From M1 MacBook to Arch Linux: A month-long experiment that became permanenent

Post by nickjj » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 11:28 AM UTC

phkx wrote: post #79

jasoneckert wrote: post #29

I think the biggest takeaway from this blog post is that developers and other professionals should take more note of the tiling window managers available on Linux like Sway and Hyprland - they are insanely fast and customizable to exactly what we need to be more productive. I'm a Sway user (ironically on Fedora Asahi Remix on a Mac) and I won't have it any other sway... er... I mean way.

I switched from MacOS (from a 12 year old first generation retina MBP) to Arch and started out with hyprland. It was really nice initially while I mostly used terminals, a browser or launched Steam. But when I needed to do some paperwork (taxes, stuff involving wide spreadsheets) I often ran into trouble, e.g. when I needed to read some numbers off a pdf quickly. Rearranging the tiling to have everything in appropria…

Post by wongogue » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 11:32 AM UTC

baq wrote: post #99

WD-42 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it’s not even the tiling. It’s the ability to switch focus to windows in a directional manner. Like super hjkl or whatever. I have no idea how people are still using alt tab in 2025.

> I have no idea how people are still using alt tab in 2025. Everything is full screen almost always. In a week I need windows tiled for maybe 2h.

Post by realusername » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 11:33 AM UTC

pjerem wrote: post #80

cycomanic wrote: post #76

> But the quality of MacBooks is just another level. I had 3 or 4 so far since 2010, and each of them held at least 5 years. Crazy good. When I read things like this it really sounds like there is some reality distortion field in the mac world. How is that anywhere special? I'm running a thinkpad X1 as my 2 main laptops (it was my only work machine until 2 years ago) and I never felt the need to replace it. It gave m…

I’d say it’s barely 3 things : - The trackpad (but other manufacturers now have tolerable alternatives and anyway you can work without it) - The screen : at an equivalent price point (and even more), nothing comes close to Apple screens. The cheapest MacBook have a better screen than most high end PCs. - The audio : Apple truly did some sorcery to get such an awesome sound from machines that are flat as sheet. It’s s…

Post by 7thpower » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 11:35 AM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #72

throwmeaway222 wrote: post #56

I don't know if anyone else agrees, but for some reason no one can replicate the smoothness of the Apple trackpad. And now with that PLUS the heatless apple silicon - I don't think I could go to another OS and the x86 hardware world. I would just feel like I'm in clunky-land. Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot about Linux desktops, but Mac gets a lot of things right. I don't want to take anything away from people m…

> no one can replicate the smoothness of the Apple trackpad There are newer trackpad for Windows, and the Surface line had pretty good trackpad as well (not Magic Trackpad levels, but perhaps 80% there ? The more surprising part to me when I gave up on the Magic Trackpad moving to windows is I was over it in a week. I only ever used trackpads for a decade, but mouse's just work that much better on Windows/Linux, espe…

Post by rz2k » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 11:39 AM UTC

dghf wrote: post #178

rz2k wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be more easily discoverable, but command-shift-g lets you type in the path directly, and even has tab completion. If you want to navigate visually, navigate up to the computer or drive where you want to start, then press command-shift-period in order to see all of the directories that are usually hidden. Both of these approaches work in the open and save dialogs, and not just the Finder.

Thank you for the cmd-shift-g tip. That will save me a lot of grief. Re your second tip: how do you navigate up? I couldn’t see an obvious way to do that, either.