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One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

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Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#271

Post by JJMalina »

lostdog wrote: post #265
JJMalina wrote: post #191

I didn't know about Darktable or Kdenlive, so I'll have to check those out. Peek is awesome for GIF recording. I've been using a ThinkPad X1 Carbon running Xubuntu since 2016. Before that I was using a MacBook Pro. The things I like about this machine/Linux are - It's light - The keyboard is great/better - The battery is really good coupled with the low resource usage of Xubuntu (except when I have Zoom, Docker, and…

I'm on my 3rd X1 (4th if you count my work laptop), and I would be completely happy, except that it's USB-C ports are somehow broken. Both machines have flakey connections to both USB-C docks I've tried, sometimes dropping keystrokes or network packets. It's obnoxious to use, and there's no clear way to debug or diagnose the issue, and sadly I think my next purchase cannot be a Lenovo.

That's a good point. Sorry to hear that. I have the 5th gen which has a USB-C power port and another USB-C and two other USBs. The USB-C power definitely wiggles a lot when it's plugged which makes me concerned though I haven't had a problem. The new Dell XPS 15 has an aluminum chassis, so I wonder if that would eliminate this issue. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-xps-15-lapt...

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#272

Post by filmgirlcw »

itsoktocry wrote: post #245
filmgirlcw wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you need to actually get your work done and need to interoperate with files from others? Being dogmatic and pure about the license of every piece of software you use might win internet points but it’s not going to actually get the job done.

> Being dogmatic and pure about the license of every piece of software you use might win internet points but it’s not going to actually get the job done. Sure. But I wouldn't go around calling myself an "open source advocate" while supporting some of the worst.

Why does it have to be a zero sum game? Frankly, that’s the sort of gate-keeping that keeps people away from trying or adopting OSS.

Someone can support and advocate for a software development model and for the freedoms and opportunities that can allow for without having to go all-in and ensure that every piece of software they buy, use, or support follows that same model.

A really great way discourage people from advocating for OSS is to harangue them for daring to use Photoshop in lieu of Gimp.

Obviously it’s really convenient and rewarding when best-in class products are also OSS, but that’s not the world we live in.

It strikes me as a really shitty message to say that the only way you can advocate or support something is to go all-in on the model. If the goal is to get more people using and adopting and developing with open tools, yelling at them for not being the pinnacle of “purity” sure seems like a strange way to do it.

If someone calls themselves a “free software advocate,” I’ll agree that that implies a much stronger dogma to a specific set of licenses — but that’s an ideological movement that is materially different from OSS.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#273

Post by numpad0 »

alexktz wrote: post #219
jillesvangurp wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, macs don't run at full power either if you don't plug them in. And thermal issues are definitely a thing on macs. I have a friend who is complaining about stability issues on his 16" mbp already. And there is of course the whole notion with the uncertainty around ARM and their commitment to supporting what they are selling right now. So, I'm not super keen on buying that just yet though I probably will eventual…

They don't? I just ran Cinebench R20 and Unigine Heaven benchmark plugged and unplugged (10x each) and got the same scores each time. This is the 16" MBP with the 5600m with HBM2 memory.

The issue is not repeatability but the fact that cooling is inadequate for the TDP, and CPU (reportedly?) runs in thermal throttled modes.

Armchairers' consensus is Apple botched design and CPU is overheating. Idk. Maybe it's intended design as a form of cTDP.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#274

Post by krondor »

nikon wrote: post #244
krondor wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never been able to get it to negotiate AAC on OSX, though technically it does support it. iPhone works fine. Even still LDAC seems superior from my comparison to my Android and iPhone audio. See this thread for some discussion on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/bion53/force_macos_t...

I've successfully configured my Mac to use AptX with my Sony headphones. Follow this guide: https://9to5mac.com/2018/08/31/mac-how-to-force-aptx-aac-on-...

Thanks, it looks similar to what I've tried so far. I'll give it another run through and see if I missed something.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#275

Post by boogies »

boogies wrote: post #130
alexktz wrote: post #61

I recently purchased a 16” MBP despite significant personal concerns over the future of MacOS, being a strong open source advocate and Linux paying my mortgage. I did this ultimately for a few reasons. MacOS lets me run Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc), Fusion360, has a good terminal (iTerm and zsh unix like shell) and Logic. Mac hardware is still some of the best in the business, no other vendors seem to be able to…

> laptop can’t run the internals at full power when not connected to AC How is this worse than a MBP that can’t “run the internals at full power” when it doesn’t take breaks to cool off (except maybe outside in winter?)? (Edit: my currently adjacent sibling comment claims that MBPs don’t run at full power off AC either, so their internal utilization seems strictly worse. Reminds me of how Apple arranged with Intel to…

Addendum: And of course you can get ‘the macOS experience’ with Adobe products, etc. on a Thinkpad (making a Hackintosh seems easier than ever with OpenCore &c).

Not that I as someone who has used Adobe products on macOS for a class and prefers free-as-in-freedom alternatives ever would.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#276

Post by se32point1 »

dhosek wrote: post #217
se32point1 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoints for Linux: - Compose key blows your "ABC - Extended layout out of the water." It's more powerful than anything else. - ... I never really use my XPS 13 without a charger, because I don't really travel around much, but it also has USB-C like all the "cool stuff." I would imagine with some tweaking I can get better battery life but I know it does last a while on standby. - You won't get mainstream-mainstr…

- I looked up the keyboard shortcuts for compose key and it seems like it takes a lot more typing to get to the characters I need than ABC - Extended: To get an acute accent I type opt-e o, for example, to get ó. The same on Linux is compose-'' o. Everything requires at least two characters with compose held down. There are a handful of characters/diacriticals that are shift-opt to reach, but the most common ones are…

Ah, so compose isn't actually held down. What we do is we press compose, then release, then do the combination we want. In this. Now, for ó, it's not actually compose (⎄ is compose's symbol) "o, it's ⎄'o, with an apostrophe, so it's not as bad. Indeed, there, are some pretty bad ones, like ⎄`+o, which gives you ờ (a Vietnamese letter), but it's still usable. The point of compose is the sheer number of combinations it has. Finding a new combination on https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/libX11/i18n/compose/e... is almost magical.

I mean, I'd just use PDF, but I get the need for Word. In that case... Office Online is an option? You can probably write up everything in a solution like LibreOffice (which is not as abominable as people make it out to be, and some of the horrid bugs it used to have have been fixed, but it's not perfect either), and export to DOCX, then check it through in Office Online and it should be good. LibreOffice does have word count in the bottom as well, which is a nice addition

Linux also supports trackpad gestures, although they are prone to not being as smooth or whatnot. Since I spend my life on the keyboard I use that instead, and it's just as productive. I find it annoying to go reach for my trackball.

Indeed, yes. Although I should probably take that into account too since I'm switching to a 60% keyboard that doesn't have arrow keys, and I'm going to have to relearn a lot of stuff. In the end, as others have said, switching to Linux feels bad in the beginning but you grow to love it as time passes. Sure, it has issues, such as these, but it also has other strong advantages.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#277

Post by kevincox »

rumanator wrote: post #154
gen220 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my current place of work, we have a rack of Mac mini’s in a closet as our build server for the iOS app. I was kind horrified and amazed to learn of this at first, but it really is normal. It’s impressive what gymnastics Apple compels us to go through :)

> At my current place of work, we have a rack of Mac mini’s in a closet as our build server for the iOS app. One of the main selling points that Apple uses to sell Mac minis is their use in build farms and render farms. If you click on Apple's page on Mac minis and scroll down until the 6th or 7th selling point, you'll end up seeing the part where according to Apple it's combination of stackable form factor and perfo…

I wonder if Apple is building their OS and Apps on Apple hardware or if they have real servers in their data center.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#278

Post by cleaver »

petepete wrote: post #250
cleaver wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've certainly been keeping my eyes open for a MacBook Pro alternative. On my last time looking, I thought I'd try to find something with: - retina-like resolution 15" screen - 32GB RAM - slim and light without a flimsy plastic case - good battery life - good trackpad - keyboard home row centred I could not find anything. I couldn't even find something with the first three items. I'm starting to think it might make s…

Where does the XPS15 fall short?

I could get the retina screen with 16GB RAM, or 32GB RAM with a lower res screen. It was a few months back, so hopefully that has changed. I'm no longer looking though.

Other than that, the XPS15 was a front runner.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#279

Post by cleaver »

sneak wrote: post #263
cleaver wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've certainly been keeping my eyes open for a MacBook Pro alternative. On my last time looking, I thought I'd try to find something with: - retina-like resolution 15" screen - 32GB RAM - slim and light without a flimsy plastic case - good battery life - good trackpad - keyboard home row centred I could not find anything. I couldn't even find something with the first three items. I'm starting to think it might make s…

For some reason (bad software support? tradition?) the PC laptop market seems to simply not care that much about extremely high resolution displays. There are some, but none in systems with the overall build quality of a MBP.

That's what I found. Another pet peeve was extremely wide screens, although we don't see that as much these days. Not great for editing text or code.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#280

Post by robertoandred »

se32point1 wrote: post #268
robertoandred wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how do you scroll in any axis, swipe, zoom, 3D touch, etc with a mouse? There are plenty of things you can't do.

... In all fairness, I use a trackball, where I can scroll in any axis. Zooming, of course, can be done with a keyboard. I'm not even sure what 3D touch is.

What trackballs offer free scrolling? And something done with a keyboard is by definition something not done with a mouse. And 3D touch is something that's very convenient.
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