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So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

richardmavis.info

281–290 of 531 posts

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that fail? I've never had issues with multi-monitor, and they've always been 3 different resolutions (with one rotated 90). I'm not doubting you, as my current win10 install won't let me change the default JSON association away from visual studio and I can't find anyone else with that problem. I'm just curious what fails, since I haven't encountered problems with multi-monitor since XP.

I hate running multiple monitors in Windows 10. I was running 24" + 27" BenQ monitors (same model/specs, just diff sizes) and Windows would reboot and ignore both. On my laptop I would go into the display settings and try to turn them on and just get a "Failed to save settings" message. This usually resolved itself after a reboot or two. I honestly got so tired of it I just invested in an Alienware 34" monitor. I hav…

I should add that while Ubuntu did not have this problem.. because the monitor configuration is apparently loaded post login screen I had other issues - like my login prompt being on the wrong monitor. Especially if I was using LUKS on my primary drive, but that one is a bit more obvious as to why.

*setup is an Alienware 15 laptop which supports dual monitor out for up to 3 active displays if including the laptop monitor

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#282

Anecdotal like other comments but I and a few others from my workplace have switched to Dell XPS machines and run Linux now, and it's because we're working with Docker, even with 16GB RAM and solid-state drives, the performance of Docker on MacOS is pathetic, and entirely unusable for our work. The XPS machines we have are ugly, they're flimsy, they have a grotesque carbon-fibre pattern on them, the keys leave imprin…

I use a Dell Latitude at work. It's far worse than the XPS I've sampled in shops. The keyboard is the worst thing I've used since the ZX81 and Spectrum. Possibly worse but my memory may fail me.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#283
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I so wish the Linux community would get its act together That's needlessly rude.

No it's not. From his standpoint, the clipboard situation is broken. It's reasonable to state his viewpoint. Especially given that he's addressing a large community and not a small set of individuals, it's borderline absurd that someone would take personal offense at his statement. It's unreasonable to expect that criticisms be phrased politically to avoid stepping on oversensitive toes.

I'm not saying asking for a different clipboard situation is unreasonable, I'm saying the phrasing is rude. Telling someone or someones to get their act together is saying they're incompetent or ineffective. It's needless because most of these someones have no financial interest in winning this poster as a user but the poster phrases it as if failing to do so is failing to be competent.

>It's unreasonable to expect that criticisms be phrased politically to avoid stepping on oversensitive toes.

If you mean politely then no, it's not unreasonable to phrase criticisms rudely. It's unreasonable to phrase them rudely and then expect the recipient to do anything about it.

edit: Also, I said _needlessly_ rude. Are you saying the poster needs to be rude?

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#284
post #85

There are different issues with OSX though, that colleagues of mine had, that never occur with Linux. E.g. the chore of somehow managing different software versions such as the outdated default one and a second one installed with homebrew. Almost all my colleagues struggled with setting up python 2 und 3 correctly at some point, whereas this just worked for me on Linux. Some struggled with font rendering between a 10…

what works for me

1. brew install pyenv 2. pyenv install 2.7.x 3. pyenv install 3.x 4. cd work; pyenv local 3.7.x (by default, all projects under "work" will use 3.x) 5. cd work/legacy; pyenv local 2.7.x (but this one will be on 2.x)

then for each project, I'll create a separate virtual environment.

For various reasons, I have about 6 separate python versions and a dozen or so mini projects all working flawlessly as separate virtual environments created under separate versions managed by pyenv, and I always have the latest pyenv thanks to brew.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#285
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is at least as bad a problem on Linux — I would argue worse since I've seen people break the system tools written in Python — and it's mostly due to Python being old enough to be both widespread and to have accumulated tons of easily-googled bad advice. The people who have problems with this almost always also have tons of similar problems with everything else because they've avoided learning enough system admin…

I work in an rpm shop, and we've been exploring switching to python. Could you expand on or link to some of the rpm&pyhton issues you've run into?

The main thing is understanding that the system python installation should be left alone and you should install each app/project in a separate virtualenv / venv so their versions of Python & installed packages are isolated from the system and each other. This also tends to get rid of about 99% of the times where someone try "sudo " before reading the error message.

These days I tend to recommend using https://pipenv.readthedocs.io/ or https://poetry.eustace.io/ which will automate creation of those virtual environments and provide a nice interface for managing versioned package installs (i.e. `pipenv install foobar` will record the exact version you installed, including SHA-256 hashes, for repeatable installs).

If you're in the Red Hat world, note also that they're making some big (and I think welcome) changes to isolate the Python they use from the version developers use, which will also allow tracking newer versions faster:

https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2018/11/27/what-no-python...

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#286

End-user Linux has definitely improved in the last few years. It offers a lot of attractive features for what I imagine to be the typical HN demographic. That being said, it's still got rough spots that OSX doesn't. It works great when it works, but when it doesn't.... Font rendering, display/compositor fragmentation etc... Inb4 the anecdotal "well it works for me I just had to download the xf86 font library and comp…

Linux is just consistent. When it works, it works. When it doesn't - god help you.

There's no rhyme or reason.

Sometimes, my wifi is broken. On a different distro, it's not. Right now, under Ubuntu 18.10, my suspend from resume is broken - it wasn't on 18.04.

I have the official Linux laptop, basically - a Dell XPS 9350, all 100% Intel hardware, no binary blobs.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#287
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With a tiling display manager like i3, dwm or awesome, system tray isn't that useful. You tends to have one app (or a group of app that you always use together) per virtual desktop that you access in one keyboard shortcut. You never circle through apps as it's not necessary. Most of the apps are in fullscreen or tiled depending on your need. No window is hiding another one. When you're use to it, having to move your…

Excellent analysis. After using i3 for about 3-4 years, I have to admit that I'm always a bit lost on floating WMs now and feel like an idiot for a few minutes until I'm somewhat comfortable again. To me tiling WMs are just vastly superior. Anecdotally, most people I know that have seriously tried to use a tiling WM usually end up sticking with them.

Is this true for you on a laptop as well? I could imagine this on something where I had a lot of screen real estate. But when I'm coding, in one virtual desktop I'll typically have the IDE, a few terminal windows, and a couple of browsers going. With a 14" screen, I can't imagine how I'd make a tiling window manager work.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy a business-class machine like a ThinkPad, you will get a modular and repairable machine with typically 3 years on-site support as standard, in most countries. This is not true with Apple. Apple machines are essentially unrepairable in the field and even with the expensive AppleCare option, you will likely lose possession of your machine for a significant amount of time.

With Apple, you can take it to any store and they'll diagnose it immediately. With business support (which isn't even expensive for individuals; it was $500/year when I had it) they'll give you a loaner on the spot. If you've got backups, your downtime for a dead machine maybe a few hours.

I appreciate the convenience of such stores where they exist, but neither Ireland nor Norway has any apple stores. Only third-party resellers, none of which are nearly as good.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't happen because Linux users like it the way it is. It is consistent, it's just not the way you want it to be. I love middle click paste. It makes sense that it doesn't follow the text cursor because the mouse is separate and this adds extra flexibility. Ctrl+A should select everything and put the cursor at the end. Actually, in some apps the cursor disappears and in some the cursor goes to the end, but the be…

What's a "middle click"?

Clicking with the middle mouse button - nowadays, it's typically a clickable scroll-wheel, but it used to be a plain button between left and right mouse buttons back in the day.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#290
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first two issues both sound like you have misconfigured DNS and the first resolver in your list is invalid (and has to time out). The same misconfiguration under OSX would be likely to create the same issues.

Thank you for solving the first issue! I switched DNS from automatic to manual. Now I do have to adjust this every time I switch networks so perhaps I should write a script that does this automatically.

If your problem is over wifi, NetworkManager (the default in Ubuntu) should let you do this automatically.

Networkmanager defines a "connection" for every (stored) wifi, which you can view:

  nmcli connection show
Now, you can set the dns servers to use when any of these connections is activated. For instance, define google's servers by:

  nmcli conn mod  ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"
This will override the DNS settings (which come from DHCP by default) whenever you connect to this specific network :)
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