Comment by Athas
8 hours ago
I'm surprised to hear that about laptops. When I first switched to Linux in 2003, laptops were supposedly a somewhat iffy thing. When I got my first laptop in 2007, I had to do a bit of research, but ultimately ended up with a ThinkPad where everything worked fine, modulo the need for proprietary graphics drivers as was common at the time. Since then, I don't think I've ever stressed about whether a laptop would be properly supported. I am easily believe that maybe some things are a little better in Windows (maybe automatic firmware update, or the CPU governor), but which laptops are "not very well supported" by Linux these days?
I never trust people saying "it works well". Heck, even Canonical lies in their certification program, since they may test with custom distros that they may not release (yeah, it's this crazy).
My last machine, according to reviewers, worked "well" on Linux. After I purchased it, I've found that the battery lasts half of what it lasts in Windows. And other stuff.
No doubt that there are 100% compatible machines (Thinkpads, typically), but again, it limits choice.
In the mid to 2000's at IBM, many of us developers and even quite a few regular business people in marketing ran Desktop Linux on Thinkpads, it worked extremely well. I assume they still do.
Does Linux support hibernate or suspend well, 30 years after both technologies have been introduced?
I don't know what "well" means, but I suspend my laptop whenever I move it around, travel, etc. I used hibernation a lot many years ago, where it worked as perfectly as I would expect.
Not even Windows hibernates or suspends reliably. Apple seems to be the only vendor that can get this right.
I've been using hibernate on Windows for the last... 15 years? And I don't remember ever having a problem. Lenovo and HP laptops.
Hibernate and Suspend never worked well for me or my coworkers or relatives when we tried it on Windows.
I never understood the point of hibernate/suspend. Just turn off your laptop when you are done.