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Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

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Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#411

Post by npteljes »

smoldesu wrote: post #35

>apt-get was a revolution when it was released in 1998 and it is still the best way to manage software today. brew is a mediocre replacement. While apt still isn't the best package manager (my heart belongs to pacman, no matter what the haters say), I completely agree that brew is a failed imitation. I wanted to use MacOS for the longest time, because I've been told that it's a real "Unix system". Brew has distilled…

>OS is always second-guessing my authority

Very concise way to put it. I feel the same way. With FOSS I feel that I'm fighting with the software, and with proprietary stuff I feel like I'm fighting against the software.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#412

Post by atleta »

foldr wrote: post #380
one2three4 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I find it absurd that (some) linux supporters find it not only ok but even a must, to have to tinker around your machine in order to make everything work. I could understand it in the 90s but this is a very different era we're in. I get zero value from having to tinker with my x-org settings to make the external screen work (sometimes). I'm using a computer to create value elsewhere and having to even think about…

If anything, the amount of tinkering required has increased as hardware has gotten more complex. I'm probably looking through rose-tinted glasses to some extent, but in the mid 2000s it was usually quite easy to get graphics and sound working well in Linux on generic PC hardware. And of course, most people didn't need to worry about WiFi, Bluetooth, suspend/resume, touchpads, etc. etc. in those days.

I constantly had problems with these and more back then. (E.g. making my TV grabbing card work was a nightmare.) I don't experience this since I've been using a ThinkPad.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#413

Post by jchw »

celrod wrote: post #410
jchw wrote: post #354

One thing that Windows and macOS users will never understand about Linux, because they’ve never truly experienced it, is just how viscerally different the Linux experience is depending on your hardware. You don’t really need to go with a vendor like System76, and going with a fan favorite like Lenovo does not guarantee a good experience, but seriously, Linux on a machine that runs it well is just not comparable to a…

I've been using Linux almost exclusively for many years, and I had to google what screen tearing is after all the comments about it in this thread. I do get people's resistance to switch. I bought a M1 Mac Mini because I wanted to be able to test and optimize code for it, but found the difference in experience jarring enough that I enabled remote desktop and now mostly run code on it through ssh. I'm sure I could con…

Screen tearing is typically very difficult to avoid with proprietary NVIDIA, but I have no issues with my AMD setups running Linux. I suspect that is usually the main difference.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#414

Post by caslon »

freebuju wrote: post #387
caslon wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to give an argument along the lines of "You're holding it wrong," but...okay, yeah, I'm going to do that. You hold a gun in one way. If you mess that up in any fashion, you probably won't hit what you're trying to, and, worse, might shoot yourself. Saying things like "There is no official site" is holding Linux wrong. Linux isn't an operating system. Linux is just a kernel. So phrase your search the right way: "l…

> I don't normally use Google, but just for you, I checked on it: It even has an easy-answers page. It was at this point that this troll immediately turned tasteless like chewed up sugarcane.

DuckDuckGo is perfectly sufficient, but the above poster uses Google. So I used Google to demonstrate.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#415

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

dbspin wrote: post #393
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #378

For me, ubuntu is hands down better than mac. - Finder is a disaster - LibreOffice on mac works far worse - General aestetics is very unfortunate (ymmv) But macOS has that one killer application for me that makes it worth suffering all of this: Sketch.

Finder is certainly less visually appealing since it became monochrome, but a disaster? Its preview tools are excellent. It provides tabbed view, which is bizarrely still not available in Windows explorer. It's excellent at remembering the state of folders, and which information was previously available in columns. It works well across different sized screens. Not a huge fan of the look and feel of Big Sur in general…

For one thing, it is extremely slow. Every time open file meny appears, or need to search for something, prepare to wait 15-30 seconds. File management is a pain, renaming, viewing properties, etc are likely the worst of all file managers I've ever seen. Nautilus is so much better (but it changed for the worse since 2008, too).

(I'd prefer a Far Manager version for linux / iOS to manage files, but I have accepted that this will never happen, unfortunately)

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#416

Post by sudhirkhanger »

I have been an Linux and open source software user for over a decade. I will be getting a Mac from work and it feels weird to jump on the proprietary bandwagon.

That being said one can get used to most of the complainants about the app space. But system continues to have problems with hibernation/resume and memory management. App updates, critical, and system updates should be separated. If one opens a large apps then slowly the system load will increase to a level which will render the system unusable.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#417

Post by masswerk »

easygenes wrote: post #398
masswerk wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm far too used to the macOS touchpad gestures It's a bit ironic that the Mac is now the epicenter of multi-touch, while its use on mobile platforms has seen some of a decline. Also, I full-heartedly consent to the praise of Preview.

Multi-touch doesn’t get in the way of the screen on Mac. Also doesn’t require changing how you hold the device.

The point being, multi-touch was what got the the smartphone revolution going, especially on the Web. Whereas now…

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#418

Post by unnouinceput »

The first and main mistake any OS switchers do, regardless from where they come and to which OS they go is the fact that they expect the new OS to provide the same experience like the one they come from. Switching from Windows to Linux, people expect great GUI and hand holding. Switching from Linux to Windows, people expect a lot of customization and are annoyed by hand holding Microsoft does. Switching from Mac to Windows, people expect the Apple's way of hand holding, which is done differently by Microsoft and thus is annoying.

Before doing such a drastic move maybe do a parallel of your most menial everyday task on both OS'es and then decide how to move about on the new OS regarding that. Also read about the philosophy behind each OS and understand it's strengths and weaknesses. Only after that you can complete and/or adjust to this switch.

As an example, I was first a Windows user. Then I started to go about with Linux. And I loved the style of pipe one program to next to complete a task using nothing but bash/batch (whatever terminology you prefer). This was before Windows implemented same using PowerShell, hence why I love and use to this very day CygWin. On many of my customers systems CygWin is installed and used for production.

The article's author mistake is exactly this lack of adjusting and instead trying to force Mac style on Linux. My 2 cents.

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#419

Post by monsieurbanana »

masswerk wrote: post #417
easygenes wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Multi-touch doesn’t get in the way of the screen on Mac. Also doesn’t require changing how you hold the device.

The point being, multi-touch was what got the the smartphone revolution going, especially on the Web. Whereas now…

What do you mean by that?

Re: Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

#420

Post by celrod »

jchw wrote: post #413
celrod wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Linux almost exclusively for many years, and I had to google what screen tearing is after all the comments about it in this thread. I do get people's resistance to switch. I bought a M1 Mac Mini because I wanted to be able to test and optimize code for it, but found the difference in experience jarring enough that I enabled remote desktop and now mostly run code on it through ssh. I'm sure I could con…

Screen tearing is typically very difficult to avoid with proprietary NVIDIA, but I have no issues with my AMD setups running Linux. I suspect that is usually the main difference.

Ah. I have AMD GPUs on desktop, and integrated graphics on laptops.
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