Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#11

Post by ggreer » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:50 AM UTC

It's important to notice that he's switching to a desktop running linux. Running linux on laptops is still a gamble. Sometimes things work great. Sometimes you spend months trying to fix basic stuff like screen brightness[1][2] on hardware certified by Ubuntu.[3]

I think there's a market for a linux distro that targets a limited set of premium hardware. I'd gladly pay money for an OS that worked out of the box on any MacBook or Surface Pro made in the past two years.

Edit: Many people are replying with brands that work for them. I'm glad they've been lucky enough to avoid problems, but I am making a different point. On Macs, OS X is practically guaranteed to work out of the box. Wifi, bluetooth, trackpad, screen brightness, power management, hardware graphics acceleration, resume from suspend/hibernate, etc Just Works™. On Apple's hardware, users never have to worry about kernel flags or special drivers. The same is not true for any combination of laptop brand and linux distro. I truly wish it were otherwise.

1. http://fujii.github.io/2014/03/02/thinkpad-edge-e145-backlig...

2. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-installer/+b...

3. http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201309-14195/

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#12

Post by brandonmenc » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:50 AM UTC

I did this once. Biggest waste of time, ever.

Went from NetBSD to OS X in 2002, then to Linux in 2008, then back to OS X in 2011.

I spend almost all of my time in cross-platform apps, but the little inconveniences of Linux on a laptop just weren't worth the trouble back in 2011, and I'd be surprised if anything has changed since then.

OS X at its ugliest and least stable wipes the floor with Linux at its best, imo.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#13

Post by mikebelanger » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:50 AM UTC

I'm getting the same feeling lately with OS X. I think part of the feeling stems from other operating systems improving, thus making OS X not as attractive by comparison. I switched to OS X in 2007. At that point, Windows was a mess, and most Linux distros were hard to configure. OS X seemed like a breeze back then. Nowadays, Windows has improved a lot, and a lot of Linux distros have greatly improved their usability. OS X just doesn't stand out like it used to.

To top it off, Apple has shifted their focus from 'it just works' to 'buy a new iPhone/iPad for no reason'.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#14

Post by w1ntermute » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:51 AM UTC

quangv wrote: post #5

ZoF wrote: post #4

I feel like whenever I click on a Geoff Wozniak link it's because the domain is 'wozniak'. e.g. - I think it's Woz.

are they related?

According to this post[0] (which, incidentally is from a Steve Wozniak Slashdot "AMA" exactly 15 years ago - 2000/01/03[1]), they are not.

0: http://beta.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3230&cid=1410837

1: http://apple-beta.slashdot.org/story/00/01/03/1035237/interv...

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#15

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:51 AM UTC

ZoF wrote: post #4

I feel like whenever I click on a Geoff Wozniak link it's because the domain is 'wozniak'. e.g. - I think it's Woz.

[deleted]

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#16

Post by caryhartline » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:51 AM UTC

Um, okay? This is like being told why someone switched office chairs.

This only got to the top of Hacker News because of this guy's last name.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#17

Post by markrages » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:51 AM UTC

I made the same switch a year ago and I'm happier back in Linux.

It was the breakage of Spotlight-Preview integration that removed my last reason to stay on OS X.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#18

Post by mitchell209 » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:52 AM UTC

ZoF wrote: post #4

I feel like whenever I click on a Geoff Wozniak link it's because the domain is 'wozniak'. e.g. - I think it's Woz.

That's the main reason I clicked the link, honestly. "Woz quitting OS X? I wonder what he has to say about it."

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#19

Post by tunesmith » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:52 AM UTC

I'm getting more interested in dipping my toes back into linux laptops, partly for privacy and control reasons, and partly because I'm finding it more difficult to develop on OS X as I am more frequently using micro services and docker and virtualization. I haven't picked a platform yet though because I would like to see how "free" (libre) I can get for privacy/control reasons, and it's time-consuming to make the right choice - I see a couple Trisquel-related options including a 2006 Gluglug thinkpad (but it appears to be perpetually out of stock), and a "novena" (https://www.crowdsupply.com/kosagi/novena-open-laptop) but it looks like that will still have some non-free stuff in it.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#20

Post by kungfooguru » Sun, Jan 04, 2015, 2:52 AM UTC

ggreer wrote: post #11

It's important to notice that he's switching to a desktop running linux. Running linux on laptops is still a gamble. Sometimes things work great. Sometimes you spend months trying to fix basic stuff like screen brightness[1][2] on hardware certified by Ubuntu.[3] I think there's a market for a linux distro that targets a limited set of premium hardware. I'd gladly pay money for an OS that worked out of the box on any…

Thinkpads work great.