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Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

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Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#41

Post by anta40 »

ufo wrote: post #26
throw93232 wrote: post #20

Macbook air is like $1000. People can afford it. Problem is shitty hardware. SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery...

In Brazil where I'm from a Macbook Air costs about ~8x the average monthly income. It's out of reach for most people.

I just checked local marketplaces (I'm in Jakarta, BTW): Macbook Air M1 13" 16 GB 256 GB (the minimum configuration for us, mobile devs) is around $1400.

Sure not cheap, but on the otherside lots of us have monthly income > $1000, especially if you are a senior or team lead on unicorn startups. So... still manageable.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#42

Post by nkrisc »

throw93232 wrote: post #20

Macbook air is like $1000. People can afford it. Problem is shitty hardware. SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery...

The one thing that keeps me using Macs for my laptop is hardware: the touchpad. If there's a non-Mac laptop out there that has a touchpad that comes even close to rivaling that of a MacBook I'd love to know what it is because I've not found it for myself.

When I'm using my laptop, I'm typically in situations where I'm not using a mouse, and the MacBook touchpad is lightyears ahead of anything else I've ever used. As far as I'm concerned, it's perfect.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#43

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

thetinguy wrote: post #34
throw93232 wrote: post #20

Macbook air is like $1000. People can afford it. Problem is shitty hardware. SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery...

The MacBook Air has an SOC. It’s literally not possible to socket the ram. It’s all one big package.

>The MacBook Air has an SOC. It’s literally not possible to socket the ram

Hardware engineer here: It is totally technically possible to have a SoC and socketed RAM.

Please stop taking Apple's own proprietary implementation as being some universal technical limitations for the entire industry. It's not.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#44

Post by cassianoleal »

throw93232 wrote: post #20

Macbook air is like $1000. People can afford it. Problem is shitty hardware. SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery...

Not sure what you mean about shitty hardware.

Yes, SSD and RAM are soldered so you're limited to what you get at buy time.

Otherwise there's really no need for cooling on an M1 Air. It stays passively cool even at full sustained CPU usage. I suspect the lack of touchscreen is considered good by a majority of users but I might be off here. Broken keyboard? In terms of laptop keyboards, this might lose to the 2015 Macs and maybe Thinkpads but that's it.

Battery can be replaced by any corner IT shop, or by yourself or a knowledgeable friend. I've replaced a few. A friend of mine who's not technical in any way has replaced his.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#45

Post by paol »

raesene9 wrote: post #33
paol wrote: post #17

> It is a truth universally acknowledged that all operating systems suck. This could be engraved in stone. I know the title isn't really serious, but not being able to afford a Mac is not a good reason to use Linux. Use what you want/need/feel comfortable in, otherwise the experience will be miserable.

Well it has been immortalised in song https://youtu.be/YRlPTbKHIPQ

Well that was a blast from the past! Both the voice and the sketch seemed familiar, turns out that guy used to be part of Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie.

I still have mp3s of their sketches stashed away somewhere.

Edit: a classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLTsSnGWMI

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#46

Post by Nursie »

throw93232 wrote: post #20

Macbook air is like $1000. People can afford it. Problem is shitty hardware. SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery...

The M1 Macbook Air is far and away the best laptop I've ever owned. Cooling is great, touchscreens are a waste of time, there's nothing wrong with the keyboard and the built-in battery is industry standard now, like as not.

The issues you raise are about as valid as saying Linux is still not ready for the desktop - facile nonsense, subjective preference dressed as hard fact.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#47

Post by windowsrookie »

throw93232 wrote: post #20

Macbook air is like $1000. People can afford it. Problem is shitty hardware. SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery...

The M1 MacBook air has been on sale for $799 several times.

"shitty hardware" ???

I am not aware of any PC laptop that comes close to the build quality of a MacBook Air for less.

"SSD soldered to motherboard, bad cooling, no touchscreen, broken keyboard, no way to replace battery..."

SSD soldered: It is a bit disappointing, but Apple ships the fastest SSD's in the industry.

Bad cooling: The MacBook air is passively cooled and nobody ever has complained about the M1 Air's cooling.

No touchscreen: I don't care about this.

Broken keyboard: Not an issue on the 2020+ MacBooks

Battery: The MacBook air has best in class battery life. iFixit sells replacement batteries for older MacBooks, It is likely they will sell replacement batteries for the M1 Airs as well.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#48

Post by jitl »

jagger27 wrote: post #9

Ubuntu shouldn't be recommended anymore. Flatpak won. Snap is a disaster. If you ask me, Fedora is the new Ubuntu.

Last time I ran Fedora, the update schedule killed my system a few times. I was on a ski trip and wanted to play a movie on the cabin TV, but Fedora did an update and now launching X crashes. Something something, kernel version. Very sad. Has the 6 month release cycle gotten more stable?

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#49

Post by MrScruff »

ChadNauseam wrote: post #12
10x-dev wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on this one comment, I think you should learn to disambiguate between facts and your subjective opinion. We all have our preferences, obviously, but to assert that MacOS UI is 'a masterclass in bad design and lackluster features' is a grandiose exaggeration stated as fact.

I recently switched to macos because I wanted a new laptop and the m1 seemed best in class. Some UI issues I’ve noticed: 1) It’s very annoying that, in a full screen window, moving your mouse to the top of the screen causes the window to rescale. When reading a book in chrome, realizing the window causes the text to reflow to every time I accidentally move the mouse too far up (when trying to rearrange tabs, for exam…

For 7), you can view the 'Path Bar'. It's not text but you can right click, copy path from any location or drag the proxies into a shell to get the path.

You can also command-click the directory name in the window at the top to see the path/access parent directories.

Re: Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

#50

Post by hvs »

paol wrote: post #17

> It is a truth universally acknowledged that all operating systems suck. This could be engraved in stone. I know the title isn't really serious, but not being able to afford a Mac is not a good reason to use Linux. Use what you want/need/feel comfortable in, otherwise the experience will be miserable.

So, your suggestion if you can't afford a Mac is to... buy a Mac?
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