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It Just Works

danielandrews.com

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Re: It Just Works

#101

Post by yellowapple »

willcodeforfoo wrote: post #25

I've been increasingly feeling the same way, especially about OS X, but what's the alternative for a developer-friendly desktop operating system that looks and works beautifully (almost) out of the box?

Slackware.

Before everyone here laughs at me, let's start with some disclaimers:

* While not as involved as with some other distros (like Arch or Gentoo), Slackware's install process is still a bit involved; namely, you have to manually setup partitions before starting the install program (the Slackware install environment provides `fdisk` and `parted` for this, and details are well-documented).

* You have to make a single edit in `/etc/inittab` in order to get Slackware to boot into a graphical environment by default.

Once you get past those hurdles, Slackware is pretty much what you're asking for:

* Ships with multiple desktop environments / window managers, including KDE, Xfce, Window Maker, and Openbox (in order from most to least pretty/easy-to-use by default), among others. Even more are available on Slackbuilds.org (see below).

* Most (if not all) Slackware software packages include development headers (unlike most GNU/Linux distributions which have separate `-dev` packages for development headers), making it very convenient if you need to develop against some library.

* The underlying system is simple and easy to troubleshoot; no plethora of fragile moving parts like you see in OS X or Ubuntu.

* Ships with the full GCC suite.

* Fast.

* Things "just work".

* Compatible with a lot of different language runtimes/compilers/etc. (for me, I've seen Erlang/Elixir, Ruby (w/ RVM), Perl, Rust, Julia, and assorted other LLVM-oriented languages work out-of-the-box without needing to deviate from `./configure && make && sudo make install`; not that you have to even `./configure && make && sudo make install`, though (see below)).

* Plethora of third-party software packages available on Slackbuilds.org (installation of which is automatable if you download/install `sbopkg`).

It's not for everyone, of course, but it's worked well for me over the last several years.

Re: It Just Works

#102

Post by fishtoaster »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #83

I don't understand why the hacker scene these days is full of proud OSX users. What happened to the proud Linux hackers we've always had? They told me to use OSX at the job I recently started, and I only lasted a week before I told them I wanted to install Linux.

I think a lot of hackers got tired of messing with drivers just so they could get the sound to work when they watch Netflix. As OP says, Apple's "It just works" level has gone down, but it's still leaps and bounds ahead of Linux. OS X provides a system that "just works" at least as well as Windows, but has a real unix system underneath. Especially in web development (where a lot of developers are building stuff that will end up on a Linux production box), it's quite helpful to have a system that lets me use a lot of nix tools. OS X meets both goals adequately, whereas Windows lacks the nix tools and Linux lacks the "it just works".

Re: It Just Works

#103

Post by jacquesm »

DonnyV wrote: post #80
at-fates-hands wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only issue with GM is the portability. I work out frequently, and lugging around a large smartphone isn't the best scenario for simply listening to music. I'm looking into getting a smaller MP3 player and putting my GM library on that to achieve the level of portability I need for my music.

Your entire music library doesn't have to live on your device. Just stream it right from GM or cache the albums you want to listen too.

What really gets me is that some scrappy start-up tried to launch a service like that in the 00's and got totally burned by the labels because it was not 'fair use' but now google does it it is ok.

Re: It Just Works

#105

Post by tracker1 »

geophile wrote: post #14

Major Apple applications have become inscrutable and frustrating. - iTunes, Music and the iTunes store are a mess. I understood the old iTunes organization. Navigation within my music collection has become highly non-intuitive. It seems that there are multiple paradigms (long list of tracks, and another sectioned off by album), and it isn't always clear why one or the other is used. I keep forgetting how to get to th…

I really don't use any Apple software on my rMBP except for the OS... and even there improper handling of Bluetooth and WiFi are unacceptable. I went with another macbook because I love the touchpad, and like an all-metal case. That said, I paid through the nose for something with an OS update that's simply unreliable.

It will be the last Apple product I buy for a long time, and TBH, if Ubuntu comes out with a good experience on Apple hardware, I'd probably switch the OS out.

Re: It Just Works

#106

Post by tragic »

mkozlows wrote: post #48

It's certainly the case that OSX, at least, has gotten flaky as heck, but at the same time: What's the competition? While Apple was releasing Yosemite, Microsoft was going down the Windows 8 rabbit-hole, releasing the worst version of Windows since ME. And while desktop Linux has been getting better over time, I don't think anyone would say that it "Just Works" yet. The only desktop/laptop OS that actually does "Just…

I just don't see what's so hard about desktop Linux at this point. In the last 3-4 years, I've installed various Ubuntu flavours on hardware varying in vintage from 2005 to 2012-ish, with no problems, every bit of hardware just working. In 2012 I even put puppy on a Toshiba laptop from roughly 2000, that wqas still going strong-ish with Windows 98 (!) but could obviously not run any browsers newer than IE6 or whatever it was. No problems. Compared to when I was first dabbling with Debian in the mid-oughts, it's no more hassle - in fact, less hassle - than installing Windows in my experience. To be clear - I am doing little or no customisation at all (beyond obviously installing stuff that I need). I expect it to Just Work. And it does.

Whether the slightly rough-and-ready replacements for essential consumer apps are suitable is another matter. GIMP is obviously no Photoshop.

My experience of using OSX on a daily basis is that I use very little of the Apple specific stuff, and that I need 16gb in there because it leaks memory like billy-o. My awful code does enough of that without Apple helping out, thank you very much.

Other than that, it's fine-ish.

Re: It Just Works

#107

Post by m3rc »

jacquesm wrote: post #103
DonnyV wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your entire music library doesn't have to live on your device. Just stream it right from GM or cache the albums you want to listen too.

What really gets me is that some scrappy start-up tried to launch a service like that in the 00's and got totally burned by the labels because it was not 'fair use' but now google does it it is ok.

Yeah, shit like that really does suck. At the very least, we get that kind of service now.

Re: It Just Works

#108

Post by m3rc »

x0x0 wrote: post #40
geophile wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify is a possible replacement (even without their streaming and music finding services), but I find that application quite buggy.

spotify is pretty crappy (experiences on android): * they broke google maps for about 3 months. Originally, when google maps needed to give audio directions, music would pause. It worked. Some moron decided, instead, to make the audio keep playing but make it quieter while google maps was giving audio directions. What he or she actually did is to mute google maps. This persisted for 3 months while assholes there made…

Holy crap yeah, I don't know what other app was put together so poorly as Spotify. It wakelocks like hell, it crashes constantly, none of the menu items make sense, AND aren't consistent with where you are in playing songs, it seems totally random as to whether songs show up in your queue or disappear, your history sometimes stores albums and sometimes songs, it goes on and on. I use spotify mostly as just a grooveshark replacement, but as soon as my trial is up I'm ditching the fucking thing.

Re: It Just Works

#109

Post by steverb »

baseballmerpeak wrote: post #23

When it works, it is brilliant and seamless. On the other hand, there is not any redundancy, in the sense that if one piece of the equation (OS + the hardware + the software) is rubbish, it cannot be readily replaced by substitution (e.g. swapping Windows for Linux).

I dunno, Windows 7 runs brilliantly on my MacBook.

Re: It Just Works

#110

Post by kybernetyk »

I'm frustrated with Apple when it comes to services. Don't misunderstand me: I love their hardware. I love OS X. It's the best computing experience since my C64 days.

But when it comes to services I tend to avoid them as much as I can. Latest example: Apple music.

I was a little annoyed by Spotify's continuously disappearing music tracks so I was eager to try out iTunes Music. But the problems started when I tried to get into the trial: You need a valid* credit card.

Now valid is a pretty interesting definition because I'm from Germany, currently living in Germany but my banking is done via a Dutch bank (back from when I lived there). So my credit card is dutch. And I live in Germany. But it's the EU so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Right. And no one has ever raised an eyebrow when I used a credit card that has been issued by a Dutch bank with my German address (not even the online poker websites I frequent from time to time). Not even once I had any problems with that. I'm paying my taxes in Germany via my Dutch bank account. The German tax office accepts it (they even issue transfers to that account). So if the German tax office (which still hasn't completely switched to electronic tax filing) can deal with that case then everyone on this planet should be able to. Well, expect for Apple. I just can not use that credit card with anything iTunes related. I get always an "invalid country error".

Now I'm in Germany, I'm from Germany, my iTunes account is a German iTunes account. But the fact that my credit card has been issued by a bank in a country that's just 20km from my current residence makes it invalid for Apple. A country that is part of the EU. It's like I wouldn't be able to use a credit card from California when I were living in Washington.

So I have to buy those pre-paid iTunes cards to top up my account. And so I had to add three months of pre-paid money to my iTunes account just to start the 3 months free trial.

Everything OK? Nope! I was too bold and I opted for a "family account". Now the most funny thing: Even though I am in the free trial period for the "family account" and I have enough money in my iTunes account to pay for the service I can't use the family sharing feature because for that I would need a valid credit card. iTunes just aborts with an "add a valid credit card" error when I try to configure family sharing.

It's like Kafka has risen from his grave and started a music streaming service.

/rant

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