Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#31

Post by laurenstill » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:19 AM UTC

I spent most of my professional career in windows (healthcare, IE6, etc) but personally switch to ubuntu a couple years ago as I got into development. I do find myself reaching for my work MBP when I have to do video/photo editing stuff, but otherwise, I don't see a huge difference in productivity. Switched a couple of offices to OSS for admin, and that went surprisingly well.

My cell/tablet are android, so there was no real incentive to move to Mac from a house-compatibility standpoint.

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#32

Post by thex86 » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:19 AM UTC

CJefferson wrote: post #20

Yes, and I am happy. Life is particularly better for the C and C++ programmer. Valgrind's primary platform is Linux. For many years Mac owners were stuck with a horribly out of date and malfunctioning GCC, and even now with clang there are problems (the clang in xcode 5.0 has some horrible miscompiling bugs which were reported months before release). Is everything perfect in Linux? No. But overall I find it an improv…

Use Beamer for presentations [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamer_(LaTeX)] and never look back!

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#33

Post by claudius » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:20 AM UTC

siculars wrote: post #21

This. +100. I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Apple ecosystem. iProducts, iCloud, etc. I can't transfer this to that cause I'm not allowed, click here to accept this, turn on location services so we can track you - on your laptop. It's getting to be too much. What's the best laptop for running any Ubuntu flavored desktop?

> What's the best laptop for running any Ubuntu flavored desktop?

Thinkpads (the actual ones, not the cheap Ideapad-in-a-black-case-things). Of course, you don’t really save money compared to a Macbook, but the hardware appears (to me) much sturdier.

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#34

Post by teddyh » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:20 AM UTC

diminoten wrote: post #22

Tsiolkovsky wrote: post #2

I switched back to GNU/Linux about 3 years ago when I started noticing and becoming aware of this ugly trend with Apple. I just couldn't live with myself anymore if I didn't also act according to my belief in digital freedom and empowering people. so after some self-questioning I have decided to switch to GNU/Linux and free software.

So you're willfully less productive because you want to have a cleaner conscience?

Yes. For some people this is not a choice, as such. It’s like wearing slightly uglier, slightly less comfortable clothes because they weren’t made by child slave labor. Is there a true choice what to wear?

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#35

Post by aclevernickname » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:21 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #24

siculars wrote: post #21

This. +100. I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Apple ecosystem. iProducts, iCloud, etc. I can't transfer this to that cause I'm not allowed, click here to accept this, turn on location services so we can track you - on your laptop. It's getting to be too much. What's the best laptop for running any Ubuntu flavored desktop?

Are you wedded to Ubuntu? If not, Fedora is a pretty nice distro as well...

Most linux users start on Redhat/Fedora, and quickly leave due to the pain that is RPM. I left to gentoo. Most others take the debian/ubuntu path.

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#36

Post by buro9 » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:22 AM UTC

siculars wrote: post #21

This. +100. I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Apple ecosystem. iProducts, iCloud, etc. I can't transfer this to that cause I'm not allowed, click here to accept this, turn on location services so we can track you - on your laptop. It's getting to be too much. What's the best laptop for running any Ubuntu flavored desktop?

I switched a couple of years back, I'd highly recommend the Lenovo X series though any Lenovo is well-supported.

The only thing that didn't work instantly and perfectly on my Lenovo X220 the last time I built it (2 years ago) was the fingerprint reader, but as I use Yubikey I was OK with this (plus I found an online guide to getting it working that seemed pretty comprehensive and people were raving about).

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#37

Post by rob05c » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:22 AM UTC

I actually just switched from OS X to Linux about 3 months ago. I grew up with Windows, and started using Macs in college.

There were 2 big reasons I switched. (1) I wanted to build a desktop; the Mac Mini is underpowered and the Pro is wicked expensive. (2) Apple's competing in the courtroom disgusts me. I was a huge Apple fan, but I don't want to give them any more money.

Windows isn't an option to me. I love text and I love the POSIX shell. I find DOS abhorrent.

I don't really miss any conveniences. If you really want something pretty and easy, go with Ubuntu. It mostly just works. The only thing I really had trouble with was wireless drivers. I started with Ubuntu, and later switched to Arch with i3 (Tiling WMs are awesome).

Again, If you want something that's almost as pretty and almost as easy to set up, I highly recommend Ubuntu. Once you get settled in, I also recommend looking at Arch. Arch is a lot more work and learning to set up, don't start with it. But it's a better system once you have it configured your way.

It's been some work, learning Arch and fighting with wireless drivers. But I don't regret it. I'm extremely happy with my Arch+i3 system. It has Chromium, Steam, Minecraft--everything I need. I do wish Steam had more Linux games, but with the Steam Box, I think they're on their way.

ps. I don't recommend dual boot. I did dual and triple boot a few years back. It was just a big hassle. Get a machine and dive into Ubuntu. Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#38

Post by qq66 » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:23 AM UTC

galaktor wrote: post #29

jmduke wrote: post #15

I'll say something that's vaguely awful: what's in it for me? I use Linux at work and it's not bad , but I'm less productive on it with 95% of tasks than I would be with OSX. It looks worse (I recognize this is subjective.) A lot of my friends use Linux and tell me that if I spend the right amount of time tinkering with it -- making it mine -- I'd reap the benefits of a bespoke OS, just like slipping on a suit that's…

I know it's merely your opinion, but you seem to be using the terms "best" and "pretty" interchangeably. I find that very surprising, but maybe it's well-designed UX on Mac that you are referring to when you say "pretty"? Anyway, pretty is one of those things that I learned is worth sacrificing in favour of productivity - be that in code or when I choose my OS or tools.

Aesthetics does impact functionality. The paint scheme and wall decorations in a room can definitely affect one's productivity in that room, and I'm sure that effect would be dependent both on the person and on the task at hand.

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#39

Post by AdamN » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:23 AM UTC

siculars wrote: post #21

This. +100. I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with the Apple ecosystem. iProducts, iCloud, etc. I can't transfer this to that cause I'm not allowed, click here to accept this, turn on location services so we can track you - on your laptop. It's getting to be too much. What's the best laptop for running any Ubuntu flavored desktop?

People really like Samsung laptops for Linux as well.

Re: Ask HN: Have you considered switching from OS X to Linux?

#40

Post by teddyh » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 6:24 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #25

diminoten wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're willfully less productive because you want to have a cleaner conscience?

Where did he say anything about being less productive?

If you eliminate some number of products from your universe, random chance alone dictate that some of them must be the best at what they do, and you will be left with, for that program’s purpose, a product which makes you less productive.