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So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

richardmavis.info

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Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#391
post #18

(That color theme is... not for me.) I long for the Linux prairies of old, but I've grown fat and lazy on OSX. Linux is a youngster's game. Apple got it wrong in 2016 but there are signs that we might have passed "iPhone peak"... maybe they will be forced to pay attention again to us old farts.

> I long for the Linux prairies of old, but I've grown fat and lazy on OSX. Linux is a youngster's game.

45 years old here and still rocking Linux (does that qualify as "old" - probably - sigh). Started playing with it in 1995 (MonkeyLinux on DOS!); haven't stopped.

Stuff's gotten dirt-simple compared to what I remember having to do in the past. Certainly no kernel recompiles needed any longer (but if you really wanted to, you can do them).

Have I gotten "fat and lazy"? Yep - just on Linux. I can't see that changing in the future, either...

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#392

This is daft - the switch to Linux from macOS is done entirely out of some moronic desire to be different and very little to do with functionality. Windows to Linux I can Understand but the HN hive mind defends Linux like their firstborn. Let it go. It’s a lot of work for very little upside. Let the downvotes come

Please, enlighten me further about my aspirations and motivations.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#393

Hooking up three monitors, 2 of which are 4k onto Ubuntu is the most frustrating thing I've done with that OS. It just works on OSX though. Rough spots is a good way to describe it. Overall it works... But not without effort and competence.

Not exactly your experience, but using a single (non-4k) external monitor is slightly painful for me with my MBP. It sometimes takes ~10 seconds for my display to work after plugging it in, with lots of intermittent flickering as the OS "figures it out". And afterwards, the menu bar on the external is a bit glitchy looking on the right side until I click on it. With my other laptop running Fedora the experience is mu…

Apple introduced some issues in recent generations of hardware that I haven't heard many people talk about. A recent Macbook and Macbook Pro with USB-C using an Apple's USB-C to HDMI adapter had terrible connection issues for me. I did hear a few references online from others with the same issue. Using a 2009 and 2011 Thunderbolt to HDMI the same monitor worked fine.

I fixed the issue by using a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter made by a third party. I think that also allowed 4k at 60Hz. I later switched to a multi-port adapter with HDMI out and didn't have this problem.

This problem was horrible noise and loss of connection. People hate dongles for the convenience and price factor, but I think everyone underestimates how it introduces technical and compatibility issues.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent analysis. After using i3 for about 3-4 years, I have to admit that I'm always a bit lost on floating WMs now and feel like an idiot for a few minutes until I'm somewhat comfortable again. To me tiling WMs are just vastly superior. Anecdotally, most people I know that have seriously tried to use a tiling WM usually end up sticking with them.

Is this true for you on a laptop as well? I could imagine this on something where I had a lot of screen real estate. But when I'm coding, in one virtual desktop I'll typically have the IDE, a few terminal windows, and a couple of browsers going. With a 14" screen, I can't imagine how I'd make a tiling window manager work.

For me it's true especially on a laptop. Mousing is even more painful on a laptop than a desktop.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#395

Hooking up three monitors, 2 of which are 4k onto Ubuntu is the most frustrating thing I've done with that OS. It just works on OSX though. Rough spots is a good way to describe it. Overall it works... But not without effort and competence.

That doesn't "Just work" on Windows 7 or 10, though, so not sure it's a failure on the part of Linux as much as a success on the part of macOS.

Since there are counter-anecdotes, I'll throw in my supporting anecdote: I've had endless problems with multi-monitor on Windows 10. Especially if they're different display densities.

Windows that go out of bounds and are un-retrievable, permanently glitched window-content rendering when moving between densities, inaccurate mouse positions, desktops that resize to like 320x200 and then to the actual (shrinking every window and mashing all icons together, and breaking the notification area and status bar area in the process), I don't think I've ever had it work out-of-the-box even once on multiple machines and multiple monitors / projectors / etc. Some of this only occurs the first time it learns a new setup, but much of it just keeps happening randomly.

On macs for like the past 5+ years? Almost perfect behavior, for almost every OS version, except on apps that clearly do their own thing (e.g. IntelliJ sometimes shrinks to nothingness, and Steam is just hot garbage much of the time).

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#396

Hooking up three monitors, 2 of which are 4k onto Ubuntu is the most frustrating thing I've done with that OS. It just works on OSX though. Rough spots is a good way to describe it. Overall it works... But not without effort and competence.

> Hooking up three monitors... My exact same problem! How did you solve it ?

I had a similar problem the last days. I have an Alienware 15 R3 with GTX 1070. Using Ubuntu 18.04 (LTS... kernel 4.15, I think) didn’t work, also the latest Manjaro (kernel 4.19) didn’t. Using Ubuntu 18.10 (Kernel 4.18) I was able to hook up 2x 4Ks (1x USB-C to HDMI and 1x Mini-DP to Display Port) and 1x QHD (1440p) via HDMI; I was also able to use the laptop screen (1080p). I think only the Mini-DP to DP is outputting at 60 Hz, the other 2 screens at 30 Hz. I think turning off Thunderbolt 3 on the USB-C port was possible in Ubuntu 18.10 which made the difference (I also read in a forum that this made a difference for someone else; but I couldn’t turn off Thunderbolt 3 in my BIOS).

I think in the latest kernel developments there have been lots of updates on USB-C and ports in general.

But that’s why I like Linux as well; it gives me the options to use different distributions and environments. It might be messy sometimes, but I’m not locked in to one vendor.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#397
post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly your experience, but using a single (non-4k) external monitor is slightly painful for me with my MBP. It sometimes takes ~10 seconds for my display to work after plugging it in, with lots of intermittent flickering as the OS "figures it out". And afterwards, the menu bar on the external is a bit glitchy looking on the right side until I click on it. With my other laptop running Fedora the experience is mu…

Apple introduced some issues in recent generations of hardware that I haven't heard many people talk about. A recent Macbook and Macbook Pro with USB-C using an Apple's USB-C to HDMI adapter had terrible connection issues for me. I did hear a few references online from others with the same issue. Using a 2009 and 2011 Thunderbolt to HDMI the same monitor worked fine. I fixed the issue by using a USB-C to DisplayPort…

The worst thing about dongles is that the shape of the connector is not the sole interface differentiator.

I plug in a display port to HDMI adapter to find that it's not the right kind of HDMI and therefore only does 30hz.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#398
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main thing is understanding that the system python installation should be left alone and you should install each app/project in a separate virtualenv / venv so their versions of Python & installed packages are isolated from the system and each other. This also tends to get rid of about 99% of the times where someone try "sudo " before reading the error message. These days I tend to recommend using https://pipenv.…

I was looking at venv, but I guess not fully looking through into deployment. Do you know if venv works with setup.py bdist_rpm or is there nothing standard linking the two concepts?

You should not mix bdist_rpm and venv; but you can build eggs or wheels with bdist_egg/bdist_whl and install these into venv.

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#399
Same story here, ditched Apple. It's less the money, more the attitude. I have never liked their keyboards.

Gentoo dying semi-frequently became tedious, so I'm currently on NixOS despite issues. My perfect OS would be the power of a Gentoo-style build from source distro combined with a functional management layer performing versioned system snapshots out of the box (but allowing COW for easy additions, unlike NixOS) so you could combine the best of both worlds.

In the future I look forward to a detachable screen and hotels, offices and transportation with standardized secure wireless screencasting... and will someone replace the international mains power plugs with a new multi-voltage (DC on demand) standard already!

Re: So Long, Macbook. Hello Again, Linux

#400
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you pretend that the "middle mouse button" clipboard doesn't exist (it is a feature that many are not even aware of) you then using the the regular one instead is a piece of cake. In Linux, all applications use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. The exception is inside the terminal, where you need to use Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V (due Ctrl+C already having a meaning there).

I spend somewhere around 30% of the time in a terminal, and the remainder outside of it. I am a former mac user, and after a year and a half the Ctrl+Shift+C thing still drives me mad. Shortcuts are just better on the OSX side of the fence (not perfect, but way better). IMHO, global actions (copy, paste, select all, cut, undo, redo, etc.) should be mapped to one modifier (say AltGr) and local actions to another (say…

> the Ctrl+Shift+C thing

I don't know about others, but with terminator[0] I'm able to map Ctrl+C to copy - but if nothing is selected, then ^C works as normal. Is that what you're looking for?

0: https://gnometerminator.blogspot.com/p/introduction.html

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