Linux on the Mac – state of the union • Hacker News Board

Post by gurkendoktor » Tue, Dec 13, 2016, 11:41 PM UTC

JoelTheSuperior wrote: post #133

l1k wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a thread on dri-devel a year ago: https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2015-Octobe... Back then the probed panel resolution (EDID retrieved by radeon) was 3840x2160, which doesn't make any sense because the panel actually has 5120x2880. It's unclear if this was because of missing/broken MST support in radeon (Multistream Transport) or if Apple used some proprietary mechanism to squeeze the panel…

If memory serves Apple didn't actually use MST for the 5k iMac and instead developed a custom timing controller which allowed them to get the 5k resolution working over a single stream. It's the same reason why, for example, Windows sees it as a 3840x2160 panel as well.

Oh, I wasn't aware that Windows was affected too. Apparently it took Apple some time to bring 5K support to Boot Camp for 2014 iMac model [1].

I guess I'll wait for Apple to actually announce new desktops before I seriously look into the driver situation...

[1] http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bootcamp-update-5k-windo...

Post by augustl » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 9:08 AM UTC

verandaguy wrote: post #129

augustl wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here's to the crazy ones. That one hit home.. Based on my lack of options (Windows sucks, macOS is OK but the hardware sucks, Linux lacks a desktop ecosystem) I feel just like a crazy one, a misfit, the ones Apple addressed in that legendary ad.

>Linux lacks a desktop ecosystem Granted, I'm more of a terminal power user, but what's missing (honest question)? GNOME and KDE are both very refined and mature, and there are plenty more stable, if a bit less full-featured DEs. There's the LibreOffice suite, which is stable, well-maintained, and feature-rich. VLC is arguably an extremely stable and full-featured media player with Linux support. Firefox and Chromium…

I was thinking more in terms of an ecosystem for desktop app developers.

Let's say you want to make a game for Linux. How do you package it? Do you have to make RPMs, debs and/or something else? Do you rely on dependencies available on the system, or do you build a binary with all dependencies statically linked? Do you care about inclusion in the package managers for the various distros? What do you use for Audio? You might want to use Pulse, but what if the user does not have Pulse installed? What if your game includes a launcher with a login form etc, do you choose QT or GTK? Do you have to test your game on the top 3 popupar distros? Top 5? And so on.

Linux on the Mac – state of the union

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union