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Moving from Macbook to Linux

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Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#291

Post by solaceb »

cafed00d wrote: post #242
horsawlarway wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy their shit. Period. Wayland already has trackpad support that's nearly identical to macOS. Gnome with a dock is basically the same desktop experience - Pick a distro of your choice. I can honestly say I prefer my linux XPS to my work macbook, by a large margin. Plus - It doesn't spy on me. I actually own it. I can release software through channels that aren't entirely abusive. Basically - The only thing App…

Well of course! How many people who walk into Apple stores are reading hacker news to learn about Wayland, Gnome and XPS running Linux? I can see you’re frustrated and lashing out with “Don’t buy their shit”. Honestly I would be too if I had to read another hn post on apple & their policies. But the biggest gap here isn’t technology. Rather it’s empathy. Empathy for all those people who don’t read hn and would walk i…

Therein lies a tricky obstacle for the FOSS movement:

Ethical software allows users to modify it, but most users have little desire, let alone ability or time to learn how to do so.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#292

Post by freedomben »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #251
freedomben wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might would love a Chromebook. There are some really nice ones out there, and you can run apps packaged for Debian really easily. Chromebook hardware works flawlessly (suspend/resume/etc) and battery life is incredible. I'll never give up my Fedora ThinkPad, but if I was forced to I could do all my development on a Chromebook with Linux.

Disk space is the thing that kills chromebooks for me. Instead, I spent like 800 on an xps 13, swapped out for a 1tb ssd, and man, it is nice

Yeah great point, disk space on most chromebooks sucks. I used an SD card in one for a while but SD cards wear out so fast. Now I have a USB drive constantly plugged in, but that's not great either.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#294

Post by rich_sasha »

I’d leave Mac for Linux in an instant, except:

- very few established brands sell beefy laptops with Linux preinstalled (Dell only?)

- enough people report technical issues, or constant twiddling with the setup, that it feels a bit risky just buying a windows laptop, installing Linux and hoping for the best.

I like all the upsides Linux has over Mac, but I just need a laptop that works fine with 0 twiddling. Reluctantly, I might end up buying a new Mac when my current one dies.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#295

Post by tpush »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #284
cafed00d wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well of course! How many people who walk into Apple stores are reading hacker news to learn about Wayland, Gnome and XPS running Linux? I can see you’re frustrated and lashing out with “Don’t buy their shit”. Honestly I would be too if I had to read another hn post on apple & their policies. But the biggest gap here isn’t technology. Rather it’s empathy. Empathy for all those people who don’t read hn and would walk i…

20 years ago they all bought Windows machines. Apple didn't change that by suddenly being excellent and having great marketing. Developers changed that by realising that Macs were good dev machines and writing software that ran on Macs. Non-tech people ask their tech-savvy friends for advice on what tech to buy. For years that was "buy Apple; it costs more but they're more reliable, the support is great, and they're…

> Apple didn't change that by suddenly being excellent and having great marketing.

That is actually pretty much precisely the reason.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#296

Post by strangus »

I went back to linux on my laptop this year after using MBP for about 15 years. What sold it for me was the System76 Lemur. I had been waiting for a solid linux laptop that was not a brick. The hardest part for me was getting used to something other than the MBP keyboard and trackpad.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#297

Post by ben7799 »

ralph87 wrote: post #160
ben7799 wrote: post #143

This stuff is always a joke. Who knows what his actual job is but any time you see these articles they immediately start with long sections of all the hacks & work needed to make the basics work. Battery Life Issues Getting a mouse to work Getting displays to work Wifi Issues Fixing keyboard mapping issues You're not supposed to have to waste your time on this stuff. It's been about 3 years since I tried to make a la…

If you buy a matched OS + laptop in any other situation, why not also for Linux? Buy an XPS next time, or any other vendor (Lenovo?) with tested hardware, and just put an Ubuntu USB stick in. "I bought the top result for 'wheel' on eBay and ruined my life trying to fit it to this aircraft engine, this is such a joke!" Shit has just worked for years if you want it to work.

I did this through a pilot program through our IT department.

Years ago when I wasn't full time employed I used to do a lot of linux and send patches when stuff was broken, etc..

We used both XPSes and System 76 machines. A whole bunch of money was spent.

All the software dev tools are great.

The problem is the linux machines running batteries out when you try to go do a webex in a conference room with a customer whereas a Mac would barely even drain the battery at all.

Or the linux stuff has a major FUBAR issue with the specific VPN your company uses and you need.

Or the linux stuff has trouble with some security related config on the specific Wifi setup in the building.

Or gnome/unity needing a reboot after unplugging external monitors and trying to walk off to a meeting.

It's all that stuff. People who run stuff at home (like I did) have great flexibility to swap out the hardware and software that don't work well with Linux. It's much much harder in the corporate environment.

Both the XPSes and the System76 work awesome if you leave them permanently on a desk.. they don't work as replacements for MBPs in our environment.

I was making it work and hacking away at fixes for various broken things in linux for a while. And then I realized it was killing my productivity and I just took the linux laptop back and asked to have another MBP.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#298

Post by strangus »

phs318u wrote: post #216
fsflover wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That’s exactly why, after 17 years as an Apple user, I settled on a System76 Lemur Pro, rather than a Lenovo or Dell . The OS integration (Pop-OS) is excellent, and the hardware explicitly supported.

I just posted the same thing. System 76 Lemurs are amazing linux laptops.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#299

Post by mraza007 »

Very interesting post I have been using linux for about three years. I started out with ubuntu later switched to manjaro i3 edition.

However the day new apple m1 chip came out I’m kinda stuck whether to move to macOS or upgrade to latest xps 13 and install linux.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#300

Post by [deleted] »

fidelramos wrote: post #192
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.

[deleted]
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