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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

#451

Post by latexr »

popeathlete wrote: post #389
minimaul wrote: post #368

From someone who tends to try this switch about once a year (because the lack of TLC the Mac was getting in the last 5 or so years was getting very very worrying - M1 feels like Apple actually care about the Mac again), I agree with a lot of these pain points. My biggest personal issues end up being (and these are super subjective!): - Preview on macOS is great and no other OS has anything remotely equivalent. First…

No offense, but this largely reads to me like "I don't wanna use Linux because I wanna use Mac". If you want to move to a different system, you can't expect to get the same thing. Really, the only complaints I can agree with now are 2 and 3, the rest is just invalid. You've got kdeconnect gsconnect nextcloud keepassxc many, many configurable mail clients, especially the beatiful, integrated kmail and their whole PIM…

> I can agree with now are 2 and 3, the rest is just invalid.

The parent poster is clear on what they like (or don’t) and even prefaced everything with “and these are super subjective”. Personal preference doesn’t become invalid when another disagrees, nor does parent seem to be fishing for agreement.

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

#452

Post by giorgioz »

macOS has a great UX but in my personal opinion I dislike the native Mail app and native Calendar app. I use Gmail and to me Gmail is far better than the native Mail app on macOS. I also don't see how the author consider himself a power-user and then use the native Mail app which is clearly less advanced than Gmail which offers far more features and integrations.

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

#453

Post by kaba0 »

pjmlp wrote: post #370
kaba0 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately with AMD GPUs on linux you get both, as the proprietary driver simply adds some opencl support if my memory serves well.

Nope, older GPUs just get basic support, while the older proprietary driver, more feature rich, don't work in modern kernels.

Yeah, unfortunately it is not backported for older GPUs. But it doesn’t make the case of supported hardwares worse.

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

#454

Post by syspec »

Vinnl wrote: post #395
crubier wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just prove the point of the author above. If you had the real Preview on MacOS, you’d be using it all the time without even thinking, like 100% of MacOS users. Because it’s fast, it opens everything faster than you can think, and it just works well. The effort required to launch it is zero, or even negative. It’s just part of the OS. But since you have a « sort of » copy cat which does not work as well or as fast…

I wasn't talking about Preview, I was talking about quick look, i.e. when I browse files in my file browser, I can hit space and immediately look at that file in a pared-down interface. But I'm not browsing my files that often, and when I do, the only time I seem to be interested in what it looks like is when I'm looking for an image, in which case the thumbnails that I can see without interaction suffice. So I'm pro…

It's faster, and less jarring when it opens due to animating FROM the file). It also works in Open / Save dialogue windows in any app which the equivalent does not.

That little "wait is this the file I want to open / overwrite?" When saving a file, it adds to an overall feeling of polish.

Like a tasty meal, it's all in the details and how they add up

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

#455

Post by bayindirh »

giorgioz wrote: post #452

macOS has a great UX but in my personal opinion I dislike the native Mail app and native Calendar app. I use Gmail and to me Gmail is far better than the native Mail app on macOS. I also don't see how the author consider himself a power-user and then use the native Mail app which is clearly less advanced than Gmail which offers far more features and integrations.

As a macOS & Linux user and KDE fan (without the boy), I love how macOS uses space so efficiently and has great productivity flow.

Also, the native mail & calendar apps are not that crippled when combined with a capable IMAP/CalDAV server combo. After using it for some time, I personally like how I can map it into my mental model and use effortlessly.

I'm not a macOS power user though. I like the vanilla macOS and doesn't add many tools on top of that (like Brew, HammerSpoon, yadda yadda).

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

#456

Post by benibela »

galkk wrote: post #176
jeswin wrote: post #142

If you're complaining about Linux drivers please do so after using a Laptop that supports Linux (Thinkpads for example). Just like it wouldn't be fair to complain about macOS on a Hackintosh - sound didn't work well and had to patch the DSDT. > but there are rough edges for the power user. > I am an extreme power user, ... > In the end, I was able to replicate most of my macOS power tools setup via input hooks and sh…

I own Thinkpad X1 extreme, that I bought with my own money, and chose as working laptop Thinkpad Carbon. Both are not working well with linux. 1. Carbon, due to it's intel chip, can not drive 4K and 2K external monitors via thunderbolt adapter. 2. I need to authorize dock (Lenovo's thunderbolt dock) after every reboot. 3. The screen tearing sucks. 4. I need to have pulse audio volume control window opened all the tim…

>4. I need to have pulse audio volume control window opened all the time, otherwise the laptop loses my external sound card after first call via browser, and I need to turn it off/on.

Sounds is really bad

To get sound on my headphones, I need to restart pulseaudio and ALSA, and unplug and replug the headphones

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

#457

Post by bayindirh »

keymone wrote: post #446
popeathlete wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but this largely reads to me like "I don't wanna use Linux because I wanna use Mac". If you want to move to a different system, you can't expect to get the same thing. Really, the only complaints I can agree with now are 2 and 3, the rest is just invalid. You've got kdeconnect gsconnect nextcloud keepassxc many, many configurable mail clients, especially the beatiful, integrated kmail and their whole PIM…

You’re too dismissive, Linux apps are terrible compared to Mac and it’s a big reason preventing me from switching. That you got used to using crappy software doesn’t mean I want to do the same.

Daily macOS and Linux user here.

Linux does have a lot of crappy and quality software. Using the better ones changes the experience a lot. Not all software on the macOS is top notch either. There are some amazing apps, but most of them can be replicated on Linux or have better equivalents.

I think you're dismissing something here.

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

#458

Post by danjac »

popeathlete wrote: post #389
minimaul wrote: post #368

From someone who tends to try this switch about once a year (because the lack of TLC the Mac was getting in the last 5 or so years was getting very very worrying - M1 feels like Apple actually care about the Mac again), I agree with a lot of these pain points. My biggest personal issues end up being (and these are super subjective!): - Preview on macOS is great and no other OS has anything remotely equivalent. First…

No offense, but this largely reads to me like "I don't wanna use Linux because I wanna use Mac". If you want to move to a different system, you can't expect to get the same thing. Really, the only complaints I can agree with now are 2 and 3, the rest is just invalid. You've got kdeconnect gsconnect nextcloud keepassxc many, many configurable mail clients, especially the beatiful, integrated kmail and their whole PIM…

" beatiful, integrated kmail and their whole PIM suite"

Is that the one that used a MySQL database on the desktop? The disaster known as akonadi? That would frequently lock up requiring restarts? When I used KDE back in the day one thing I'd make sure was to remove PIM/akonadi/kmail completely and use Thunderbird or whatever else instead.

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

#459

Post by yen223 »

Tainnor wrote: post #188
jeswin wrote: post #142

If you're complaining about Linux drivers please do so after using a Laptop that supports Linux (Thinkpads for example). Just like it wouldn't be fair to complain about macOS on a Hackintosh - sound didn't work well and had to patch the DSDT. > but there are rough edges for the power user. > I am an extreme power user, ... > In the end, I was able to replicate most of my macOS power tools setup via input hooks and sh…

I'll be the devil's advocate even though I agree with you partially and I personally prefer Linux, both for practical and philosophical reasons. However, I use a Linux laptop privately and macOS for work, so I think by now I understand both systems a little bit. For automating tasks on macOS you can look at something like hammerspoon which is really cool (though I mostly use it to modify some of the macOS keybindings…

> most Linux distros seem to have a better terminal pre-installed.

I haven't found a Linux terminal that is as good as iTerm, in terms of features. Any recommendations?

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

#460

Post by pjmlp »

joana035 wrote: post #433
pjmlp wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no way, because the only way to make it work is to dig out a pre-historic kernel from the same year Asus released 1215B with Linux support. Proprietary software for 1215B, e.g. Windows, is working just fine with Windows 10, even though it was originally released with Windows 7. So we are talking about Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and several Windows 10 releases, all supporting the original Windows 7 dr…

Have you tried to install AMD proprietary drivers? Did you installed the firmware for your WiFi card? By the way you complain about Linux seems that you really don't like it and that nobody can convince you te opposite, but I believe that if you manage to learn the basics around it it pay off in the long run :)

Missed this remark?

> There is no way, because the only way to make it work is to dig out a pre-historic kernel from the same year Asus released 1215B with Linux support.

My dear, my first UNIX experience was with Xenix back in 1993, I also used DG/UX, Tru64, HP-UX, Aix, Solaris, Slackware, Red-Hat, Yasdril, Mandranke, SuSE, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, Debian, OS, Scientific Linux.

Back in 2002 - 2003, I wrote cluster simulation software while at CERN running on Linux, followed by other examples of deployment of Linux based software into production, like Nokia's NetAct cluster monitoring platform.

I think I can manage with the basics.

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