In other words, yet another frustrated Mac user converted to Linux.
I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
141–150 of 354 posts
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#142This has to be the most ergonomically inefficient set-up ever! I also cannot fathom how to work with 21" at least). And a tiling window manager. And a decent mechanical keyboard... ok ok.. Interesting setup. I'd be interested in knowing how it works out in the long term.
A tiling window manager can definitely be a huge productivity booster. Perhaps even more than adding an extra display, which is often said to be the cheapest way to improve productivity. A tiling WM costs nothing. I've even started working comfortably using just one display now that I've changed to using a tiling WM. With a floating wm, I needed at least two large displays to work comfortably. Lots of that screen are…
""Perhaps even more than adding an extra display, which is often said to be the cheapest way to improve productivity.""
And which can also be a way to decrease productivity, with distractions etc. I am more productive on a smaller screen laptop than I am on a 2 screen set or even one larger (21, 27") screen. Mainly because it helps to focus on the task at hand.
We also didn't have 2 large monitors to each workstation back in the day, and somehow we did fine. Spoiled much?
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#143For anyone still using gnu screen, tmux.
Looked at it; didn't see any compelling reasons to switch; went back to screen. Screen is for the most part "good enough" that any replacement that aims to supplant it completely needs to either be vastly and obviously superior or enough of a drop in replacement that it doesn't require any effort to switch (I'm most definitively not investing time updating config files or changing key presses unless the improvements…
shrug Maybe. It's all about what's valuable to you.
I switched to tmux because it is better maintained and it has better screen splitting functionality. I also mapped screens commands over to tmux, so the switch was basically painless. Took all of 15 minutes.
If you're cool with screen, you're cool with screen. No worries.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#144The last time I tried to use SSH under iOS with the Apple bluetooth keyboard (trying different SSH apps including iSSH and TouchTerm) I found that I could not comfortably use Emacs due to various key combinations not being transmitted (I guess Vim isn't as much of a problem). One of the SSH app developers said that they were not able to trap certain keystrokes that were iOS keyboard shortcuts. Looks like this may sti…
I'm on wifi, there's rarely noticeable latency, even on full screen updates.
Ctrl-a and friends still don't work properly. However, iSSH has an option that lets you use the option key instead, and for me that did work just fine, but escape didn't.
Now in version 5.x escape and ctrl work for everything except the most common emacs key bindings, and option-A doesn't any more.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is true, but I'd be sacrificing the silence, the portability and the battery life. And the hipster factor, I guess. 102x768 isn't for everyone, but in text-mode it's all the same. I've no idea how many hours I've spent on a huge high-res monitor staring at a relatively tiny terminal window surrounded by a pretty desktop picture.
I see your point, but still, battery life/silence/portability doesn't seem to be worth the flexibility of having full osx esp when compared to an Air
Don't overlook the cost difference as well, the iPad2 is half the price of even the base MacBook Air and if you include the cost of the keyboard you still have a couple hundred bucks left over.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is really true. Back then we were still using CVS, and I was writing a feature that I thought wasn't quite big enough to branch and remerge for, but turned out to be a bit more involved to get right than I'd thought. Now we're on Mercurial and life is better. Edit: A nice win with the Linode is that they back it up for me for $5 a month. Sure, there are solutions for the desktop too, but somehow I never got arou…
I would observe that with DVCS, if your hard drive crashes you can still lose several days of un pushed code, too. I recommend and use cron jobs to push and/or rysnc things around on a more frequent basis for my really important stuff.
We keep our main repository in under dev/$PROJECT and backup repositories under user/$USERNAME/$PROJECT. Then we set a post-commit hook to push to the backup server on commit. Setting up the backup and creating the hook is done by a shell script you run after cloning.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#147$800 gets you a pretty nice laptop. I don't see the advantage of this approach at all.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#148You could actually do the same thing WITH a Macbook Air/Pro. The beauty of a cloud linux instance + gnu screen isnt limited to the ipad and so you could still have a bigger screen and the possibility to go back to GUI apps if you need them. I like this for travelling on the go, but spending my normal workday in 1024 resolution ? Naaa.
One thing I did pick up on that could be _very_ attractive is the idea that you would use the same apps on the iphone and ipad so you can take your desk with you on your phone in a way that you can never do with apps that you run on your laptop.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm talking about the time between keystrokes and visual response. To make the switch-over even easier, rebind to C-a instead of the (sensible) tmux default of C-b. Put this into your ~/.tmux.conf: set -g prefix C-a unbind C-b bind C-a send-prefix bind-key C-a last-window
Neither are sensible for anyone who uses Emacs keybindings (at the shell or in Emacs). I have my prefix key set to C-t, which is tolerable.
But C-t is a useful Emacs keybinding. I use C-z. Pressing C-z z when you want to suspend the running app is not particularly disruptive.
Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode
#150I dream of the day when I would be able to work completely remote. Much like using a VNC now to connect to server and do the work.
Unfortunately.. the internet connection is not good enough for anything like that, and VNC is sub-optimal for this kind of things.
Imagine being able to work remotely, being able to "rent" a couple of more virtual processor when you need to compile something bigger, having as much RAM available as you need and paying only for what you use, and most of all, having the security that all your data is safely backed up with a 1-second delay at most. Virtually unlimited bandwidth (again, pay for what you use), as all the other resources. Just imagine ...