It's fiddly, but I got everything set up relatively quickly. There are even settings to adjust icon sizes in the window titlebar and task manager. You can also boost the default font size to make it proportional. With a combination of the built-in settings app and additional packages like gnome-tweak-tool, you can get UI controls rendering on the 4K display at 2x native size, so they look right. The latest Ubuntu handles High DPI screens well, which surprised me. The 4K screen on the Spectre x360 is gorgeous. Then I followed Ubuntu's simple install instructions, which required some BIOS changes to enable booting from USB. I loaded the Ubuntu image on a USB drive, which conveniently fit in the machine's USB-A port (missing on new Macs).

I used Windows' built-in Disk Management app to shrink the main partition and free up space for Linux. The machine came with Windows 10 preinstalled. Here are my impressions from using this computer over the past month, followed by some realizations about myself. My goal was to run Ubuntu Linux instead of Windows.

I bought the machine from BestBuy (not an affiliate link) because that was the only retailer selling this configuration. I chose the HP Spectre x360 13' laptop that was released after CES 2017, the new version with a 4K display. And, as a surprise even to myself, I decided to leave the Mac platform. I researched a set of alternative computers to consider. Quick refresher: I'm a life-long Mac user, but I was disappointed by Apple's latest MacBook Pro release.

Ubuntu vs mac os battery life