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Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

support.system76.com

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Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vnc? I think most people use ssh for remote for Linux which is why it probably doesn’t get much love

Vnc works for the basic use case of viewing a remote screen. It’s a mess for interactive use, especially with the default implementations you can find on Linux imo. macOS’s built in screen sharing is the only vnc server/client combo that has acceptable latency but even it fails to support basic features like dynamic resolution for different clients. And I agree that SSH is definitely far more common; I of course use…

It took me (way too much) effort but I managed to get a pretty stable and smooth RDP server set up on my desktop. Sadly, GNOME3 and RDP don't work well together, so it broke after a random upgrade and hasn't worked since.

You used to be able to use X11 forwarding quite well, but most tools I use tend to render their entire screens as a canvas causing way too many unnecessary updates. Wayland also makes it nearly impossible to do this on a modern system without compatibility layers.

When RDP on Linux works, it works pretty well. I'd love for someone in the GNOME team to find a way to make RDP compatible and easier to set up. There's a VNC setting in the settings somewhere, but VNC is pretty insecure and terrible for interactive work.

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#32
post #14

Is it finally the year of Linux on the desktop? But seriously, the work System76 is doing is really great. PopOS is really nice to use. The attention it is getting is well deserved.

> Is it finally the year of Linux on the desktop? Considering that the hope behind this term was about winning the desktop user share from Windows, and not just "being usable" on the desktop, or "being used" on the desktop, no.

Now that Windows 11 is a thing, I think winning desktop user share from Windows will be easier than ever before. What else is the average Joe going to do with their TPM-less devices?

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#33
This is a little off-topic, but I've been wanting to switch from Windows to Linux and the one thing stopping me is the lack of a good package manager. WAIT, let me explain.

On Windows, you can just `scoop install ripgrep fzf jq` and you're in business. And updating all installed packages is one command away.

Meanwhile on Debian, the system packages are often years out of date. So authors have started making their own custom install scripts [1], or just telling you to `curl` the binary into /usr/bin [2]. To update these manually-curled binaries you need to run a different set of steps for every one. There's no way to list outdated apps, and there's no easy way to update everything.

On top of that, many apps I use aren't even packaged (k9s, broot are two random ones I just found). Sometimes you can find a third-party repo, but that's yet another person you rely on to get updates. Whereas with scoop, it fetches straight from the source, so there's never any waiting.

Is there some alternative to `apt` that everyone is using? Or how do people generally deal with this?

[1]: https://starship.rs/guide/

[2]: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep#installation

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#34
post #23

Having switched from macOS to PopOS very recently, it’s been pretty smooth. My only real issue is that Remote Desktop support is worse than macOS which is itself far worse than Windows RDP. I know it’s a Linux/Debian wide problem, but I’d really like someone to step up and bundle something polished out of the box.

What are the better RDP options that debian is not packaging?

To be honest the only good RDP I’ve used is Windows RDP. I’m not saying that Debian isn’t packaging a good alternative but rather I haven’t seen a good option that’s useable for interactive work.

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#35

Is it finally the year of Linux on the desktop? But seriously, the work System76 is doing is really great. PopOS is really nice to use. The attention it is getting is well deserved.

Every year is the Year of Linux on the Desktop as more people move over.

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#36

This is a little off-topic, but I've been wanting to switch from Windows to Linux and the one thing stopping me is the lack of a good package manager. WAIT, let me explain. On Windows, you can just `scoop install ripgrep fzf jq` and you're in business. And updating all installed packages is one command away. Meanwhile on Debian, the system packages are often years out of date. So authors have started making their own…

Arch Linux :)

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#37
After my previous Linux experience with Ubuntu 10 years ago, I gave pop os a try last year and was surprised how good it was.

I think the engineers at System76 really know what they are doing and am excited about their new DE.

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#38
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it finally the year of Linux on the desktop? Considering that the hope behind this term was about winning the desktop user share from Windows, and not just "being usable" on the desktop, or "being used" on the desktop, no.

Now that Windows 11 is a thing, I think winning desktop user share from Windows will be easier than ever before. What else is the average Joe going to do with their TPM-less devices?

Throw them in the trash and buy a new PC. They are pretty cheap.

Re: Switching from macOS to Pop_OS

#39

This is a little off-topic, but I've been wanting to switch from Windows to Linux and the one thing stopping me is the lack of a good package manager. WAIT, let me explain. On Windows, you can just `scoop install ripgrep fzf jq` and you're in business. And updating all installed packages is one command away. Meanwhile on Debian, the system packages are often years out of date. So authors have started making their own…

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