boot a machine very fast with basic capabilities but not really sure how it fixes a Windows install so broken is doesn't boot. It could help get files off a machine.
 
ChadD said:
But but but that bootable oh shit stick won't have great hiDPI support.
Click to expand...

In fairness to myself, I've spent several hours on this subject and it's just fucking all over the place. Mouse cursor resizing itself between some apps and shell, some apps like LibreOffice, GIMP, Krita working fine, Steam and Spotify need a microscope to use though they work fine otherwise. Indeed Spotify on Linux is picking up recently played items and that's been broken in Windows app for me across several devices for months now.
 
heatlesssun said:
In fairness to myself, I've spent several hours on this subject and it's just fucking all over the place. Mouse cursor resizing itself between some apps and shell, some apps like LibreOffice, GIMP, Krita working fine, Steam and Spotify need a microscope to use though they work fine otherwise. Indeed Spotify on Linux is picking up recently played items and that's been broken in Windows app for me across several devices for months now.
Click to expand...

Out of all your issues, Spotify is about the only application I haven't tried and I've had none of these issues on a 'desktop PC' with a 4k monitor running Ubuntu Mate 18.04 HiDPI mode enabled. I think there comes a time when you have to admit, your issues are all based on the Microsoft device you're trying to run Linux on. If they are a reference device, as you claim they are, they're a Microsoft reference device, not a reference device in general. However I think that to claim that a Surface is in any way some reference device at all is simply the result of an overactive imagination.

I personally love 1920x1200 IPS monitors and use them on all my PC's except one, the 16:10 aspect ratio is more suited to PC use than the 16:9 ratio and the extra height comes in very handy. Using a quality IPS panel gives you a very sharp and colorful image and by using a tried and proven resolution you suffer from none of the HiDPI issues that every OS struggles with.

My 4k monitor is sitting on the floor behind me at the moment, dormant. I'm not quite sure just what to do with it at this stage as I'm really not that impressed with the resolution in general considering the issues it brings to the table and really have no use for it as I by far prefer the use of multiple monitors at 1920x1200.

Not taking a stab at you, but do not reply telling me how you use your PC or any of your Surface products. I've heard it time and time again and I'm certainly not interested in hearing it even once more unless such discussion is really warranted, which I'm certain it won't be.
 
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4K isn't the equivalent of high DPI. A Surface Pro 3 screen has a third higher DPI than a 27" 4K screen.
 
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