It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve stopped using Linux on the desktop (not counting ChromeOS).
My usecase - a road warrior with triple/3 monitor multi-dpi setup for coding/web work:
- a laptop that I can use undocked with a high dpi screen
- … that I can dock (or connect via cable(s)) to a pair of 4k 32" at 1:1, whilst still using the builtin display at more than an arms length
- … and that I can dock at home (different 2 monitor or 3 monitor setup)
- … move apps from one dpi to another without restarting apps (browser/terminal/maybe more)
- … switch between the three setups without logging out, for example:
- I can prepare meeting notes docked
- stand up, go to a meeting room, share screen screen whilst going over agenda/notes/…
- meeting ends, I can open laptop, look up stuff between meetings
- go to another meeting, hook up and project
My most recent attempt at this failed miserably in early/mid 2018 with a Dell Precision (whatever was xps15 equivalent for that year) - I spent a lot of time trying to get it setup and failed for a number of reasons, but perhaps something has changed.
When I tried this, intel/nvidia laptop graphics drivers under linux just didn’t work for this use case. The dell precision laptop battery life was horrendous - 2.5h under linux despite a 99wh battery due to a stupid 15W chipset), and as much as I tried to script my way around wayland (in 2018) and/or xrandr, things would crash multiple times a week, either because of driver or because of kde, and would have me reaching for a colleagues macbook at the beginning of a meeting.
This kind of use case works for me from ChromeOS machine (albeit only at dual 4k@30 when at my desk because integrated intel graphics can’t drive dual 4k external displays at 60hz - possibly usb-c bandwidth related, that’s still ok for coding/productivity). ChromeOS doesn’t do ICC profiles unfortunately - but I have matching monitors.
I don’t know what kind of black magic is required that would allow regular Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/Gentoo to do what ChromeOS does.
This kind of setup also works for me from Mac OS, with dual external 4k@60 (one thunderbolt dock for monitor/power + second usb-c for second display). But their laptop keyboards suck I tried for about 2 weeks and I can’t really get used to post 2015 keyboards (I haven’t tried the 16" macbook pro, it might be ok, but ideally I’m looking for something smaller/lighter anyway - maybe when the new 13 shows up).
I’d imagine this would work from windows, but I haven’t used windows for work for a while and even with VMs and ssh/bash/terminal/vscode it’s awkward… not
Other:
- 10bit / hdr support is a bonus, not a must have - as much as I like the idea of a pa32ucg eventually replacing my hp z32x, I’d have to weigh it’s cost against my mortgage payment, and I’m not a photographer.
- some kind of icc profile/color calibration would be nice … but I can also just make sure my monitors are as decently set up as possible since I have a spyder 5 pro. (at least well enough to not mix up d65 greys and light yellows).
Does anyone have any positive experiences with multi-dpi on linux and attaching/detaching monitors?