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Switching from macOS: The Basics

blog.elementary.io

181–190 of 610 posts

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#181
post #124

I find Apricity OS (Arch Linux) much better suited for developers. In fact at work I switched from Ubuntu to Apricity. Through yaourt (paceman frontend) and AUR (Arch User Repository) it's a breeze to install the latest versions of literally everything you need be it Docker, Java or IntelliJ. I think it's comparable with brew. Plus Apricity looks so much better than Elementary in my opinion and almost manages to give…

That is pretty!

I may have to give this a try when the time comes. By far the best looking Linux GUI i've seen yet.

I can't wait to see an a GUI layer made for NixOS though. I really want to be done with stateful OSs, NixOS is so tempting.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#182

Unfortunately, no Photoshop, no go

I feel like, unless your situation dictates a specific product (which is unlikely), this should be rephrased "Unfortunately, no graphics editor that does x, y, z". If you continue to put up a 'Photoshop' barrier, then you will never be able to consider any alternatives — assume Photoshop will never happen on Linux, but that there may well be a graphics tool in future that is far superior as far as your needs are conc…

One factor you don't mention is the learning curve required for someone to develop the skills needed to be, at a professionally viable level, productive and effective with a tool like Photoshop or Lightroom.

Even if there was a collection of Linux-compatible software that was just as effective as PS and LR, professionals don't necessarily have the time available to learn those tools.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I had known that trick. I payed some money for it, which isn't unusual since I often donate money to open source or activism. But this time I regret every cent. Coming from Mac OS, or even Fedora, Elementary seems unpolished and unstable.

I really wish someone would start a paid OS based on Linux and OSS tools. I'd happily pay $100/y (year being, new versions/etc) for a stable and awesome UI/UX. As it is, my Macbook Pro Retina has been crashing a lot and doing weird things frequently since i upgraded to Sierra. Between that and the latest Macbook Pro notebooks, i just don't like Apple anymore. I'm pretty set on buying a highend laptop _(similar build…

I believe elementary OS is the closest thing to what you're looking for. They're an LLC with the team that focuses on building a good looking UI and a nice UX. Pantheon is the only desktop environment which I wouldn't call outdated in the Linux world and somewhat stable and easy to get (Solus project is attempting to do the same, but I think they just don't have enough man power to pull it off).

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#184
post #172

So I went to their main page to download an ISO to give it a try in a VM. They hid the download button really well: You have to type in "0" into the "how much you'd like to pay" field for the "Purchase" button to change to "Download". I mean I understand that open source projects need funding. But if you want people to try your niche OS at least make it obvious how to download it. Ask for money later after people had…

Everybody in the FOSS community gets really mad at that decision... I thought it was intuitive. "How much do you want to pay?" "0 Dollars." "Great!" Why is that so horrible?

This part wasn't that horrible as the quote from Elementary blog was (apparently they removed the old blogpost, but it's easily googlable):

"We want users to understand that they’re pretty much cheating the system when they choose not to pay for software. We didn’t exclude a $0 button to deceive you; we believe our software really is worth something."

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#185
post #172

So I went to their main page to download an ISO to give it a try in a VM. They hid the download button really well: You have to type in "0" into the "how much you'd like to pay" field for the "Purchase" button to change to "Download". I mean I understand that open source projects need funding. But if you want people to try your niche OS at least make it obvious how to download it. Ask for money later after people had…

Everybody in the FOSS community gets really mad at that decision... I thought it was intuitive. "How much do you want to pay?" "0 Dollars." "Great!" Why is that so horrible?

When principles and reality clash, reality wins. In principle the website should make perfect sense to everyone.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#186
post #172

So I went to their main page to download an ISO to give it a try in a VM. They hid the download button really well: You have to type in "0" into the "how much you'd like to pay" field for the "Purchase" button to change to "Download". I mean I understand that open source projects need funding. But if you want people to try your niche OS at least make it obvious how to download it. Ask for money later after people had…

Everybody in the FOSS community gets really mad at that decision... I thought it was intuitive. "How much do you want to pay?" "0 Dollars." "Great!" Why is that so horrible?

Don't ever rely on your own perception of what's intuitive to evaluate a user experience. Someone has given specific feedback to the contrary, which means that there will be others. If I was the site's maintainer, I'd be heading straight for the analytics to see if they support this feedback.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently switched to Mint Cinnamon and I'm completely satisfied. There is not one thing I miss from Mac OS X and many where GNU/Linux is much better. As for mail, Thunderbird is not so bad.

Mint is much more polished than Elementary, I've never had a problem in my (limited) experience with it.

I did, very recently, with Mint 18, and never before. ( random lockups with Cinnamon, app crashes, etc. )

I'm still on the very same install, just switched to xfwm4 and tint2, and I'm quite happy.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#188
post #127
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GTK? QT? And, since we're talking elementary, Vala?

Not really, they don't even cover half of these ones https://developer.apple.com/reference/ Not to mention the related GUI tooling. Where is Instruments on QtCreator, for example.

You have valgrind and many other tools instead of "Instruments".

The GNOME project itself [1] has a lot of projects which compete with what you linked. Sure, Apple has a few billion dollars to dump into development every year, so you have to adjust for scale.

[1] https://developer.gnome.org/references

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#189
post #92
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new MacBooks are so lackluster that for the first time in 11 years I'm actually considering Windows options, and I also arrived at Razer as the best option out there. They look amazing and performance and connectivity wise blow the new macs out of the water. In the end, its macOS that's still holding me back. Haven't decided yet tough.

Windows is getting better, but it will still make you very angry. The update system makes me howl. The shell is pale shadow of the MacOS terminal (you can kind of fix this with other shells, but the app-restore behavior after a reboot? Gone, and Windows reboots a lot compared to MacOS).

When you say shell I assume you mean terminal. The Windows terminal is utter garbage, and I've not found a decent one (i've not looked very hard to be fair) but you can install bash (the shell) and have all the functionality you've got in OSX (also a bash shell, a really really old bash shell).

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#190

They need to watch out because apparently the Gnome foundation wants to ditch Vala for Rust to cut cost and "attract more developers" : https://siliconislandblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/thoughts-... > and support a preferred programming language (Vala) https://launchpad.net/elementary

Gnome foundation: when you finally gain traction, you press reset, bravo.
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