Fabio Manganiello<p>I usually don’t like to brag about new gadgets nor leave reviews, but I feel like I have to make an exception this time.</p><p>If you need a new laptop and you want <a class="hashtag" href="https://manganiello.social/tag/linux" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Linux</a> on it, go for <span class="h-card"><a class="u-url mention" href="https://linuxrocks.online/@tuxedocomputers" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>tuxedocomputers</span></a></span>. (I’ve also heard good things about <a class="hashtag" href="https://manganiello.social/tag/system76" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#System76</a>, but being based in the EU for me it made more sense to go for <a class="hashtag" href="https://manganiello.social/tag/tuxedo" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Tuxedo</a>).</p><p>I’ve been using a Dell XPS 13 from 2015 as my main driver until a few days ago. A solid machine that has done a great job for a whole decade, but at some point 8GB of non-expandable RAM start to feel tight.</p><p>Initially I wanted to buy a new XPS 13, but I’ve felt a bit underwhelmed by their current offer. They’ve gone full MacBook style, with little to no room for expandibility or repairability, just two USB-C ports as available interfaces, and the prices are quite obscene for the performance - sorry, I won’t pay $2,500 for a machine with max 32GB of non-expandable RAM and an Intel Core Ultra 7 with 8 cores and 12MB of cache.</p><p>I eventually opted for a Tuxedo InfinityBook Pro 14.</p><p>64GB of RAM, Intel Core Ultra 7 with 16 cores and 24MB of cache, and all the connectivity I want, for ~$1600.</p><p>I got a model with TuxedoOS because I’ve heard good things about it and I wanted to give it a brief try before installing Arch. And the OS seemed indeed stable and well-designed. However the <code>tuxedo-control-center</code> and the DKMS modules are also available on the AUR, so you can probably get the same results even on Arch.</p><p>The Arch installation was also quite painless. <code>mesa</code> and <code>linux-firmware</code> out of the box did the job to recognize all of the devices. The DKMS drivers are optional, for things like the presence sensor and backlight configuration. I only spent a couple of hours trying to fix a boot issue with GRUB, and eventually concluded that it’s most likely a UEFI firmware issue in the GRUB installation. I switched to systemd-boot and it went flawlessly at the first attempt. I guess that it’s time to say goodbye to dear ol’ GRUB and its massive configurations with so many moving parts and things that can go wrong…</p>