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A Linux User's OS X Experience

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Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#31

Post by Ianvdl »

mangecoeur wrote: post #27
Ianvdl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is transparency and customisability really so fundamentally incompatible with closed source software? The fact that the source code is not available does not prevent the availability of clear documentation detailing system functionality (whether or not you can verify whether the two correspond is another argument). Detailed documentation can allow for customisability by swapping out closed-source defaults. I agree th…

Well it's not really clear what he was hoping to modify in OSX that found impossible to change. Many of the settings mentioned are readily toggled off, you can install most linux software (Homebrew is necessary, i readily concede that without it OSX packaging is a problem), I'm not really sure what he wants apart from that. Not sure what he means by "developer workflow"... Maybe it was more UI customization - there a…

I haven't given OS X a try yet, so I don't have the experience to know whether his rant is validated, but how about his example: using gcc. Is it difficult to get gcc running smoothly?

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#33

Post by pessimizer »

zongitsrinzler wrote: post #8

For me OSX gives one very clear advantage over Linux. Time. Running Linux I found myself constantly wasting time on fixing WiFi card drivers, etc after every update. I don't have time for that shit. A Macbook may be more expensive out of the box but the extra time I can spend on stuff that is important (and fun) is worth it.

If you're willing to buy specific pieces of hardware in order to make sure your wireless works under OS X, why not buy known good hardware for Linux? You could buy a nice Zareason with support for less.

There's nothing wrong with liking OS X, but Linux is far better than it with hardware in general, and nearly equivalent if you are willing to only buy from a tiny range of hardware.

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#34

Post by zongitsrinzler »

privong wrote: post #19
zongitsrinzler wrote: post #8

For me OSX gives one very clear advantage over Linux. Time. Running Linux I found myself constantly wasting time on fixing WiFi card drivers, etc after every update. I don't have time for that shit. A Macbook may be more expensive out of the box but the extra time I can spend on stuff that is important (and fun) is worth it.

Out of curiosity, when did you experience the issues with the drivers and such? I know that was a problem in the past (and I fought with it as well), but for at least the past 4 years, I have found linux to work "out of the box" on several machines, without any fiddling of that nature. I suppose there could still be some problematic hardware, but lately, I have found linux to be much quicker to get up and running. I…

I experienced these a year or two ago.

Btw you should give Homebrew a go, really like it over other package managers.

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#35

Post by rcarmo »

From Arch to OSX. Riiiight.

I don't get this kind of posts either, and am not at all sure it's newsworthy. I run minimalistic Linux desktops _all the time_ (even gone as far as setting up a Docker image for one I can instantiate on the fly[1]) and like them for testing and debugging stuff I need to run as native ELF binaries, but OS X has saved me _decades_ of frustration.

If you have nothing nice to say...

[1]: https://github.com/rcarmo/docker-templates/tree/master/deskt...

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#36

Post by robmccoll »

I tried OS X for about the last year and a half on my primary work machine(s) whilst ssh'ing into remote Linux boxes and using Vagrant locally. Finally plopped a dual-booting Xubuntu partition on the drive and I'm happy as a clam. I understand and acknowledge that I'm not the target market for Apple products, but what I fail to understand is why other developers like the Apple ecosystem so much. It would be one thing if I were writing iOS and OS X apps, but usually I'm writing native binaries for Linux servers or at least interpreted code intended to be run on Linux. The OS X development environment for this kind of stuff is plain nutty to me and I've yet to find many people defend it without saying "just use boot-to-Docker or Vagrant or Vagrant with Docker or ssh into a VM in the cloud or an ESX cluster". No one seems to say "yeah, writing C or Go that links in C libs or Python that uses native modules on OS X is a pain, but here's why I prefer that to Linux..."

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#37

Post by massysett »

evils wrote: post #10
epmatsw wrote: post #4

>But as a scientist and as a programmer, I will never understand why people enjoy such childish things. This is why we end up with software that is painful to use.

As a scientist, shouldn't he be all about trying to understand things as opposed to dismissing them outright?

Martin Crane: "I wouldn't like it."

Frasier Crane: "Oh Dad, how do you know if you don't try it?"

Martin Crane: "Well I didn't have to get shot in the hip with a .38 to know I wouldn't like that."

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#38

Post by microtonal »

davexunit wrote: post #11

I used at OS X at work for 2 years and hated it. It's a nightmare for doing real software development on. Now I have a GNU/Linux workstation and things are much better. Cue the OS X apologists.

It's a nightmare for doing real software development on.

For you. I have programmed C, C++, Prolog, Java, Go, and Haskell on OS X since 2007 without any problems. If you go to any developer conference, you'll see that a sizeable chunk of the audience agrees.

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#39

Post by realusername »

zongitsrinzler wrote: post #8

For me OSX gives one very clear advantage over Linux. Time. Running Linux I found myself constantly wasting time on fixing WiFi card drivers, etc after every update. I don't have time for that shit. A Macbook may be more expensive out of the box but the extra time I can spend on stuff that is important (and fun) is worth it.

It's not 2002 anymore, it used to be like this before but it's been a long long time since I had to do this. On my case, using Linux over OSX is also about time, I could use OSX but you need to install a lot of stuff to make it usable for a development environment (which is pretty normal, I'm not the target audiance).

Re: A Linux User's OS X Experience

#40

Post by zongitsrinzler »

pessimizer wrote: post #33
zongitsrinzler wrote: post #8

For me OSX gives one very clear advantage over Linux. Time. Running Linux I found myself constantly wasting time on fixing WiFi card drivers, etc after every update. I don't have time for that shit. A Macbook may be more expensive out of the box but the extra time I can spend on stuff that is important (and fun) is worth it.

If you're willing to buy specific pieces of hardware in order to make sure your wireless works under OS X, why not buy known good hardware for Linux? You could buy a nice Zareason with support for less. There's nothing wrong with liking OS X, but Linux is far better than it with hardware in general, and nearly equivalent if you are willing to only buy from a tiny range of hardware.

I don't buy specific pieces of hardware. I just buy a Macbook. This goes together with the it "just works" part.
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