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So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

richardmavis.info

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Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#71

Post by vesak »

Man, this is so weird.

I used Linux from 1996ish to 2017 and then just moved almost everything to Apple. I don’t remember the exact reason, but probably it had something to do with Wayland taking forever to stabilize, and the community starting to smell bad. And I’m happy, probably happier than before. Sure, Apple’s stuff isn’t perfect, but it’s way closer to it than any Linux combination I ever tried. The only thing I miss is i3, but turns out, not that much.

I hope my move didn’t jinx the whole platform...

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#72

Post by icebraining »

deadbunny wrote: post #45
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #23

I find the fetish for terminal-based music players a bit odd. I associate terminals with doing work , so the idea of having one whose sole purpose is playing music (presumably in the background while you do other stuff) to feel like a waste of screen real-estate and something I'm likely to accidentally pull up while trying to cycle between my other terminal windows where I'm doing stuff. I much prefer something that…

If you're using mpd the terminal interface can be opened/closed at will so you can just openit, queue up some music then quit. Exactly the workflow you're on about.

Exactly. It's especially nice since you can use the same UI to control different mpd servers - I have one running on my laptop and another on a machine plugged to my home stereo. And I can also control both from my phone using MPDroid.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#73

Post by nvrspyx »

dbingham wrote: post #19

What screen resolutions do the Librems support? Their tech specs don't actually list the resolutions, just the graphic card and size of the display. That's, honestly, one of the main things holding me to my mac: I want the retina display. That and the fact that all the PC hardware makers insist on offsetting the damned touchpad. Which, maybe it's just my preference, but I hate when they offset the damned touchpad.

It's 1920x1080 for both the Librem 13 & 15. You can find it by scrolling down to the side-by-side comparison on the following page:

https://puri.sm/products/

I'd definitely recommend the Dell XPS 13 if you're going to be paying that much. It has great linux support.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#74

Post by vivan »

I attempted to move to Ubuntu on my XPS 13, but couldn't manage to get the DPI scaling to work properly. Weirdly, if I run Ubuntu in a VM under windows it scales fine.

There are still too many of these small problems to justify making the move for me fully.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#75

Post by horsawlarway »

dwighttk wrote: post #12
TransAMrit wrote: post #3

> Recently I’ve just found myself disenchanted with Apple in a way similar to how I felt maybe twelve years earlier with Microsoft, when I switched to Linux the first time. This is exactly why I've been switching back to Linux everywhere, including laptops. Apple has done a pretty good job recreating the modern Windows experience.

I feel like I'd be much more open to Linux if I spent most of my time in emacs, but since I've spent like 8 minutes in emacs and about 14hrs in vim and have very little desire to increase either of those numbers, it only takes a small dose of Linux to re-enchant myself with Apple.

How in the world did you come to that conclusion?

I run arch with gnome 3, chromium (+chrome), and vs code as my main dev machine.

No emacs or vim required. No text only interfaces. No terminals unless you open it yourself (In which case it's running powerline with git addons and is still a very nice visual experience)

Gnome 3 with dash to dock is basically a drop in replacement for the osx style desktop. It just works.

Better yet, I'm free to get a better-than-osx experience on any hardware I want (and I REALLY don't want to the new macbook pros - I'm stuck on one at work and it's... bad).

Between work, gaming, personal projects - I'm running osx, win 10, and Arch. They all stay synched with dropbox and google drive. I get unix style terminals/shell everywhere (cmder/conemu for win10), and life is generally lovely.

Of the three, I prefer Arch, then Win 10. Osx is last by a mile. I think apple has a flakey os, and their hardware is rapidly moving in a direction that doesn't suite professional needs.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#77

Post by benologist »

teddyc wrote: post #36

I resurrected a little NUC computer from a former employee. It has 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD drive. It runs Ubuntu 18.10 fine. The display port runs my 4k monitor @ 60Hz. I bought a USB bluetooth dongle and the smallest microphone I could find on the internet so I can use my old bluetooth mouse and do audio conference calls. I am really loving it for Docker based development b/c it feels like it runs a lot faster. I a…

Keyboard shortcuts, and generally bad keyboard/mouse/trackpad options, are the only thing I miss about switching to Elementary OS. I really wish it was keyboard-equivalent to macOS.

I'm using a Microsoft all-in-one with a built-in trackpad and it's bearable but if my Apple hardware worked like this I would get it exchanged for being faulty lol.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#78

Post by phil21 »

mrspeaker wrote: post #67

This is most definitely selection bias, but it seems like there's something in the air at the moment with people jumping off the "mainstream tech" ship. Lots of talk of nostalgia for 90s internet culture, switching to Linux (I also switched to Linux (and Emacs!) after a decade+ on Mac), more secure/transparent tech with phones etc. More willingness to put up with "rough spots" and "less shiny" for greater access to t…

> Is it just nostalgia?

Maybe. I think the Internet was pretty much an objectively better place in the 90s, but far more useful for "real world" things today.

For me it's pretty personal and to be completely honest immensely sad. Since I was 14 I've worked full time on this "Internet" stuff and like to think I've contributed my tiny slice of pushing the future forward (and at times, unfortunately the opposite!). I truly bought the dream that enabling decentralized communications would allow for far more human potential to be realized, and perhaps even bring down longstanding immoral power structures.

Nope. Unfortunately my life's work has been used to centralize control and engage in monopoly-like behaviour. Watching everyone hell-bent on moving to just a few central "cloud providers" is incredibly frustrating. This road leads to tears. Seeing that there are only really a half dozen "eyeball" ISPs in the US that matter is just as frustrating, and will harm us long-term.

Basically for me I'm sure it was some youthful optimism and passion, but it's really a lot like building a really cool robot and then seeing someone use that to go to war against people you love.

Trying to recreate those times won't work, it never does. My only hope is that in another decade or three the newer generation realizes we're back to where we were with the giant telecoms and fight back with another new black swan technology.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#79

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #23

I find the fetish for terminal-based music players a bit odd. I associate terminals with doing work , so the idea of having one whose sole purpose is playing music (presumably in the background while you do other stuff) to feel like a waste of screen real-estate and something I'm likely to accidentally pull up while trying to cycle between my other terminal windows where I'm doing stuff. I much prefer something that…

I find ncmpcpp (a terminal-based controller for the excellent mpd) great for being able to quickly and easily navigate through my music library and add/remove/edit tracks from playlists. Then I minimise it, and launch Cantata which I immediately minimize, and I thereafter just interact via the Cantata interface in the systemtray (or via kdeconnect on my phone), until I need to do something more involved than play/pause or switch tracks, and then I un-minimize ncmpcpp, quickly find new tracks or whatever, minimize it and so on and so forth.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#80

Post by safgasCVS »

This is daft - the switch to Linux from macOS is done entirely out of some moronic desire to be different and very little to do with functionality. Windows to Linux I can Understand but the HN hive mind defends Linux like their firstborn. Let it go. It’s a lot of work for very little upside. Let the downvotes come
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