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Moving from Macbook to Linux

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Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#191

Post by arkj »

I am so glad that these posts are getting the attention of HN community.

Linux is not perfect but it’s competitive in 2020 for PCs. As we head to an era where user data collection is blurring the lines of ethics, I think we should at least keep the OS clean.

I switched to Fedora in 2018 and didn’t have to not look back. The fonts were crappy but that taught me a lot about truetypes, anti-aliasing and subpixel rendering.

Some of the perceived shortcomings of linux can indeed make the PC more personal.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#192

Post by fidelramos »

bsaul wrote: post #25

The fact that many people reading this post title (including me) look at it with sarcasm is telling on how apple scored big points with its new cpu. Keeping up with mac OS and the trackpad was already quite hard, but CPU could be the killing blow. Which could lead us in a few years to a situation where mac developers will face the same fate as ios developers : forced to buy hardware to sign their app, forced to push…

> What can we do, now, as developers ?

Don't buy Apple products.

Don't use Apple products.

Don't support Apple products.

Don't develop for Apple products.

Raise awareness among those who would listen.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#193

Post by dfgdghdf »

My Linux experience has been bad, yet I would still choose it over the alternatives. I don't want to give up control over my devices or fight an endless battle against bloatware / spyware.

Some of the issues:

* Hibernate / suspend does not work reliably on my Thinkpad. I gave up trying to configure it.

* Encrypting my drive was much more complicated to setup than on a Mac.

* Trackpad does not feel nearly as good as on a Macbook

* Palm rejection is poor

* My desktop gets confused about audio inputs when plugging things (e.g. mic) in and out

* Random UI freezes when running lots of high intensity applications, often requiring a reboot. Sorry, but the UI should always be given priority on a non-server distro

* Various apps such as Slack do not work as reliably as on Mac

* Need to figure out my own VPN / dev config when everyone else on the team is on Macs

* I am yet to find a soundcard that works

I'm sure people will chime in with "well it works for me" or "have you tried X distribution". That's great, I am genuinely pleased for you! But let's not pretend that Linux always works out of the box.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#194

Post by freedomben »

tempest_ wrote: post #176
_iyig wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Lenovo still sell laptops with malware in the firmware? Not a "gotcha" question, I am seriously asking. Considering a Thinkpad for my next laptop, but memories of Superfish give me pause. https://www.theregister.com/2015/08/12/lenovo_firmware_nasty... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish#Lenovo_security_inci...

These issues were only ever with the consumer lenovo laptops. Thinkpads never had an issue and generally work with Linux without issues (I heard this was because Redhat used Thinkpads and so there were lots of contributions to make things work but that could just be scuttlebutt)

I work for Red Hat, can confirm we get Think Pads and they do work wonderfully with Fedora and RHEL. I don't work with the kernel team but I can't imagine it's a coincidence that we use ThinkPads and it works well on Fedora.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#195

Post by mrschwabe »

conceptualspace wrote: post #110

to me the most underrated thing i miss on Linux compared to mac is the file manager. I'm trying to get nnn setup efficiently but the out of the box options feel incredibly half baked in comparison to finder

I recommend Nemo. If on Ubuntu, follow this guide:

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/07/how-to-replace-nautilu...

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#196

Post by bee_rider »

gonehome wrote: post #102
radlad wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I truly believe that the argument for switching to Linux has never been stronger. Windows has embedded bloatware, and Apple allows no control over your hardware. There's really no other option if you care about these things. (Full disclosure - I do own a Macbook for photography work, and use Bootcamp for gaming.) Like you, my Linux installs have been incredibly stable for a long time, even with a rolling release dist…

Linux on a desktop is okay, linux on a laptop is bad. I think Linux is cool and grew up playing with different distributions (starting around Fedora Core 4). I spent most of my time on Ubuntu because it worked the best, but also used Yellow Dog Linux (my first laptop was a 12in Apple power pc powerbook g4), Arch, and some others. Things that often gave me issues: - Suspend rarely worked without hacks, even with hacks…

I would probably use a NUC and a portable monitor before I'd use Linux on a laptop.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#197

Post by boogies »

snazz wrote: post #115
ur-whale wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I have a hard time seeing any kind of difference between my Linux laptop and my SO's Mac, if esthetics are that important to you, you might consider that you have a finite number of minutes in your life and that productivity matters a great deal more than how shiny the colors are on a Mac.

I think that this argument goes both ways. You could also say "productivity matters a great deal more than configuring Linux to be 'perfect' when macOS works out of the box". Disclaimer: I'm typing this on a Mac with a terminal window SSH'd into a Linux box sitting next to me. Edit: I'm not saying that either is inherently more productive or easier to use, just that it's personal and these arguments cut both ways.

But GNU works better out of the box. TFA recommends Pop OS which is preinstalled on System76 devices, and comes with simple window tiling, which many devs swear by as a productivity booster.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#198

Post by rurban »

dfgdghdf wrote: post #193

My Linux experience has been bad, yet I would still choose it over the alternatives. I don't want to give up control over my devices or fight an endless battle against bloatware / spyware. Some of the issues: * Hibernate / suspend does not work reliably on my Thinkpad. I gave up trying to configure it. * Encrypting my drive was much more complicated to setup than on a Mac. * Trackpad does not feel nearly as good as o…

Switch from Debian to Fedora. This fixed most of my Thinkpad issues.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#199

Post by fsflover »

dfgdghdf wrote: post #193

My Linux experience has been bad, yet I would still choose it over the alternatives. I don't want to give up control over my devices or fight an endless battle against bloatware / spyware. Some of the issues: * Hibernate / suspend does not work reliably on my Thinkpad. I gave up trying to configure it. * Encrypting my drive was much more complicated to setup than on a Mac. * Trackpad does not feel nearly as good as o…

Linux always works out of the box on my Librem 15, which was designed to run Linux from the beginning.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#200

Post by symlinkk »

dfgdghdf wrote: post #193

My Linux experience has been bad, yet I would still choose it over the alternatives. I don't want to give up control over my devices or fight an endless battle against bloatware / spyware. Some of the issues: * Hibernate / suspend does not work reliably on my Thinkpad. I gave up trying to configure it. * Encrypting my drive was much more complicated to setup than on a Mac. * Trackpad does not feel nearly as good as o…

It works out of the box if you use it on supported hardware (just like macOS). Buy a laptop with Linux preinstalled.
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