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Moving from Macbook to Linux

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Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#391

Post by novok »

totony wrote: post #387
busterarm wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just any thinkpad! Stick to the X, T & to some extent P series. Avoid nvidia graphics if you can. Arch Linux (and to some extent OpenBSD) probably has the best support/documentation/fixes for any ACPI/APM management issues you have. I have a top-end 2017 MBP and I just recently bought a brand new 7th Gen X1 Carbon for very cheaply (like $800) and it _screams_ in comparison to the Mac.

Thinkpads all have soldered ram which is a pratice I can't support, is there a model I missed that has ram slots?

I think soldered storage is the thing that matters more. RAM does not retain state, storage does.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#392

Post by novok »

criddell wrote: post #366
hacknat wrote: post #154

I would strongly recommend the following combination for beginners: Thinkpad + Fedora Fedora stays on the cutting edge of the kernel, which means that driver support is quite good. Additionally, most of the Linux kernel developers use Thinkpads, so the drivers for Thinkpad are always good. I've never had to download drivers individually. Here's a list of things that just "worked" without me having to do anything: 1.…

I work in C++ and for compiling the CPU is definitely the bottleneck. My CPU will be pegged at 100% for several minutes and my two (SSD) drives just blip once ever few seconds.

At this point, I would be spinning up 96 core AWS build servers to retain sanity :)

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#393

Post by peteretep »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #260
senko wrote: post #68

I find it funny when people complain Linux is not ready for desktop. Sometimes it's because Windows software doesn't run on it, sometimes because Apple makes a fast chip... Dunno. Been using it on desktops (well, laptops, mostly) since early 2000s, then some 6-year hiatus with OSX, then back to Linux. Works/worked great for me. So, Year of Linux Desktop is really old news for some. For most, it'll never arrive. And t…

It's an incredibly personal choice. I've daily driven macOS for well over a decade, but periodically dip my toe into the Linux world just to get a feel of it's "there" yet or not. Unfortunately for my purposes, it never is, and so I end up returning to macOS. The biggest problem is that none of the DEs really fit my tastes — they all have to be poked and prodded into kinda doing what I want them to do, but they're ne…

Surprised there isn’t something that does an almost perfect OS X emulation

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#394

Post by jamesponddotco »

totony wrote: post #387
busterarm wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just any thinkpad! Stick to the X, T & to some extent P series. Avoid nvidia graphics if you can. Arch Linux (and to some extent OpenBSD) probably has the best support/documentation/fixes for any ACPI/APM management issues you have. I have a top-end 2017 MBP and I just recently bought a brand new 7th Gen X1 Carbon for very cheaply (like $800) and it _screams_ in comparison to the Mac.

Thinkpads all have soldered ram which is a pratice I can't support, is there a model I missed that has ram slots?

The T models without the S usually have no soldered RAM, or only one soldered slot. The ThinkPad T480, for example, has two upgradable RAM slots and one or two NVMe slots. Heck, even the Wi-Fi card is removable.

When talking about ThinkPads, I always recommend going with the T line and skipping anything with S at the end.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#395

Post by new_realist »

Poster decides to ditch the Mac based on experience with hardware that is 6 years old, with no idea how reliable the replacement Linux hardware will eventually be, and despite a previous positive experience with another Mac laptop. They then proceed to list all of the problems they’ve experienced. Sounds like a win.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#396

Post by rektide »

skrowl wrote: post #26
rektide wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than being about what kernel our devices run. Android devices are Linux too, but we don't go around saying it's an era of the Linux Handheld. It is, sort of, but the "Linux Desktop" implies a wider free & open source stack of interlinked technologies, multiple disjointed entities working in different places but building towards some kind of intertwingularity. You can not get that endless-frontier expanding-…

Many modern Chromebooks can literally run unmodified Linux apps. You can even install them via apt. That sounds like Desktop + Linux to me!

The obvious "not with the program" schism between Chromebooks & 99.99% of Linux gui based PCs is that Chromebooks, to my knowledge, make no attempt to be Freedesktop compliant system[1], nor do they permit choice of UI.

It's much better than Android. Crosstini & Crouton do wonders to carve a good Linux environment out. Overall I'm for the most part fairly happy. It uses the Wayland display server now, which is fantastic. It's a good product & a pretty decent Linux.

But it's still not "the Linux Desktop" in any way anyone from the past would have recognized, & it stands apart from all the other Linux desktops, which stand together, even in their quite sizable differences. Some of the malleability & libre-ness is missing. That's ok! It's still great. But still like a 10x better version of WSL, & not entirely like a Linux Desktop, as how Linux users would recognize.

[1] https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#397

Post by new_realist »

Generally Linux is slowly fixing their problems, because there’s been no innovation in the product. It’s still slowly copying Linux and the Mac. What is changing, like Wayland, is almost 20 years behind compositors on MacOS and Windows (literally) and still has a ton of issues.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#398

Post by jakehop »

totony wrote: post #387
busterarm wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just any thinkpad! Stick to the X, T & to some extent P series. Avoid nvidia graphics if you can. Arch Linux (and to some extent OpenBSD) probably has the best support/documentation/fixes for any ACPI/APM management issues you have. I have a top-end 2017 MBP and I just recently bought a brand new 7th Gen X1 Carbon for very cheaply (like $800) and it _screams_ in comparison to the Mac.

Thinkpads all have soldered ram which is a pratice I can't support, is there a model I missed that has ram slots?

I wonder which type of phone you're using...

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#399

Post by ericabiz »

jasonv wrote: post #253
glogla wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit of laptop is that it's ... everything. It's a replacement for desktop, for TV in living room, for TV in bedroom, for something to look up stuff in kitchen or workshop, and you can take it when you travel, use it in a hotel room or in a train or plane ... It's not perfect and perhaps not good replacement for many of those things, but it is so practical. Especially if you live in a small apartment where des…

I've been rockng a Macbook Air since 2013. I love the thing and it works fine, but I can't do video editing, which I need to do. The new Macbooks were on the horizon, but I figured I'd wait for v2 of whatever came out. So I bought a Dell gaming machine, for the GPU. First impressions from the week: * Windows is still pretty kludgy. * There are no good Gmail cients for Windows (settled on eM, but it crashes a lot, on…

Try Kiwi for Gmail. I liked it enough that I paid for it. It uses a browser, so it has the standard Gmail tricks, but it has its own UI so you don't have a million browser tabs open.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#400

Post by bas3l1ne »

vbezhenar wrote: post #370
hacknat wrote: post #154

I would strongly recommend the following combination for beginners: Thinkpad + Fedora Fedora stays on the cutting edge of the kernel, which means that driver support is quite good. Additionally, most of the Linux kernel developers use Thinkpads, so the drivers for Thinkpad are always good. I've never had to download drivers individually. Here's a list of things that just "worked" without me having to do anything: 1.…

What about mobile workstations like Dell Precision, HP Zbook, Thinkpad P53? Those workstations usually claim to support Linux officially, they are really powerful workhorses, they allow using of server-grade components (Xeons, ECC RAM, Quadro GPUs). Do people avoid them because they are expensive, bulky or do not run long on battery? If I would buy laptop today, I would look into those machines first, they seem to ma…

The Dell Precision line has great linux support, and can be purchased with Ubuntu. Its been reliable, gets great battery life, and overall provides the best linux experience I’ve ever had on a laptop. So much so that i purchased a nearly identical xps15 for personal use
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