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Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

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Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#171

Post by tracker1 »

khazhou wrote: post #116
rbanffy wrote: post #108

People worry too much about what they use to host text editors and terminal windows...

Sure, except that OSX's iterm2+Karabiner is so much better than any terminal on Linux. Awesome full-screen switching (⌘-Enter), easy shortcuts to create subwindows, natural clipboard support, great keyboard compatibility with Emacs (after futzing with keyboard settings and Karabiner mappings). On Ubuntu, all of these have been lacking. Hell, I can't even use the terminal for a single session without accidentally trig…

I have to absolutely agree on iterm2, I'd love to have the same on Linux... there are a few okay ones, none I've tried as good. On windows, I like ConEmu okay, still not as good, but better than default.

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#172

Post by sudhirj »

stormbrew wrote: post #98
sudhirj wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The underlying Ubuntu still refers to it as the Super key, but elementary uses the clover to symbolise it when it can. Still can't get to Mac like setups, though - apparently in Linux it's the applications that intercept the Super key, so it's never going to be possible to get a consistent experience.

Window managers definitely get a first crack at keyboard input. For example, I have a bunch of super-related keyboard combos set in i3wm that always go to it. I doubt that's the problem you're referring to. More likely it's that the window manager has no consistent means to make any given window/app do anything in particular, like copy or paste. The app decides its own key combos for those. There's no universal way t…

Yeah, I think you're exactly right... there's a feature request here that goes through this:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/switchboard-plug-keyboard/+bug/16...

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#173

Post by leojackson »

kqr wrote: post #148
INTPenis wrote: post #146

I had the same prejudice about Fedora and RedHat back when I was a debian fanboy. But if you look at what Redhat is doing with their money and their company then you soon realize that Redhat Inc. not only IS a large part of the Linux community, but also supports the open source movement in many ways. So Fedora has been my main distro of choice for a couple years now. I still hesitate to order RHEL licenses at work, u…

I agree. My impression of RHEL and its likes is that they are "slow and outdated", but the more actual research I do, the more I feel like using them for their stability and security.

RHEL is the Warren Buffett of Linux: slow, methodical, stable, and in it for the long haul.

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#174

Post by dagw »

tracker1 wrote: post #171
khazhou wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, except that OSX's iterm2+Karabiner is so much better than any terminal on Linux. Awesome full-screen switching (⌘-Enter), easy shortcuts to create subwindows, natural clipboard support, great keyboard compatibility with Emacs (after futzing with keyboard settings and Karabiner mappings). On Ubuntu, all of these have been lacking. Hell, I can't even use the terminal for a single session without accidentally trig…

I have to absolutely agree on iterm2, I'd love to have the same on Linux... there are a few okay ones, none I've tried as good. On windows, I like ConEmu okay, still not as good, but better than default.

Honest question. I spend my development time switching between OS X, Linux and Windows and I've been using iterm2 for years. Yet I have no idea why people claim that it is so much better than anything else out there. If I where to completely give up on OS X for Linux, iterm2 wouldn't even make the list of things I'd even consider missing. What unique killer features am I not using?

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#175

Post by sudhirj »

thesmallestcat wrote: post #107
sudhirj wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use conemu with WSL... it's the best one available for Windows, but it still pales in comparison to the default macOS terminal, and even the one that ships with Elementary. The customziation, tabs, layout, fonts all work fine but seem a bit bolted on.

I feel the need to point out that what "ships" with elementaryOS is basically meaningless. You can install what you want, easily, and the default configuration is a recommendation. Welcome to Linux-land. https://www.distrowatch.com/

Oh, absolutely, but I'm actually saying the terminal that ships with Elementary is superb. The macOS stock terminal is also really good. But the Windows stock terminal is downright horrible, Powershell is slightly better, but not Unixy, and ConEmu is so-so, but better than the other Windows options.

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#176

Post by lostboys67 »

monochromatic wrote: post #57

If a Macbook sshing into your work computer is good enough, why isn't a Windows laptop sshing into your work computer?

Well a built-in x Server for connecting to your development systems would be nice - which both OSX and Windows 10 Lack.

And I do mean Server as X Windows switches the common usage of client and sever.

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#177

Post by meehow »

Author mentioned separately Ubuntu add Gnome, but what about Ubuntu Gnome [1]? I switched from Mac OS X to Ubuntu Gnome after release of latest Apple's MacBook "shame" Pro. It took few weeks to find new dev tools, but today I can't complain. Linux is much more mature nowadays than it was ~10 years, ago when I switched to Mac. I'm working more with terminal now and not using Git GUI anymore, but as long as you are not XCode coder, everything is similar, for half of the price.

[1] http://ubuntugnome.org/

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#178

Post by zeveb »

codeka wrote: post #20

> The first option I tried was an i3 based desktop. However whilst I wanted to like tiling window managers I decided it wasn’t for me. It took me a week or so to get used to i3, but once I did I can't see myself ever going back. I've been using i3 at work and at home for about year now, and every time I get on my (Mac Book) laptop it's a frustrating experience: I feel like I spend more time trying to figure out how t…

Ditto for me with StumpWM. Whenever I have to use a machine without a tiling WM I feel like I've taken a trip back in time — back to an unpleasant and archaic part of time. Having to mouse over to windows feels like having to turn a hand-crank to navigate.

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#179

Post by nkohari »

ourcat wrote: post #145
z1mm32m4n wrote: post #126

Many articles about wanting to leave the macOS ecosystem mention Sketch. Sketch is macOS only (and will be for the forseeable future), so it's understandable that people want to consider the implications of switching away from it. Recently, however, I stumbled upon Figma, a web-based, real-time collaborative interface design app (i.e., a competitor of Sketch). After convincing my group to experiment with it for a sch…

I've never really understood why people use Sketch. I recently worked on a project where I had asked for some basic vanilla templates of a mobile site from the designers and was sent a huge Sketch file. It was utterly useless and I had to code everything by hand myself, since the 'designers' very clearly had zero clue about HTML+CSS or any notion of responsiveness, thanks to apps like Sketch which teach nothing of th…

My IDE didn't teach me that much about software engineering either.

Re: Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X

#180

Post by nkohari »

rbanffy wrote: post #108

People worry too much about what they use to host text editors and terminal windows...

Honestly, if Linux's font rendering looked as good as OS X, I would have already switched. I know it might sound arbitrary, but aesthetics matter to me, and if I'm going to stare at it for 12 hours a day it should look nice. :)
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