Live data from Hacker News

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

shkspr.mobi

711–720 of 740 posts

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

#711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are these people? I absolutely hate fullscreen in macOS and literally only use it for fullscreen videos and the like. What part of the window doesn't work well?

Snapping/alignment, gesture. The alignment, it don't even support snapping, place two windows side by side properly is just like impossible, and the + on window go fullscreen unless you hold opt. You can't just swipe to switch between window. You can only swipe between desktop. I'd wonder which part in mac's window manager actually works well (compares to other desktop manager)?

Swiping up with 4 fingers will display all windows for you to select the one you want. Then CMD+TAB or CMD+` if you want to cycle.

Like macOS by default might not be exactly fitting for everyone, but surely it works well enough for 99.999% of the population.

And coming from Linux users who love customizability... I mean there are multiple ways to make it work exactly as you want. I have snapping, and multiple gestures to position and resize exactly to my liking, through BetterTouchTool. And I am a very light user.

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

#712
post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used a total of three external monitors with the original m1, via a displaylink hub. Saying "m1 does not support it" is not accurate. Its not like a amd 3950x supports any external monitors, does it?..

If you want to be pedantic... The Apple m1 is an SoC, not a CPU. It is not comparable to an AMD 3950X. It is perfectly reasonable to talk about the display capabilities of an SoC, because the GPU and display controllers are built into the SoC. Apple themselves markets the macbook air as supporting: > One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz[1] And yes, I'm aware of the display link hacks. This works by e…

[deleted]

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

#713
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.

The acceleration seems to scale with the mouse sensitivity setting. With the setting at 0 there is very little or no acceleration. You'd need a mouse with adjustable dpi setting to use it like that though.

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

#714
post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MTP is used by basically every single Android phone and tablet. It's also used by some other devices like MP3 players. Because of the first point it's actually extremely widespread...

and garmin watches (wonder if they have android beneath the covers?)

Garmin watches apparently are Linux-based but with Qt UI. It doesn't look like they directly use Android/WearOS (or the SDK would be Java or a compatible language), but likely they re-use many of the same lower level Linux features.

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

#715
post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used a total of three external monitors with the original m1, via a displaylink hub. Saying "m1 does not support it" is not accurate. Its not like a amd 3950x supports any external monitors, does it?..

If you want to be pedantic... The Apple m1 is an SoC, not a CPU. It is not comparable to an AMD 3950X. It is perfectly reasonable to talk about the display capabilities of an SoC, because the GPU and display controllers are built into the SoC. Apple themselves markets the macbook air as supporting: > One external display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz[1] And yes, I'm aware of the display link hacks. This works by e…

Displaylink is not a hack. Its commercially supported. You buy a displaylink hub, you can pick up the phone and they will sort out your problems. The same tech is used, for years, to provide multimonitor support for laptops in corporate offices. This was always the surest way to allow all sorts of dell, lenovo and apple laptops to work with multimonitor setups. Its not without flaws, but it does work. Saying "m1 does not support more than one ext monitor" is misleading; it sure does, with the extra (and not necessairly cheap) accessory.

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

#716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a toy yes, or as a specialised tool for video or audio rendering I think this is a useful framing. Apple markets an appliance like a microwave or a refrigerator — both of those are computers in a sense but function only in a specific narrow capacity. You can warm a potato (if it’s in one location and the door is closed), but you can’t move arbitrary bytes around regardless of the capacity of the underlying hardw…

I'm willing to accept your argument that a Mac is not a general purpose computer. It then begs the question of why these devices are so popular for software development...?

I think it’s more of a trajectory than the current state of the world to be quite honest, but if you’ll engage with my more conspiratorial speculations — you can imagine software development would have to be one of the last activities to be subject to severe tool restriction out of the box.

I think a lot of this will happen under the goal of unifying the laptop and phone/tablet experience.

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

#718
post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being able to wait for files to copy and work Finder at the same time. What?

Exactly what I posted. I have no idea why, but while I wait to copy somethign to USB stick Finder show that copy popup and dont let me do anything else.

I don't think I've ever seen that happen.

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

#719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have the skills or knowledge, I just want working snapping without affecting anything else negatively. Maybe I should have bugged my dev friend who did the digging to submit a bug report, but I didn't think of that at the time.

If you have had the skills to write this comment, you have the skills to submit a bug report. Rectangle has a simple bug report template, and maintainers would probably guide you if you'd have trouble providing the requested information. macOS version: Rectangle version: Logs if applicable (In Rectangle menu, hold option, "View Logging..."): Maintainers are used to receiving barely understandable bug reports written…

People talk about free software but to me there’s the cost of time that’s often overlooked. Submitting bug reports is one way to help “pay” for your “free” software. Sometimes there are usability or productivity or compatibility costs as well, all costing time. But we owe it to the developers and maintainers to put in that work in exchange for all they’ve done.

Paying $8 is also valid, but I wouldn’t complain about it. It’s just the cost you choose to pay to get what you want.

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

#720

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…

What about security, when installing "countless" of apps for minor things Do you trust Apple's app review

For me it’s less about app review trust and more certificate revocation trust. Devs aren’t in the clear just because they get past the app review.

But in general, yes, I trust apps from the App Store. I haven’t had a reason not to.

Post reply on HN