Tell HN: The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is an excellent MacBook replacement

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

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  • WSL2-Linux-Kernel

    The source for the Linux kernel used in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2)

  • WSL2 is for the most part totally usable for everyday development, but it does have a handful of issues that either need workarounds or are just infeasible.

    USB passthrough isn't yet supported, so it's necessary to make use of something like VirtualHere[1] or some another TCPIP tunneling daemon running on the windows depending on what you're trying to do.

    There seems to sometimes be issues with resuming from S0ix sleep where the VM process is still "running" but it gets stuck in a state where new processes just will not spawn. It's been a while since I messed with it, but my "solution" was disabling a VM security measure, launching Process Hacker 2 as admin, searching for "lxss" in the process list and terminating the corresponding svchost.

    The actual linux kernel running inside WSL2 is interesting, it's microsofts own custom kernel[2] with some magic sauce for making everything play nice. Unfortunately, it (still?) lacks a fully-functional SystemD so making some programs work can be a chore. Also all the kernel modules compiled in, and it doesn't allow loading them dynamically with modprobe. There are some alternative kernels out there that solve some of these issues, though I haven't bothered to try any since whenever I run into these sorts of issues it's less of a hassle to just switch to a dedicated linux box.

    For all of the issues that come with Windows 11, having WSLg make running graphical programs "just work" out of the box with rock-solid copy/paste, alt+tab, etc., really makes it a joy to work with.

    [1] - https://www.virtualhere.com/

    [2] - https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel

  • fancontrol-tpx1c9

    Linux fancontrol script for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 (20XXS0Y800)

  • Compared to the MB, the fan is loud. I even stated writing my own fan control, but it can't fix the fan that's either definitely audible at 4500RPM or dead silent at 0RPM (which is not sustainable even for very light workloads on Linux).

    Here's the script: https://github.com/luisgerhorst/fancontrol-tpx1c9

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  • alpine-setup

    bootstrapping a new laptop should be easy

  • i have this laptop and am also very satisifed. zero issues. i run a minimal dev setup[1].

    there is a simpsons episode where homer designs a car. it has a lot of cup holders and is very expensive. this is a lot like macos, and even more like the linux setups people struggle to get to work after migrating off mac.

    architectural tip: fewer cupholders.

    1. https://github.com/nathants/alpine-setup

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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