16GB max? Unspecified max resolution on the display? storage is "configurable"? HDMI version (4k capable could be 1.4b or 2.0)?
For a tech laptop, the specs are very unspecific.
So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
451–460 of 531 posts
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#452Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 (whi…
This never works for me... can't ever get it to stick, tried all kinds of ways to mod with nmcli or systemctl restart/reload network manager. Debating on just doing a cron job to rewrite resolv.conf.
I'm not an ubuntu user (debian testing here). I remember that various systemd-thingies were actually tweaking some network settings behind NetworkManager's back.
Getting NetworkManager to work properly was a matter of disabling all that systemd stuff and then setting it up using config files and nmcli (the gnome GUI just broke everything too easily).
My impression after all that was that NetworkManager is a very capable piece of software littered with bad interfaces and impenetrable documentation. You will emerge victorious if you fight those hard enough. In contrast, trying to setup the system using the various systemd-thingies got me to "xxx is planned but not working now" every time.
Btw, I do have a weird complicated network configuration because I'm switching between ethernet and wifi, and have multiple bridged and/or routed vms/containers (with all of kvm, lxc, and virtualbox).
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#453Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is it half baked?
Some examples from my latest (Ubuntu 18.04) linux experience: - Does hidpi work? For ALL applications, and flawlessly? - Is the desktop responsive, or does it feel laggy? - File manager:Can I customize my favourites, including removing the builtin ones? - Can you use a lot of good desktop applications? Like MS Word, Adobe Photoshop, and similar? Or Google Drive, Pixelmator, Dash, Flux, tools in general that may have…
I agree with your statement that a desktop should Just Work, and the Linux desktop experience is not perfect, but you seem to have had a harder experience than most would.
I don't expect you to get back on Linux or anything, but paying for known supported hardware (e.g. Dell XPS 13) goes a long way to have a 'no-tinkering-needed' experience (pretty much like OSX run better on its own hardware).
For the record, HiDPI works flawlessly and responsively with a Dell Precision 5510, including when using projectors with different resolutions. Never had an issue with my Bluetooth headphones, and the system does include a braindead, just-works backup-and-restore system : deja-dup, which works with Google Drive out of the box after inputing your credentials.
Applications that don't have a Linux version can be a pain, but most have perfectly good alternative (Google Docs, Flux, Zeal for Dash).
Some of them don't really, or require a big change (typically, Photoshop/Gimp), and those can indeed require one to stay on a specific OS
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#454Earlier quoted context omitted.
As far as I remember, Terminal, iTerm2.
Just double checked — neither iTerm not Terminal allow the Ctrl modifier for clipboard operations. In fact, terminal applications are _precisely_ the applications I use to argue that Cmd-X/C/V is overall nicer, as they don't interfere with the usual meaning of the Ctrl modifier as a way to produce control characters (which are especially useful in the context of a terminal)
Hm, perhaps you're right, it was some time ago I used a Mac, sorry for the confusion. There was something with Emacs also which was weird on the mac with modifier keys but I don't exactly remember what.
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#455Anecdotal 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…
Counter-anecdote (I admit that I'm ignorant about aesthetics, so I'm not addressing those points). I got a personal 2016 XPS 13 (9350) because of Project Sputnik ( https://bartongeorge.io/tag/project-sputnik/ ), which brought official desktop-Linux support to it. I also work at Google where we have a very solid desktop distribution, providing me a working example of almost every tweak I might want to make. Owning the…
oops, I meant to delete my needless clarification "(Just to be clear, these aren't..." but must have sent it anyway. All I was trying to say was that these tweaks are user preferences like background images, not essential things to make the machine usable. Thanks to Sputnik and the wifi card swap, the machine was usable from the start.
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#456Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
People have been saying that ever since, uhm, the first Mandrake release? It’s so much easier now, soon it will all be so smooth! except every year there is something else to rewrite/rejig. As soon as auto-configuring XFree was kinda figured out, out goes XFree and in comes x.org. Xorg getting to the point where having 3d animations doesn’t require kernel-module-config expertise? Out goes Xorg, in comes Wayland. Gnom…
The reality is, people get paid more to develop for the Mac world and put more effort in consequentially, whereas Linux is still mainly volunteer-driven.
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#457I’d love to switch to Linux - just to be able to work with a decent hardware laptop again. But can’t live without a few mac-only apps, like Sketch.
I find that iMac’s offer good value for money, but the Macbook Pro’s are horrible laptops.
I’m still convinced that Jobs was smart enough to build good machines for developers. Cook doesn’t care.
I still have an MBP 17”, still works great, battery is dead. I would’ve loved a new version of that machine under Jobs.
1500$ new iPhones, product lines not even being slightly updated... it’s a mess.
BUT: it’s nice to have your photos appear on your desktop and ipad and, it’s just easy.
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#458Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just as a nitpick: communities can (almost) never "get its act together", as they are comprised of people with different preferences who do not want to abandon their preferences for some abstract common good. On a more substantive note (globally consistent actions from keystrokes). It would be great, but not going to happen because there are established modes where the same keystrokes lead to well known results. And…
There's also complication that there's more than one standard. It's the same reason that emacs doesn't use conventional shortcuts even when it's running in a GUI: it's been using its current conventions since before the invention of the conventions that are now more popular. Similarly, if we just want to go by "preexisting standards" then really it's those newfangled applications that have hijacked ctrl-z to do anyth…
Actually, one thing which drives me to distraction is Emacs making C-Z a shortcut for minimising the window when using the GUI version. It's not a shell!!
It certainly makes sense when running inside a terminal. But when it's an X11 application, it makes me angry everytime I fumble C-X and it interrupts my workflow.
Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux
#459I 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…
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…
I felt like the kind of micro optimizations that a tiling window manager gives you aren’t worth it in the long run.
Sure, it felt like I was moving faster when I used keyboard shortcuts to fly around but at the end of the day, switching between windows was never a real bottleneck to begin with.
FWIW I used i3 exclusively for 2-3 years.