Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

shkspr.mobi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 740 posts

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#171

Post by thenoblesunfish »

Most of the criticisms here are about the fact that the UI is more customizable on Ubuntu - fair enough, but I can't help but feel that the implication is being made that this is better. I think it's pretty clear that macOS is trying to give you less options (there are, after all, lots of hidden options), but in a considered enough way that almost all users will be happy to have their lives simplified.

I move back and forth between macOS and Ubuntu, and think the combination is wonderful. It keeps me honest in terms of which tools and workflows are actually portable, and makes me appreciate the things each system does better.

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#172

Post by vetinari »

as1mov wrote: post #81
jzellis wrote: post #48

You forgot "spend three days trying to get a Bluetooth keyboard to pair at boot every time". :-D I love Ubuntu and I use it with Cinnamon desktop on the daily alongside my Mac, and I love the customizability, but I also like just being able to turn on my laptop and do stuff without having to fiddle with a terminal unless I want to, or install a new app by just downloading a thing and clicking on it and agreeing that,…

I use a pair of BT headphones (paired to 2 devices) and a keyboard. Both have worked without a hitch since day one on Ubuntu Mate. Funny enough, it's the only device I own that will work with my prehistoric HP printer from 2005 without any hacks. Newer versions of Windows don't work with it (I probably need to fish out the CD with the drivers), MacOS never did.

It does not have to be ancient printer; I present you Samsung SL-M2070W, which HP is still selling under some other designation.

I can print in MacOS, but I cannot scan. It used to work, but color scanning was broken few years ago, and about two years ago b/w scanning was broken too - Preview or Image Capture will just produce something malformed.

There used to be a workaround using Samsung scanning utility, but it doesn't work since Catalina, due to the utility being 32-bit app.

So what I do? RDP into other machine that does not have such problems (either Linux or Windows) and then transfer the scanned file.

So much for "just works".

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#173

Post by threeseed »

z_zetetic_z wrote: post #154

Disabling acceleration on scroll wheels of 3rd party mice - Nope. Can you stand scrolling 1 pixel, 1 pixel, 1 pixel, 1/3 the whole screen? I can't. Want to use a 15 year old DSLR as a webcam over USB? Nope. I sent the MBP back. No way I'm putting up with that crap!

> Disabling acceleration on scroll wheels of 3rd party mice

That's an issue with your mouse software.

> Want to use a 15 year old DSLR as a webcam over USB

OBS Studio can help or Elgato Cam Link if your DSLR supports HDMI.

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#175

Post by ryukafalz »

lupire wrote: post #139
enriquto wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't really replace WindowServer on macOS, as it is pretty much macOS itself. I find this very foreign. As if a unix system didn't let you change the shell! This is sad to hear, because I'm a happy user of a headless macOS (not set up by me), to which I ssh almost daily for testing purposes, and it is a fairly decent unix system. It has a few idiosyncrasies, sure, but those help to make your pipelines more por…

What window servers can you use on Unix? Wayland still doesn't quite work, after many years.

I use Wayland every day on both my work and personal laptops. Works fine.

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#176

Post by kiallmacinnes »

zuhsetaqi wrote: post #152
smackeyacky wrote: post #14

Add: run a docker container without an entire VM.

That's like saying "Things Linux can't do Mac can: Run macOS without a VM"

While technically, yes, you are correct. It kinda misses the point - developers are more and more working with containers. Doing this on a Mac is an awful experience compared to doing it on Linux (or, Windows - I hear docker + WSL2 is pretty decent - but I've not tried it!)

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#177

Post by koprulusector »

dotancohen wrote: post #72

I had to use a Mac at work some time ago. Here's my list: * Cannot drag to copy, middle-click to paste. * No way to disable sticky keys lock. * No way to set ESC as Caps Lock. * No way to set a keyboard shortcut for each specific language. (I use five) * Alt-tab to an _Application_, not a _Window_. How many times will I Alt-Tab to.... nothing! * Return from sleep will rearrange the order of the connected monitors, ev…

Wait you want to set ESC as caps lock? I personally set Caps Lock to ESC but never heard of anyone wanting to do the other way around…

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#178

Post by rodelrod »

rossvor wrote: post #93
yalogin wrote: post #25

I like this post. For the first time someone actually provided a list of things and more so jumped right into them! Most of the apple posts go into a long philosophy rant about walled gardens and other bs. Glad to see a legit list and they have a legit point.

Exactly, both informative for MacOS users and those who never used it. MacOS users can quickly scan and think yeah I don't care about this feature, or think huh this is something that could be useful and maybe I should look for a 3rd party app which has this. Those considering switching to MacOS can compare to their existing environment and have a greater picture of what possible pain points to expect. I would like t…

This list is personal and far from exhaustive (which is fine). If I quickly scanned looking for things I care about, I'd find very little. However, as a Linux user I could very quickly come up with an equally long list of things that I do care about and that does not overlap much with this one.

I think the larger point is: in Linux, some things are complicated but most things are possible. On Mac and Windows, some things are easier but many things are impossible.

So there's definitely a tradeoff. But since I have to use this tool for the majority of my waking hours in order to make a living, the ROI from taking a bit longer to solve an issue and then having it solved virtually forever makes Linux a better proposition IMHO.

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#179

Post by simonh »

rbut wrote: post #122
as1mov wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a pair of BT headphones (paired to 2 devices) and a keyboard. Both have worked without a hitch since day one on Ubuntu Mate. Funny enough, it's the only device I own that will work with my prehistoric HP printer from 2005 without any hacks. Newer versions of Windows don't work with it (I probably need to fish out the CD with the drivers), MacOS never did.

I can echo the HP printer comment, mines a printer/scanner. Every time I print or scan on Ubuntu I'm expecting it to not work, as that was my experience on macOS, but it works flawlessly. On macOS the driver was abandoned 6 OS versions back, and I had to do some pkg command line trickery running as root just to get the thing to install.

Sorry, I just want to get this straight. We're comparing Linux and MacOS, and having to do command line trickery to do something is a knock against MacOS? Really?

I mean if that's a legitimate black mark, that's 1 ding against MacOS and we can bury Linux under a thick pile of back marks.

Re: Things I can’t do on macOS which I can do on Ubuntu (2020)

#180

Post by bloopernova »

SXX wrote: post #88

I'll add some to the list: - Control external monitor sound volume. There are buggy paid and open source solutions, but they all trigger all kind of bugs with sound and macOS itself. - Capture game audio with OBS together with microphone input. - Being able to wait for files to copy and work Finder at the same time. Yeah I could find replacement for Finder, but why the hell? - Use Valve Proton. Yeah, Linux is great t…

Have you tried Pipewire? It's pretty wonderful.
Post reply on HN