Putting Linux on my RTX spark laptop because I don't have a Microsoft account (josie.lol)

86 pointsby pfeifferjan hour ago32 comments

chem83 37 minutes ago

Not sure there's a strong use case for one of these $6K laptops yet, considering you can get a mini PC running AMD Ryzen 495 or 395 with 96, 128 and 192 GB of memory for similar amount of money and connect remotely from a cheaper/smaller/more battery-efficient laptop. Microsoft also has this same chip in non-laptop form factor: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/devices/surface-rtx-....

Coding while flying is often the use case people bring up, but the power brick these laptops come with sometimes trip the plane's power plug in coach and you can't run local AI on battery for long. Also, over time planes will get better connectivity (Starlink etc.) and that particular full-offline scenario will go away.

For gaming, there are better options with dedicated GPUs like the Asus Zephyrus and similar.

What am I missing?

SimianSci 32 minutes ago

The AMD hardware is x86_64, which means lower battery life on average for normal users, and as an architecture, it is very well supported across the Windows ecosystem. The RTX Spark is ARM64, which means more efficient power management at the cost of a small hit to sustained performance loads. But comes at the cost of being less supported when it comes to available software packages.

Aside from this, I’m led to believe that the AMD stack when it comes to local models has more overhead related to its need to translate more NVIDIA native instructions and therefore can be less performant than Nvidia. Not sure how true this is anymore, but ive yet to hear otherwise.

Topfi 28 minutes ago

> The AMD hardware is x86_64, which means lower battery life on average for normal users [...]

A Ryzen AI Max+ 395 powered tablet with 70Wh [0] gets the same battery life given the same task as a Nvidia N1X powered laptop with 99.9 Wh [1].

Power Consumption in their "Cyberpunk / Stress Test" is also lower at Ø109.3 (108.8-110.8) Watt for the x86_64 vs Ø134.5 (132.1-137.5) Watt for the arm64 system using the same settings, resolution and display brightness. They also get the same performance when normalising for resolutions and settings in Cyberpunk, so this is not an instance of one providing significantly more performance.

[0] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Flow-Z13-GZ302EA-Conv...

[1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ProArt-P16-RTX-Spark-Lapt...

MrFlynn 23 minutes ago

To add, battery life on this chip hasn’t been that impressive [1]. It’s basically matching recent MacBook Pros, while sporting a significantly larger battery. Both AMD and Intel have made significant strides in improving power consumption on their latest core designs, to the point where there isn’t a lot of difference anymore.

[1] https://www.lttlabs.com/articles/2026/10/16/nvidia-rtx-spark...

5vg 32 minutes ago

i don’t think they’re flying coach after spending 6k on a laptop…

Kirby64 28 minutes ago

Why? Flying business everywhere is substantially more expensive than a one time cost of $6k for a laptop. A single business ticket anywhere overseas matches or exceeds that in most cases.

giancarlostoro 30 minutes ago

The Nvidia based one uses the memory for the GPU allowing you to run AI models on the GPU, the system you're talking about has no such setup. These are Nvidia powered laptops that do what Apple does with their laptops where the system and GPU VRAM are shared as needed, except the idea here is that Nvidia designed these to perform very well for local inference, at least, that's how I understand it.

girvo 26 minutes ago

No, the AMD ones he’s talking about allow the GPU to address that memory as well: they’re “APU’s” that share system RAM as GPU memory

That said the compute power of the GB10 is awesome, my DGX Spark-like has been better than I expected.

MrFlynn 30 minutes ago

The core design is also approaching 3 years old at this point, so it’s not really even that competitive with the latest stuff out of the other chip makers. It’s fine, but nothing to write home about. Certainly not worth the crazy premium Nvidia is charging for it.

TIPSIO 17 minutes ago

Being forced to login to use your own hardware is one issue for sure…

but separately everything about Microsoft’s login experience is pure pain.

Multiple broken redirects, broken links, buttons that loop, and more just to hit a CAPTCHA AI can solve anyway.

The only thing worse is for the poor soul developers who have had to login to their dev portal to setup SSO Microsoft for an app. It’s the worst I have ever seen in my life (even using Supabase that hand holds you through it).

jasoneckert 18 minutes ago

I have a DGX Spark (Ubuntu), and when Microsoft and NVIDIA announced the RTX Spark running Windows, I thought to myself: Why would I get that instead of the DGX Spark?

The OS makes a big difference for most developers, and the DGX Spark stack and experience is mature.

manyatoms 9 minutes ago

I thought so too, but there's a ton of people out there wading their way through trying to re-purpose their gaming rigs to run qwen3.8-flash-next on their gaming rig (at Q2..) via WSL

hypfer 39 minutes ago

Hm, what's the learning here?

What challenge has been overcome?

I can see that hardware was bought, and that's cool hardware and all, but consumption is rather uninspiring.

I suppose it's the arm64 part? Or the review of some new hardware other people might be interested in?

petercooper 34 minutes ago

As someone who was intrigued by these new machines but also has no interest in running Windows, I'm quite happy to learn it works. Though admittedly I was expecting to see DGX OS first.

cute_boi 26 minutes ago

i would do same if i have to use windows. I will literally pay anything to not use windows, thanks to microslop.

swiftcoder 25 minutes ago

She literally posted a link to the patches she wrote to get it to boot linux. That seems like it's not nothing

hypfer 19 minutes ago

But does it go into detail about those changes?

Because that sounds interesting! But I didn't see anything like that when I've (admittedly) skimmed through the review.

starfallg 20 minutes ago

Does anybody know how Wayland performs on these?

bitmasher9 an hour ago

Is a Microsoft account required to use Windows on these RTX spark laptops?

Am I being too stubborn for not wanting a cloud account tied to my desktop operating system?

tomwheeler an hour ago

No, the vendor is being too presumptuous. This is clearly a case of them putting their needs above yours.

colechristensen 42 minutes ago

It is getting progressively more difficult to set up a new Windows laptop without a cloud account. Currently it's a pretty esotaric command line prompt if you know the keybinding to get a terminal open.

mahboi 37 minutes ago

For Win10, I had to keep it disconnected from the network throughout the install process. Once you're connected, you have to do it all over again.

dark-star 5 minutes ago

simply creating a Microsoft account would have been far quicker and easier ;-)

SimianSci 38 minutes ago

getting a local account is simple.

Windows Pro > Work or School Account > Join a Domain instead > Set password & recovery questions

The one component here that is not present on most machines straight from the manufacturer is the presence of the Pro version. The home version of windows requires the account with increasingly limited alternatives.

Telaneo 28 minutes ago

Simple™. Easy™.

internet2000 36 minutes ago

Hey just as a heads-up Microsoft accounts are free to make https://signup.live.com/

herbst 34 minutes ago

But who would want that?

cabaalis 33 minutes ago

I don't want a cloud login telemetry of when I am using my computer, an account that can be disabled by a provider, and constant ads to backup to onedrive. I also moved to linux because of this. (was already a linux guy, but Windows is completely in my rear-view now.)

monksy 30 minutes ago

That is not acceptable in order to use a device you bought.

Also that means you're forced into a manditory arbitration clase and a class action waver.

Dylan16807 30 minutes ago

The stuff you have to agree to is a very significant cost. You're not just associating a username with a password.

Telaneo 30 minutes ago

I can get dogshit for free too. Doesn't mean I want it.

fooker 20 minutes ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_as_in_Freedom