Preparing for the '1 Year of Linux Challenge' one of the first and most important things to me is how well Linux scales at 4K res. I did a test in W8.1 with VM Workstation running a Debian and scaling it similarly as in Windows.
Here's the pic (click for full size):
It seems to me that it does a pretty good job. One of the reasons I've switched from W7 to W8 after buying the 4K monitor was because of scaling. 8.1 does a better job, but it's not perfect.
I want to know opinions and experiences of people using Linux at that resolution. In my case I've got only 28" so I need to scale it a bit to avoid suffering. (Next 4K monitor I buy will be 32" at least)
Seriously though, depending on the theme you install, and the desktop environment you use, linux often times does not need to scale.
With a VM you kind of have to because of something I like to call OSception, but I have rarely had to scale things in linux.
I have some icon packs that even go as high as 512x512 pixels. So you should actually be able to get away with using all the ui elements in some sort of native resolution : D
Even people with crazy 5K and even 8K monitors do not have to worry about scaling in linux.
Cinnamon has a hidpi mode which takes care of most stuff, im not sure about Gnome3 tbh ..
its actually less of a hassle on Linux using higher DPI due to the way GTK is designed xfce and mate work well too. Im probably going to teach you how to suck eggs here :P but maybe someone will find it useful,
firefox with no zooming @ 4k, in firefox window bar type: about:config
Type: Set layout.css.devPixelsPerPx to 2.0
( you can play with that number ^ dependent on what you like )
Yeah, , most Linux distributions use different desktop environments that must scale themselves accordingly. Linux as a whole will support 4K from the kernel's framebuffer. Its' what's running on top that needs it. It looks like you have MATE or Gnome 2.
