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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#161

Post by seanwilson »

ekianjo wrote: post #136
jolux wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not as good? I'm genuinely curious because I've used apt on debian derivatives and rpm on red hat and I prefer brew to both of them. My favorite is actually Nix/Guix but I haven't bothered to set it up on my daily driver.

A few reasons: - you have way more packages on any Linux package manager. - Linux package managers do not mess with /usr/local as expected in a UNIX compatible OS. Homebrew does. Linux package managers run as root, not in user-space. - Apparently Homebrew gets broken by Apple software/OS updates. - Linux package managers are an integral part of the OS environment and update process - it's structured this way even for…

I went from Windows to using Ubuntu for years then to Mac only a few years ago. I really disliked the packaged management as well. Homebrew and seeing individual apps give me "an update is available!" pop-ups felt like such a step backwards.

However...what specifically are you wanting to install and update on Mac that a better package manager would significantly help with? I find on Mac I'm rarely installing or updating new packages so it doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. As long as I can easily install and update Python, Node, Vagrant, Chrome and a few other things I'm happy.

I'd love a laptop that had a long life battery, good screen, good build, was light, ran an open source OS that supported all the software I need etc. but you have to compromise unfortunately and I can compromise on package management.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#162

Post by jsprogrammer »

eropple wrote: post #116
PaulHoule wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have $1000's to spend on airfare you can afford to have a good desktop machine and a good laptop.

A desktop does nothing more than marginally better for my work use cases; I have one that's literally strictly for video games, and I don't care in the least about making those portable. But I care about going to my client's office and being able to work. Why would a desktop be "better"? If a desktop was sufficiently "better", why would I buy a good laptop? If I have to buy a good laptop, what delta exists, for me ,…

Laptops do not make desktops redundant. You will not be able to strap on a 6" tower H/S or better to cool down the highest performance processors, let alone be able to pack a battery to run said processor and a HP GPU into any laptop form factor.

It is true that not every work load needs such a capable machine and you should only spend as much as you need.

That being said, I was working with a friend on a recent project and he told me that his MacBook was "burning up" while running through a build script that put together a a handful of Docker containers. My ~5 y/o Desktop barely even hiccuped on the same thing.

Desktops can do things laptops can't.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#163

Post by hguant »

bpicolo wrote: post #135
ekianjo wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homebrew is certainly not as good as a regular package manager you get in Linux. I'm not sure how you can argue otherwise.

Homebrew is really, really good about about giving you guidance to fix failed installs. "Homebrew failed to do thing...here's exactly the commands you can run to make this thing work now though if you are so inclined." apt fails? Good luck

This is somewhat untruthful. If apt fails, it tends to leave detailed error reports, and does its best to leave things in a sane state. However, if you're using apt, you're doing it wrong - aptitude is where it's at.

Home brew, when things go wrong, goes wrong disastrously in my experience. You're never quite sure where you're left, and you have to spend a fair bit of time picking through what actually failed.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#164

Post by tlarkworthy »

ekianjo wrote: post #114
knights123 wrote: post #90

It seems like you should really just buy a MacBook Pro. Sure the software isn't perfect, but it's an order of magnitude closer to perfect than Windows has been lately. You buy it, boot it up, and it works wonderfully. Of course the one day out of the year that it doesn't you go rage comment on how it sucks and it scares Windows users away from Mac, but the rest of the time you'd never consider going back to a typical…

For developers OSX will almost always be worse than a Linux distro, if only because of package management.

eh? I have a both and I far prefer developing on the MBP just because the computer is so great and I can use it anywhere hassle free. My ubuntu machine is hard to tab around the windows and generally has a bad UI and the fonts are terrible. I actually had an ubuntu machine before I ever used a mac computer, so if anything I should be bias towards the more familiar linux setup. The MBP totally blew me away. Linux package managers may be superior, but I don't actually spend most of my development time installing system packages thankfully. npm, maven, pip are identical experiences on both.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#167

Post by eximius »

unsignedint wrote: post #71

I'm finding $300 Acer laptop (or netbook, one of their Inspire line) loaded with Linux surprisingly usable. (It was preloaded with Linpus, but I've replaced with my own.) At 1.10 GHz Dual-Core, 4GB RAM, it's a bit slow at times, but as long as I'm not running intensive process on it, it's very usable on the go machine. (Mainly, TeX, translations, web stuff, browsing, and occasional spreadsheet, is what I do on the ma…

'surprisingly usable' is not what we should have to settle for

Re: We Need a Better PC

#168

Post by executesorder66 »

martey wrote: post #93
superobserver wrote: post #80

Why not by a Chromebook Pixel (2015)? Seriously.

I think if Google decided to sell the Chromebook Pixel (2015) with Linux instead of ChromeOS, OP, I, and a horde of other developers would all buy it. In reality, it doesn't seem very easy to install Linux on the 2015 Pixel or any other Chromebook without either remembering to press Ctrl+D on each boot or by going through a significant set of hoops.

I've never used a Chromebook, but why can't you just wipe the harddrive with something like gparted and then install a Linux OS as you normally would?

Re: We Need a Better PC

#169

Post by hguant »

jordanpg wrote: post #149
ekianjo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few reasons: - you have way more packages on any Linux package manager. - Linux package managers do not mess with /usr/local as expected in a UNIX compatible OS. Homebrew does. Linux package managers run as root, not in user-space. - Apparently Homebrew gets broken by Apple software/OS updates. - Linux package managers are an integral part of the OS environment and update process - it's structured this way even for…

Most of these things are considered features of homebrew, not bugs.

Nonsense. Absolute rubbish.

Being broken is a feature? Changing /usr/local instead of being sane? Leaving old versions of packages lying about instead of cleaning them up? Breaking when the Apple devs wonder if it would be fun to switch things up a bit under the hood without telling anyone?

The one thing I can think of that's a "feature" is that brew compiles locally, instead of pulling down a binary, but even that has some draw backs.

I'm all for product loyalty, but a spade's a spade.

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