Lobste.rs thread I find this kind of interesting because I'm using an arm64 computer (a Thinkpad X13s) as my daily driver (I'm literally typing this on it right now) and… none of his complaints...
I find this kind of interesting because I'm using an arm64 computer (a Thinkpad X13s) as my daily driver (I'm literally typing this on it right now) and… none of his complaints resonate. I think his problem is really with trying to daily drive an Ampere processor, which is neither designed nor intended to be used in a desktop system.
As a point-by-point comparison:
I'm running vanilla Debian stable with Debian's kernel (I'm using the one from backports, but the stable kernel works fine as well). At this point, no shenanigans are required to run at least Debian on this device. (Some shenanigans are still required to install it, however.)
The single-core performance of the Snapdragon 8cx gen3 CPU in this thing is… fine? It's not noticeably slow, and beyond that, I really don't care. In terms of gross CPU, performance is roughly comparable between this thing and my Ryzen 5 2600 desktop for compiling Rust code. Because the laptop is fanless, you will get thermal throttling if you try to run the CPU at 100% for an extended period, though.
The integrated Adreno GPU… works? To be fair, I have made no attempts to really exercise it (that's what the desktop is for).
It's definitely not perfect. There's no real sleep mode (the kernel parks all the threads and shuts down at least some peripherals, but the CPU is still running; it'll get something like 24hr on battery in this mode. But this doesn't really have anything to do with ARM, some recent-model x86 systems are also defective in this manner); integration with the system firmware is kind of limited; the wireless card is weirdly flaky. Also I have complaints about the industrial design of the laptop, which you can read about at length if you really want. But I'm definitely sold on the concept of a fanless, efficient ultraportable, which is at best really hard to swing with x86.
What wireless card is that? I had a Lenovo laptop that came with a RealTek on that was very flaky - open the machine and found it's just a little card I could swap for an Intel one and it's been...
What wireless card is that? I had a Lenovo laptop that came with a RealTek on that was very flaky - open the machine and found it's just a little card I could swap for an Intel one and it's been smooth sailing. $20 well spent
It's actually an Atheros (a QCNFA765, specifically), and so I kind of suspect a hardware issue over software support, but who knows. It hasn't been bad enough for me to try to replace it, and...
It's actually an Atheros (a QCNFA765, specifically), and so I kind of suspect a hardware issue over software support, but who knows. It hasn't been bad enough for me to try to replace it, and Thinkpads (even x86 ones) have a bad habit of putting hardware whitelists in the firmware, so a swap may not be straightforward.
Interesting to see this saga come to a close. Judging by @whbboyd's comment, it seems like a good chunk of the issues they were facing came from the fact that they were using a server/datacenter...
Interesting to see this saga come to a close. Judging by @whbboyd's comment, it seems like a good chunk of the issues they were facing came from the fact that they were using a server/datacenter CPU rather than a mainstream one. I respect them for putting up with it for so long though. Having to recompile things that often would just drive me mad.
Lobste.rs thread
I find this kind of interesting because I'm using an arm64 computer (a Thinkpad X13s) as my daily driver (I'm literally typing this on it right now) and… none of his complaints resonate. I think his problem is really with trying to daily drive an Ampere processor, which is neither designed nor intended to be used in a desktop system.
As a point-by-point comparison:
It's definitely not perfect. There's no real sleep mode (the kernel parks all the threads and shuts down at least some peripherals, but the CPU is still running; it'll get something like 24hr on battery in this mode. But this doesn't really have anything to do with ARM, some recent-model x86 systems are also defective in this manner); integration with the system firmware is kind of limited; the wireless card is weirdly flaky. Also I have complaints about the industrial design of the laptop, which you can read about at length if you really want. But I'm definitely sold on the concept of a fanless, efficient ultraportable, which is at best really hard to swing with x86.
What wireless card is that? I had a Lenovo laptop that came with a RealTek on that was very flaky - open the machine and found it's just a little card I could swap for an Intel one and it's been smooth sailing. $20 well spent
It's actually an Atheros (a QCNFA765, specifically), and so I kind of suspect a hardware issue over software support, but who knows. It hasn't been bad enough for me to try to replace it, and Thinkpads (even x86 ones) have a bad habit of putting hardware whitelists in the firmware, so a swap may not be straightforward.
Nasty bug, but I'd love to see
make -j80on the kernel happen on that thing, maybe even on a weekly basis :)Biggest criticism of this article series: no
htopscreenshot! ;)Interesting to see this saga come to a close. Judging by @whbboyd's comment, it seems like a good chunk of the issues they were facing came from the fact that they were using a server/datacenter CPU rather than a mainstream one. I respect them for putting up with it for so long though. Having to recompile things that often would just drive me mad.