Mint has been my choice. I'm not 100% happy with it, but its the best I've found so far for a desktop experience.
Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
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Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#12Gnome3 is also nice http://i.imgur.com/8ZxohmT.png :)
[x] - I yet to have see terminal emulator shipped with ubuntu that doesn't wrap text
[x] - Gnome 3 has Alfred like search over files, apps, windows... also mutate (https://github.com/qdore/Mutate)
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#13Mint has been my choice. I'm not 100% happy with it, but its the best I've found so far for a desktop experience.
Edit: Even had a few Steam games transfer over, which was cool. I've had some issues with Java support, but most people wouldn't care about that, and fairly random, as in the Toolbar support. I don't particularly trust who owns the distro, and if someone pointed me at a better one, that is wholly open source, would change in a flash, but I've liked it so far.
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#14Unity isn't the only Dekstop in Ubuntu you have most if not all known WM & Desktop available. KDE is the prefered Desktop for its polish and lot settings, but never used it myself. I use GNOME3, it works. It has extensions written in JS and a two "Alfred" like GUI CLI (one with search and another without). emacs: you can probably import OS X version settings. iTerm2: I don't have that problem in gnome's terminal that…
with "emacs" OP refers to an OSX feature where every text field / input box in every app / dialog of the system supports the basic emacs bindings. So whether you're in Safari, Chrome, Numbers, Office, TextEdit, Photodesk, or any other app, the basic emacs movements commands always work (apparently the original NeXT hackers were big emacs fans). I'm running various Linux distributions in a VM from time to time, and th…
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-key-theme
"Emacs"
Yeah, the fact that there isn't UI for this basic pref says a lot about the relationship between desktop environments and "power users"...
(source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/181532/emacs-keybindings-in-u...)
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#15I have not had luck finding an equal to iTerm2 on Linux. While there are many to choose from, few combine all the features (color support, themes, layouts, configurable hot-keys for navigating panes, etc.) in one package. The one thing I miss the most is having nearly border-less panes for differing font sizes. To my knowledge, that can't be done on tmux or screen. I'd welcome any suggestion of a terminal with the fe…
Have you tried gnome-terminator?[0]
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#16I'm not sure how well it compares to iTerm2, but check out terminator.
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#17> I'm tired of having to have a kernel extension to remap keys and a stupid "window manager" just so I can hit Caps Lock+Up to make a window fill the screen.
I'm using Karabiner + Seil for this. I suppose Seil is the kernel extension you mention? Is Karabiner technically a "window manager" or did you have another app in mind?
If this is the only source of your complaints, honestly, I believe you'll have a lot more to complain about Linux.
I understand your frustration at Apple's walled garden, though. It is...dis-empowering.
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#18Here here! I recently did this - well, I moved to a linux VM. Somewhat. First, I did not move everything; I only moved my dev enviroment. I have things bound to OS X and I can't say goodbye just yet entirely. But with everything in a VM I have a nice walled garden that i know will work, and I can update OSX with less hesitation as most of my time is spent in the safe world of the VM. It also makes it easy for me to c…
Regarding the font rendering on CentOS, at least on recent versions of Fedora, I have been able to just run fedy and let it do its magic. The result is very nice and this was an area that bothered me a lot. So I would give Fedora 21 Workstation a try (with aim to keep in RH ecosystem, if you've got CentOS on the servers). This comment is completely biased, be warned.
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#19Based on your complaints, it sounds to me like OSX would be perfect for you.
Re: Ask HN: Switching from OS X to Linux
#20Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr is where you want to be. It Just Works, plus there's a huge and awesome community to help out if you have questions. I haven't tried the derivatives, like Mint or Elementary, but I've heard good things. Note that even though Ubuntu is based on Debian, you do not want Debian... It's release cycle is a lot slower, the UI is much less polished, and you'll be stuck with versions of software that are really really out of date.
A note on the name and version - 14.04 means released in April 2014, and the names go up alphabetically per release (T U V etc).