Linux on Laptops suck - and it's time to do something about that!

It's been about 20 years since I installed Linux on my Toshiba Libretto notebook... back then the machine was a tiny powerhouse sporting an AMD 486 DX4 75 MHz CPU, 20 MB RAM, 270 MB hard disk, and a 6.1" TFT display. I have recently installed Linux Mint 18 on an Alienware 13 R2 machine thousands of times faster - the specs blow it away. But you know - Linux still sucks. The fact that you still have to tinker with the thing endlessly to get it to function properly on a fairly standard machine speaks volumes about how, in 20 years, the Linux community (or the vendors supporting the ecosystem) can't seem to get it together enough to handle basic laptop functions like suspend and resume or mouse integration. Closing the lid - and re-opening should never require a hard power off / on recovery under any circumstances. I don't blame the Linux Mint team - but I do hold vendors who profit from Linux to account for not doing more (such as supporting the Linux Foundation) to make the situation better.

Interestingly - back in the Libretto days, getting SuSE Linux running on the thing was a minor miracle. It was an opportunity to earn the guru merit badge and impress your friends. It was weeks of learning esoteric xconfig tuning tricks, networking with friends, and performing the voodoo surrounding GCC. Display, mouse, sound, networking - every component needed to be separately dealt with. I can't count how many times I'd compile a kernel with this patch or that, hacking port or IRQ specs into code - fingers crossed - hoping that under the exact right set of circumstances it could be coaxed into booting, starting x, and running a display manager. Back in those days - I had the time for that sort of thing. These days, I'm 20 years older and don't want to spend my golden years compiling kernels OR installing Windoze. I have less time left and a different set of merit badges to earn. I do promise to drive faster as I age.

Today, when you load a laptop with a recent Linux distribution it teases you into thinking it works... before you get spanked. No one compiles kernels anymore because it takes too much time and breaks compatibility with vendor supplied applications - we seem to have traded kernel compilations for module compiles - but clearly that quote from Mr. Montgomery Scott in Star Trek III - the Search for Spock remains as true today as it's ever been in the past - "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." When my Alienware 13 R2 works under Linux Mint - it puts Win 10 to shame. It's faster, handles a higher workload, doesn't lock up (unless you close the lid), and in every operational aspect - appeals to both power user and n00b. It did however take three days of tinkering to get the trackpad working... grrr...

Sadly - machines are devolving into dumbed down appliances like the Chromebook (or anything sporting Windows 10). The future seems to be "everything" as a service and that's sucking up a ton of focus, innovation and money that could, in my opinion, be better spent on device support engineering.

Additionally, I never asked for a future where I rent my personal computing experience from Amazon, Microsoft, Google or anyone else. While I am frustrated - I'm hopeful that I can continue to load an unencumbered operating system on a piece of hardware that I own. (which isn't sending my location, fingerprints, camera images or other personal data to some cloud based data center) That I can buy (or create) the software I need - and store my data on systems that don't claim rights over my intellectual property. But really, I think more than anything - I just want to open the damn machine and have it work like it did when I closed the lid. I guess I need to wait another 20 years... (comments falling into the "should have bought a Mac will be deleted - I'm writing this on my Mac...)  :)