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One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

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Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#291

Post by dijksterhuis »

NewOrderNow wrote: post #179

There are so many small things that really frustrate me with the Mac and understandably considering I am back on Linux. However, I have a 2010 15" MacBook Pro that I bought used. It is god awful to work on, but I can still run scripts, ssh, browse the web (for the most part), and play emulators. This is thing is slow and bordering useless, but I genuinely never had any tech product for 10 years work for well. 10 year…

> This is thing is slow and bordering useless, but I genuinely never had any tech product for 10 years work for well. 10 years, only changed the charger and HD once. Everything else is still working, including a really nice touch pad.

Same here! I still do web browsing, mail and audio editing on my 10 year old 15" MBP. My FireWire audio interface still hooks up perfectly all the time.

The 2010 MBP range honestly seem like the last ones that were built to last. I've upgraded the OS HD to an SSD (made a world of difference) and replaced the CD/DVD with a second 1TB storage drive.

Looking to move to a system 76 or purism as most of my development is happening on a Linux desktop. I've been way more productive and enjoyed myself more developing on Linux.

Not overly concerned about the trackpad conversations -- I like me so buttons to tap. Only concern is battery usage, but the system76 lemur pro seems to have that sorted pretty well.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#292

Post by princevegeta89 »

I always find polished Linux DE's like cinnamon, Gnome 3, Pantheon and unity to be top notch and more usable than OSX.

I'm surprised Mac OS has never had an overhaul of the look, on their windows, buttons, icons or anything. On the other hand, I absolutely find it to be nightmare to navigate in Finder - the shortcuts are a mess.. and there is no address bar at all! Other than that I also do find Mac OS to be slower than Linux due to some bloat. On an overall scale, software availability is almost on par with Mac OS. The only drawback for Linux is graphics applications like Photoshop aren't just either available, or not hardware accelerated properly.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#293

Post by asciimov »

Some tips from someone who's been doing this linux laptop thing for a long while now (6 year's ago, I replaced my aging MBP with a cheap HP)

0. TAKE NOTES! Make a setup doc that keeps up with the issues of setting up your computer. ie... I have to do some funky things to get my onboard speakers to work, I never remember how to do it, but my notes remember it for me.

1. The trackpad will suck. Just get an external trackball or mouse, use it instead.

2. Pay for a good built-in keyboard.

3. Make sure you can swap your network card. I have my preference on manufacturer. For historical reasons I typically replace whatever it comes with.

4. If graphics matter to you, avoid NVidia GPU's.

5. Avoid laptops with restrictive bioses. (wifi whitelists, wont let you change boot order but supports two drives, etc)

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#294

Post by se32point1 »

deathanatos wrote: post #176
krooj wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It just works with external displays" - ಠ_ಠ

My previous MBP and 4k monitor would, on every other connection, not recognize the USB devices. So every other time I plugged into the monitor, I had to un-plug & re-plug to get the peripherals. I also have a Linux Thinkpad. It's not perfect either , but it is definitely better. The Linux Thinkpad also more reliably associates with my Bose headphones. It was hard to pair them the first time around, but after that, th…

Alacritty + tmux is pretty good too, but not very user friendly. Although.. it's a lot faster.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#295

Post by RMPR »

chainwax wrote: post #192
x87678r wrote: post #71

I was looking at larger laptops to run Linux but they aren't cheap so MBP doesn't look such bad value. I want 15in screen with higher than 1080 resolution, 16GB memory, good battery life and there really isn't much less than $1500 from the main brands that will run Linux well. Any suggestions? Otherwise the MBP16 looks not such bad value as I know it'll be reliable.

I've been running a Thinkpad X1 Carbon with those specs for about two years. They're pretty cheap on the used (ebay) market.

The thinkpad X1 carbon screen is 14'' though

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#296

Post by hollandheese »

markussss wrote: post #248
ohsonice wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use bettertouchtool to get window snapping. And you can turn off the animation when switching desktops in settings.

> I use bettertouchtool to get window snapping. This is not a good point at all. Having to rely on third party applications (without any good way to discover them) to provide something that is taken for granted everywhere else is a horrible user experience! It's the same if you want to use an external, non-Apple, completely normal HDMI monitor - use a third party application to make it use the default (for the monito…

Errr.. that's not true at all for the monitors or the mice.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#297

Post by cjbconnor »

markussss wrote: post #248
ohsonice wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use bettertouchtool to get window snapping. And you can turn off the animation when switching desktops in settings.

> I use bettertouchtool to get window snapping. This is not a good point at all. Having to rely on third party applications (without any good way to discover them) to provide something that is taken for granted everywhere else is a horrible user experience! It's the same if you want to use an external, non-Apple, completely normal HDMI monitor - use a third party application to make it use the default (for the monito…

I've never had issues with default resolution/refresh rate on any external monitors, including a non-conventional 1080p 240hz monitor that I use daily. Mice work normally for me as well, and you can change the scroll direction in system preferences if you want.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#298

Post by GekkePrutser »

zdragnar wrote: post #229
kube-system wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just grabbed my multimeter -- my MagSafe MacBook has continuity from the metal chassis to the grounding lug of the power adapter. It stands to reason that a properly grounded outlet used in conjunction with the 3-prong cable would dissipate such a charge -- and potentially, a live ground could introduce a charge.

I actually only notice it about 5% of the time I use it, and it is almost always plugged in at the same outlet, with the same charger (in this case, the two prong adapter). I seem to recall having tested all of the outlets in the house with an outlet tester, but it was two years ago so I'm not 100% sure.

Here in Europe the clip on plugs (duckheads) are not grounded. The extension cord you get with the MacBook too, is. So use that.

Not sure about US. But I think it's the same as the duckheads are only 2-prong iirc so they can't possibly be grounded.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#299

Post by saghm »

systemvoltage wrote: post #220
zdragnar wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am glad that you like your macbook, but your experience has been very different from mine. It has the worst WIFI radio in a laptop that i have used; one area of my house is basically off-limits to it despite every other Wi-Fi enabled device i own working there (phones and several laptop brands). The fancy metal case isnt properly grounded- I get occasionally a slight tingling /shock from it when I have it plugged i…

> It has the worst WIFI radio in a laptop that i have used This is an extremely disputable claim. Wifi chipset used by Apple is by far the best in class in my experience. I have 4 laptops - ASUS, Thinkpad, HP laptop from work and MBP 16". All of them get a visit to the special room once a week at least. If we use my commode as a benchmark of wifi radio performance, when I am sitting on it and watching Monty Python, I…

> > It has the worst WIFI radio in a laptop that i have used

> This is an extremely disputable claim

I don't think it is; GP couched their assertion pretty clearly as only referring to laptops that they have used. Your personal experience doesn't really change that.

Re: One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro)

#300

Post by robertoandred »

se32point1 wrote: post #288
robertoandred wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What trackballs offer free scrolling? And something done with a keyboard is by definition something not done with a mouse. And 3D touch is something that's very convenient.

I don't know if you answered my question: what is 3D Touch? Sure, it might be convenient, but it's hard for me to imagine without knowing what it is. > What trackballs offer free scrolling? My trackball (Marble Trackball from Logitech) offers it, with a little configuration. Effectively, you're holding down a button and using the ball as a scroll wheel, letting you move left and right. I can imagine that any trackbal…

3D Touch is where you press deeper to activate some function.

Sure, you can do lots of things with a keyboard. But your suggestion was that a mouse is faster and more useful than a trackpad.

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