Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux has better hardware support than OS X

devblog.avdi.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–218 of 218 posts

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#211

Post by bdcravens »

vacri wrote: post #175
bdcravens wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that the trackpad on MBP's and Airs is the best anywhere. Every other computer I've ever used resulted in funky stray swipes, sometimes even when I hit a key near the trackpad. (Haven't tried a Dell Precision's, and I haven't had a Trackpad since the IBM days) I believe the X1, which Avdi referenced, maxed at 8GB? (same as Air) The W series of course can have crazy hardware in it, but it's quite the anomaly…

I have a personal issue with the mac trackpad - clickable at the bottom and only the bottom? I understand it's their historical thing and not a genuine issue, but it always throws me as an odd thing to do.

Interestingly enough, the Magic Trackpad (larger Bluetooth version) is clickable on the entire surface.

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#212

Post by jfarmer »

logicallee wrote: post #170
jfarmer wrote: post #68

This is silly. Although I'm sure it's gotten much better since I regularly used Linux on the desktop, you always had to do some amount of due diligence about what hardware worked well with it and what hardware didn't. For example, because I use OS X, I can go to any store, purchase my choice of Lexmark printer, and be on my merry way with a minimal amount of checking. The fact that I have to know that there's a "refe…

To be fair, by that argument it's even better to use Windows.

Only if that's the only dimension you care about. It's one dimension and it's an important dimension (for me). More important than that (for me) is "it should be Unix-like and I should have easy access to a typical Unix toolchain."

My experience is that for the last 5 years OS X and Windows are in roughly the same ballpark in terms of how much I have to think about non-software issues, although Windows is better in that dimension, as you say. Linux is not really in the same ballpark, or at best it's way out in the nosebleed section.

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#213

Post by kryten »

vacri wrote: post #202
kryten wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screwing up the documents is usually a human issue. That crap on your disk is probably system restore, swap file and hibernation file. You can delete the system restore checkpoints easily. The rest you have to live with. Windows 8: install start8. Problem solved.

The crap on my disk may be restore points. There's no hibernation file - that's off (it's only necessary if you hibernate; you don't have to live with it) How does start8 stop pdfs from fullscreening or older software from failing to install? Isn't it just a start menu replacement? I didn't have a problem with that. I had a problem with opening a pdf from the desktop, then win8 forcing me into fullscreen view - I cou…

Metro will never launch with start8 enabled.

Install adobe reader on the machine and it will open pdfs on the desktop only as well even if they are launched from metro.

Right click something that doesn't work or install on windows 8, go to properties, compatibility and select windows 7. Then run it again. It will work as before, unlike every other vendor out there.

Hell it'll even run 32-bit stuff I compiled for NT4 on Visual C++ 4.2 with dynamic linking in 1997 without a problem! Cant really fault that since the same era Linux binaries or Solaris binaries won't work from back then.

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#214

Post by vacri »

kryten wrote: post #213
vacri wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crap on my disk may be restore points. There's no hibernation file - that's off (it's only necessary if you hibernate; you don't have to live with it) How does start8 stop pdfs from fullscreening or older software from failing to install? Isn't it just a start menu replacement? I didn't have a problem with that. I had a problem with opening a pdf from the desktop, then win8 forcing me into fullscreen view - I cou…

Metro will never launch with start8 enabled. Install adobe reader on the machine and it will open pdfs on the desktop only as well even if they are launched from metro. Right click something that doesn't work or install on windows 8, go to properties, compatibility and select windows 7. Then run it again. It will work as before, unlike every other vendor out there. Hell it'll even run 32-bit stuff I compiled for NT4…

Fair enough on start8, but I will note that compatibility mode didn't work - that's the first thing I went for. I've always found compatability mode to be spotty - probably about half/half in terms of success.

As for linux binaries, I have a sysadmin friend that boasts that some stuff he wrote in '95 works without a hitch on modern linux, so it's not a cut-and-dried affair there either.

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#215

Post by sbuk »

m0skit0 wrote: post #187
shurcooL wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're solving the exact same problem: to provide a good computing experience. Now, how they go about solving that same problem is radically different. Windows and Linux tries to support as much hardware as possible and be general. OS X tries to limit scope to own MacBook hardware only, and benefit from the advantages of that approach as much as it can (clearly, it has some disadvantages it suffers from too). I'…

Actually Apple doesn't make the hardware anymore, it relies on external companies to do so.

Much like most of the other hardware manufacturers out there.

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#216

Post by ewzimm »

kryten wrote: post #32
ewzimm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Printing on Windows is so bad that people are employed just to fix it. Office crashes a lot and has compatibility issues with certain formats, and I often just direct people to LibreOffice, which in every case has fixed the problem and run smoothly. Any minor Windows system problem usually results in sending the machine to be re-imaged. If you're on Windows 8, a lot of old stuff simply doesn't work, and in the absenc…

I call bullshit. I've worked for a couple of printing outfits and Windows has by far been the most reliable bar some big ass Xerox machines with PostScript processing and a Sun workstation tied to it. Fuck, the most unreliable so far has been the PDF rendering engine inside OSX which sometimes just whacks the CPU at 100% and you have to kill the process. And don't give me the shitcrock of Ghostscript or CUPS as a bet…

I'm no fanboy; I'm just telling you what I see. I'm not the one in charge fixing all this stuff at my office, but our Windows printer setups end up being redone every few weeks when things inevitably stop working. System restore is hardly ever used by our IT guys, and machines are often sent back to be re-imaged. Maybe they're just doing it wrong, but I'm definitely not imagining the problems.

It's great to hear that you've had better luck, really. You would hate to see how many things I've seen gone wrong!

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#217

Post by driverdan »

eLobato wrote: post #69
driverdan wrote: post #21

Valid points but the author highlights one of the original reasons I switched from a ThinkPad running Linux to a MacBook. All high end Linux laptops have driver issues, including ThinkPads. Last thing I knew you still couldn't switch between discreet NVIDIA graphics and the Intel 4000 without a reboot. I've been told some laptops still have issues with sleep / hibernation. Maybe the Dell XPS 13 highlighted in the art…

I've had an Nvidia Optimus + Intel 4000 since Nov 2012 and I never had to reboot, just specify when I wanted to run a particular program with Nvidia (games), everything else would run by default with Intel. Everything worked out of the box, the only minor issue is that bluetooth audio connection with my jambox is sometimes lost, but i could never even get it to work with a Mac.

Good to know Bumblebee is finally working well.

Re: Linux has better hardware support than OS X

#218

Post by driverdan »

kryten wrote: post #157
mikegioia wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really find it hard to believe that Win7 on 7 year old hardware with Linux in a VM works better than just Linux on the same hardware. What on earth are you measuring this on?

Lenovo T61 7661. Dual Core 2 2.0, 4Gb RAM, Samsung 840 pro. 9 cell battery. It's better because even with powertop optimisations, Linux leaks energy out of the window everywhere. If you let Windows handle it with the Lenovo power manager, it's an order of magnitude better. Windows 7 x64 with reserved power scheme. 8h42m Debian 6.0 with powertop optimisation. 5h12m. Regarding virtual machines, Linux's virtualbox drive…

I used to have exactly the same laptop with a different SSD and the next size battery down. I got the same runtime in Win 7 and Ubuntu (whatever version was out in 2009).
Post reply on HN