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

cfenollosa.com

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

#811
post #677
post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quicklook is such an amazing feature and it seems so basic that I just don’t get why windows hasn’t added anything like that. Are there patents on this? Just an example that I have about every day: before sharing a file via file select/open dialog I can double check if it’s the correct one. I can only speculate that quicklook prevents a substantial amount of accidental information leak across the entire world :)

You can easily enable this in Windows. In Explorer, just go to the View tab/menu, enable Preview Sidebar , click on the image, resize the Preview Sidebar as necessary, look at the image, then disable Preview Sidebar again. Easy /s

Yeah sure. And try to rename a file while it‘s preview loads. Does not work, the flow will break. Sometimes it will just not rename the file. Sometimes it will block the UI as long as the preview is not loaded.

I would never set preview on Windows to the same level as preview on OS X. Because the one on Windows as just not as good.

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

#812
post #800
post #706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an obvious straw man, parent is talking about ‘many issues’, and you are talking about major issues. Apple obviously doesn’t have a lot of unfixed major issues. Many small complaints is another matter.

Either i dont agree or we have a different understanding of major issue. Not being able to use a second screen withput active power, or being able to cook an egg in idle are in my eyes major issues. Both of which have long threads with no real response. I still get “me too“ emails from issues ive “me too“ 5+ years ago.

Sure but that’s not a real metric.

There really is nowhere for everyday consumers to complain about comparable issues in Linux. There is nobody to complain to, and the the only options are self help.

Anyone who fails, fails silently, and there is also the issue that because of all the variation in hardware and software setups it’s hard to even determine that an issue is the same.

On the other side, Apple has more than a billion active users, so a few hundred people with a single issue really doesn’t mean anything at all.

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

#813
post #709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You use this word, "straw man". I do not think it means what you think it means. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/straw%20man Being ‘immune from bugs’ is an obvious straw man. > A Chromebook has fewer bugs and a better UX If by ‘better UX’ you mean doesn’t even try to do things. > Application menus are so far away from application windows that the Ever Given could do a goddamn u-turn between them with roo…

Cherry picking bits and pieces of what I mentioned rather than addressing the entirety of the argument does not a good counter-argument make. And no, neither does linking some dictionary entry as if it actually proves you understand what that dictionary entry is saying. No comment on the Touch Bar being disabled with external keyboards plugged in? Or needing to disconnect USB-C devices to login? Or password prompts b…

> Cherry picking bits and pieces of what I mentioned rather than addressing the entirety of the argument does not a good counter-argument make.

Here’s where I addressed the entirety of your argument:

> Really your comment has nothing to do with whether MacOS *just works(, you have articulated a list of preferences and desires for it to work more like other things you have more familiarity with. You just want it to work differently - I.e. you just don’t like it. I increasingly don’t like it either for various reasons, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t just work.

As for cherry picking. I don’t need to refute every point you made - they all fall under this umbrella.

> And no, neither does linking some dictionary entry as if it actually proves you understand what that dictionary entry is saying.

It does. If it didn’t you’d have addressed it, but you didn’t.

Your entire argument boils down to “Mac OS doesn’t work like linux”.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t just work. It means it isn’t a good choice for you.

> It is tolerable usability-wise only after extensive fiddling and tweaking and troubleshooting,

Almost nobody does this. Most people find it very usable as is. As I said - this is just about your preferences and nothing more.

> and that's only on good days when those aforementioned bugs ain't actively preventing me from using basic OS functionality.ugh

This is also something almost nobody experiences.

Perhaps your attempts to make MacOS work differently from how it was designed are causing you these problems.

What is odd to me is that you continue to use an operating system that is so ill suited to your preferences.

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

#814
post #787
post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, that moment was uninstalling an app. I had to Google it. “Drag the app to the trash bin.” Remember how hard it is to uninstall stuff on Windows? Especially if you’re doing more than one?

It's... not hard at all to uninstall stuff on Windows. They'll all be in the Apps & Features list.

I don't understand either. The lingering files left over after I deleted a .app would always require a third party tool to gather and clean, and even then, I wouldn't be sure, and would then find missing preferences files. I don't have that problem with the Windows uninstaller.

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

#815
post #567

Preview is one of the most underrated pieces of software in the world today. I make the assumption that Quicklook uses Preview (because surely it must). Being able to hit spacebar on just about any kind of selected document/image type file and see a near instant look, multiple pages and all, is so important. Once you don't have that (move to the Windows world), you realize how much you miss it. And you can, with a sm…

You may want HyperDock[1] which enables that behaviour. There is also HyperSwitch[2] which switches windows, not apps. It's a beta, but still works great on Big Sur. [1] https://bahoom.com/hyperdock [2] https://bahoom.com/hyperswitch

Hyperdock has been unstable for awhile, and judging by comments on social media and the silence of the dev, it's finally been abandoned. I'm currently trying [DockView](https://noteifyapp.com/dockview/) from the maker of ActiveDock.

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

#816
post #612
post #567

Preview is one of the most underrated pieces of software in the world today. I make the assumption that Quicklook uses Preview (because surely it must). Being able to hit spacebar on just about any kind of selected document/image type file and see a near instant look, multiple pages and all, is so important. Once you don't have that (move to the Windows world), you realize how much you miss it. And you can, with a sm…

I switched from Windows to OS X over 7 years ago and this is the first time I've ever learned about Quicklook. Looks like a great feature.

[deleted]

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

#817
post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched from Windows to OS X over 7 years ago and this is the first time I've ever learned about Quicklook. Looks like a great feature.

How could you miss QuickLook for 7 years!? Maybe you're missing more.

I also was missing it, I'd ask how did you know it was there?

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

#818
post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PDF editing and signature workflow is so good that I never print out PDFs to sign and scan them in any more.

It's so good, so fast, and so easy, (and so obviously useful), I just cannot fathom why Windows doesn't have a comparable answer for this.

Possibly because MS sticked to XPS rather than PDF

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

#819
post #813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cherry picking bits and pieces of what I mentioned rather than addressing the entirety of the argument does not a good counter-argument make. And no, neither does linking some dictionary entry as if it actually proves you understand what that dictionary entry is saying. No comment on the Touch Bar being disabled with external keyboards plugged in? Or needing to disconnect USB-C devices to login? Or password prompts b…

> Cherry picking bits and pieces of what I mentioned rather than addressing the entirety of the argument does not a good counter-argument make. Here’s where I addressed the entirety of your argument: > Really your comment has nothing to do with whether MacOS *just works(, you have articulated a list of preferences and desires for it to work more like other things you have more familiarity with. You just want it to wo…

> Here’s where I addressed the entirety of your argument:

...except for the usability-hindering bugs. Hardly meaningful to reduce those to "user preference"; like, no shit I'd prefer it if basic devices like keyboards and mice worked on boot without extra fiddling.

> This is also something almost nobody experiences.

The Big Sur upgrade breaking the password prompt in System Preferences, as one especially annoying example, is pretty well documented online - and was documented for Catalina upgrades, too. It's exactly where I got the troubleshooting step of "reset SMC". I'm far from alone there.

> Perhaps your attempts to make MacOS work differently from how it was designed are causing you these problems.

Most of them were an issue long before I felt the need to tweak things. And all of them are far outside the scope of said tweaks.

> What is odd to me is that you continue to use an operating system that is so ill suited to your preferences.

It's a work machine. My own computers all run Linux or OpenBSD (with a few exceptions, like the old laptop running Haiku).

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

#820
post #567

Preview is one of the most underrated pieces of software in the world today. I make the assumption that Quicklook uses Preview (because surely it must). Being able to hit spacebar on just about any kind of selected document/image type file and see a near instant look, multiple pages and all, is so important. Once you don't have that (move to the Windows world), you realize how much you miss it. And you can, with a sm…

> But generally speaking, macOS on Apple hardware is unmatched by any alternative.

lmfao. About the preview thing ;

- ranger (cli) has the file preview thing, no need to press spacebar. Has all the vim keybindings, you can cycle preview through files much faster than on macos. - (sushi)[https://github.com/GNOME/sushi], if you want to use gui.

- all of this is free software.

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