Convince me to Linux

Hello.

I am not a newbie to linux. However, i have been considering installing Linux on my new laptop (Lenovo Y410p) for the last few weeks. Currently, i am using a pure Windows 8(.1) setup. Now, before i will install Linux, there are a few things i had to consider:

1. What Distro?

I am currently in the process of Distro-choosing, however i will probably be going with Debian, because i have been using it since Etch on my other hardware. XFCE will be my desktop environment of choice.

2. Hardware.

My hardware is listed in my Signature, however i know that some people have already managed to install Linux on similar laptops. The only major problem i am aware of is the brightness keys not working, however this thread here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ide...ovo-y500-ubuntu-linux-brightness-key-fix.html

Fixes my issue.

3. Software. Here comes the biggie. Now, i will now proceed by listing some of the Apps i currently have on my Windows setup, that i managed to move over to my desktop, as i don't explicitly need them on my laptop anymore:

- Steam & Origin Game collection, along with all other windows games
- My emulators and ROM's
- Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Fireworks
- Itunes and music library
- AutoCAD 2013

4. Now, with that eliminated, i need to know what are alternatives/fixes to the following programs on Linux!

Microsoft Office 2010 (home and student): Please don't tell me to use Libre/Open Office. I need this, especially for my college work. If someone can point me to a good Wine tutorial that would be nice
MSI Afterburner:I need some form of Nvidia GPU overclocking.
Intel XTU:EDIT: Nevermind, i can undervolt with the BIOS.
Lenovo Optimized battery health: My laptop comes with a toggle that allows me to charge the laptop only up to 60% to preserve the battery, and this setting is remembered upon reboots. I need similar functionality in Linux to prevent battery wear.
Optimus:I don't actually need Optimus per se, but i need some form of GPU graphics switching. An overclocked Nvidia GPU eats batteries for breakfast.

All of the above utilities are a must, and if i can't get all of them, i will not install Linux.

All other programs i have already found alternatives to, or they work natively.

5. Partitioning

As mentioned in my Signature, my laptop has a PCIe based M.2 24GB SSD, which i will be using for /boot and /. My 1TB HDD will host the /home and swap partitions. I will use (discard) in /etc/fstab to enable trim on the SSD.

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That should cover it for now. Help and tips are appreciated! I will give out rep points to the best answers!

Thank you!

 

Office 2010: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/06...ce-suite-2010-in-ubuntu-12-04-using-wine-1-5/ and http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=17336


MSI Afterburner: http://alternativeto.net/software/msi-afterburner/?platform=linux

Optimus can be substituted by Bumblebee.

Unfortunately no such battery tool for linux. The Lenovo tool is strictly for Windows. Power management in general is poorer in Linux. My MacBook lasts at least 3.5 hours under OS X however gets 2 hours tops under Arch Linux.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

See, that's the killer for me. I can't lose any additional battery life.

 

I'm fairly certain that such a program exists, although I wouldn't know the name of it.

No. You're trying to order a Big Mac in Burger King.

Good luck.

 

Instead of installing Linux on the HDD, why not run VMware or Virtual Box. Instructions are straight forward.
http://filehippo.com/download_vmware_player/
http://filehippo.com/download_virtualbox/15901/

For information on the different distros available, try http://distrowatch.com/
I would recommend trying CrunchBang and Linux Mint. These are my two favorites.
http://crunchbang.org/
Main Page - Linux Mint
Try it, play around with it, you might come to love it.

 

...actually, most of those "power-saving" functions are really collections of semi-documented acpi calls. That still can be used without a "close relationship" between OEM and OS-manufacturer. And a huge, impenetrable .net based toolchain. Basically... on the latest kernels, you actually do get consistently better battery life for a modern intel platform in linux than you do in windows. Same as it eventually was for Atom/EeePCs.

This isn't the case if you need to install bumblebee, and if the various on-demand managers don't work, though. So it's not completely there yet. But with for example Mint now, you can pull all of this right from the package well, and have a system up and running in 20 minutes, without really touching the command line.

So at least Whoopers can be had at McDonalds, if you know what you want.

edit: And ^yes, remember you can temp linux boots very easily. Dvd, usb stick, etc. Go to Distrowatch and take a look.

 

it's not about how long i can make the battery last, it's about preventing overcharge.

I don't care about BumbleBee, i just need basic GPU switching. And i like command line distros, thank you very much.

 

I'm just a casual Linux user and not a "pro" by any means, but have yet to see - or even hear of - an application that would allow me to start charging my battery at let's say 23% and stop charging it at 87%, which is one of the things Power Manager enables on ThinkPads If you know of one, I'm all ears.

 

You can use tp_smapi to monitor and adjust thresholds for charging.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tp_smapi

On Debian and *buntu distros you install tp_smapi-dkms package.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

I heard about smapi, but does it work when the laptop is powered off?

 

I suppose.. the assumption would be that the hardware toggle doesn't really rely on OS functions for anything except for setting the actual settings on beforehand..?

Or, the control app likely only runs in Windows. But the actual settings the toggle is using are persistent. ..possibly.

 

I think i'll just stick with windows, and run Linux in a VM, i have a quad-core after all.

Thanks for the help.

 

So, in your post you said this about your must haves:
"Microsoft Office 2010 (home and student): Please don't tell me to use Libre/Open Office. I need this, especially for my college work. If someone can point me to a good Wine tutorial that would be nice
MSI Afterburner:I need some form of Nvidia GPU overclocking.
Intel XTU:EDIT: Nevermind, i can undervolt with the BIOS.
Lenovo Optimized battery health: My laptop comes with a toggle that allows me to charge the laptop only up to 60% to preserve the battery, and this setting is remembered upon reboots. I need similar functionality in Linux to prevent battery wear.
Optimus:I don't actually need Optimus per se, but i need some form of GPU graphics switching. An overclocked Nvidia GPU eats batteries for breakfast.

All of the above utilities are a must, and if i can't get all of them, i will not install Linux."

So you are NOT now going to install Linux as your main OS. Did you ever try any Distros? Was wondering which one(s) you liked?
Best regards, Cleve

 

Distros ive tryed (in the past on various pc's)
- Ubuntu (all variants)
- Debian
- Mint
- Xandros
- Fedora
- RHEL
- OEL
- CentOS
- OpenSuse
- Gentoo
- Arch
- Sabayon
- Chakra
- Tiny Core
- Slackware
- Mandriva
- Mageia
- ROSA
- LFS
- PCLinuxOS
- Zorin
- SolusOS

Bottom line, i have no favorite distro, because deep down i can configure them all to work the same way, at the end of the day, it's just a GNU toolkit and a linux kernel. I use debian because i'm buddies with some of their team and i've donated to them quite a few times.

 

...I think you should try a good "stable" and slowly updating distro now. And see the difference since just a year ago.

I mean, you would need to install tp_smapi and bumblebee. But since both of those actually work now with module inserts, it's so easy and takes so little time to get running, that there's really no reason not to at least test it.

 

I usually use Debian Stable with some backports and a few packages from Testing/Unstable/Experimental thanks to Apt Pinning

 

Well, as long as you know what you're doing, no worries. But I see a lot of people who complain about strange things happening to their linux system - when running a Fedora type release.. or updating the kernel three times a week, running practically nightly builds on the composite desktop backend, etc. A guy I know used to have ubuntu, and inserted x-edgers three times a week. Obviously that worked.. once every Friday.

I'm just saying it's not necessary to do that any more to get the reasonably latest features working. And.. that's the important thing that has happened with linux in just the last year, imo.

 

If you dual boot Linux and Windows whatever power settings you change in Windows for your laptop via Lenovo's Energy Management will be tied in when you load Linux since Energy Management battery settings still persist even if the laptop is powered off or booted into Linux.

The only real downside to Linux is getting everything to work like it should in Windows for your laptop since you'll have get software packages to replace Dolby Home Theater, NVIDIA Optimus and enabling multi-touch on your touchpad (which might not work).

Other than that everything should work like in did in Windows with the exception of special function keys (turn off Bluetooth, touchpad, etc), which really can't be helped on most laptops.

If you're just looking into Linux as a leisure thing and have no work or school related ties to the OS then I'd highly recommend trying and running Ditros via VM.

There's really no big advantage Linux has over Windows if you don't have specials need for working on the environment with the exception and fact that Linux is free, more secure and works very well with older hardware (faster it you will) however it also comes with the downsides of having a steep learning curve, less stable in general (on hardware) and much less commercial software.

 

Thank you! I will look into Dual Booting, maybe by allocating my SSD to it and just removing the cache.

1. Steep learning curve? I've been using linux for 7 years now
2. Yep.
3. Yep. I run tons of legacy Windows Stuff.

 

I just install Ubuntu onto and run it off a USB 3.0 flash drive since I'm really only messing around with the OS and waiting on 14.04 LTS, I don't waste precious SSD space on a secondary OS plus I don't have to go through grub every-time I start-up my laptop (just insert USB drive and press F12).

USB 3.0 flash drives are so cheap and fast these days even the average 32-64GB USB 3.0 flash drive is faster then the fastest mechanical hard drive when it comes to read speeds and read access times (near SSD), the only thing is the writes speeds (writes access times are near SSD) but that's fine if you treat the USB flash drive as an SSD and try to minimize writes to the drive.

 

I only like Xubuntu out of the Ubuntu family but...
Nvidia + Xubuntu = Tearing

 

Guide for installing Office 2007 / 2010 in Linux.

I actually run Office XP (VBA is functional) & Office 2007 side by side (something you could not do in Windows). Office 2010 is now much better running under WINE.

 

Found a workaround for FireWorks on WINE.