Updated: May 13, 2025
Two years ago, I bought a Slimbook Titan, a beefy machine running Linux. My intended purpose for this laptop was to prepare myself for the eventual EOL of Windows 10, and see whether I could move all of my work and fun into the Linux realm, exclusively. This has been the topic of many an article I wrote over the past several years, focusing on software compatibility, gaming, WINE programs, and then some.
So far, I reported back on how well the Titan works five times. The experience has been, well, somewhat mediocre. A rough start, followed by ups and downs in usability, mostly caused by regressions in the kernel space and some firmware problems. In my fifth report, I felt the things have finally stabilized. With optimism in hand, let's have another look at this system, how well it behaves, and assess how close I am to my goal. Begin, we must.
There were a few problems, but they quickly went away
I encountered a few bugs, nay regressions. SketchUp Make stopped working, but I fixed this relatively easily. Similarly, KompoZer became sluggish, but again, I was able to mitigate the issue with reasonable ease. Now, these kind of problems don't inspire confidence, and I guess they are bound to happen here and there. But considering the variety of Windows programs I run on this laptop, including some tricky usecases like perhaps the Maxwell Render plugin, I guess the occasional wee issue is a price I'm willing to pay. It's not like I'm not having to fight nonsensical issues and bugs in Windows all the time. So.
A few small issues remain, a couple of new ones showed up
So far, I haven't been able to get Assetto Corsa working in Steam (via Proton). Still. For now, it's the one remaining title that I'd like to see working. All my other games run just fine. I guess it's the matter of waiting a while longer for Steam to resolve this. After all, I had tried playing Age of Empires II for years, without success, and then, one day, the game simply launched, and it's been smooth sailing ever since. I believe we will see a similar result with Assetto sometime soon.
And then, all of a sudden, I noticed a fresh HD scaling artifact. I haven't seen it so far because I was using the 125% factor, but now, with 137.5%, notice the top of the numbers truncated in the Resolution dropdown box. This seems to be a tiny regressions, and hopefully, it will be fixed - the very thing I mentioned in my article on whether Kubuntu 22.04 is going to get any updates after April 2025. Sure it will, but this kind of bug may not be fixed in this particular release anymore, now that it's past its three-year mark. Fair game, in a way.
Now, the good stuff
I ended up doing a lot of work on the laptop lately, just to see whether it's stable and calm enough. And indeed, it is. There were no hardware-related issues whatsoever. No Wireless hiccups, no freezes, no issues with suspend & resume. The hybrid graphics setup works impeccably. The battery maintains its charge well. The resident Kubuntu 22.04 (beefed up by pro for a good decade) doesn't toll too many electrons.
I've got four browsers installed - Firefox as tarball and snap, Chrome and Edge. Steam's there, with some two dozen games running, plus an assortment of other titles, some sourced from GOG, others from my ancient installers, all working fabulously, with no HD/UHD conflicts. Then, we have SketchUp, Kerkythea, Maxwell Render (plugin and native build), half a dozen other WINE applications. And for good measure, should I ever need it, there's an offline Windows 10 virtual machine, and Office, for those hard-to-please publishers and agents that absolutely must have DOCX submissions. That's life.
Let's not forget TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt, including an important compatibility fix to be able to use them seamlessly alongside kernel cryptsetup (a tutorial coming soon), a couple of VPN clients. LibreOffice works quite all right, and I've warmed up to it after writing my nonfiction history book. All in all, this is a pretty nifty setup. Best of all, should I choose it, I can keep going for an entire decade, without being probed, profiled, insulted or treated like a monkey. The free price of the operating system is also a nice bonus. Let's not forget, the Plasma desktop is a slick, posh delight, way ahead of everything else on the market.
Conclusion
I hope I won't have to eat my own words. But I'm ever hopeful and optimistic. Early on, I wasn't pleased with the Titan, and its keyboard is kind of meh. Now that I've spent a lot of hours hammering words on it, testing and tweaking stuff, pushing the limits of my usage, there's an inkling of respect. It's hard getting past early troubles, but one must. In particular, having encountered an entire avalanche of problems in various Windows clients recently, I'm beginning to feel Linux, for all its problems, ain't so bad after all. Sure, it can be better, but all things considered, not bad at all.
The Slimbook Titan has redeemed itself. It took a while, and the first year was quite tough. It would have been extra grim if I had no other options, and I had to limit my usage to just this one machine, until all of its problems got ironed out. Then again, along the way I learned a bunch of things, and I solved a lot of issues, which I hope, the lessons thereof, will make the Linux desktop experience better for everyone. I feel confident for the October 2025 milestone. Sure, Windows 10 won't stop working right away, and there won't be any immediate sinister doomsday scenario developing, not right there, and not for many more years. Even so, it's good to know there's a trusty, reliable platform ready to be used, with almost no loss of functionality and an infinite gain in intelligence and peace of mind. That would be all for now. Take care.
Cheers.