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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

#281

Post by baq »

WD-42 wrote: post #202
baq wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There’s a second monitor for those times when it’s an unquestionable benefit. Most of the time having multiple windows open is inefficient use of screen real estate (I either have two or three panes in the IDE - the terminal is also here, a browser with console open, some db query tool with wide tables or corp chat, which I explicitly do not want to see when I’m working on anything of substance.)

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

#282

Post by rkomorn »

ezst wrote: post #166
rkomorn wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trackpad on my X1 Nano (and the associated Linux experience) is a daily annoyance to me compared to the macOS+M1 MacBook Air experience. I have way more accidental touches, drags, wrong palm detection, etc. Windows isn't much better (or is arguably worse because "natural scrolling" still somehow isn't an out of the box thing).

Funny thing to say in 2025, but you are probably better off using Linux. The Windows drivers ecosystem is a mess, manufacturers don't care to develop or maintain drivers beyond the "get the product out of the door" phase.

I am using Linux, though?

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

#283

Post by rjzzleep »

baq wrote: post #264
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 add a very important feature of ‘lid is closed - the computer is asleep and it wakes up when lid opens’. Both windows and Linux are simply broken in that regard. What I need is Apple MacBook hardware with a 100% supported Linux OS. This combination simply doesn’t exist and there’s no amount of money to make it happen (yes I know about asahi.)

It's not really Linux' fault. Most It's Microsoft that forced this, and most vendors don't know how to deal with this and work proper firmware. I think Framework and Valve fixed theirs. I have a GPD and just found out that the reason I kept getting it wake from sleep was some MS related option triggering an ACPI IRQ 9 sleep wake.

On another note, I actually think that the most important things that work better on the Apple devices is the mic and camera, the rest is somewhat unimportant on the go if you work at a desk.

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

#284

Post by p_ing »

mirzap wrote: post #207
p_ing wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reread my comment. Yes, macOS (or ARM, here) wastes memory. For every 1KiB page you have, you're wasting 15KiB of memory.

That's just how this works. It's a performance vs. efficiency tradeoff.

And there's nothing special about your workload. It's small in comparison to many others that many other OSes on many other ISAs, including Windows & x86 w/ AWE, have been running for quite some time with no issue.

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

#286

Post by zozbot234 »

reactordev wrote: post #256
zozbot234 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

I don’t wear glasses, I can see pixels on a 1080p screen just fine whereas on a Retina display or anything with 4k+ I can’t at a normal distance. Glad you know how my eyes work. You probably will say next that I can’t see the refresh.

You can see pixels up close on a 1080p screen if you have good eyesight, but that's not the way you're supposed to work with a screen as a matter of ergonomics. Even on a laptop, you're always looking at the screen as a whole, not just seeing a tiny portion of it in your field of view.

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

#287

Post by pxc »

breakfastduck wrote: post #234
pxc wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sound on MacBooks is impressively loud and clear, but it's also not actually good sound . Because it couldn't be, in that form factor. So for things where you actually care about good sound (i.e., music, movies, TV), you probably still want headphones or speakers anyway.

it does actually sound good

If you bought even a small bluetooth speaker that sounded the same as an MBP, you'd think "this thing kinda sucks... no bass, but at least it's small; what do you expect". Either that or you aren't someone who cares about sound (which is fine)

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

#288

Post by slater »

amelius wrote: post #270
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…

> it really sounds like there is some reality distortion field in the mac world It's probably because when everybody including your mom and dad has an Apple device, you really need something like the RDF to stay cool. Anyway, I don't understand the evangelism around Apple. Evangelism is by definition toxic.

Yes, it couldn't possibly be because, y'know, Apple devices are actually good.

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

#289

Post by dismalaf »

> I had to replace my full mainboard as the GPU was broken within the first two weeks, so that might be bad luck. 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.

Having to replace a board and only lasting 5 years is good?

I had a ThinkPad that lasted almost 10 years, then an Acer Swift which lasted 5 years and was doing great until our home burnt down in a wildfire (!!), and now I have a several years old MSI which is doing fine. Also never needed any repairs for any laptop I've ever bought...

Seeing that quote makes me think Apple quality is shit...

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

#290

Post by kaladin-jasnah »

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…

Interestingly, I really don't like MacBook trackpads. The actuation force is too high for my taste. Maybe this has changed.
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