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Switching from macOS: The Basics

blog.elementary.io

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Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#271

Post by matzipan »

I think one needs to also highlight the differences.

mac OS is built by one major player and they have a clear direction of where they want to take this. Linux, in general, is built by communities of people who may or may not have diverging opinions, priorities and interests. While this gives you a lot diversity, it can be quite problematic.

The financial aspect is also important. elementary LLC itself, has only 2 full-time employees, while Apple is sitting on a pile of cash. Yes, elementary builds on a solid open-source base [1] built by thousands of developers world-wide, some volunteers, some employees, but it's still a significant difference.

Having a smaller scale, it means elementary can be more agile in its changes. This also means that there is smaller testing base, which means there will be more bugs. The nice part is that, when you find a bug, you can help fix it [2].

[1] https://elementary.io/open-source

[2] https://elementary.io/get-involved

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#272

Post by reitanqild »

chrishacken wrote: post #209
fizzbatter wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'm right there with you. The only thing that keeps me on a Mac is the combination of Unix + Half decent UX. If someone built a paid Unix/Linux distro that could run Mac Apps, I'd give away my extra kidney for it. Windows almost has me sold with their new Ubuntu subsystem.

> Windows almost has me sold with their new Ubuntu subsystem.

Anything in particular you are missing?

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#273

Post by Jtsummers »

asadkn wrote: post #146
Void_ wrote: post #39

I'm really hoping this is just a phase. Hoping that Apple will reduce prices of new laptops and we'll be back to normal. Right now everybody is using Macs. Walk into the Bay Area coffee shop, you see Macs everywhere. I love that. I build desktop software for Macs (focuslist.co). My apps are prettier than any others. They are easier and faster to use. This is the reason why people pay me $5 while they can get the job…

Doesn't change the fact that Mac marketshare is around 7%. Just because they're targeting the coffee shop crowd doesn't mean everyone's using Macs.

Like with iOS, it's not just a question of market share, but of revenue share.

Questions to ask when deciding what platforms to support:

Of Android and iOS, which has the users willing to spend money on apps? More than $0.99?

Of Windows, Linux, and macOS, which has the users willing to spend money on apps? More than a few dollars?

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#274

Post by natch »

Please don't be so gullible, folks! When you see an article marketing a product, and they claim people are looking to switch to their product in droves, take it with a grain of salt!

This is purely a promotional article, pretending to be a help article. Look at the unattributed quotes it uses. Pretty sure the part about anybody switching from anything to anything is made up. Sure people switch sometimes. Sure people are complaining about Apple products, what else is new? Way to capitalize on our sincere discussions of platform choices.

If HN swallows this kind of marketing-masquerading-as-technical-advice article so easily, we're going to see a lot more of this writing pattern in the future. Which means more marketing noise. Please don't buy it so readily.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#275

Post by falcolas »

natch wrote: post #239
nicolas_t wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, USB-C is the least of my problem. I care about having a fast, powerful laptop with 32 or 64GB ram (I run a lot of VMs for my work, I could offload it to the cloud but then it's more of a hassle). I complain because Apple decided to make the macbook pro 15 inch lighter and thinner resulting in 25% less battery (going from 99.5 watt-hour to 76.0-watt-hour), this means that they have to make more compromises…

Which adapters do you need to carry? I would love a 32G or 64G machine too, but did you see what Phil Schiller said about the 32G issue? It sounded like it wasn't a matter of a little bit more power, it was a LOT more. We really don't know how much more. Apple does know. If the new design was two inches thick people would be complaining about that. Personally I'm expecting that no matter what the vendor. desktops wil…

> Which adapters do you need to carry?

USB-A adapter for my wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse.

A gigabit ethernet adapter.

Mini-DP x2 adapter, for my desktop screens. I may be able to leave those attached to the screens, though. I'd need another one for home in that case.

Power adapter, HDMI adapter and two USB-A, for attaching to any external screens, speakerphones, and webcams when in a conference room.

If I include my hobbies, I will also be needing a USB-C to USB-B cable for my USB hub (or a few new USB-C to Mini- and Micro-USB cables), and a SD card adapter.

> For your VMs it might help that the new SSDs are reportedly quite fast in this generation.

Not compared to memory. You don't want to put your computer in a constant state of swap - something easy to do with VMs.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#276

Post by ianai »

merb wrote: post #136
askmike wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu is doing something very similar: https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute?version=1...

at least they have a: > Not now, take me to the download › Link.

If they do that it sounds like elementary probably makes enough money with th current gimmic to keep it.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#277

Post by Pigo »

StavrosK wrote: post #93
toyg wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a long-standing criticism of Elementary. I think they initially didn't even provide a way to get a free download, and eventually settled for the current UI. Basically the founder-owner is adamant that someone has to pay for his time, and tbh I don't begrudge him.

It's a tradeoff between getting more users and getting more money, which I'm sure he knows. He's chosen to be more towards the "money" end of the scale, which is fair enough.

I'm very curious to try it out, and came to comments in hopes of seeing some comments about what it's like. Instead there's a bunch of comments about the pricing situation. So it's definitely affected my chance of giving it a shot.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#278

Post by floatboth »

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #238
paulryanrogers wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a daily Linux user I feel your pain, but have you considered Windows 10 with their Ubuntu coop install? I'm seriously considering it for user-space apps.

It doesn't work for GUI apps yet.

Well, you can run VcXsrv on Windows and run X apps, but the GPU acceleration won't be any good.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#279

Post by [deleted] »

snowwrestler wrote: post #210
Void_ wrote: post #39

I'm really hoping this is just a phase. Hoping that Apple will reduce prices of new laptops and we'll be back to normal. Right now everybody is using Macs. Walk into the Bay Area coffee shop, you see Macs everywhere. I love that. I build desktop software for Macs (focuslist.co). My apps are prettier than any others. They are easier and faster to use. This is the reason why people pay me $5 while they can get the job…

The USB-C ports and the processor + RAM limitations will be fixed by time. As soon as Intel rolls out their full Kaby Lake line, the Macbook Pro will get a rev that will improve speed and permit 32GB of RAM. Counting in design and manufacturing time, that could be about a year from now. And USB-C is clearly the future for connectors. In a year or two a lot more peripherals will be shipping with USB-C as the default c…

[deleted]

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#280

Post by Damogran6 »

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #251
embik wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know the GPL does not allow trial periods and asking for money later on, but feel free to correct me. That's why elementary cannot do such a thing.

No. Gpl has no such thing. But you'll have to provide the source code with your software, so I'll just modify the source to give myself infinite trial. _that's why it won't work_

The number of people that would bother to do that is relatively small. If it's a good product, and reasonably priced, people would much rather just pay to have it. (See music streaming.)
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