The only think I am growing increaslingly weary of are those moaning about the walled gardens, "rms told so", and some perverted understanding of freedom.
The answer is no. Actually I switched from Windows/Linux to OS X. I love linux on the servers, I don't hate Windows, but I don't like preachers, especially misinformed ones.
It would be interesting to know, what share of oss is actually written on OS X compared to Linux…
Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
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Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#72I'll say something that's vaguely awful: what's in it for me? I use Linux at work and it's not bad , but I'm less productive on it with 95% of tasks than I would be with OSX. It looks worse (I recognize this is subjective.) A lot of my friends use Linux and tell me that if I spend the right amount of time tinkering with it -- making it mine -- I'd reap the benefits of a bespoke OS, just like slipping on a suit that's…
I know it's merely your opinion, but you seem to be using the terms "best" and "pretty" interchangeably. I find that very surprising, but maybe it's well-designed UX on Mac that you are referring to when you say "pretty"? Anyway, pretty is one of those things that I learned is worth sacrificing in favour of productivity - be that in code or when I choose my OS or tools.
If you're referring to the MacBook Air comment: I am very confident that the MBA is the perfect machine for me, but I am more so confident that there are people who have a much deeper understanding of the consumer hardware landscape than I do. Thus the qualifier of 'at least the prettiest': someone could very feasibly change my mind about the MBA, but I haven't seen anything else that looks quite like it.
Anyway, pretty is one of those things that I learned is worth sacrificing in favour of productivity - be that in code or when I choose my OS or tools.
I agree, but I don't think its so black and white (for me!) When my tools are well-crafted and attractive, I use them more frequently and with more vigor.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#73I'd be happy to bring all my office desktops to Linux but there are two insurmountable problems (I am one out of 2 desktops on Linux, out of roughly 40 office computers). We are a newspaper publishing company, Adobe CS suite is a must. Our accountant uses software only delivered with Remote Desktop and that stinkymud uses a security variant not offered by the OSS variants of RDP clients.
As it stands I plan to migrate as fast away from Windows as possible. This means all new machines are either Ubuntu or OsX. Layout and Graphics machines OsX, others Ubuntu. At least Microsoft is getting kicked to the curb, but Jobs's ghost will be around till Adobe realizes their mistake and offers a native suite for Linux.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#74OSX has a big plus: It's reliability, I've used it for 10 years as primary OS and it never lost a piece of data or ceased to work when I needed it most (as the deadline approaches). As long as Apple doesn't switch to AppStore-only and I have a CLI to compile what I want I will stay on OSX as a primary OS.
Being a Linux user since the 90s I always have Linux Desktop machines around. Switching to Ubuntu will be a loss in reliability for you coming from OSX. I used it since Dapper Drake, in the last years every half year upgrade broke something, especially in Unity and Gnome.
Obviously Ubuntu are more into making strange things on their own then providing a reliable linux. Ubuntu is the "odd man out" in Linux and you won't gain anything but upgrade pain two times a year from switching to Ubuntu. It isn't "real Linux" anymore. So if you're going to switch to Linux, don't use Ubuntu, instead use Debian Stable or Arch.
If you're on a reliable distribution Linux will work fine.
That is true of course only if your hardware is supported without "just compile a sweet little kernel module and it works fine". No, don't do this. Don't rely on such hardware or be prepared to spent the weekends fiddling around to make your graphics adapter or wifi work.
If it works you will find more or less everything you need for your computing needs as a developer. But you're going to miss the nice small apps you learned to love in the OSX indie developer ecosystem. You even won't find a nice client for Twitter in the Linux Repos (most of them haven't seen an update since Twitter switched to OAuth and the API and won't work anymore but are still in the repos), if you're into ADN there isn't anything but an ugly cross-platform client.
Regarding such small things like clients for social networks you will switch the OSX culture of "it has to be nice and working or nobody won't use or buy it" against "somebody made something that works somehow but looks ugly and hey if you don't like it make it better it's open source".
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#75I was considering moving to Linux myself till I found out that gotomeeting or gotowebinar doesn't function on one, and I use it too often to not consider it a key feature.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#76I made the switch, and I am pretty much in content. My affair with Linux started in 1991 and in 2000, I made a switch to OSX, primarily for the hardware and for good 12 years, my MacBook Pro served me well. Last year, I wanted to buy a new machine, considering the fact the new Retina MacBook Pro's RAM couldn't be upgraded (as much of it is hard wired), I decided to go with ThinkPad W530 with Linux on it. The reason to switch was also because of nature of my work, most of which involved testing distributed architectures. Since my switch to Ubuntu, I feel more at home these days.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#77I've used Linux for years. I've even used Linux on the first Macs I ever had. In the end, I found it just cost me too much time, especially if I wanted to keep it running on the hardware of my choice, which will most likely remain Apple. And I'm not compromising my hardware choice, as long as other manufacturers can't be bothered to invest as much in excellent product design. Also, having so much freedom to choose an…
I agree. Id say the Linux desktop will probably never drastically improve because of this massive NIH-syndrome.
So much development resources go into maintaining dozens of forks of popular Desktop enviroments (Unity, Gnome3, Mate, Cinnamon, GnomeShell, KDE, XFCE etc) that its not even funny anymore. Choice isnt always good.
The sheer flexibility and number of choices for each and every part of the linux desktop world makes the whole experience chaotic, inconsistent, buggy and complex to setup and maintain. And as thats the DNA of Linux and Open-Source, it probably wont change. And while awesome, that DNA makes it nearly impossible to have a Linux Desktop experience that will ever rival the closed ones in terms of day-to-day usability.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#78I'll say something that's vaguely awful: what's in it for me? I use Linux at work and it's not bad , but I'm less productive on it with 95% of tasks than I would be with OSX. It looks worse (I recognize this is subjective.) A lot of my friends use Linux and tell me that if I spend the right amount of time tinkering with it -- making it mine -- I'd reap the benefits of a bespoke OS, just like slipping on a suit that's…
> It looks worse (I recognize this is subjective.)
Yes, yes it is.
If you're using Ratpoison, well yeah, it's gonna be fugly. Gnome 3 and Unity look pretty sharp though, and Compiz and Clutter are at least as good as Quartz.
In fact, if you think nothing short of an OS X clone is pretty: How to Make Ubuntu Linux Look Like Mac OS X http://www.howtogeek.com/45817/
"Linux is ugly" is an outdated cliche. It used to be true. It's not anymore.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#79The only thing keeping me from it is a couple of app's that I use regularly, and am not willing to give it up. With the decline in Apple's quality both in their OS/Flagship products as well as their hardware (my MBPr has had more problems than any Apple laptop before it).
I'm pretty sure this will be my last purchase from Apple, and i'll be moving to a new laptop running some flavour of linux as soon as a suitable replacement laptop comes on the market.
Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?
#80This. +100. I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Apple ecosystem. iProducts, iCloud, etc. I can't transfer this to that cause I'm not allowed, click here to accept this, turn on location services so we can track you - on your laptop. It's getting to be too much. What's the best laptop for running any Ubuntu flavored desktop?
Is it just me or is ubuntu getting worse? I really thought it was good when it was gnome 2, and then they moved to unity, seemingly targeting netbooks. Now nobody has a netbook, and they are talking about phones and other such nonsense.
I generally run an ubuntu vm on osx, because i love the linux command line ecosystem, but as time goes on I find myself needing to customise more and more just to get a sane base configuration.
I really don't understand why ubuntu doesn't focus on their niche - giving developers a nice dev environment and then slowly working to stabilise apis and turn it into a platform. Then they can think about other stuff. At the moment they are trying to compete with companies that are much larger, with much more budget.