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Running Linux on My MacBook

djhworld.github.io

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Re: Running Linux on My MacBook

#2

Post by xupybd »

I used i3 for a long time. After a while it didn't feel that fast. Yes switching was very quick but often it got in the way. So many applications have little windows that pop up. They didn't play nice with i3.

I also had the issue of a limited keyboard and shortcut keys. I use a Kinesis advantage. I don't have a windows key. So I used alt as a super key. This meant that I often couldn't use application shortcuts. It was a major pain. In hindsight I should have mapped in a windows key and sacrificed one of my thumb buttons for it.

Re: Running Linux on My MacBook

#4

Post by djhworld »

Author here. Post is a bit rambling but I just wanted to document somewhere the things I encountered along the way with links to resources, to save someone having to trawl the web for it next time.

Re: Running Linux on My MacBook

#5

Post by peteretep »

Thank you for writing this! Whenever I see people using Linux as their main laptop OS, I'm struck by remembering the amount of tinkering needed circa 1999 which was the last time I did it. Having read this -- the custom scripts, the "suspend still doesn't work properly" -- it feels like that's still the case.

Re: Running Linux on My MacBook

#6

Post by intarga »

djhworld wrote: post #4

Author here. Post is a bit rambling but I just wanted to document somewhere the things I encountered along the way with links to resources, to save someone having to trawl the web for it next time.

About sway, if you don’t mind using Firefox, that works natively under Wayland. On another note though, the reason I don’t use sway, is that I couldn’t figure out how to get inertial scrolling working... Did you manage this, or just not bother with inertial scrolling?

Re: Running Linux on My MacBook

#8

Post by djhworld »

tuananh wrote: post #7

Every post like these, the TODO list is super long. This reminds me again why I don't want Linux in the first place.

I think the real answer is buy a laptop that just works and don't bother with Apple devices.

However it's nice to be able to re-purpose old hardware, even if it's a bit of a hill to climb :)

Re: Running Linux on My MacBook

#9

Post by mjg59 »

djhworld wrote: post #4

Author here. Post is a bit rambling but I just wanted to document somewhere the things I encountered along the way with links to resources, to save someone having to trawl the web for it next time.

One of the problems with replicating this with more modern Apple hardware is that Apple have increasingly moved away from the "traditional" PC hardware platform, and their more modern laptops have adopted various design patterns that were traditionally associated with more embedded devices (such as using SPI for their input devices). This is a completely reasonable set of design choices on Apple's part, but it means there's now a pretty long lag between a new generation of Apple devices and it being possible to run native Linux on them in a reasonable way.
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