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I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

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Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#81

Post by mmcnl »

grumpyprole wrote: post #75
mmcnl wrote: post #69

I don't really understand the comparison with a cheap Asus laptop. Ofcourse the MBP will win. But a decent Lenovo ThinkPad or HP EliteBook/ZBook will have flawless Linux support with a rigid and robust chassis.

The vast majority of which unfortunately still come with Intel processors, especially the premium models. I handed my work issued Lenovo X1 back to my employer as being unusable due to overheating and excessive thermal throttling. The M4 Macbook Pro I now have is such a huge positive difference, I have adjusted to macOS and enjoy Intel outside.

X1 is Intel only, but the new Lunar Lake is quiet and cool. And T14(s) comes with AMD. Mac hardware still is #1, but kernel panics because holding it wrong is definitely not normal.

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#82

Post by anta40 »

jasoneckert wrote: post #11

For the same reasons, I prefer Linux - but also like Apple Silicon platform. As a result, I use Fedora Asahi Remix natively on the hardware. It's a few generations behind in support (M1- and M2-based systems right now), but I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to use Linux natively on Apple Silicon hardware. In my workflow, Fedora Asahi Remix runs at least twice as fast as macOS on the same hardware for any…

Hmm what about Debian? https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Apple/M1

I still have to use macOS for mobile app development, but definitly want to use Linux on M2.

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#83

Post by disintegrator »

I know this won’t apply to everyone but I’ve been able to, relatively successfully, stick to the constraint that most of my dev tools are static binaries: zoxide, fzf, eza, btop and so on. There is one glaring exception which is docker but I let it pass.

By sticking to this I’m able to avoid Homebrew’s mess and Nix’s complexity. I use mise (https://mise.jdx.dev/) to manage the binaries and languages I have on my machine. It handles installing multiple versions and is directory-aware.

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#84

Post by [deleted] »

mmcnl wrote: post #71
qudat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just run an OS in a VM and full screen it?

Because it's very cumbersome. Managing with multiple audio devices and displays must be done in the host OS. Keyboard shortcuts might not work correctly. Gestures might not work correctly. Suspending and resuming is a pain, basically need to login twice. It's a lot of friction.

[deleted]

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#85

Post by jasoneckert »

sangeeth96 wrote: post #60
jasoneckert wrote: post #11

For the same reasons, I prefer Linux - but also like Apple Silicon platform. As a result, I use Fedora Asahi Remix natively on the hardware. It's a few generations behind in support (M1- and M2-based systems right now), but I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to use Linux natively on Apple Silicon hardware. In my workflow, Fedora Asahi Remix runs at least twice as fast as macOS on the same hardware for any…

Curious, what kind of tasks are these where you see a big uplift? Anything to do with containerization?

Yes - it's a developer workstation and I run a few different staging environments on it, including a K3s cluster and a big FreeBSD VM - both of which are lightening fast. But what always surprises me is how fast it is at compiling anything.

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#86

Post by jasoneckert »

mmcnl wrote: post #72
jasoneckert wrote: post #11

For the same reasons, I prefer Linux - but also like Apple Silicon platform. As a result, I use Fedora Asahi Remix natively on the hardware. It's a few generations behind in support (M1- and M2-based systems right now), but I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to use Linux natively on Apple Silicon hardware. In my workflow, Fedora Asahi Remix runs at least twice as fast as macOS on the same hardware for any…

It's a few years behind is true, but the gap keeps widening. DP Alt Mode isn't supported. M3 and M4 support might never happen. It doesn't seem like a viable long-term alternative to be honest.

The gap is widening largely because the maintainer left the project due to the Linux kernel rust drama. But there is still plenty of very talented contributors who have taken over. That, combined with a rapidly growing interest to run Linux on Apple Silicon instead of macOS, will likely result in faster development over the next few years.

But for me, the long term momentum of new platforms as they release doesn't matter - what IS supported is excellent (including the brilliant GPU driver).

My Mac Studio M1 Ultra runs Fedora Asahi Remix perfectly with full support and is exactly what I need. So those who are looking for a fast Apple Silicon system that can run Linux natively will save $$ and buy a used M1/M2 from Apple or otherwise.

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#87

Post by nocab »

OJFord wrote: post #70
dbalatero wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nix completely broke on my security locked down work laptop, so I had to revert to symlinks, bash, and brew.

Nix-Darwin completely broke on my not at all locked down fresh out of the box from Apple work Mac, refusing to uninstall itself even, so I had to wipe and reinstall macOS. (It was a new machine, so it wasn't a huge deal, but I'd really wanted it to work.)

for future reference you should really consider installing it with the determinate nix installer [0] instead. it's multi-platform and among other things creates an install receipt so that changes can be painlessly reverted.

[0] https://determinate.systems/nix-installer/

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#88

Post by zuhsetaqi »

seec wrote: post #56

It's interesting and all but in typical "Apple switcher" fashion, a preposterous comparison is/will be made: the M4 Pro MBP is around 3K€, replacing a laptop that seems to go for around 1K€ at best. When something costs 3 times as much, it should be better. It's a bit like comparing an entry level Ford to an S class Mercedes. I think the best "feature" of Apple computers is that it prevents cheapskates from making ba…

Well a 1k MacBook Air has the same build quality as the 3k MacBook Pro. It just has less performance. I have a HP ZBook from work and for 3k you don’t get the build quality of a 1k MacBook Air.

In my experience when you only compare on build quality of laptops there’s nothing that’s on the level of current MacBooks.

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#89

Post by eviks »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #61
skydhash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one issue I had was creating a new admin user for a client project (so I can just package everything created for that client neatly) and then immediately run into permissions issue. After that, I installed macports and never looked back (other than checking formula for installation guidance for some package).

When I used to daily drive a mac, I had Macports since day one, with no issue I can remember. This lasted for some 14 years, out of which 8 were on the same machine. Whenever this kind of discussion comes up around these parts, you can bet on there being a bunch of people complaining about Brew, but Macports basically never comes up. So I have to wonder: why does everyone use Brew? Does it have features or other adva…

> Whenever this kind of discussion comes up around these parts, you can bet on there being a bunch of people complaining about Brew, but Macports basically never comes up.

Macports comes up all the time, just like you've mentioned it here. It has a few user friendly benefits (no sudo, more up-to-date apps, better gui clients, slightly easier to add custom package, etc), but in general hard to say exactly why one app wins

Re: I Used Arch, BTW: macOS, Day 1

#90

Post by OJFord »

nocab wrote: post #87
OJFord wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nix-Darwin completely broke on my not at all locked down fresh out of the box from Apple work Mac, refusing to uninstall itself even, so I had to wipe and reinstall macOS. (It was a new machine, so it wasn't a huge deal, but I'd really wanted it to work.)

for future reference you should really consider installing it with the determinate nix installer [0] instead. it's multi-platform and among other things creates an install receipt so that changes can be painlessly reverted. [0] https://determinate.systems/nix-installer/

Fairly sure that is what I used, though I remember being confused about whether Determinate Systems was the legit way, or super opinionated not necessarily most supported way, which was going to be least friction/widest adoption, etc.
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