I know it. I’m literally typing this on a Raspberry Pi. I used to run Arch Linux on it, but Arch Linux on ARM has severe issues. It’ll literally go months with no package updates.
One day I’ll get brave and switch it to Gentoo. Just need to put together a build server first.
I have had great success running NixOS on my Pi. You can build software on your main computer and remote deploy with SSH :)
Does the cross compilation work fine? I’ve had some issues in the past building on macOS for x64.
I want to quit my day job so I can focus on ARM power mode support in Linux
ARM is kinda lacking the hardware to motivate developers, I think. Raspberry Pi generally has good support for server stuff, but I don’t think you could really justify desktop use before maybe 2019 (release of rpi 4 with much faster CPU and more RAM), and Android devices are generally really locked down.
Never mind the absolute ocean of ARM SoCs, not to mention Apple’s silicon
What we need are more ARM PCs with UEFI and mainline Linux drivers. That way they would run a generic OS image just like an x86 PC.
Most ARM PCs require an image built specifically for that system. That makes them a real pain the ass to work with.
And each of these SoCs requires people, ideally the manufacturer, to actually put in the work to make the hardware work on Linux. So many SBCs with severely outdated kernels …
I suppose ARM really missed the mark by not establishing a universal power framework.
I wonder if my PC counts as low end by now. I reckon I got a few more years until then.
Hand to God I wish I got into Linux 6 years ago before I bought my current gaming laptop. I would have been perfectly glad to keep rocking my old Lenovo, I loved that little beast of a laptop.
dat ssd is doing a lot of the liftin here hehe
Even without the SSD the things only really slow down when you’re booting or loading up an application for the first time. Linux’s RAM caching is really nice.
TBH most day-to-day stuff still works well on my 12yo mid-tier laptop. I feel pretty good about upgrading its RAM from 8 to 16 last year, mostly to keep up with my multi-tab webbrowsing habits.
Yup, i have a mid 2012 mbp with linux mint xfce and it runs great. My biggest complaint is the hardware support. Had to add a usb wifi dongle because broadcom chip was constantly dropping and the sleep wake takes forever and sometimes it wont sleep. But otherwise runs like a champ. I do kinda wish it would die so i could get a laptop without the sleep/wake issues.
I run a 1 year newer mbp with fedora and my main drag is standby voltage. Even if the laptop is shutdown the battery will drain (batt 2 yrs old). Other than that, it still does everything you could possibly ask of it.
How much runtime do you get out of the battery? Mine still has the original, runs about 1 - 1.5hrs.
Yeah bro 12yo refurbished MSI laptop with Mint+Plasma keeps chugging along
I pretty much only make it do documents and YouTube but still
