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Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

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Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Until there're Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator for Linux There are plenty of great tools that really doesn't require these overly priced tools.

I’m not a designer, I’m a programmer, I mostly use these to export to something else, and do some minor adjustments. But on input, I always getting .psd (raster) or .ai (vector) files, created by professionals. I’ve been developing software for 17 years, and this always was the case, regardless on the industry (desktop software, embedded, videogames), regardless on target platform (PC, mobile, embedded win or linux,…

use inkscape for .ai or Gimp or Krita for .psd

To export just use a cli program and batch that process.

Imagemagick to convert psd to png `convert file.psd[0] file.png`

Imagemagick to convert ai to png `convert test.ai -channel rgba -alpha on test.png`

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#202
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another 20+ (24 actually, 0.99pl15) Linux user let me counter: with the Linux subsystem for Windows there's no reason to wrestle with Linux any more. While Linux certainly works on laptops it doesn't work well. Wifi and battery life are absymal and for me seemingly every other update either breaks the printer half or the scanner half of the MFC device (and if not, then it's time for another bluetooth breakage, you…

> you can search Arch Isn't Arch specifically for users who don't mind things breaking and going deep into internals to fix it?

I think it's well-suited to anyone who despises bloat. To anyone who wants to run a resource-efficient and performant system with just the parts they need. And honestly, most users will never need to dig deep. Most users will only, occasionally, need to follow a few steps on the well-explained Wiki.

More of my thoughts on Arch:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15246521

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15246781

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, and I'm pretty sure the reason's the same for Linux. Doesn't affect my opinion on the usability of the platform, though. For my part, I got my work to do, so I ultimately ended up back on a Mac (yet again, ugh) because, for all Apple's recent problems, none of them bother me as much as things like, "I just flat-out can't use this app that I need without a microscope."

Regarding usability, been a little while since I've used macOS now, so sincere question: Is it still true that you need third-party software to do keyboard-based window management? Even just something as simple as Windows' Win+arrow keys.

spectacle works fine indeed, out of the box windows management for halfsys and quarter of the screens.

Need more fancy ? http://www.mactrast.com/2017/04/review-mosaic-simple-window-... --> cannot vouch as not installed yet

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#204
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some developers enjoy a graphical IDE worlds, keyboard shortcuts + mouse Many devs using Linux do too. Every single one out of many many dozens of Desktop Environment and/or Window Manager combinations let you enjoy all these. Just a matter of familiarity. VS is certainly a neat IDE and always was since I first played with it ~17-18 years ago, but hasn't been the only player in a long time now. Unless you need to u…

Most Linux users are against nice UI/UX provided by GNOME, KDE, Anjuta, KDevelop, GNOME Builder, .... as seen by the complaints and forks. There is this culture of tiling window managers, vim, Emacs, everything done via CLI and UI/UX is a subject of interest only for dumb users. Which surfaces as the biggest one among its users. So anyone that cares about programming pleasant UI/UX workflows, hang with developers tha…

Many many Linux users are all for nice UIs, and pretty animations. Which is why GNOME, KDE, XFCE, MATE, Cinnamon, Budgie, Pantheon exist in the first place.

The sheer amount, variety and quality of themes available for a typical Linux distro puts your point to rest.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, and I'm pretty sure the reason's the same for Linux. Doesn't affect my opinion on the usability of the platform, though. For my part, I got my work to do, so I ultimately ended up back on a Mac (yet again, ugh) because, for all Apple's recent problems, none of them bother me as much as things like, "I just flat-out can't use this app that I need without a microscope."

Regarding usability, been a little while since I've used macOS now, so sincere question: Is it still true that you need third-party software to do keyboard-based window management? Even just something as simple as Windows' Win+arrow keys.

hell, you still need a 3rd party tool to do something as essential as middle click on the touchpad... but you install a few tools and tweak a few things and then it works wonderful...

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#207

As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…

>> If you're a developer there's no UX reason to go Windows anymore. If you weren't a Windows developer, was there ever? We've been using Lenovo laptops for web development on Linux with no issues for the last 10 years, and I was using them personally for another 5+ years before that.

Are Mono and .Net Core on Linux as good as on Windows? If they are, as a developer, there isn't much reason to go with Windows

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#208
post #31

As a 20 year Linux user I really appreciate Dells support in proving the market exists. This improved support across all manufacturers. I've recently acquired a HP Envy 13 2017 laptop with Windows preinstalled. I've really wanted to try Windows out, but after installing Google Chrome and Docker (1hr after starting it up) it stopped working - windows boot up into a blank black screen. In a hurry I've downloaded Ubuntu…

Windows has gotten a lot better, but the rules regarding new computers hasn't changed in the past 30 years, you still need to wipe the hard drive and install it yourself from scratch, and then spend a little time disabling the ads, bing crap, telemetry, etc. Once you do, it's rock solid, but it should be OOTB and it annoys me that it isn't. It leaves those not familiar with Windows with a bad first impression, and th…

> and those tech savvy enough to install Linux just don't come back.

It isn't a matter of tech savvy, and pretending that it is is part of the problem with the Linux Desktop community, which is the worst part about using a Linux Desktop if you ask me.

The system has a whole lot of issues, many of them somehow even worse that dealing with Windows 10's bullshit, or else I'd have switched myself by now. Even Linus calls out the Linux Desktop for being pretty crap. Developing for it is a nightmare too, especially in regards to distribution.

I'm trying not to go on a rant here. Point is, there are plenty of reasons to not want to use a Linux Desktop aside from not being "tech savvy" enough.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#209
post #169

At my company, most of the developers use Ubuntu end-user machines, all from Dell. Not only does this avoid us having to pay for Windows licenses we never use, but we know the hardware is actually going to work fine with it. There's some quirks, of course - Ubuntu doesn't much like the 4k screens in our 13" XPSen so there's a lot of tweaking involved, but we're getting some very good hardware at a good price, and stu…

> Ubuntu doesn't much like the 4k screens in our 13" XPSen so there's a lot of tweaking involved > stuff just works I can't reconcile these two statements.

I agree,and I've found it very frustrating to work with. To the extant that new machines we have order, were not of the hi DPI variety.

Re: Dell’s gamble on Linux laptops has paid off

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I remember 30 years ago you didn’t have to disable ads, Bing crap and telemetry. In fact 5 years ago all you needed to disable was shitty drivers and some trial software.

5 years ago it was horrible we all just forget the bad things and mostly remember good. From 2012: https://www.itworld.com/article/2718342/consumerization/here...

That's all OEM junk though. If you installed from official media on a PC you built yourself (or at least a wiped disk), you didn't deal with that stuff.

With Windows 10, that is unfortunately not true anymore because MS is the provider of a lot of the crapware.

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