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One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

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Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#151

Post by jillesvangurp »

alexktz wrote: post #61

I recently purchased a 16” MBP despite significant personal concerns over the future of MacOS, being a strong open source advocate and Linux paying my mortgage. I did this ultimately for a few reasons. MacOS lets me run Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc), Fusion360, has a good terminal (iTerm and zsh unix like shell) and Logic. Mac hardware is still some of the best in the business, no other vendors seem to be able to…

Well, macs don't run at full power either if you don't plug them in. And thermal issues are definitely a thing on macs. I have a friend who is complaining about stability issues on his 16" mbp already. And there is of course the whole notion with the uncertainty around ARM and their commitment to supporting what they are selling right now. So, I'm not super keen on buying that just yet though I probably will eventually.

I've had lots of silly issues with bluetooth, wifi and other things not quite "just working" lately on my 2017 MBP. Don't get me started on the keyboard situation. Apple's standards have been slipping on that front. But they are undeniably still very good laptops overall. If it wasn't for the weird keyboards, they'd make pretty decent linux laptops too. As it is, the touchbar is a PITA for that, even if you do manage to get that working (apparently it is doable).

I actually wouldn't mind a linux laptop except that seems to involve a lot of compromises on form factor, sucky touchpads, plasticky/fugly designs, screen resolution, driver compatibility, and manufacturers with not so great reputations on the quality and support front. Apple is also problematic for support lately of course.

I recently bought a new camera and the ability to take the usb-c power cable and plug that into the camera to quickly transfer some photos is quite nice. I don't really miss the memory card slot that much. I also charge my phone of my laptop via usb-c when on the road. I once watched 8 hours of offline netflix on my phone on a transatlantic flight and left the plane with a full charge on my phone and 80% charge on my mac.

I've been considering a linux laptop for ages but there are not a lot of models that meet my requirements of having a form factor that isn't hideously ugly (no "gaming" laptops please), has decent specs for CPU, memory, ssd (this eliminates 98% of the market), an hdpi screen (now we are talking 2, maybe 3 models), and a touchpad that comes reasonably close to what I'm used to. There are not a lot of things in the market that come close enough that I would consider them and none that I'm aware off that don't involve compromising on at least a few things I care about.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#152

Post by boogies »

hashedout wrote: post #112
0xmarcin wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to Bluetooth headphones, I have a totally different experience with iPhone 11. I have Sony WH1000XM3 headphones. I really like them, yet every time I connect them to my iPhone the sound volume jumps to almost 100%. I reported the issue to Apple but got no answer (the headphones are working without any problems with my old android phone - Samsung Galaxy s7). The only solution so far was to enable EU soun…

That is because the integration is not there in the linux ecosystem. Apple has this very tight integration because it controls both the hardware and the software. But there are some companies which have started doing the same thing: - System76 - Tuxedo These companies test their devices well on a distro and well, it reflects in their pricing too!

Dell also sells an XPS “Developer Edition” with Ubuntu pre-installed and officially supported, and Lenovo recently announced a range of workstations and Thinkpads being certified to support Ubuntu and Fedora. There’s also Purism that created a custom PureOS to closely fit their custom hardware, eg. a TPM designed for user security instead of vendor lock-in.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#153

Post by sidpatil »

lmilcin wrote: post #3

I am also running Linux on Thinkpad (Debian unstable on T440s). As to the battery life, this typically requires some work but I found it is generally possible to get good battery life. I am able to get my T440s to run for total 24 hours with the highest option 9-cell, the built in 3-cell and another 3-cell that came original with the laptop. This I did to be able to work on a long yacht cruise with no extra power and…

> As to touchpad these are all disappointing on all ThinkPads but probably especially on T440s where it is something called "clickpad". The entire touchpad is a button and you need to press it and try to move your finger while pressing HARD to drag things, for example.

My T440 also has the "clickpad", and I hate it for the exact same reason you described. It's another example of the modern design trend toward form-over-function "overminimalism" (e.g. lack of ports, too much focus on thinness, etc.), in my opinion

Lenovo must have realized their screwup, because the later T-series editions went back to discrete mouse buttons.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#154

Post by rumanator »

gen220 wrote: post #33
geerlingguy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also rent a full Mac mini from MacStadium and access it via VNC/SSH if you need. For ongoing projects though, where you don't need the hosting aspect, it would be cheaper to just buy a used Mac.

At my current place of work, we have a rack of Mac mini’s in a closet as our build server for the iOS app. I was kind horrified and amazed to learn of this at first, but it really is normal. It’s impressive what gymnastics Apple compels us to go through :)

> At my current place of work, we have a rack of Mac mini’s in a closet as our build server for the iOS app.

One of the main selling points that Apple uses to sell Mac minis is their use in build farms and render farms.

If you click on Apple's page on Mac minis and scroll down until the 6th or 7th selling point, you'll end up seeing the part where according to Apple it's combination of stackable form factor and performant hardware makes it ideal to compile large xcode projects or perform video encoding.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#155

Post by jeffbee »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #74
bogwog wrote: post #19

I love Thinkpads and I love Linux. My current "daily driver" laptop is an old X220T from 2011, which is a tablet hybrid (including touchscreen and Wacom pen/digitizer). I don't use it because of nostalgia or a love for retro computers, I use it because it's still an excellent experience all these years later. No modern laptop in the current price range can beat it. I don't know if that's because the build quality was…

I am sorry, but I find it ridiculous to claim that X220Ts had "great build quality". When the X2x0 series were released we did complain A LOT about the drop in quality and reminisce about the good old Lenovo times. And of course people already complained about the Lenovo times vs IBM. And I ponder if people used to complain about the drop of quality in IBM times... But seriously, the X220T specifically is crap. We bo…

A lot of people hated the X200 and the rest of the X2__ series because they owned the X60 or X61, which were the peak of ThinkPad quality. They X200 was when they moved from the best screens in the business to the most shit displays they could find falling off the backs of trucks, from decent keyboards to garbage keyboards, and of course with the X201 they started adding touchpads, which is apostasy, and it didn't help that their first touchpads were incredibly bad, contributing to the perception of the X201 as a piece of crap. Which it was.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#156

Post by s1mon »

pravus wrote: post #137
FoomFries wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you arrived at some of these conclusions. - Sluggish UI -> I've never experienced this in the last three years of using my 2017 MBP. - Inadequate package manager -> Somewhat nebulous, most package managers on Linux are available on Unix. - Slow and large updates -> I honestly don't pay much attention as I have updates install automatically while I'm sleeping, but what size differences have you noticed…

At least as far as the UI is concerned: - No focus-follows-mouse options means I can't layer windows in a way that accelerates my workflows. Having to switch between windows constantly is a giant speed bottleneck for me. - No keybinds for quickly resizing and positioning windows as far as I know. I only use the mouse to quickly position windows and even then just use alt-drag on my Linux desktop. - Animations. Anythi…

It's not built into MacOS, but you may find Magnet to solve some of your window management issues, depending on how you like to work. https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#157

Post by submeta »

TuringNYC wrote: post #134
submeta wrote: post #55

I love the idea of having a Thinkpad running Linux. But there are a dozen apps on my Mac that I would miss terribly. DEVONthink, OmniGraffle, and many more. I was thinking about getting a used ThinkPad for Emacs + Org plus terminal only. A companion for writing in Emacs/org and for doing dev work (Python, Lisp, Bash). This article made me revisit that plan. (Been using ThinkPads from 2006-2015 and loved the experienc…

I've never thought of MacBooks for the apps specifically, but I checked OmniGraffle which looks like a great replacement for Visio. Visio is one of the few things that keeps me occasionally attached to PCs. Could you please share the other Mac-only apps that you'd miss, i'd love to see!

Software that is unique to MacOS: - HoudahSpot (search files / documents) - DEVONthink (document management system) - Ulysses app (a markdown writing app; I know there are many, on many platforms) - iA Writer (another markdown writer) - Alfred App (automating) - Keyboard Maestro (automating) - AppleScript (automating) - MailMate - Things3 (task management) - OmniOutliner - OmniFocus - OmniGraffle - PDF Expert (reading / annotating pdfs) - iTerm - aText (text macros) - Timing App (auto time tracking) and many more.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#158

Post by _coveredInBees »

krooj wrote: post #69
alexktz wrote: post #61

I recently purchased a 16” MBP despite significant personal concerns over the future of MacOS, being a strong open source advocate and Linux paying my mortgage. I did this ultimately for a few reasons. MacOS lets me run Adobe (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc), Fusion360, has a good terminal (iTerm and zsh unix like shell) and Logic. Mac hardware is still some of the best in the business, no other vendors seem to be able to…

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

Lol yeah. That is literally the worst thing about MacBooks. It's hard enough getting it to work properly in a dual monitor setup, but I can reproducibly generate forced power cycles by plugging into a dock when the lid is closed due to a kernel panic bug that still hasn't been solved despite numerous reports from users suffering the same fate on Catalina.

I also just had to reboot my MBP 16 because every so often when the VPN connection drops, there is no way to resuscitate the WiFi network connection without a full reboot :-/

As someone who moved from an XPS to MBP to have a smoother experience with less hardware glitches, I have been sorely disappointed. Once WSL gets full support for running GUI apps and CUDA support, I will almost certainly be moving away from the MBP. The direction of OSX is concerning, and I find it insane that their sandboxing results in a 5 second wait to open a simple Word or CSV file. I booted up my 5 year old XPS a few weeks back and it felt so much snappier than my fully loaded MBP 16!

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#160

Post by cytzol »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #96
krooj wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

one of the most infuriating phrases in tech is the mac "just works" one

I feel like that phrase was extremely accurate... before the buggy OSes, awful keyboards, and hordes of security prompts. If you're starting to use Apple devices in 2020 I can see why you'd think that phrase is infuriating, but believe me when I say things used to be so much better!
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