Linux Laptop

For the first time, ever, I’ve been using Linux on raw hardware for a couple months. The experience has been utterly boring and wonderful.

Sometime in the 1990s, I upgraded a desktop computer from something like Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. The result was… not good. Some hardware wasn’t working well. I remember cursing Plug and Play. I figured out some things, but that computer never was fully right. Eventually I replaced it.

That experience left me feeling, I’d rather do any major operating system upgrade as a result of buying a new computer.

There was a time when many Windows laptops didn’t “just work” when it came to things like power management or wireless networking. Eventually that improved. But then Linux had a similar reputation for many years. And I really don’t want to spend time futzing with basics.

My previous dalliances with Linux include:

• Using Linux in a Virtual Box VM. Generally works, maybe slowly.

• Using crouton on a Chomebook Pixel. For awhile, this seemed like the best of both worlds, to me. Rely on Chrome OS to have decent drivers for power, networking, trackpad.

• Using Windows Subsystem for Linux. This is actually what led me to go all-in. Around New Year’s, I got a Windows laptop with the idea that I’d test Racket Mode on Windows, that way. I got side-tracked by playing with WSL. Then I got frustrated by WSL support for Emacs getting worse not better over time.

About three months ago, I followed this guide: “Installing Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 6”.

Since then, I’ve hit a few “milestones” where I expected I might have my first bad experience:

• Suspend/resume? It worked.

• Connecting an external 4K monitor via a USB-C cable? Both displays working fine. Laptop getting charged.

• Printing? It found the driver for the printer and printed. Yawn.

Maybe it’s beginner’s luck. Maybe I’m in the honeymoon phase. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.