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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

#371

Post by aeblyve »

mattbettinson wrote: post #367

Excuse my ignorance but how does OS development even work? Being a mostly web developer, it just seems to arcane to change an OS - like, pre-application layer.

Not unlike web development, you're working against a contract (in this case, CPU instructions/features, storage formats, bus formats) defined by some megacorporate legacy. You also have support from pieces of embedded firmware running inside storage devices or other peripherals.

The book at http://ostep.org gets into some details.

Another useful illuminator: https://gwern.net/computers

As much as possible is generally done using simulators before testing on any real hardware.

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

#372

Post by zackify »

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…

The trackpad still cannot be beaten. Please someone show me one that can compare haha

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

#373

Post by solardev »

mattbettinson wrote: post #367

Excuse my ignorance but how does OS development even work? Being a mostly web developer, it just seems to arcane to change an OS - like, pre-application layer.

Once you're smart enough, the oscilloscope isn't that different from console.log().

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

#374

Post by stainablesteel »

reacharavindh wrote: post #135

> fan noise. > battery level not the same. > touchpad. The reasons for not using Linux on the laptop remains the same after decades :-(

i've been using linux for over a decade and had none of these problems on 5 machines that i'd installed it on

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

#375

Post by solardev »

spangry wrote: post #11

Oh darn, I thought they'd gotten Arch running on an M1 but they actually switched to a ThinkBook. I somewhat regret my expensive switch from Linux to MacOS. MacOS is just so weird, it doesn't make any sense to me. For the first time in my life I feel like some tech-illiterate grandpa trying to figure out how to make his blasted computer do stuff.

As someone who grew up on DOS, Windows, OS/2 and Linux, macOS definitely took some getting used to (and I still have many gripes with it, especially the window management). Rectangle makes it better: https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle

That said, though, Macbooks are far and away the best laptop hardware you can get right now, and the combination of a POSIX/unix-like CLI environment and the ability to run common general-user desktop apps (Adobe/Microsoft/entertainment/etc) is very nice. On Linux you'd have to emulate some of the desktop apps, and on Windows you'd have to use WSL or Docker or such to gain a good *nix shell. And you'd have to put up with all the Windows ad spam and copilot spam.

But I do wish Apple would allow other operating systems on their laptops, and properly support them. I'd love to be able to properly BootCamp into Asahi or Windows for Arm with all the required drivers, etc.

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

#376

Post by noisy_boy »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #75
throwmeaway222 wrote: post #56

I don't know if anyone else agrees, but for some reason no one can replicate the smoothness of the Apple trackpad. And now with that PLUS the heatless apple silicon - I don't think I could go to another OS and the x86 hardware world. I would just feel like I'm in clunky-land. Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot about Linux desktops, but Mac gets a lot of things right. I don't want to take anything away from people m…

I actually hooked up my magic trackpad to Linux at some point because I got so frustrated with the crappy touchpad on my Samsung laptop. I also have a logitech wireless mouse for it. Anything is better than that crappy touchpad. The point is that Apple's magic trackpad actually works great on Linux too. Smooth, responsive. accurate, multi touch and gestures, and all the rest. Just works. More or less exactly like it…

> Intel/AMD laptops are so completely miserably dreadful these days. Apple makes great hardware. Great screens, keyboard, trackpads, CPUs, etc.

Keyboard? Better than a Thinkpad keyboard?!

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

#377

Post by alanpearce »

commandersaki wrote: post #359
baq wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user I don't care whose fault is it. I want my laptop to go to sleep when I close the lid; I want it to stay asleep while the lid is closed; I want it to wake when I open the lid. Only macs seem to be able to do that consistently; I'd be glad to be proven wrong, but over the past decade I haven't found a counterexample yet.

I don't think that's even true with my m3 mbp16. I haven't tweaked with the power settings but I'm pretty sure it is in a connected sleep state when I close the lid; at least when I'm hotspotting my phone will register it as a connected device.

This can be enabled or disabled under the System Settings > Battery > Options > Wake for network access (Always / Power adapter / Never). Or possibly the phone registers it as connected for a while after it sends its last packet?

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

#378

Post by wltr »

mirzap wrote: post #180
hermanzegerman wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really come off as a Hardcore Apple Fanboy > Its not only the Pros, no "high-end" laptop running Windows or Linux with just 8GB of RAM can perform better than a MacBook Air with 8GB Doesn't matter because for the equivalent price you can load up your non-Apple Machine with RAM to the Max, same with SSD Storage. With a MacBook you would need to prepare to cough up, up to 9k more than the base model for a huge SSD…

I use WebStorm, CLion, Cursor, 2-3 Claude Code instances, Chrome/Brave with 50+ tabs, Docker, and a bunch of other things on MacBook Air all at the same time. It works. Never freezes. Never crashes. I tried that on Windows recently, and now on Arch with a lot more memory (32), and it simply can't handle it. I reboot daily. Freezes in the middle of the work. It may be the issue with nvidia drivers as other pointed out…

I don’t know for sure, I need to confirm it, but it feels like my similarly specced Arch machine would just shrug at it. It’s a 10 years old PC, yet it feels like it’s a non issue for it to handle this. I bet my MacBook Pro from 2014 (with Arch too) won’t even start a fan. It depends on these 50 tabs, I guess, but the rest is just doesn’t feel like a big deal to handle.

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

#379

Post by solardev »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #67
rogerrogerr wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, what is it that doesn’t make sense?

I can't figure out how to set a shortcut that moves the current window to my other monitor. Always have to go into the toolbar to do it. Edit: And oh! Why do I constantly have to (painfully manually) maximize windows. Preview is constantly choosing a different size, for example. Why is this not remembered. I can't recall the last time an application in linux forgot its size after restarting.

Give https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle a try... or Magnet, if you prefer a paid app: https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle

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

#380

Post by runjake »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #175
AstroBen wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case it for sure makes sense, but for the user like the writer who is new to linux? I'm very happy I went through the pain of setting everything up from scratch. It taught me how it all works. I just don't see how I'd get that same knowledge ever with Omarchy

Not everyone wants that deep of a knowledge. Not everyone has a spare machine to tinker with. With Omarchy you get a working good looking OS with thought out defaults and built in themes. It's ready to use, but can be customized.

Yep, these were my points, too.

To think, back in the 70s/80s before Minix and Linux, many of us had to do illegal things to even get access to computers running UNIX.

The entry barrier was high and risky, and so was the desire to learn.

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