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Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

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Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#81

To be honest I'm not sure why you'd really want to do that. For a developer OS X gives you everything that linux offers that you would need, with the advantage of a better GUI. I only ever use linux on servers these days. OS X is a much more usable client-side OS for a variety of reasons.

What are those reasons apart from having a "better" ui? (Which is highly subjective and if you use a tiling wm Linux is probably the better choice).

What turns me off OS X is the lack of a good package manager with up to date packages. Has this changed?

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#82
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lenovo's malware scandal should certainly give you pause, but do note that it was only installed on its consumer laptops. Thinkpads were unaffected. Moreover, Apple is far from the cleanly ethical choice you seem to think it is. It blocks or impedes the installation of software that it has unilaterally decided is against its interests + takes a ludicrous percentage of revenue via the App Store.

> takes a ludicrous percentage of revenue via the App Store. Do you know what it was before the Apple App store came along? You were handing over about 70-80%, and that was if you could convince a publisher to take your app, which was a very hard sell. Then Apple came along offering EVERYONE the ability to publish apps, and at a very reasonable cost.

You could throw up a web site and an online store and sell directly for nothing close to that. If you used a full-featured sales service, you might pay 8%. If you put in the work to run your own store that works with a merchant account, you could get it down to maybe 3%.

The alternative to the App Store isn't selling through a huge publisher who takes a huge cut, it's selling directly and keeping almost all of the money.

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#83
post #70

Macbooks were never good choices to run Linux on, and it's naive to think it would've gotten any easier. Apple's version of EFI is slightly different than the standard. The laptops are filled with custom hardware that you won't find anywhere else. It took Dell months of effort by a dedicated team [1] to get all the features of a subset of Dell XPS13 laptops working under Linux. I'm actually considering buying one as…

I've been running Linux on my MacBook Pro for quite a while (years?), and while there are a couple of hicups due to Apple weirdness, they are minor. I would definitely call my MacBook Pro a good (and workable) Linux machine.

Mind elaborating on the hiccups and generation?

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#84
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple seems preternaturally constrained by engineer time; I can't see why they would devote a scarce resource like that to qualifying drivers for anything older than Windows 10 Anniversary Edition.

They have incredible amount of cash reserves. An investment in Linux drivers would go against their mission of OSX penetration. It has nothing to do with being unable to do it.

I agree that it's not a lack of resources, but I don't think it's about OSX penetration. They don't seem to care much about OSX penetration anymore. If they did, they would make a wider range of OSX devices and sell them at a more competitive price or license it to other hardware makers who would do so so they could get OSX into more hands.

It's about control. Apple doesn't want YOU to replace OSX, they want to do it themselves with something they control, not let you gain control.

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#85
post #51
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lenovo's malware scandal should certainly give you pause, but do note that it was only installed on its consumer laptops. Thinkpads were unaffected. Moreover, Apple is far from the cleanly ethical choice you seem to think it is. It blocks or impedes the installation of software that it has unilaterally decided is against its interests + takes a ludicrous percentage of revenue via the App Store.

> It blocks or impedes the installation of software that it has unilaterally decided is against its interests What software are you thinking of? Apple maintains editorial control over what's in the App Store, but I can't think of any case where Apple has blocked software distributed outside the app store. The closest I can think of is the fact that the default settings of the computer require apps to be codesigned wi…

> by changing the security settings on the computer

Sierra has disabled the "install from any source" option (although you can re-enable it with some terminal magic). How long until they disable the identified developers option too and leave a system like the iphone?

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#86
post #6

There are other nice machines to run Linux on. AFAICT people buy Apple laptops to run macOS; for that you have pretty little choice.

At one point Linus's machine of choice was a Macbook Air.

Linus probably had easier time handling incompatibilities with the hardware. Most of us are not such proficient Linux hackers.

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#87
post #22
post #9

$2800 on a laptop with only 16GB RAM that you're going to run linux on anyway? If you're going to run Ubuntu, why not get a Lenovo for much less and with notably better legitimately "Pro" specs?

I get your sentiment for the new model. I still run a 15" MBP from mid 13 and couldn't be happier with running Debian on it. Friends had multiple new machines (also Lenovo) in the same time. Some of them actually broke down. All of them have a very dim screen, speakers that I cannot hear and microphones that cannot record. And then there's the touch pad, ... The list goes on. I'm no Apple fan boy, but those Lenovos a…

>I'm no Apple fan boy, but those Lenovos are not IBM Thinkpads anymore.

Are you saying the quality is down? I can't agree with that, I have kept buying Thinkpads and my X1 Carbon (2nd gen) is fantastic.

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#89
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Lenovo's malware scandal should certainly give you pause, but do note that it was only installed on its consumer laptops. Thinkpads were unaffected. And would not matter if you were installing Linux per this thread...

Operating system doesn't matter much when the malware is in BIOS or firmware code.

>Operating system doesn't matter much when the malware is in BIOS or firmware code.

Are you insinuating that was the case here? Source please, I'd be interested to read about that.

Re: Warning: 2016 MacBook Pro is not compatible with Linux

#90
post #66

I think they said they spent like $2800. For that amount of money you could get 2 Chromebooks ($179 each), build two decent gaming PCs ($900 each), and rent 5 Digital Ocean VPSs ($5 per month) for two years.

And for the price of a Ferarri you can get 5 Toyotas, 2 scooters and monthly passes for the subway for a year.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

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