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

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

#201

Post by pixxel »

me551ah wrote: post #137
pjerem wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Also durability. I’m shocked that something that looks so good can withstand by downright abuse. I hold my MacBook Pro with one hand and fling it around and I’ve lost track of the number of times it has fallen down. But except for some chips at random places, it works perfectly fine

[dead]

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

#202

Post by WD-42 »

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.

This sounds like madness to me. At the least, browser + editor to view hot reloading output or docs at the same time. Terminal for tailing output.

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

#203

Post by _bent »

zozbot234 wrote: post #183
reactordev wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn’t have nano texture, I can guarantee that. His screen probably has fingerprints and glare and all sorts of issues like visible pixels. I’ve owned a hell of a lot of laptops and MacBooks are the best, not because of Mac, but because of the build quality. The touchpad is perfect, the aluminum body is rugged, the screen is amazing, and the audio truly is sorcery thanks to Apple acquiring Beat’s audionet. The wo…

"Visible pixels" are a total non-issue already on a 1080p screen, and a near-non issue on 768p. There's just no ambiguity about this, it's a matter of simple physics. Maybe you'll need to go up to a 1200p screen or thereabouts to cope with crappy rendering on the software side (allowing for a 0.7x factor or so in image spatial bandwidth/resolution due to lack of proper anti-aliasing), but anything above that is just…

you might want to check in with an ophthalmologist

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

#204

Post by p_ing »

mirzap wrote: post #90
gbalduzzi wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there is a similar situation in the mobile space with iphones, at least here is Europe where they are not ubiquitous. Most people use cheaper android phones, that are slower and with a much shorted timespan. then they try a 1k€ iPhone and it is great and conclude they prefer the iPhone to Android: it is not an apple to apple comparison, you should compare it to a 1k€ android lol. Same things happens on lapt…

You simply can't compare anything to MacBooks. I had a Dell that I paid about $2,000 for, and it was really good (or so I thought). Then at work, I got a MacBook Pro, and that's when I saw the difference. Its not only the Pros, no "high-end" laptop running Windows or Linux with just 8GB of RAM can perform better than a MacBook Air with 8GB. I don't know how Apple has optimized memory usage, but my personal feeling is…

MacOS isn’t more memory efficient, you can’t be when using 16KiB pages vs 4KiB. That’s a lot of wasted memory.

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

#205

Post by udev4096 »

wolvesechoes wrote: post #181
pjerem wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Guy is talking about laptop lasting for 5 years as not something that is special, and you respond with awesome sound quality. Apple threads are always so funny.

[flagged]

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

#206

Post by ksec »

simonh wrote: post #150
ksec wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>all of that in one package was unheard of in a laptop before Apple silicon. My point is, it was available on iPhone. And has always been the case but people brush it off because it was an Smartphone SoC. And I literally just stated there are ARM CPU Core offering available. You either compare the whole MacBook / Laptop, or you compare the CPU / SoC. The first being there aren't many choice compared to. The latter ar…

So we shouldn’t be impressed by Apple silicon because it also runs in phones? And yes, there are ARM laptops ASUs just brought out a laptop running on the Snapdragon X Plus. Geekbench Single Core 2231 versus the M4 at 3678. I mean, I’m sure it’s fine for a lot of people, but fine for a lot of people isn’t all that impressive in 2025. The other ARM chips are still a long, long way off from getting close to base M seri…

>So we shouldn’t be impressed by Apple silicon because it also runs in phones?

My point is HN was not impressed in any shape or form, even when presented with figures, when Apple silicon was used in iPhone, but is impressed with it when it was running inside a MacBook.

And you just basically reiterated my point. People are comparing devices, not CPU. ARM has Core design IP that could rival Apple's M3 design today. i.e from CPU IP Core perspective it isn't five years ahead. It just isn't being used in the current laptop range for different kind of reasons.

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

#207

Post by mirzap »

p_ing wrote: post #204
mirzap wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply can't compare anything to MacBooks. I had a Dell that I paid about $2,000 for, and it was really good (or so I thought). Then at work, I got a MacBook Pro, and that's when I saw the difference. Its not only the Pros, no "high-end" laptop running Windows or Linux with just 8GB of RAM can perform better than a MacBook Air with 8GB. I don't know how Apple has optimized memory usage, but my personal feeling is…

MacOS isn’t more memory efficient, you can’t be when using 16KiB pages vs 4KiB. That’s a lot of wasted memory.

My experience running multiple bloated Java JetBrains IDEs, Chrome with 50+ tabs, begs to differ.

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

#208

Post by udev4096 »

mirzap wrote: post #90
gbalduzzi wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there is a similar situation in the mobile space with iphones, at least here is Europe where they are not ubiquitous. Most people use cheaper android phones, that are slower and with a much shorted timespan. then they try a 1k€ iPhone and it is great and conclude they prefer the iPhone to Android: it is not an apple to apple comparison, you should compare it to a 1k€ android lol. Same things happens on lapt…

You simply can't compare anything to MacBooks. I had a Dell that I paid about $2,000 for, and it was really good (or so I thought). Then at work, I got a MacBook Pro, and that's when I saw the difference. Its not only the Pros, no "high-end" laptop running Windows or Linux with just 8GB of RAM can perform better than a MacBook Air with 8GB. I don't know how Apple has optimized memory usage, but my personal feeling is…

> using Arch Linux daily for the past month or two

No wonder you are facing non-existent issues. Stop blaming it on Arch. If it was widespread, there would be a fix by now for it. You messed it up. It's upto you to solve it. Also it's not "your mac". Apple has full remote access and can brick "your mac" anytime. With apple, you get the feeling of owning without actually owning anything. Gotta give it to them

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

#209

Post by asimovfan »

gigatexal wrote: post #109
pjerem wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This. My 2013 MacBook Pro lasted just shy of 10 years no issues. My m3 max mbpro I only wish was the larger screen one and not the 13 inch one … oh well. But I suspect it will last me — and be passed down as well — 8-10 years as well. The trackpads are second to none. So are the speakers. The screen are pretty good. I wish mine got even brighter but the m4s do. The keyboard is finally awesome. The OS just works. In f…

I read why you left linux as your main platform.. You say you are "practical now and tired" implying GNU(+linux) is unpractical and tiring, which is perfectly wrong in my opinion. Not only my opinion but also in your own opinion, as you also write how package managers are better in linux, macOS is not as hackable, how much it is locked down etc. So it comes down to this paragraph:

"I learned to like nice things. I became a bit bougie, hah. I like the build quality of the Apple laptops. The amazing trackpads. The vibrant screens. And how, for the most part, the hardware and software just work together so well. Seamlessly connecting Apple Keyboards to my Apple Laptop, or my Apple Headphones to my Apple Laptop, etc., etc."

so boils down to this intangible "bougieness" they tricked you with. I dont know about Apple build quality. I have the experience that they absolutely slow down, break down faster, more expensive to get fixed, and the trackpad is annoying as hell. I haven't had any problems with headphones or connecting keyboards (wireless or wired) in non macOS laptops either. It is 2025 and all my computers work fine with such peripherals.

The screens look vibrant i'll give you that, but you pay for it anyway, like you could've paid with another laptop.

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

#210

Post by mrtksn »

skydhash wrote: post #199
mrtksn wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS is quite popular among tech literate people too, it's almost the default OS for most techies.

A lot of those only have surface level knowledge about tech, especially reviewers.

Not really, it's just that macOS is more suitable for a different level of abstraction than linux.
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