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Ask Slashdot: Linux Distro For Hybrid Laptop?
Steve Parrish writes: I needed a new laptop and found a great deal on an Asus Transformer TP500L. It's one of the laptops where you can flip the screen back and use it as a tablet. I'd like to replace Windows 8.1, and I'm having a difficult time finding a Linux distro that will work on it. I'm familiar with Mint, SolydX, and older Ubuntu versions. I tried the latest Ubuntu with Unity and didn't like it, but the OS installed with only a few minor issues. Has anyone tried any other distros on a hybrid laptop with a touchscreen? I've used Linux for several years, but I'm no guru -- I'm not comfortable with the command line or other advanced workings. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Put Android on it (seriously), or Ubuntu, or a distro with KDE4 geared towards tablets.
The Linux userland support for tablets is really abysmal.
I have Ubuntu 14.04 running on an 'older' Acer aspire one (a pretty shitty machine, but actually works okay with SSD disk and Ubuntu).
. It's probably easiest to install, you get used to the Unity interface after awhile really. The things it doesn't install correctly I just googled with mostly easy fixes (apt-get this and that).
There are actually ways of not using Unity but the old Gnome interface for example. Again, Google is your friend (in this case).
Then "apt-get update && apt-get install xubuntu" or "apt-get update && apt-get install kubuntu"
Don't give up just because the default GUI blows chunks.
Let your uses dictate your choice. What are you going to use this device for?
Email? Browsing the web? Programming? Watching movies? Games? Making the best of your time in a subway? What other devices do you already have? Is this going to be your primary computer? Is power consumption a consideration? Etc.
I'm afraid that there is currently no good one-size-fits-all solution. Whatever you decide, it will have to be a compromise.
I don't know about transformers, but I have tried a lot of distros lately on Lenovo convertible laptops, and my best experience has definitely been with Fedora. The setup is almost as easy as Ubuntu and the touch screen works well.
I'm not a Debian fan and I typically pick CentOS, but I was surprised to see how Fedora is more polished and convenient.
lucm, indeed.
How about leaving Windows 8.1 on it? The device you have is the very device 8.1 was designed around. Linux will be clunky compared to it.
I have the exact same laptop model, and am currently running Ubuntu 14.10. Not saying it is perfect, but it runs well enough. The laptop is new enough that current drivers for the WiFi hardware are not included with Ubuntu (I have tried a few things, with marginal success, currently using a WiFi USB dongle). The touch pad (not screen, that works well off the bat) settings needed to be tweaked in order to be used as well. One other thing I have noticed is that sometimes during certain operations, the cursor and/or tooltips can flicker.
Overall, it runs well with those things being the only issues.
Link to wifi workaround:
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1796
Link to touchpad workaround:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=179238
Good Luck!
I just put Linux Mint 17.1 MATE 64-bit on a Lenovo IdeaPad S415. Everything just worked out of the box, and that includes both the multitouch touchpad and the touchscreen. Also the network, wifi, sound, and graphics. Everything.
http://notebookplanet.blogspot.com/2013/12/lenovo-ideapad-s415-specs.html
That IdeaPad is a year old. A year ago, no Linux that I tried worked out of the box with it; graphics didn't work. X always got confused by the fact that the machine has two graphics adapters (one built-in to the AMD APU chip, and a discrete one).
I've really been enjoying Linux Mint 17.1; it seems to be a big improvement over Linux Mint 16. You can easily and non-destructively try it, just by booting from a USB flash drive that has Linux Mint on it. (You can use UNetBootIn to make the USB flash drive.)
While I can't guarantee that Linux Mint 17.1 will work on your hardware, it worked great on mine so I think it's worth your time to try it out.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
A couple of people have mentioned success with Fedora. That doesn't surprise me because Fedora is supposed to have all the latest packages, with the latest in touchscreen features and the newest version of drivers for the newest hardware. However, balance that against the other side of the coin. Because Fedora is based on the latest and newest, they don't provide the type of long term support for older versions that Ubuntu and some others do.
If you choose Fedora, realise that pretty soon you'll have to decide to either a) upgrade to the next version of Fedora or b)stick with the versions you have of all the software. Don't plan on installing the 2017 version of a program on a 2014 version of Fedora. Plan to either upgrade the whole OS or upgrade nothing in a few years.
Ubuntu and CentOS are more about long term stability. The current version of CentOS will be getting updated packages by years from now, so you can keep using the same version of CentOS and update packages as needed.
The downside to the more long term stable distros is that they may not have the latest and greatest touch screen features - they'll have well-tested packages that have already proved themselves in Fedora for a year before they are added to CentOS (debranded RHEL).
Does anyone else remember a time when the rolling own your kernel modules for devices to work properly was considered advanced? And now almost everything works out of the box. I guess I'm getting old.
I remember when installing Debian GNU/Linux required either downloading a set of diskettes
You had diskettes? We used to dream of having a diskette. Why, we even considered using a Hollerith card reader to be a luxury. Most of the time we had to toggle in the boot instructions on a punch down block.
Are you able to boot from a USB stick? I found this tool quite useful for trying out a variety of live-linux iso's on a usb drive:
yumi
It provides some useful links to download what is needed to try out a whole bunch of different distros. You can also stack a number of different distros on the same usb drive and choose which one to boot from at startup.
Personally I have been using Debian for quite a few years now, gave ubuntu a brief try but wasn't too happy with it.
I have installed Mint on virtual recently and it really does look as good as people here have stated. Mint would be my final recommendation too.
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
Does anyone else remember a time when the rolling own your kernel modules for devices to work properly was considered advanced? And now almost everything works out of the box. I guess I'm getting old.
Thast was great when just getting the thing to work at all was the goal.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Exactly... it all depends on the audience. Early on the audience was a bunch of uber geeks who enjoyed playing with low level code and devices. Now the Linux audience are people who have everyday jobs to do and want an operating system and bundle of programs to help them do that. They don't care about building tools, just using them. And it gives them an option from MS and Apple products. Server or Desktop.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.