Great! It’s good to see they are also contributing upstream!
If you’re not rich or willing enough to contribute to this, the ASUS TUF Advantage (2023) is a very similar all-AMD gaming laptop, a good fit for Linux, at roughly half the price on sale. I’ve been using it for a few months now. Zen3+ cores instead of Zen4 but 32GB RAM and an RX7600S, but with only 1920x1200 pixels at 165 Hz, instead of 1440p.
Just make sure to install a distro with a recent kernel version:
- Pop!_OS (best “just works” distro with recent kernel)
- Fedora 39+ or derivative (such as Nobara)
- Archlinux or a derivative like EndeavourOS or Garuda
Linux Mint will not work out of the box so if you insist on Linux Mint, you will have to install a newer kernel yourself.
It’s good but not strictly necessary to install asusctl and supergfxctl on it for stuff like limiting battery charge to 80% and turning off the dGPU when working away from wall power.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I don’t have a strong opinion about distributions, but just wanted to give some pointers to distros that come with a recent Linux kernel (6.5 or greater) for people who aren’t familiar.
Pop!_OS and Linux Mint seem to be the most recommended for beginners, probably because the net is filled with “how to do X on Ubuntu”. I recognize that Nobara, Fedora and OpenSUSE have an enthusiastic following too and I really think all of the distros I mentioned are good in their own way.
Am running EndeavourOS Sway Community Edition myself, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend that particular variant to people who don’t know what they’re getting into. Have tried to contribute a fix to it but it’s unmaintained currently.
