One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by cercatrova » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:36 PM UTC

KptMarchewa wrote: post #167

diminish wrote: post #57

What are the cons of mac? for me: - Sluggish UI - Inadequate package manager - Unintuitive ways to install stuff - Slow and large updates - Can't do Linux development - Can't try server tools - Slow boot-to-work time - Hard to add memory and ram - Limited interfaces - Hacker unfriendly - Can't have a minimal desktop - High memory usage of base system

Extremely bad thermals. My i9 mbp spends more time throttled then working full power, even though I'm using cooling pad.

Try Macs Fan Control or TG Pro, you can set custom fan curves.

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

#172

Post by tkainrad » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:37 PM UTC

Welcome to Linux! ;)

I have been using as my sole OS (except for some very occasional gaming on Windows) for 10 years. The longer you use it, the happier you become with your setup imo.

There is a very detailed blog post about my setup that has grown over the years: https://tkainrad.dev/posts/setting-up-linux-workstation

It is about Ubuntu, but many sections apply to all distros. The most important productivity boost for me has been to switch from Bash to Zsh. Mainly because of some great plugins for Zsh, such as z, zsh-peco-history (better history search), zsh-autosuggestions, and zsh-syntax-highlighting. The blog post has copy-paste ready instructions to set it up.

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

#173

Post by jonpurdy » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:38 PM UTC

TL;DR: if on the fence about replacing a MacBook Pro with a ThinkPad, give the 2020 MBP a try. It's bought me another three years of time to stick with the Mac and see how the ARM transition plays out.

I wanted to let others in my situation (longtime Mac user, avoided the butterfly keyboards so much that I considered a Thinkpad with Linux) know: the new keyboard in my 13-inch 2020 is amazing.

I upgraded from my 2015 to this 2020 a couple of weeks ago under duress: my old machine failed me during an interview videoconference and I couldn't have that happen again. Ran out to buy a new machine and return it if I hated the new keyboard (I expected it to be somewhere between the old keyboard and the terrible butterfly, but at least it has an inverted-T.)

It's spectacular. Key travel is awesome, and it's nice to have inverted-T and dedicated escape key back. This machine is also way faster than my old one thanks to (2x as many cores [thanks to 2018 model]) and the 10th gen stuff (much faster RAM and graphics, etc.).

ARM is coming soon, but there's a lot of uncertainty about that transition and I'm happy to have a highly performant machine that will last me at least three years (when my AppleCare will run out).

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

#174

Post by icheishvili » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:39 PM UTC

x87678r wrote: post #71

I was looking at larger laptops to run Linux but they aren't cheap so MBP doesn't look such bad value. I want 15in screen with higher than 1080 resolution, 16GB memory, good battery life and there really isn't much less than $1500 from the main brands that will run Linux well. Any suggestions? Otherwise the MBP16 looks not such bad value as I know it'll be reliable.

I just got a System76 Darter Pro yesterday with at least those specs and it was less than $1100. Pretty happy with them so far.

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

#175

Post by cercatrova » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:39 PM UTC

kylecazar wrote: post #5

Cool. I'm running Linux on a Dell Vostro I purchased during their quarterly business sale as my daily driver -- I can't believe the machine I got for the price, and strongly encourage people to look at these sales.. How big of an issue is it to target iOS as a platform on a PC these days with the rise of Flutter, etc? I'm looking to get into app development, but don't have a Mac, nor would I like to buy one if I can…

You need a Mac to build for macOS / iOS, yes, but it doesn't have to be your Mac. There are services like Codemagic that have free CI/CD macOS build services [0].

[0] https://blog.codemagic.io/how-to-develop-and-distribute-ios-...

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

#176

Post by deathanatos » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:41 PM UTC

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

My previous MBP and 4k monitor would, on every other connection, not recognize the USB devices. So every other time I plugged into the monitor, I had to un-plug & re-plug to get the peripherals.

I also have a Linux Thinkpad. It's not perfect either, but it is definitely better.

The Linux Thinkpad also more reliably associates with my Bose headphones. It was hard to pair them the first time around, but after that, they've auto-connected. The MBP will occasionally get into states where it won't find the headphones or the headphones don't find it, and I have to request they manually connect. The MBP does this with my old phone, too…

I do have to agree with the article on the points about the touchpad (MBP's is superior) and on the emoji support. (It's getting there in Linux… but slowly.)

I'd recommend Terminator over gnome-terminal, though.

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

#177

Post by boring_twenties » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:42 PM UTC

boogies wrote: post #38

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…

> No modern laptop in the current price range can beat it. > I'm also super interested to try out the new ARM-based Macbooks I’m having a hard time choosing between an old Thinkpad and the Pinebook Pro for a GNU/Linux laptop. Thinkpads have a better battle-tested durability + repairability reputation and Libreboot is a significant selling point to me. But x86 seems like it’s just beginning to fade into the past in fa…

I like my Pinebook Pro, but it is slow compared to my T420, and maybe even slow compared to my X200.

The Thinkpads will also work out of the box with basically any kernel from the past 10 years, whereas the Pinebook requiers a patched kernel, patched u-boot, and a third patched component I didn't even know existed and don't remember the name of.

It's a pretty awesome device for $200 but it can't replace a real laptop IMHO, and hardware support is under active development.

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

#178

Post by se32point1 » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:43 PM UTC

k__ wrote: post #107

se32point1 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would you recommend buying a new MBP or getting a laptop? A MacBook is a laptop, yes? What classifies a MacBook as not being a laptop? In terms of form factor, they are the same. There's nothing special. In fact, MacBooks can run Windows or Linux just like regular "laptops." As for a recommendation, I don't see why Macs are necessary. USB-C is a huge frustration to deal with (and this includes non-Macs, such as my…

You don't think USB-C is the future?

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Right now, it's not very useful for me. Everything is still running on normal USB-A, so I really don't care for USB-C. I'm not about to just go out and replace all my existing and perfectly functional equipment when I don't need to.

- Dongles are a nightmare as well. What if I forget mine when I'm travelling?

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

#179

Post by NewOrderNow » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:46 PM UTC

There are so many small things that really frustrate me with the Mac and understandably considering I am back on Linux. However, I have a 2010 15" MacBook Pro that I bought used. It is god awful to work on, but I can still run scripts, ssh, browse the web (for the most part), and play emulators.

This is thing is slow and bordering useless, but I genuinely never had any tech product for 10 years work for well. 10 years, only changed the charger and HD once. Everything else is still working, including a really nice touch pad.

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

#180

Post by deathanatos » Fri, Aug 28, 2020, 3:46 PM UTC

FoomFries wrote: post #87

diminish wrote: post #57

What are the cons of mac? for me: - Sluggish UI - Inadequate package manager - Unintuitive ways to install stuff - Slow and large updates - Can't do Linux development - Can't try server tools - Slow boot-to-work time - Hard to add memory and ram - Limited interfaces - Hacker unfriendly - Can't have a minimal desktop - High memory usage of base system

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…

> - Sluggish UI -> I've never experienced this in the last three years of using my 2017 MBP.

I have. Performance generally degrades over time for me.

> - 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?

Most OS X updates take the system down for 30+ minutes while you're staring at the black screen w/ white Apple logo. By contrast most Linux systems can update in the background, and a reboot after an update takes no more time than a normal reboot, because it is a normal reboot.