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Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

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141–150 of 531 posts

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#141

My primary professional OS progression went something like: Slackware -> Debian -> Ubuntu -> OS X. As with the author, I'm pretty sure I'm done with OS X. If I want to go back to Linux, what is the best path? Mint? Back to Ubuntu? Something new?

I was a big fan of Mint for a while, but baseline Ubuntu gives you so much flexibility to just choose a DE (or lack thereof), including Cinnamon if you want, that I don't see the point in using the altbuntus anymore. Just install the DE you want and switch it in the login screen.

You might be sacrificing running the bleeding edge of that particular environment, but instead you get kept more up to date on basically everything else (not that the others lag that much, but you're probably waiting a little longer for the next point release at the very least).

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#142

I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure do resonate. Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things, shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be, for no other reason than, "Beauty.…

I bought a linux laptop from System76 early this year, and aside from a fiddly trackpad, everything just works. I've seen a lot of people say the same about thinkpads.

Thinkpads have pretty much worked on Linux, for me.

Overall, Linux is great these days if you have compatible hardware. A random Windows laptop might be a problem, but a Thinkpad or a System76 or such should all be fine.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#143
After experiencing the awesomeness that is Continuity and Handoff, I wouldn't give up OSX for Windows/Linux. I do agree with some of his points about instability especially for .0 releases, better wait after a few patches before upgrading.

I do disagree about Yosemite's installation time, coincidentally I just updated my wife's 2011 MBA last night and it took around 40 mins. The funny thing is once Yosemite was installed everything works as expected, the only setup that I needed to do was relogin her Apple account.

Using Linux as your desktop entails doing a lot more setup and configuration, and it's very tedious to constantly searching for solutions to functionality that should've worked right out of the box.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#144
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…

There's the Dell Sputnik series.[1] They are pricey but specifically designed to run Ubuntu. 1. http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd.aspx

I know someone that went from a Macbook Pro to one of these. He's been incredibly happy with it, and described the "just works" factor as being in the same range as his old Pro.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#145

I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure do resonate. Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things, shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be, for no other reason than, "Beauty.…

I believe the term they use is "buttery".

I'm with you on moving back to Linux, having sufficient experience with both I'm loathe to move back for both hardware and software envrionment frustrations. I do have hope that things will get better on that side of the fence, but OSX would have to become pretty terrible for me to do that anytime soon (though they seem to really be pushing their luck lately).

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#146
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sorry for being clueless, but how do you access the answers?

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#147
This is a rather pointless debate but I have to agree that OSX is getting too "consumer" for this audience. I have a Thinkpad and it runs Linux great. A lot of the problems people here refer to are really where they should be on a consumer operating system. I've noticed this over recent years, hiring new intake from the top schools every year has seen a change. When I ask them what they want for their development machine. It used to be Macs with a sprinkling of Linux/Thinkpad but now I see most going for Windows 7. Since all of our software is linux based the client machine only needs to be able to run ssh sessions but it's interesting how many hard core developers want consumer operating systems. I'd not dream of doing work anything other than a Unix system, but maybe that's just because I've grown up with it. Starting out with HP-UX on HP-9000 machines, Apollo, Next, NetBSD, Netware, etc etc. When my machine doesn't work the way I want it I generally know how to fix it on Linux. For the majority of people using a consumer operating system that has nice gui tools for changing things is usually better unless you know what you're doing.

Coming back to ditching OSX, the recent Chrome/Netflix ability has made a big difference for me. That was the one last thing that was a pain, it was always possibly, but not always very reliable and a little tedious, but now there's nothing left (besides of course Photoshop) that doesn't run on Linux. It's really less about the operating system and more about what you want to run, if it's games then windows, if it's designer/photographer then OSX, if it's nerd (git/gcc/python etc) then it's linux.

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#149

I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure do resonate. Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things, shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be, for no other reason than, "Beauty.…

Why do people update OS X? Just curious. If it works how you like, why update it? Security flaws are probably the main reason, but isn't there a way to get those without acquiescing to an OS redesign?

Re: Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak

#150
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... unfortunately the state of Linux on laptops makes the all-too-common case of _repurposing_ a laptop incredibly painful. :/ ... unless you think ahead and only buy (and recommend) Thinkpads.

Very specific Chromebooks fit the bill as well. One that works particularly well is the Acer C720. Edit: wanted to clarify that this C720 is my current personal portable. My other is a custom built desktop also running Ubuntu.

Since I can't reply to 'aaron-lebo" in the app I'm using:

I'm running Ubuntu and a set of kernel modules I can link later but they are the very same that were then altered for Arch ( which I also tried but had some problems with ). These have carried me from 13.04-14.04 and I'm hoping the 3.17 kernel will be included soon because these components are built right into that kernel version AFAIK.

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