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So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

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Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#371

Post by jasonfrank »

When my 2013 MacBook Air died from a coffee spill about a year ago, I wanted to try a different laptop. I picked the X1 Carbon (6th gen) which is a very nice machine in many ways.

However, I ended up switching back for two main reasons:

1. the touchpad is good but not nearly as good. I would regularly accidentally click on things while scrolling, despite fiddling with the settings. It was maddening.

2. For my work, Linux is a better fit than Windows. When I installed Ubuntu on the X1, both the touchpad and trackpoint were entirely unusable. I did a bit of searching and tried a few recommendations but never got it to work. I don't want to carry around a mouse.

I now have the new MacBook Air and I'm generally happy with it. Keyboard is not as good as the old ones in my opinion.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#372

Post by dgzl »

jwr wrote: post #48

I so wish the Linux community would get its act together and implement a working usable clipboard. It's the one thing I miss the most whenever I switch from Mac OS to Linux. On a Mac, you can cut/copy/paste using predictable keystrokes in any application, anywhere. And there is a single clipboard. On Linux, you have to deal with a multitude of behaviors (middle mouse button, Ctrl-C, others, and does it paste where th…

> I so wish the Linux community would get its act together and implement a....

The Linux communities are full of volunteers. It seems like their act is actually quite together! There is no 'buyer' to make demands with their dollar. Only there is a developer who one day decides they want a feature.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#373

Post by hacknat »

Tehchops wrote: post #42

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…

I agreed with everything you said except this:

> but there are still things that just going to be less painful on Apple.

Of course OSX is more user friendly now, but Linux desktop has improved by leaps and bounds. 4 years ago you needed to be a developer or extremely savvy to run the average desktop distro, now I would say you just need to be tech sdavvy. I would argue that for the ho hum business cases (not extreme use case profiles like design and video production) that Ubuntu won’t cause any unnavigable issues.

I think in a few years you will see the Linux diaries continue in popularity, especially among developers. Laptops have become commodity items. There just isn’t that much that differentiates (for me at least) a MacBook from a good ThinkPad.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#374

Post by jamesgeck0 »

fiter wrote: post #326
psadauskas wrote: post #318

I've used both Linux and OSX for a long time, and what I've found is that while Linux breaks a little more often, I stand a much better chance of being able to fix it. When I google for a Linux problem, there's much more likely to be an answer that works on StackOverflow, while on OSX it often just leads me to the Apple support forums with dozens of people asking the same question and no real answer. Similarly, while…

I find that in the Gnome ecosystem, the apps will not have a config file that can be tweaked. Sometimes there will be an add-on or separate app the allows a tweak, but there's a concerted effort to remove options.

Many Gnome config files are binary to improve startup performance, but they can still be edited using the appropriate tool.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#375

Post by brightball »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #35
brightball wrote: post #4

Good new take on the migrating to Linux articles. The PureOS setup is pretty cool. I'm 2 years on pure Linux after about 10 years on Mac, so it definitely gets my endorsement as well. Haven't written up anything about it yet but the experience has been very smooth.

Can you recommend a write up that compares various flavours. I like the notion of going Linux but frankly I have no love or will for the hiccups. I just want stuff to work.

I need to write one up. I tried a few for at least a couple of months at a time just to really commit to getting to know them.

Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, Korora (Mint for Fedora) and a couple of others.

Mint was great. I ran it for about a year but then switched to Ubuntu after the 18.04 release that switched to Gnome 3. Ubuntu being the dominant installation tends to lead to better support from vendors, etc in my experience. YMMV.

I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with either. The biggest thing is going to be committing to push through any little quirks that might come up.

For example, I thought multi screen support didn’t work when I tried to use my apple DVI adapter. Turns out that apple uses a “passive” adapter that depends on software installed on the Mac to actually work. If you get an “active” adapter...everything works fine.

I also wasn’t thrilled with the Magic Mouse experience, so I ended up getting a different mouse that’s performed wonderfully.

Now that I’m far enough down the road I’ve started managing my configuration with Ansible so I have an easy way to just rebuild my install if I try something new. A lot of people do that too, it’s a good time.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#376

Post by cr0sh »

joombaga wrote: post #167
InitialLastName wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't "Just work" on Windows 7 or 10, though, so not sure it's a failure on the part of Linux as much as a success on the part of macOS.

It does work though. X can't be configured with 2 different DPIs at all.

Are you sure?

http://wok.oblomov.eu/tecnologia/mixed-dpi-x11/

I can't say I've played around with it, but the above seems to indicate that such support is available - but that you might have issues with apps not supporting it (or reporting their DPI properly). There also might be problems with other layers above raw X (?) - but it seems like X itself does support it in some manner?

I once had X supporting two mice on dual monitors (this was a while back - I had a couple of CRT monitors at the time); seeing that made me think X could do almost anything I asked of it (depending on how I "asked").

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#377

Post by plussed_reader »

csomar wrote: post #303
callinyouin wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly your experience, but using a single (non-4k) external monitor is slightly painful for me with my MBP. It sometimes takes ~10 seconds for my display to work after plugging it in, with lots of intermittent flickering as the OS "figures it out". And afterwards, the menu bar on the external is a bit glitchy looking on the right side until I click on it. With my other laptop running Fedora the experience is mu…

The usb ports of the MBP delivers too little Wattage. Try having a hub with power. It solved my problems.

USB =/= MiniDisplayPort/Thunderbolt

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#378

Post by rmavis »

loser777 wrote: post #249

I wish this post touched on some deeper reasons that the author was "disenchanted" with Apple. Having dabbled in tiling window managers, terminal music players, and many other /r/unixporn memes, this kind of infatuation with UI candy makes me think that the author's issues with Apple were only skin deep. Many of the things mentioned here (e.g., tiling WMs, emacs _REALLY?_) are not mutually exclusive with macOS. I run…

> I wish this post touched on some deeper reasons that the author was "disenchanted" with Apple.

It's mainly the feeling of ownership. Apple's apparently increasing hostility toward third-party upgrade-and-repair shops (see the whole "right to repair" issue) forces owners of their machines to use their support exclusively. I'd prefer to have more options for upgrading my hardware than buying a new machine. These decisions make sense for Apple but not for me. Maybe it's because they're still small but Purism hasn't set me up for this sort of antagonistic relationship.

There's also the increased sense of creativity with Linux. It feels a little bit like working with Legos. Because "unix philosophy" and such that other commenters feel are trivial wastes of time, I'm free to make the machine behave as I wish. And I like that.

Of course there are also superficial things. I don't like notifications that force a behavior, like being forced to opening System Preferences because the only button on the notification is "View". But it's also more than that.

> Having dabbled in tiling window managers, terminal music players, and many other /r/unixporn memes

I mean, if you want to demean things you don't like as "memes", that's your prerogative. But I don't use a tiling window manager or terminal music player to impress people. I use them because I like them---they're fast, the mental models make sense, they expose me to new/unfamiliar concepts, and I can customize them to suit me.

> Many of the things mentioned here (e.g., tiling WMs, emacs _REALLY?_) are not mutually exclusive with macOS.

True. I've been using emacs (yeah, really) on macOS for a decade. No complaints there.

> I wonder if the author has realized that rebranded ODM hardware (Librem and System76) and a modern Macbook are unfortunately not in remotely the same league.

The Librem 13 is easily the best-feeling laptop I've ever used.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#379

Post by cr0sh »

trumped wrote: post #333
Tehchops wrote: post #42

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…

For me, Linux has improved a lot because Windows has gotten a lot worst, but the Linux distributions I've used have not improved that much (mainly Fedora and Ubuntu). I've been using Linux exclusively for many years and will probably continue to do so though...

I fell "in love" with the Budgie desktop experience, which is a project of Solus Linux. However, I didn't like the Solus Linux package system; I wanted the Debian plethora of packages. So I "found" Budgie Ubuntu. Best of both worlds, IMHO. It's the closest I've gotten to a Mac on Linux. It still has some rough edges, but nothing that really sticks out for day-to-day work and play.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#380

Post by DJHenk »

grumdan wrote: post #252
jasondclinton wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true: some things are easier on Mac. In particular, I'd say that using software that hasn't been packaged for your distribution is much easier on Mac. However, your example of fonts is definitely not one of those areas, anymore. Font rendering on Linux is as advanced and capable as any other OS including in the areas of kerning and hinting. It should just work without any user intervention and look great. I ag…

> I agree with you that compositing/window manager fragmentation is a problem. And this article is a perfect example of that. The author may think that they're happy using i3 with Firefox and st at the moment, but the desktop computing environment has gotten so complex and the expectations of users who interact with desktop applications so rich, that a small hobby project DE/WM cannot fully satisfy all of those use c…

Definitely. I have had i3 on every computer I use for a couple of years now and I don't think I will ever go back to a conventional window manager.

No matter the thing I'm doing, every useful or efficient placing of windows is always no more than one or two keystrokes away.

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