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Moving from Macbook to Linux

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Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#311

Post by radlad »

veddox wrote: post #202
anderspitman wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Arch. I love it and I think it's gotten a easier to install over the years (hard to gauge because I also understand more), but it does lean towards the minimalist side. The big win for me is using a lightweight window manager (i3 in my case), which you can do with any distro. My main recommendation is stick with one of the major distros because you'll get more results when you search for solutions to issues. Wi…

How often do you run into packaging problems? As in, you need some software but it‘s only available for Linux via the Ubuntu repos?

I more often run into this issue on Debian-based distros than on Arch, due to the Arch User Repository (AUR).

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#312

Post by symlinkk »

phs318u wrote: post #216
fsflover wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux always works out of the box on my Librem 15, which was designed to run Linux from the beginning.

That’s exactly why, after 17 years as an Apple user, I settled on a System76 Lemur Pro, rather than a Lenovo or Dell . The OS integration (Pop-OS) is excellent, and the hardware explicitly supported.

Both Lenovo and Dell offer laptops with Linux preinstalled and therefore guarantee that the hardware is fully supported

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#313

Post by aequitas »

horsawlarway wrote: post #85
bsaul wrote: post #25

The fact that many people reading this post title (including me) look at it with sarcasm is telling on how apple scored big points with its new cpu. Keeping up with mac OS and the trackpad was already quite hard, but CPU could be the killing blow. Which could lead us in a few years to a situation where mac developers will face the same fate as ios developers : forced to buy hardware to sign their app, forced to push…

Don't buy their shit. Period. Wayland already has trackpad support that's nearly identical to macOS. Gnome with a dock is basically the same desktop experience - Pick a distro of your choice. I can honestly say I prefer my linux XPS to my work macbook, by a large margin. Plus - It doesn't spy on me. I actually own it. I can release software through channels that aren't entirely abusive. Basically - The only thing App…

> Gnome with a dock is basically the same desktop experience - Pick a distro of your choice.

No it's not, macOS has a fundamentally different approach to apps and windows. Where you open only 1 app instance that can run multiple document windows. You switch between apps, and can then switch between windows in that app. This can partly be immitated in the window manager, but not all apps will work well with this pattern. Also standardized keyboard shortcuts, spelling check, secrets management and general app behaviour is hit and miss on Linux. Whereas on macOS most apps adhere to the human interface guidelines. This consistency and predictability gives me a greater efficiency on Mac over Linux system. I tried going back to Linux for 1,5 years when my then employer didn't allow me to work on a Mac and no matter how much I tweaked it, I could never get the same enjoyment and productivity compared to macOS.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#314

Post by m1 »

csomar wrote: post #126
gorgoiler wrote: post #99

This is going to sound dumb or elitist but I am so much happier working since I ditched portable computing. I have a desk at home in an office. I have the same setup at work. I don’t carry my dev environment with me. When I need to work I go to the ’do work stuff’ place. Nice keyboard. Nice mouse. And a nice OS that, yes, took a whole day to configure but over which I have total control. (Full-screen focus-mode no-or…

I think desk setups are underrated. I got (a relatively cheap) one this March and the difference is touchable. I went the gamers way: Gamer keyboard, Gamer Mouse + pad, 3 screens, AMD for processor, nvme and also ArchLinux. Needless to say, I can no longer work on macOS or an Apple device. The speeds you get with a bare-bone install and a window manager are unparalleled.

I went down the same route and wouldn’t change a thing. The difference really is striking.

Just curious, as I’m looking to upgrade the processor that I bought - are AMD processors widely known as being better than Intel?

Not trying to start an argument about which is better, I’m just genuinely curious as I have no idea as I’m not a gamer and have always gone for Intel processors.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#315

Post by ChrisLTD »

bsaul wrote: post #25

The fact that many people reading this post title (including me) look at it with sarcasm is telling on how apple scored big points with its new cpu. Keeping up with mac OS and the trackpad was already quite hard, but CPU could be the killing blow. Which could lead us in a few years to a situation where mac developers will face the same fate as ios developers : forced to buy hardware to sign their app, forced to push…

> In Q3 2020, Apple had an 8.5% share of the market, up from 7% in Q3 2019. Apple ranks as the fourth largest PC maker, behind Lenovo, HP and Dell but ahead of Acer.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/10/12/apples-mac-sees-s...

The new Macs are fast and have great battery life, but I wouldn't worry about them taking over the market. Windows machines and Chromebooks are arguably better versus Macs now than in 2015 when you couldn't find a laptop outside of a Macbook with a decent trackpad or high resolution screen.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#316

Post by DavidVoid »

gorgoiler wrote: post #99

This is going to sound dumb or elitist but I am so much happier working since I ditched portable computing. I have a desk at home in an office. I have the same setup at work. I don’t carry my dev environment with me. When I need to work I go to the ’do work stuff’ place. Nice keyboard. Nice mouse. And a nice OS that, yes, took a whole day to configure but over which I have total control. (Full-screen focus-mode no-or…

That's why laptop docks are great! You get the portability benefits of a laptop while being able to use it as if it was a regular desktop with nice computer monitors and peripherals.

Couple it with a USB switch and you won't have to bother with unplugging cables when switching between your work laptop and your personal desktop. (The only thing I have to unplug and move between my laptop and desktop is my microphone cable).

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#317

Post by wayneftw »

gorgoiler wrote: post #99

This is going to sound dumb or elitist but I am so much happier working since I ditched portable computing. I have a desk at home in an office. I have the same setup at work. I don’t carry my dev environment with me. When I need to work I go to the ’do work stuff’ place. Nice keyboard. Nice mouse. And a nice OS that, yes, took a whole day to configure but over which I have total control. (Full-screen focus-mode no-or…

I got a refurbished HP desktop i7 that I bought two years ago for $300 on Amazon and upgraded the SSD and 32gb RAM for another $250 or so. I can run numerous instances of VS Code, Chrome, Slack, Postman, etc all day without even a hint of a slowdown. I also never hear my fans go on, not ever. I'm running Manjaro/XFCE... I think it does a minimal Windows style UI better than Windows.

My work is done in a nice quiet room and I don’t have to or want to travel. I never understood why people want to optimize for working on trains, planes and in meetings. Even when I was going into the office, I didn’t need to bring my computer home because I had the exact same machine at home since it was so cheap.

I do have a 2015 Macbook Pro and an Acer E5-575g laptop as well. If I feel like working on the couch or in bed, I can absolutely do that, but I never do. Mostly the Mac is just there to test Mac things or compile iOS things. The Acer was just so cheap and it also runs Manjaro perfectly.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#318

Post by nrvn »

Before I moved to macbook in 2014 I had had pretty positive experience with linux on the desktop.

I don’t want to disclose the reasons for that move since here is discussed the opposite but I have a question.

I absolutely loved my laptop and dwm instead of bloated desktop environments and I would be happy to move back to this universe.

BUT.

I got trapped to the apple’s ecosystem. I find it convenient to be able to share copy-paste buffer between my devices at hand. I find it useful that when I take a photo it gets uploaded somewhere and then I can see it on my laptop screen. Reminders, notes, music, phone backups.

I have a 7 year old tablet that still receives critical OS security updates.

If something turns my laptop, phone or tablet to ashes I can get a new one and get it back to the working condition pretty quickly. Laptop will require a bit more hassle because I don’t do backups and I haven’t created a provisioning script for it but still it is a matter of hours.

I don’t care about the logo and the company behind tools that I use. I just want a tool that fits my needs best and allows me to focus on things that are really important for me.

I want a phone/tablet that will still get official love and support from the vendor even 7 years after release.

I want my day to day getting things done be synced across my devices flawlessly.

I want smooth user experience and I don’t want spend my motherfucking time on choosing across multiple options related to the tools I use. Or at lease I am ready to spend some time in advance in order to forget about all that crap for a long while to focus on really interesting stuff.

Apple is very good at selling stuff to you. They are effing effective. Once you get one of their devices you will get used to it and will try more. And then out of a sudden you are surrounded by their shit. And it seems like you are happy about it.

Linux is fun. And the open source is fun. I am allergic to Android to the point of disgust. But what is the alternative to apple’s “ecosystem” in the open source world? Like phone, tablet and laptop/desktop + cloud sync among all three. I am ready to jump. Just tell me where.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#319

Post by nitrogen »

bsaul wrote: post #75
driverdan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That future looks extremely scary. What can we do, now, as developers ? Stop buying, using, and supporting the Apple ecosystem. Vote with your money. The new chips are faster. So what? The laptop you have today works fine, you don't need the latest and greatest hardware.

i code iOS (native) app for a living. I'm already stuck developing for the app store, using xcode to sign and deploy, using a programming language (that i love) swift that only really works on mac OS. My personal situation isn't going to change anytime soon unfortunately. I was about to dump my iphone next time i had to pick one (and keep my current one for testing), however my laptop is my work computer. I think "st…

My question now being : where to start ?

IMO what an alternative needs is momentum, mindshare, and a reality distortion field of its own. Find out how to get a million prople to believe in the need for a next thing, and convince them to cooperatively choose the same next thing. And somehow keep that thing from being mangled in the process.

Re: Moving from Macbook to Linux

#320

Post by monsieurbanana »

aequitas wrote: post #313
horsawlarway wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy their shit. Period. Wayland already has trackpad support that's nearly identical to macOS. Gnome with a dock is basically the same desktop experience - Pick a distro of your choice. I can honestly say I prefer my linux XPS to my work macbook, by a large margin. Plus - It doesn't spy on me. I actually own it. I can release software through channels that aren't entirely abusive. Basically - The only thing App…

> Gnome with a dock is basically the same desktop experience - Pick a distro of your choice. No it's not, macOS has a fundamentally different approach to apps and windows. Where you open only 1 app instance that can run multiple document windows. You switch between apps, and can then switch between windows in that app. This can partly be immitated in the window manager, but not all apps will work well with this patte…

Nobody asked, yet I'll say it nonetheless: I had the same experience, reversed.

Employer gave me a MacBook pro, I tried for a year to get used to it, but no matter how much I tweaked it I couldn't completely get out of the horrible (imo) experience that is Mac os Windows manager.

It I want to switch to an open window I'll switch to the freaking opened window, stop trying to hijack what open an app means.

Anyways, Mac os isn't bad, but you have to accept to give up a lot of things. It's their way, or nothing.

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