[stemuk]

Most of these pain points go away if you purchase the iGPU only version. I own a Thinkpad T470 and Ubuntu works like a charm.

The only issue I still have is that the Gnome interface (Ubuntu 17.04+) does not support factorial scaling, meaning that I am stuck between 100% (which is way to small on a 14 inch screen) and 200% (which is way too big).

Ubuntu 16.10 still supports factorial scaling though, which means I am stuck with it until a better version comes along.

[gurkendoktor]

Using 200% and scaling the screen with xrandr has worked quite well for me on a 27" 4K screen. It's pretty much what macOS as well.

[enriquto]

you can use the "arandr" program to set any possible resolution. No idea what is "factorial" scaling, though.

[stemuk]

Factorial scaling means being able to set the entire desktop scale to 120%, 140% and so on.

It is important to me because most of the work I do in my PC is text based (coding and research), so being able to scale text and ui elements 'globally' is critical for good visibility.

Edit: It's supposed to be 'fractional', my bad.

[y4mi]

"scale with factor 1.4" to increase the display size by 40%

[enriquto]

The word "factorial" makes no sense here. Maybe "fractional"?

Besides, what is the fucking point of "scaling" at the display level? Isn't it exactly equivalent to setting the font size in points using your physical resolution?

[floatboth]

No, it's not like setting font size. Actual fractional scaling as done by macOS and Wayland compositors is rendering at 2x and downscaling.

e.g. 1.5 scale on a 3840x2160 display means you have 2560x1440 logical pixels (3840x(1/1.5) = 2560), applications render for 5120x2880 (2560x2=5120) and get downscaled for 3840x2160.

[enriquto]

Ah, mon dieu! This is the first time I read about "logical pixels". It is horrifying.

[stemuk]

Yeah, I just realized it's called fractional scaling too, my bad.

It is still important though, because on 14inch desktops the Ubuntu interface looks way too small on 100% scale and way too big on 200%. At the end of the day you can think of fractional scaling as giving yourself more screen real-estate while at the same time keeping everything in a readable state.

[enriquto]

I don't understand what you mean by the interface. Is it the font size? You can change it independently of everything else.

[derekp7]

Most programs aren't coded to have all of their elements scale properly. You have icons, buttons, pictures, etc that may be bit mapped images, then you have other elements that are vector mapped. So if you just change the font size, you can read the text, but it may be in a text box that is too small (so it overflows).

So the best thing you can do, other than re-write all the applications that have been around for the last 30 years or more, is to make the app think it is writing to a display with a specific resolution. Then scale that up to whatever resolution your screen actually is. Then, any element that is bit mapped in the app may not look very crisp, but things like fonts or any element drawn by a UI library can be drawn at the screen's native resolution (because those libraries have been updated to know about the "fake" vs "real" resolution).

This is very similar to when you hit "ctrl +" in a modern web browser. If the web app says "place this element 25 pixels to the right", those are logical pixels and has little to do with actual screen pixels anymore.

[navaati]

Not only the fonts. Size of UI elements, borders (a 1pc border in 4k is nearly invisible), this kind of things. But yeah it's similar to font size.

[yellowapple]

Can confirm that the T470 has been rock solid under Linux (I got one from work; running Slackware 14.2 with a -current kernel). Even OpenBSD ran reasonably well (had to switch off it because my work required me to use things like Google Hangouts that required Linux, but I might switch back pretty soon and try using an X-forwarded Linux VM).

[specto]

19.04 supports factorial but it's experimental.

I would've been much happier with the intel only version, the nvidia card is not worth it at all but at the time they didn't have 32gb of memory. Now the latest does, but too late.

[vinu76jsr]

iGPU usually drops frames on fractional scaling(I think I enabled it via tweaks app), I don't mind it that much but it still is an inconvenience.

[bubblethink]

I'm assuming that you are using something in unity, which can be easily installed in later versions. Just do apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop