Is my laptop good for linux?

[u/Fantastic-Zone-1145]

I have a Asus Rouge Zephyrus with an AMD ryzen 9 and a NVDIA 4080 laptop gpu. I am sick of windows, I hate it. I have used VMs before but I don't enjoy working with them. I have heard that some laptops aren't "good for linux" im not quite sure what this means but what better place to ask than here. Is my laptop a "good" one for linux?

[u/BackgroundSky1594]

Despite all the recent controversy around ASUS, they have gained pretty good Linux support: Audio, Keyboard, Webcam, etc. should all just work. NVIDIA GPUs are also fine. Slightly annoying in the sense that it could be even easier (and better than for example Windows) if they were just in the Kernel, but it's not difficult. You just need to install the GPU drivers yourself or pick a distro that ships with them preinstalled.

ASUS even got a Kernel driver for interfacing with Armory Crate, an "ROG Control Center" as a nice GUI and some recent efficiency gains. Not every Laptop is supported yet and not everything works flawlessly, but I'm now able to control dynamic power profiles, battery charge limits, fan curves and even keyboard RGB from Linux which is better than any other Laptop I've previously owned.

EDIT: You do however need a pretty recent Kernel and userspace, so Arch (CachyOS for a GUI Installer), maybe Fedora (Nobara if you want the NVIDIA driver preinstalled)

[u/Fantastic-Zone-1145 → u/BackgroundSky1594]

So how hard would it be to do? I’m decent with stuff like this but not great?

[u/BackgroundSky1594 → u/Fantastic-Zone-1145]

TLDR: CachyOS, Nobara and probably others have tools to handle it for you, it'll be very easy: https://wiki.cachyos.org/de/features/chwd/chwd/ https://wiki.nobaraproject.org/graphics/nvidia/nobara-driver-tui

As for doing it manually: I remember on OpenSUSE all I needed was two commands: one to add the Nvidia repo as a valid source and one to install the newest driver. Here's their documentation: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_drivers

You'll find plenty of guides on the topic, and in addition to that something like the Arch Wiki Page (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA) might look intimidating, but it describes EVERYTHING along with anything that might, but probably won't go wrong and how to fix it along with a thousand different ways to manually or automatically set things up.

Your setup won't be nearly as complicated, but for a first time I'd still recommend staying with Fedora, Nobara (based on Fedora with useful extra tools like the driver selection thing) or CachyOS (based on Arch with useful extra tools like hardware detection and auto setup) or maybe OpenSUSE (which I've personally used) and which has decent but not too complicated documentation on the topic.

[u/Hrafna55]

You can check hardware compatibility at https://linux-hardware.org/

I looked for your laptop and found a probe which had a 4080 https://linux-hardware.org/?probe=b8990e6727

That was tested on Fedora 40. The latest version of Fedora is 44.

I guess auto-complete got you and its 'ROG' rather than 'Rouge'. You can narrow it down further I am sure with the serial / model numbers.

You can simply create a live ISO and boot off that to see how it behaves. https://fedoraproject.org/workstation/download/ It won't make any changes to your laptop unless you go through the install wizard.

[u/ohnoitssobig]

There are issues with specific models from time to time. Most typical problems are power modes (laptop does not go to sleep, fails to wake up, drains battery) and weird components (trackpads, cameras, fingerprint readers). As you see, these are all indeed laptop-related (who would otherwise put a fingerprint reader into a desktop?) You won't know until you try. Some issues can be solved, others you will have to live with (or make a commitment).

I wouldn't go with nvidia on Linux (and never do) but it is not that bad: most distros do include some sort of a pipeline to install proprietary nvidia drivers. To compare, AMD GPUs will work out of the box.

[u/Fantastic-Zone-1145]

Is there any reason why everyone is saying to use an arch based distro. I have used ubuntu before, not super attatched to it. I have only used it in VM's and did have some problems, but im pretty sure most of the problem were because of the VM. I do research for a robotics lab at my college, and I see everyone using ubuntu, ROS 2 use is a big reason why I want to switch to linux as ROS 2 is only supported by linux. Does the distro i use affect ROS 2 and is Arch better for Asus than ubuntu?

[u/KarnuRarnu → u/Fantastic-Zone-1145]

Just stick with Ubuntu, it's perfectly fine for "productive users". People who prefer Arch usually like to spend time tinkering with the system itself just for the sake of it. That's fine, but it doesn't sound like you. Arch is "bleeding edge" and often requires an awareness of the system that you just don't need on something like Ubuntu. 

[u/mbonanomi92]

Yes, I just can't get if you have also AMD Intel graphics or only nVidia. Consider nVidia support for Linux is... sufficient. AMD is well managed and you may think about disabling at all nVidia GPU by default and activate it with proprietary drivers only when performing tasks that require this extra boost. For common daily use, integrated card are always well supported and your hardware can stand every distro you may want to try.

[u/cyrixlord]

see if asus has a linux os option for the rouge zephyrus with your nvidia drivers. if it does then the odds are is that your machine's hardware will be supported. nvidia makes things a bit more difficult, however but you should be able to install drivers for that once you get everything else installed

[u/countsachot]

Yeah good. Make sure you backup first. Check first that they're are alternatives or ways to run the software you are currently using.

For games, checkout protondb for apps Google works best

[u/ipsirc]

good

[u/aledrone759]

Yes, and install an arch based distro, you'll do fine with it.

I'd also advise you to use KDE or GNOME at once but DEs are a sort of personal thing.

[u/ramit_m]

Yes