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

541–550 of 740 posts

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

#541

Post by natch »

Things I can’t do on my Ubuntu machine:

- play audio

- record audio

- anything that relies on the above

The author mentioned a common retort which is “you’re doing it wrong”… well in my case I most definitely am doing it wrong. I don’t know how, exactly, but no doubt. But point is with macOS I can do nothing and it still just works. Who knows what I would have to do to get my Ubuntu machine to work. And it might be the machine, not the OS. Another reason bundling the machine and the OS together such that they just work is a good idea.

I’ll take working audio over any of the author’s examples any day.

And if your audio works on Ubuntu, great! That just doesn’t help me though. So Mac it is, as far as audio is concerned.

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

#542

Post by spicybright »

411111111111111 wrote: post #520
dahfizz wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mouse acceleration curve on Mac drives me insane. There is a way to set it to "0" with some command line incantation, but it still does not set it to 0. Also, the fact that I can't independently control the scroll direction of mice and trackpads is insane to me. The whole selling point of Apple is that "it just works" , but I can't even get my mouse working properly! That's like the lowest bar for an OS.

> "it just works" It does just work. You're just using it wrong. Keep that second sentence in mind whenever people say that first line and you'll never have any issues with apple fans

I'm a fan of apple MacOS as of late, specifically because the rigidity leads to easier computer usage to me.

I'd hesitate to lump all apple fans around the few vocal ones. The vast majority of people that like apple don't push a cult of "it just works". Most people I know just recognize a computer as a computer, not an identity.

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

#543

Post by divan »

I switched from Linux to MacOS around 14 years ago.

With Linux it's not only that I could change everything (system font, acceleration of the mouse pointer etc), but I literally HAD to do it. First days after buying new laptop and installing Linux I had to spend of configuring everything – from mouse pointers to Google calendar integration, often with obscure command line or config setups.

That was fun.

Until I bought first Macbook Air and discovered that I don't need to reconfigure everything anymore. Touchpad had just perfect speed/acceleration of the pointer. Mail/calendar/contacts was syncing out of the box. Fonts were awesome. Screens and external montiors just worked. Wifi just worked. Hybernation/sleep just worked.

So this is true on Linux you can configure way more than on MacOS. But the reason behind it is what keeping me with Macbooks all these years.

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

#544

Post by kcplate »

The nice thing about this post is that it seemed to stay away from the standard “Macs suck because they don’t do this…” start a flame war vibe that a lot of these types of commentary’s delve into. The author specifically said:

> This is how I like to use my computer. And it is clear that the MacBook isn't my computer - it is Apple's.

For me its the old adage - I can hammer a nail into a piece of wood with a screwdriver, but a hammer might do the job a lot better. If your company is providing you a screwdriver to use as a hammer, thats a problem.

I kind of wish tech would operate more like the trades—where the tradespeople provide/manage their own toolbox and tools. BYOD has its benefits. Its unfortunately that a lot of companies tend to disallow it.

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

#545

Post by sircastor »

rich_sasha wrote: post #196
bodge5000 wrote: post #159

Seems like the obvious tradeoffs you'd expect, mostly lack of control/ability to change things, which I'd expect of MacOS. In return you get stability, Apples locked down approach means the OS is far more predictable. Linux in my view takes the reverse approach, you lose stability relative to MacOS in exchange for complete control. Historically Windows has sat somewhere in the middle, though in recent years with all…

My personal laptop is a mac os, and agree with some of the criticism. However, stability-wise, it has been rock-solid. I also manage my own Ubuntu desktop for work, and had to reinstall the system 3 times from scratch because it magically stopped working. In the end it turned out to be something with a new kernel, but it took me, dunno, 2 days to debug.

I've had work machines running stock Ubuntu, getting Canonical recommended updates totally fail to boot. Cue a day or so of trying to read instructions on my phone on how to roll-back the kernel, or simply reinstall Ubuntu over the existing installation so I could just get back to work.

It's the reason I didn't move to Linux at home when Mac laptops were getting so awful a few years ago.

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

#546

Post by weakfish »

sylens wrote: post #306

I'm always amazed at how many little third party utilities or programs people recommend downloading or buying just to bring the desktop experience on macOS up to parity with Linux (or even Windows!). The lack of snapping/tiling at this point is just a deliberately malicious decision. I can't fathom why they will not implement some version of this better than that half-hearted split screen view that requires a separat…

Well I think it’s mostly because Linux users tend to not realize it’s an entirely different paradigm. Someone once put it roughly to me as Linux and windows being window focused, macos bring application focused

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

#547

Post by caycep »

andrewjf wrote: post #524
dahfizz wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mouse acceleration curve on Mac drives me insane. There is a way to set it to "0" with some command line incantation, but it still does not set it to 0. Also, the fact that I can't independently control the scroll direction of mice and trackpads is insane to me. The whole selling point of Apple is that "it just works" , but I can't even get my mouse working properly! That's like the lowest bar for an OS.

> The whole selling point of Apple is that "it just works" It does (generally) just work! However, it works they way they want you to use it. That's fine for me and I usually am happy to adapt. It doesn't mean infinitely configurable.

it sort of reminds me of an interview someone did w/ a farmer's market vendor of gourmet jams/jellies....when they had a spread of 29-30 jams, no one bought any because it was too intimidating/confusion/bred indecision or whatever

They changed their lineup to 6 jams and sales went thru the roofff

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

#549

Post by collin128 »

dahfizz wrote: post #487
larrik wrote: post #467

I switched from Linux Mint desktop to an M1 Air last year. Performance-wise, the M1 is very impressive, probably feels about 80% as fast as my 6 year old desktop (that sounds like snark, but it isn't). Meanwhile, the battery life is insane (I've never brought the charger anywhere but my desk, and will often use it for a week out and about). I opted for the Magic Keyboard and Magic Touchpad, because I had a lot of tro…

The mouse acceleration curve on Mac drives me insane. There is a way to set it to "0" with some command line incantation, but it still does not set it to 0. Also, the fact that I can't independently control the scroll direction of mice and trackpads is insane to me. The whole selling point of Apple is that "it just works" , but I can't even get my mouse working properly! That's like the lowest bar for an OS.

Hated that I couldn't flip scroll direction because I wanted the trackpad to be natural and mouse to be inverted. Found this: https://pilotmoon.com/scrollreverser/

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

#550

Post by kcplate »

divan wrote: post #543

I switched from Linux to MacOS around 14 years ago. With Linux it's not only that I could change everything (system font, acceleration of the mouse pointer etc), but I literally HAD to do it. First days after buying new laptop and installing Linux I had to spend of configuring everything – from mouse pointers to Google calendar integration, often with obscure command line or config setups. That was fun. Until I bough…

Similar experience here. My macos (actually pretty much all my apple devices just work). Could it be better? Sure, in some cases…but does it work well enough…definitely.

I watch other folks spend hours and days tweaking up a new machine. For me, I could swap out my Mac in less than an hour and likely have an identical user experience. That to me has more value than hyper levels of control.

Post reply on HN