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

shkspr.mobi

661–670 of 740 posts

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

#661
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…

On Mac: * Press cmd + option + S * Press space bar * Spotify opens and plays or * Press cmd + option + spacebar (opens terminal) * `sp` (my spotify cli alias) * Spotify opens and plays Custom hot keys are easy in MacOS settings menu. Even easier is the free app Hotkey! https://codenuts.de/en/posts/hotkey/

It seems like an oversight to have a physical backlit button with play/pause icons on it taking up space on the mac keyboard that can't be generally used to play/pause applications.

It's like making TVs you can install arbitrary applications on, but shipping them with remotes with branded buttons to open one or two specific preinstalled applications.

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

#662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Also, the fact that everything I want to tweak requires buying an app? I find this is often the case with MacOS, sometimes with open alternatives available. I wanted windows/linux like window snapping and found a free solution called Rectangle[0], but discovered however they do it was causing mouse lag in games. Apple dev friend investigated into it with logs from my machine and discovered they are "just not doing i…

>Also, the fact that everything I want to tweak requires buying an app? Like three finger (middle click) on the touchpad ... Apple just can't do it ... Linux sorted it for multiple manufacture's touchpads years ago.

Tap with three fingers does the spotlight quick lookup of what’s under the cursor by default. On a machine from 2012 and an OS from 2018.

I’m not certain but I think if you turn it off, bettertouchtool would let you make it do something (anything!) else you wanted.

Edit: I think I misread your “Apple cant do it” meaning physically, while you probably meant exposing a setting without using (paid) third party apps

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

#663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll start with things that I'm happy to have in mac that didn't have in Linux :) - Cannot run a bunch of programs that stay on the topbar, like LINE ( https://line.me/en/ ), Kap ( https://getkap.co/ ), etc. I am a fairly heavy user of Kap and I love the interface, so this is probably the biggest differentiator for me. I can use Gimp, Inkscape, etc. on Mac so this is not really reversible. - The visual quality of the…

"A program doent work on another OS" isn't really a fair complaint. If you need a screen recorder widget that can be done. The visual quality of a well-themed KDE or similar DE is imo above and beyond anything macOS can do. In 2022, booting a new OS update is not a problem that exists anymore on Linux. If you use a rolling release, you don't even need to worry about major updates, they're not a thing. Meanwhile, upda…

I'm not complaining, I'm listing things that I'm happy to have in mac that I don't have in Linux, so def fair to list a specific program that is mac-only.

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

#664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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

My secret to happiness on a Mac: focus your energy on figuring out how the designers want you to use a tool. Don't fight the design, work with it. Don't change the defaults, live with them. Some folks love to fiddle with settings and tweak configs to get everything just right... but this is a recipe for disappointment when an upgrade removes the secret config you found or hard-codes a setting that was previously avai…

Some of the defaults are just plain bad and assume you never want or need to use another computer. The scroll wheel thing is particularly bad. Like imagine if Apple decided all their laptops now were going to come with Dvorak keyboards instead of Qwerty. "Sorry Gram, I need to change your keyboard layout before I can solve your computer problem".

Don't mess with users' muscle memories for your design for literally no gain. That's bad design.

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

#665
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…

> On Mac: > * Open Spotify > * Press play button on keyboard > * Apple Music opens ?????? I just tried these steps. Spotify plays.

If I have Spotify open, then Spotify plays. If I don't have it open, then Apple Music starts up instead.

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

#666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soundsource for HDMI audio control, Steermouse for fine grained mouse settings - including acceleration - and Blackhole for recording system audio.

Yeah I use Steermouse (not free). Haven't tried Soundsource (not free again!).

Should this functionality be included in the OS itself? Sure. Is it a big problem? Not really.

Every OS has its quirks, doesn’t take more than hour to smooth the rough edges off a new machine if you’re comfortable with the ecosystem. You have to do the same on Ubuntu or Win10 or Pop.

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

#667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On Mac: > * Open Spotify > * Press play button on keyboard > * Apple Music opens ?????? I just tried these steps. Spotify plays.

If I have Spotify open, then Spotify plays. If I don't have it open, then Apple Music starts up instead.

Try out BeardedSpice[0] which handles the media keys

[0] https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice || brew install —cask beardedspice

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

#668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Mac: * Press cmd + option + S * Press space bar * Spotify opens and plays or * Press cmd + option + spacebar (opens terminal) * `sp` (my spotify cli alias) * Spotify opens and plays Custom hot keys are easy in MacOS settings menu. Even easier is the free app Hotkey! https://codenuts.de/en/posts/hotkey/

It seems like an oversight to have a physical backlit button with play/pause icons on it taking up space on the mac keyboard that can't be generally used to play/pause applications. It's like making TVs you can install arbitrary applications on, but shipping them with remotes with branded buttons to open one or two specific preinstalled applications.

I just tested this with the most bizarre app I could think to open at the moment. Play/pause works as expected on Plex HTPC app

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

#669
post #538
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…

> and macOS has good MS Office support. This. I get the M1 must be very good but what I really want is something I doubt I'm going to get: native Office support in Linux. I use Office rarely but on those rare occasions it sucks to use Office 365.

Depending on your needs I find older Office versions play pretty well in Wine. 2007 is insanely easy to install and 2010 isn't too bad with PlayOnLinux or Crossover. Word, Excel and PP work very well although as you get outside those it's less good.

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

#670
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.

I recently tried https://linearmouse.org/ and it seemed to offer both acceleration and sensitivity settings for mice.
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