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From OS X to Ubuntu

nicolas.perriault.net

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Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#391

Post by thewhitetulip »

innocenat wrote: post #289
thewhitetulip wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never had any complaints with Linux on laptop except battery life, it sucks. MacBooks have a battery life of at least 8hrs, my 2012 model has a battery life of 8hrs, I have to charge it once a week, since I don't use it for more than 2hrs daily.

I cannot compare to Mac, but my laptop running vanilla Ubuntu with default config of tlp is at least as good as, or better than, Windows 10.

Of course, Ubuntu's UI and basically everything is superior to Win10, but I am yet to see equivalents of 8hrs battery :-) (except if you buy a very costly Windows Laptop)

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#392

Post by activatedgeek »

flurdy wrote: post #303
pawadu wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Dell has a pretty nice web site despite having a huge range of products.

Yes and no. UI looks wise it is ok, but UX wise it is a nightmare. When I try to find a product I often can't find it. Or I can only find the previous year/range's version. Or I can only find it if I pretend to be in the US. Or mostly it is out of stock. And all this time direct links works so the products exists, I just cant find them consistently. Went through this recently trying to find the XPS13 DE for a friend.…

I believe that is solely the reason some listing websites came up just to search for products. Plus in most cases, you really aren't suited for the whole range. Trade-offs.

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#393

Post by csdreamer7 »

aruggirello wrote: post #290

Shameless plug: wish me good luck - I'm going to open an ecommerce for Linux- & BSD- preinstalled laptop & desktop computers in Italy (because that's where I live). Mind you, it's a small business, initially limited to reselling OEM-preinstalled systems already available in the wholesale market, but if it works, I'm planning to launch my own models, too. Any suggestions?

Resell System76 (or Dell) laptops and offer add on tech support or training (in Italian). I have a feeling reselling and offering add on services will be more profitable and easier (and would better server Linux adoption in Italy).

One person was complaining about custom duties and warranty issues in Europe.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13364334

As I wrote in another comment System76 does little things such as flash custom firmware and bios to make the computer more Linux friendly.

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#394

Post by gurkendoktor »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #382
akarambir wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent is from Taiwan and not China. They are different countries(for most parts of world). Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan,_China >> However, the term is problematic and potentially ambiguous because since 1949, two sovereign states with the name "China" exist, namely the Republic of China (ROC, founded 1912 and now commonly known as "Taiwan") and the People's Republic of China (PRC, founded 1949 and…

Sort of different countries that share a sea border and a common tongue, I have at least a base understanding of 20th century Chinese history. It would be bizarre if you were unable to buy a Linux laptop in Canada if 40% of Dell's sold in America came with Linux.

It's a sea border with visa requirements and mutual distrust, and the US does not hide behind a Great Firewall (yet :P). I don't even think the common tongue helps a lot, both the characters/translations and the physical keyboard are different. In my experience, the IT world in Taiwan is pretty independent and not any closer to China's than to that of the USA/Western world.

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#395

Post by developer2 »

hobarrera wrote: post #191
rl3 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We need another closed-source unix/linux-based operating system that throws away X.org and its attempted modern replacements, that can directly compete with OS X. In context of laptops, Microsoft is in a position to kick serious ass on this front should they wish to. Their Surface hardware line is vastly superior to Apple at the moment. Windows Subsystem For Linux (WSL) looks promising but is still in its infancy.…

I don't get why people insist that the whole "bash on windows" things makes it a suitable replacement for Linux. It's like when people say "oh, but OS X has a terminal as well". I don't use Linux just because of the terminal. Package managers (and the ability to deterministically install/uninstall packages!!) are one of the strongest pilars. WMs I like are another (we'll each have a preference, mine bine i3wm). And f…

>> Windows is still so, so far from all of those, that it's still not even close to being a suitable replacement.

As a developer who does not develop using any Microsoft technologies, this couldn't be farther from the truth. I left my previous job specifically because all 600+ employees were unequivocally required to use Windows. The company and coworkers were by far the best I've worked with, but it became no longer worth the daily frustration of fighting my toolset just to even try and get work done. Oh, you are using VMs on Windows? No, you cannot have a case-sensitive folder share. Symlinks accessible on both the host and guest? Never!

Windows is a disaster. Neither Putty nor cygwin provide an acceptable remote terminal, and PowerShell is a joke as a local console. Multiple monitors with multiple spaces/desktops per screen is impossible to use on a native install, and the third party offerings are all buggy beyond belief. Win+Tab looks like something a 5 year old would design.

I'm back to working for a company who will buy the hardware you request. I finally realized I'm senior enough to be able to ask for the hardware and software licenses I need to be productive; any pushback during the interviewing phase or post-interview negotiations simply means I move on to the next company. I am grateful to have reached the point where I have the freedom to choose.

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#396

Post by developer2 »

chubuntu wrote: post #185
developer2 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Linux laptops: buy pre-installed. The fact that hardware - though much improved in the past 15 years - is still a crapshoot on Linux, particularly when it comes to laptop hardware, is so frustrating. Windows will work on practically any combination of hardware. OS X will work on any hardware it is permitted to operate on. Linux is the only consortium of operating systems that still suffer from the inability to "ju…

Asterisk show up fine if followed by white space * ... The question is how to show (asterisk)nix? Apparently three asterisks + nix = *nix

Ha! Funny enough, triple asterisk actually renders as * - an empty tag followed by a single asterisk. Oh, HN, you. But thank you, something that visually renders properly.

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#397

Post by dirtyhenry »

pawadu wrote: post #287
dirtyhenry wrote: post #258

My main point to stick to macOS is the lack of any solid alternative to Xcode for iOS development. For a non-development environment, I think Raspbian provides a good enough experience. #stuckForever

This is because Apple wants to lock you in. It is your choice to stay with the platform or get out. Fun fact: if you remote login into a OSX machine you wont be allowed to build and publish iOS apps. Apple has disabled that on purpose. Think about that for a minute!

Sure, but I make my income from developing iOS apps. And I really enjoy it. I just wish Xcode tools (maybe just CLI tools) would be available on Linux platforms. Maybe with Swift getting popular...

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#398

Post by fb03 »

jdhawk wrote: post #339
fb03 wrote: post #338

I consider this a sad reality, being a huge FOSS fan and systems admin with several deployed/mantained linux servers, but, for most power users: -> Right now, if you can, have all three operating systems available, according to your needs and each system's software coverage strengths and weaknesses. Expanding (and this is where it might get controversial): If you game (for real), make music (for real) or produce vide…

> This VM even finds and uses all my displays Are you using VirtualBox? VMWare? I have had hell getting this to work properly.

I am using Virtualbox with the "Oracle Extension Pack" (to get USB2.0 etc) on Win10. These tips work just fine on Windows 7 as well.

In the VM config, be sure to set virtual displays to the same number of monitors you have/are using on Windows. Then install the guest addons on your distro and make sure it is working correctly (ex.: you don't need to lock your mouse inside the VM, etc).

Sometimes, "guest addons" version mismatch causes the video driver to do funny stuff or just not work at all, falling back to svga, so I recommend (as much as I dislike this course of action) that you install the same "guest addons" pack on your Linux guest that comes with your instaled VirtualBox. That means not using the distro-packaged version of it (Ubuntu/Debian has the pack on their repos but they are usually outdated).

Also, up the Vm's VIDEO MEMORY to like 128mb or so. It starts too low on VBox's default config and without a big enough framebuffer, even with everything working perfectly you won't see your displays resize to full resolution. If you can make your windows really tiny and the desktop resizes accordingly, but can't make them change size dynamically once you get to a certain point, it's probably lacking virtual video memory.

Hope I could help!

o/

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#399

Post by aruggirello »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #393
aruggirello wrote: post #290

Shameless plug: wish me good luck - I'm going to open an ecommerce for Linux- & BSD- preinstalled laptop & desktop computers in Italy (because that's where I live). Mind you, it's a small business, initially limited to reselling OEM-preinstalled systems already available in the wholesale market, but if it works, I'm planning to launch my own models, too. Any suggestions?

Resell System76 (or Dell) laptops and offer add on tech support or training (in Italian). I have a feeling reselling and offering add on services will be more profitable and easier (and would better server Linux adoption in Italy). One person was complaining about custom duties and warranty issues in Europe. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13364334 As I wrote in another comment System76 does little things such a…

They're surely among those that I'm going to contact. Just a curiosity: I have read about some laptop robustness and touchpad / build quality issues here on HN - I just don't remember the thread. Though honestly, I have read similar things about MBP (or was it MBA) too... Did you buy from them? What's your experience?

Re: From OS X to Ubuntu

#400

Post by csdreamer7 »

aruggirello wrote: post #399
csdreamer7 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resell System76 (or Dell) laptops and offer add on tech support or training (in Italian). I have a feeling reselling and offering add on services will be more profitable and easier (and would better server Linux adoption in Italy). One person was complaining about custom duties and warranty issues in Europe. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13364334 As I wrote in another comment System76 does little things such a…

They're surely among those that I'm going to contact. Just a curiosity: I have read about some laptop robustness and touchpad / build quality issues here on HN - I just don't remember the thread. Though honestly, I have read similar things about MBP (or was it MBA) too... Did you buy from them? What's your experience?

> Did you buy from them? What's your experience?

Yes, twice, very good. Check my other comments for more info. Long story short, the Lemur is an excellent little laptop that replaced two large pieces of crap from HP and Dell. AMD cut support for the graphics a month or so after I bought it, and it always ran very hot. The Dell's usb ports shorted out. I have never had that happen before.

The only problem I have had is with Intel. Intel does not get mature launch support in their drivers until well after launch. My Ivy Bridge Lemur would freeze once in a while after resuming. I do not think it was fixed until Ubuntu 13.04 (It came with 12.04). I had to put Manjaro on my Skylake Lemur to get Mesa 13 to get all the issues fixed. Skylake has been out more than a year, and Mesa 13 came out recently. Skylake has not been as bad as Sandy Bridge, but still a problem.

> some laptop robustness and touchpad / build quality issues

Do not have issues with the touchpad.

Compared to the HP and the Dell I bought the Lemurs handle heat very well, build quality seems very good. The Skylake and later Lemur's have a very sleek, modern look. The Ivy Bridge Lemur has a boxer look that you can see with other laptop models.

I do not know what you mean by 'laptop robustness'. I knocked the Ivy Bridge Lemur onto the floor and it survived. The power plug was off centered because it fell on it's power input, but it was like $20 USD to fix. The shipping cost me more.

My advice to you would be to always request the latest Ubuntu.

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