this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How Ubuntu Linux snuck into high-end Dell laptops (and why it's called 'Project Sputnik') (www.zdnet.com)
submitted 1 year ago by pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Today, the Dell XPS-13 with Ubuntu Linux is easily the most well-known Linux laptop. Many users, especially developers -- including Linus Torvalds -- love it. As Torvalds recently said, "Normally, I wouldn't name names, but I'm making an exception for the XPS 13 just because I liked it so much that I also ended up buying one for my daughter when she went off to college."

So, how did Dell -- best known for good-quality, mass-produced PCs -- end up building top-of-the-line Ubuntu Linux laptops? Well, Barton George, Dell Technologies' Developer Community manager, shared the "Project Sputnik" story this week in a presentation at the popular Linux and open-source community show, All Things Open.

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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 38 points 1 year ago (25 children)

Ubuntu needs to stop being a standard. There are better alternatives at this point

[–] bort@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

such as?

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Linux mint, Fedora, openSUSE and tons of other options

[–] tuhriel@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah and there is a big issue. I would place myself as quite tech savvy, but last time i looked for a distrobI got overwhelmed... Good thing: there are questionnaires that lead you to a good enough suggestion... Back then it proposed mint

But then the next question: which desktopp environment?

I installed on my huawei matebook and it worked okay-ish, but it had one dealbreaker: even with a lot of tinkering there was no way I got standby or hibernation to work. Which is a must for me...

So I removed mint and installed kubuntu... Now standby and even hibernate work (kind of) But it totally craps up when I try to use my external monitor together with the internal screen... Even a lot of terminal tinkering later I don't have it working... Oh and the speakers still crap now

There is a lit of information around how to maybe get stuff working, but a lot of it requires a lot of upfront knowledge:

  • a lot of questions are answered with "yeah, enter that in your terminal" without any explanation what exactly it does (which is bad in two ways in my opinion)
  • a lot of official documentation doesn't explain very well what the configs do and what syntax etc. is expected
  • there is often a lot of elitism around that really pushes away newcomers

EmI do love tinkering, but sometimes it's really frustrating even for me. No way I could my GF to try that out..

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