Edit: I’m glad so many of you have had no issues with multiple monitors. My set up is a little unusual (3rd display is an infrequently used large tv hooked through the receiver) and is definitely solveable but will take some effort (and honestly, I’d rather spend my spare time outside or with friends, so who knows when I’ll fix it.)
infrequently used large tv hooked through the receiver
This makes it seem like Linux has a problem with multiple monitors when you just aren’t supposed to connect your 80s AV hardware between TV and computer. You should absolutely expect that to either require an active convertor to your obsolete shit AND OR cutting out the intermediary. If you are going to use weird shit its on you to actually understand how it works.
Out of all the people on earth you might literally be singular person anywhere with this setup. Meanwhile everyone else is just plugging in shit and watching it work.
My internal dialogue during social events: dont talk about linux, dont talk about foss, dont talk about rodents.
The design history of the XFCE logo has entered the chat.
I will gladly subscribe to any newsletter about those three things.
After 2 drinks:
“See, this is what’s so great about ratpoison:…”
I’m another data point where displays work under Linux better than Windows, making this particular example amusingly wrong.
This is a Dell precision laptop with a dual usb-c connected docking station. Intel cpu plus a discrete nvidia gpu.
Using Cinnamon in X11 on Linux Mint or LMDE, works great.
Using KDE Plasma in Wayland on Debian? Works great!
Using Windows 10? Bzzzt.
I think I’ve had Linux DEs occasionally forget my monitor order & rotation just like Windows would, but out of the box Windows wouldn’t even use all my monitors.
I don’t think a lived experience can be amusingly wrong but to each their own?
My issue comes because my set up is highly unusual, the third display is an infrequently used tv that’s connected through a receiver. With a little bit of fighting I have a workable albeit inconvenient system. A fix is possible but as stated in the meme, it’ll take some effort etc.
I assume they mean that the general sense of “Switching to Linux is easy! I’m still fiddling with basic things but any day now…” doesn’t reflect their own experience, nor that of many others who had less trouble with displays under Linux.
In that context “I have an unusual setup” is an important note: It’s not that Linux struggles with basic things, but that it struggles with some uncommon things that nobody ever built and shipped a proper solution for.
Absolutely true and well put.
I should have said “third display” instead of “all” because my unusual setup is important context. Honestly, I’m also probably not highlighting that enough when evangelizing about it.
To me, a big chunk of the excitement of linux is that regardless of whether linux or someone else is better out of the box, with linux, I can change whatever needs changing. There will always be some tinkering left and nothing stopping me from it!
Likewise, I prefer to stress that my system worked great out of the box. I just couldn’t resist tinkering with the audio setup, because I can and wanted to. I broke something, fixed it again, all is well.
Same for me. In Linux, I plug in USB-C and both monitors in the chain light up every time without thinking.
For some reason, dual boot into Windows and it always disables one of the two by default until I manually go in and tweak it alive, and then it will do it again next time I plug in.
Now back in the day, futzing with XFree86 config files and CRT monitors and absolutely lots of ‘voodoo’ to match what Windows pretty simply did with display configuration. But nowadays at least with kwin wayland compositor on nVidia proprietary drivers, it always does exactly what I expect without asking, and Windows is the one that assumes that I don’t want to use all the displays that are connected.
Windows seems pretty clunky by comparison nowadays when it comes to display configuration.
Now juggling my bluetooth audio… I think Windows still has the advantage. I have no idea why sometimes my bluetooth microphone just doesn’t work under Linux. I do appreciate the ability to manually select the bluetooth codec in Linux where in Windows it ‘guesses’ and often guesses wrong, throwing it into ancient headset codec territory when I’m trying to listen to music, because who knows what has made Windows think the microphone device is open…
Networking… Linux wins hands down with VPN connectivity, much much easier to manage all my VPNs in one place in the ‘casual’ user scenario instead of a litany of competing ‘endpoint managers’ in Windows. When VPNs step on each others routing tables, well no OS makes that easy but at least Linux network namespaces makes it possible for me to have multiple network ‘worlds’ in one place to reconcile the conflicts…
Probably the other area where Windows has a bit of an advantage is a consistent binary driver model. In Linux if you are an out-of-tree driver, it’s going to suck to keep up with changing in-kernel APIs to keep your source compatible, let alone have a module running without a recompile after a minor kernel update. I guess the silver lining is almost everyone decided to have their drivers ‘in-tree’ to make sure they are maintained and don’t need a lot of ugly #ifdefs to contend with multiple kernel behaviors… Then there’s nVidia and some commercial filesystems that either cannot or will not go in-tree…
Sent this to my normi friends, I’ll keep you up to date…
Update: they only pointed out that my usage of the expression “amirite?” Is out of date.
On my Windows laptop, multi displays barely work with any logic at all.
Last time I used macOS it pretended that displays worked fine (but they didn’t).
I’ve not used Linux much in hotplug monitor setups but I assume the situation can’t be worse.
In some ways better, some ways worse. I lile that not everything resizes incorrectly, several moments after changing the monitors. On the downside, linux assumes third monitor is always on etc which can get annoying.
End result is, currently (and this is probably solveable, I just need to devote the time to being indoors and on a computer) sitting down to watch things on tv is most easily managed by setting up with the regular monitor on etc. But working on the regular monitors or switching a monitor between one computer to another, is much better on linux.
The trick is to buy linux-approved hardware.
For example, there are specific machines which are approved by ubuntu as officialy working with ubuntu.
Thinkpads are generaly good to use.
Consumer Thinkbooks (Shitbooks) like the 16 G7 IML are NOT at all compatible.
You gotta work your hardware around linux a bit.
Thinkbooks are actually decent (quality-wise), but the ideapads - fuck them, I’m never making that mistake again, I hate typing on practically rocks and having no upgrade path.
Well yea, but that doesn’t change that nothing works on linux on thinkbooks… That was my point
The trick is to buy linux-approved hardware.
So have money.
I have two extra monitors, one of them is technically a small low res LCD TV, another is in an elderly monitor that I can only turn on and off by plugging and unplugging it because its power button work’s 1 out of 1000 times its pressed. They work, why spend money to replace them, they are just used to monitor temps, music players, and Discord.
Also this flies in the face of sustainability. I’d figure sustainability is also a major motivating factor of Linux, given its association with other progressive tech movements like right to repair. If I have some random jank old hardware, it’d be nice to not have to just throw it away for the sake of switching to Linux. In fact, Linux does save some hardware of course and gives them new life sometimes. I’ve revived some old laptops before with it.
I say this as a Linux advocate, I use Windows due to current necessity. I also use Linux (Not just on a Steam Deck, but yes on a Steam Deck). I’d stop using Windows entirely but I’d need to be richer or accept significant downgrades. I’m not the former and I wont do the latter.
I get what you are saying but sometimes new is needed. For example at work they wanted me to have new not used… For some reason. (They paid anyway)
If shit is actively broken and you want to keep using it you should actually fuckin fix it. That is sustainable…what you are doing is just lazy and cheap.
They’re for my personal use and they serve the purpose I use them for fine with a 2 second inconvenience for one of them. Worth saving the money or so to replace them for the time being, especially if I need uniform monitors to maximally work with Linux without issue. Also it reduces e-waste.
I don’t give a fuck about what you think of my character, so the only thing calling me lazy and cheap achieves is just makes me think you’re angry for no good reason.
Pfft, L take, just learn linux from scratch and install linux on a pdf file, partition the machine, make it boot directly the pdf file, and have a working lfs, very customisable as well.
(In case it’s not clear, this is a joke, by which I mean, the part where I recommend this, the process I describe is for some reason an actually doable thing (technically can do it on a piece of salami if you’re rednecked enough))
This was me in 2003.
… And ever since.
You are trying to get your displays to work since 2003? Damn…
I saw your other comment, still funny
[Edit: PS: … Not the multiple monitors thing though. I guess I got lucky. Nvidia were kind to me.]
I use a rolling release distro (void) and I haven’t had to touch my system configuration since I set it up 4 years ago.
My 3 monitor setup has been really fantastic after switching to Cosmic desktop. Really really loving the mix of tiling and non-tiling features too.
Tangential to OP but just wanted to throw Cosmic out there for folks who haven’t yet tried it.
Didn’t realize Cosmic went 1.0 in December. How is it? I tried it a few months ago and really liked the tiling features and overall feel, but it was still a bit rough around the edges.
Tbh I have no real complaints. I would eventually like some keyboard shortcuts for moving entire workspaces around without the mouse, but what is there is quite intuitive and I find myself not leaving the keyboard to navigate. The defaults are similar to i3 shortcuts.
I like that they work in tiling and non-tiling mode, and each workspace can be set to either mode at whim.
No issues with stability (which was a problem for me in earlier builds).
I don’t use any of the Cosmic utils, though (text editor, terminal, etc). They seem fine but ymmv.
Edit: actually just thought of one thing… If you move a window from a non-tiling workspace to a tiling one, it stays in non-tiling mode. This leads to a mixed mode workspace and I don’t like that. But it’s easily fixed with mode toggle and only a minor annoyance – ideally I want it to switch to whatever mode the workspace is in.
lol, getting all displays working is indeed my biggest worry for my last Windows PC, migrating next month. It has both an NVIDIA and a Radeon GPU, and that works great on Windows. But a quick test boot from USB did not go so well on Ubuntu, so the truth will only come out after a real install with drivers.
I literally knew a guy like that in Ireland. I swear I don’t even know how I knew him, but I just remember him honing in on me to talk about fucking Linux in the pub every time he’d see me. I didn’t even use Linux on my own machine! ;_;
But soon…
My displays are even more stable than Windows now. Wayland allows me to throw around applications to different workspaces and monitors that would have literally crashed if I ALT-TABed on Windows.
Like a month ago, someone wanted to connect my laptop to a projector in university class to show presentation. Little did I know that after connecting HDMI cable I will have a black screen on my laptop, lol.
If I knew my laptop is going to be used in such way I would prepare, but still…
I don’t know why I love that picture so much.
Social gatherings? Like, with actual people together in one space, talking to each other? I’m not buying it.
My third display is a TV plugged straight into my Nvidia HDMI. It’s mounted on the wall above my other two monitors on the desk. I watch Jellyfin on it. I don’t watch broadcast, but that’s on a different input anyway. I’m wondering what issues you’re having. It just works on Mint.
Ahahaha!
Yeah, Mint as well. From my reading it’s because I have an additional layer, my tv goes to the stereo receiver and from there links into the computer. Unfortunately, the receiver tells the computer when it’s shut off but not when it’s turned on or somesuch. So, right now I’ve “solved” the issue by disabling the auto shut off. But it means the computer always thinks three monitors are on and engaged. Which causes issues as my primary is the desktop monitor etc. Nothing outrageous but one of those tweaks I’d like to make. And unlike Windows, it’s a tweak I know I can make.
