So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#121

Post by dbingham » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #64

dbingham wrote: post #19

What screen resolutions do the Librems support? Their tech specs don't actually list the resolutions, just the graphic card and size of the display. That's, honestly, one of the main things holding me to my mac: I want the retina display. That and the fact that all the PC hardware makers insist on offsetting the damned touchpad. Which, maybe it's just my preference, but I hate when they offset the damned touchpad.

Long term Mac user, currently with Macbook Pro. It's Apple that offsets the damn touchpad. I don't want it central to the case, I want it central to the home keys (F and J) of the keyboard. Apple centres with the case. Which is broken. There's more keys on the right side of a keyboard than the left (without a number pad), thanks to punctuation and brackets, so hands rest slightly left of case centre line. Truth be to…

I have one of the old MacBook Pros where the homerow was centered on the case, and so was the touchpad. Which is exactly what I want.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#122

Post by bitwize » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #23

I find the fetish for terminal-based music players a bit odd. I associate terminals with doing work , so the idea of having one whose sole purpose is playing music (presumably in the background while you do other stuff) to feel like a waste of screen real-estate and something I'm likely to accidentally pull up while trying to cycle between my other terminal windows where I'm doing stuff. I much prefer something that…

The neat thing about terminal-based music players is that you can put them in tmux and not have them take up any screen real estate when you're not using them. :)

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#123

Post by Tehchops » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

akiselev wrote: post #108

larrik wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also say that Apple has plenty of rough spots that Linux doesn't as well. Font rendering the Apple way is a style choice at best. What does "display/compositor fragmentation" mean to end-user?

> What does "display/compositor fragmentation" mean to end-user? My 1Password FireFox extension (ubuntu 18.04 LTS) doesn't work on X unless I log in through the website but it works just fine on Wayland.

^^ Things exactly like this.

The practical implications of what it means to the end user is that companies/entities that write any GUI-enabled software for Linux are forced to make decisions about what(if any) OS they'll support.

And just like that, we've waded into "cracking open the window manager" just to figure out what's going on.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#124

Post by _emacsomancer_ » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

safgasCVS wrote: post #80

This is daft - the switch to Linux from macOS is done entirely out of some moronic desire to be different and very little to do with functionality. Windows to Linux I can Understand but the HN hive mind defends Linux like their firstborn. Let it go. It’s a lot of work for very little upside. Let the downvotes come

Maybe macOS works well for you, and so for you to switch would only be 'out of some moronic desire to be different', but there are certainly lots of valid reasons a person might prefer being on Linux rather than macOS, from not trusting closed-source OSes to wanting tools that aren't out of date.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#125

Post by diffeomorphism » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #48

I so wish the Linux community would get its act together and implement a working usable clipboard. It's the one thing I miss the most whenever I switch from Mac OS to Linux. On a Mac, you can cut/copy/paste using predictable keystrokes in any application, anywhere. And there is a single clipboard. On Linux, you have to deal with a multitude of behaviors (middle mouse button, Ctrl-C, others, and does it paste where th…

Ironically the "consistent keybinding" you mention are emacs keybindings. On linux you basically have 3 common bindings: emacs, vim and cua.

One piece of advice: In your clipboard manager you can check a box to sync the middle click and ctrl+c buffers, if you want a single clipboard.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#126

Post by shhh_quiet » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

DontSueMeBro wrote: post #96

MacBook implies MacOS and the article is comparing that hardware+OS combination with just an OS. It would have been nice to hear what hardware solution the author ended up with, along with Linux, for a fuller comparison. Mostly because I'm in the same boat as the author and will be moving away from a Mac after 15 years to Linux, but am lost on the hardware front. Right now really wanting a Lenovo Yoga C930, maybe.

The article notes that the author is using a Purism Librem 13 laptop.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#127

Post by pdpi » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

vetinari wrote: post #116

akiselev wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What does "display/compositor fragmentation" mean to end-user? My 1Password FireFox extension (ubuntu 18.04 LTS) doesn't work on X unless I log in through the website but it works just fine on Wayland.

What is your X session? Gnome/KDE or plain window manager? It might be, that your wm is not launching some service that wayland session is and 1password needs.

The fact that you're asking this question and suggesting that root cause is itself a significant part of the problem the OP was talking about.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#128

Post by growt » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

Since TFA talks a lot about i3 and dmenu, here are my scripts to have your most used commands on top in dmenu in i3: https://github.com/grothkopp/dmenu_run_favorites

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#129

Post by Waterluvian » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

Hooking up three monitors, 2 of which are 4k onto Ubuntu is the most frustrating thing I've done with that OS. It just works on OSX though.

Rough spots is a good way to describe it. Overall it works... But not without effort and competence.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#130

Post by dictum » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:54 PM UTC

larrik wrote: post #87

Tehchops wrote: post #42

End-user Linux has definitely improved in the last few years. It offers a lot of attractive features for what I imagine to be the typical HN demographic. That being said, it's still got rough spots that OSX doesn't. It works great when it works, but when it doesn't.... Font rendering, display/compositor fragmentation etc... Inb4 the anecdotal "well it works for me I just had to download the xf86 font library and comp…

I would also say that Apple has plenty of rough spots that Linux doesn't as well. Font rendering the Apple way is a style choice at best. What does "display/compositor fragmentation" mean to end-user?

> Font rendering the Apple way is a style choice at best.

Given how much of a hacker's usage of a computer is working with text (reading pages, writing code and documentation, taking notes) it's a style choice that actually has a significant impact.

(By the way, macOS Mojave deprecates subpixel antialiasing — a poor decision when there are many non-hidpi displays still being used)