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It has been a month since I wrote about getting a new HP Pavilion 14 laptop and loading Linux on it. My experience with her has been extremely good so far – it did exactly what I wanted, I had no problem with that, I used it, I traveled with it, updated all the different Linux distributions that I have loaded, and even added another distribution to it.
First, I've broken one of my own basic rules: never travel with a single new and untested laptop. I left for the United States for a vacation of more than three weeks the day after my last job. I used the laptop just about every day during the trip. and never had a problem of any kind. It was fast and reliable, suspend / resume on closing / opening the lid worked perfectly. The battery life is extremely good – I have never really managed to completely empty the batteries, but I can certainly say that they are good for 6 to 8 hours, depending on your use.
SEE: 20 tips to make Linux networking easier (Free PDF)
Sustainability has also been good; Although I have never really tested it, I wore it in my usual travel bag, which was thrown in and out of luggage lockers, under seats, in and out of cars and other daily abuses. The screen was bright and easy to read in all kinds of lighting conditions. The F keys for increasing and reducing brightness and volume control worked on all the distributions I had loaded.
I kept it up to date while I was traveling (to be honest, this also violates one of my personal rules – do not risk upgrades on your only laptop while traveling). This means that openSUSE Tumbleweed has received hundreds of updates. Debian, Fedora and Manjaro have also obtained a correct number and I have updated Linux Mint from the 19.2 beta version to the final version 19.2, all without problem.
I also decided to install Ubuntu 19.04 on an evening where I had a little more time. It was as simple as other distributions I had already installed: download the ISO, transfer it to a USB drive, boot it, and run the installer. As with other distributions, the Realtek Wi-Fi card was not recognized, but I was able to fix it in the same way, using the same downloads, as I already did with Linux Mint and Debian. I already knew the only small problem I've encountered, namely that Ubuntu and Linux Mint have a directory name conflict in the EFI startup directory. I avoided this by creating a very small EFI partition specifically for Ubuntu installation.
Oh, one thing I'm starting to see in a slightly different light is the UEFI firmware and boot configuration of this HP notebook. In this regard, I've already had a lot of complaints about HP laptops, the most serious being that the boot configuration of the UEFI was difficult to understand and manage. This may have improved since my last HP attempt and I may have learned more about UEFI boot management, but for one or more reasons, I'm starting to appreciate the predictability of the HP configuration. The startup sequence does not change, regardless of the installed distribution. It only changes when you access the BIOS setup and change it. It works fine for me, because I want Tumbleweed to be my default boot whatever other distributions I install, so for example, even when I've installed Ubuntu, it's trying to get it make it the default boot, when I restarted the laptop. always high Tumbleweed.
During my trip, several friends asked me if I regretted having wiped Windows 10 unnecessarily from this laptop (see
comments on my previous post for more details
) My answer was very clearly "no", there was not a single situation where I had or wanted to start Windows, and I was happy to have additional disk space.
So, what's next for this system? Well, I'm going back to Amsterdam on Monday and I'll bring it with me there. I will use it with the usual range of projectors and presenter controls, as well as the browsers and application software I need for this environment, and I do not expect not that it's a problem for me.
That's just about all there is to report at the moment. I would like to share with you some really juicy "hints and tips" for the laptop to work properly with Linux, but honestly, there is nothing to say. I bought the laptop, I wiped Windows, I loaded Linux, and everything is going well since.
I guess that's in itself a very good "hint" because using Linux on a laptop was so complicated and tedious that there was a dedicated website containing information, tips, and configuration tips model specific. This is clearly no longer necessary.
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