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Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

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Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#41

Post by sho_hn »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #4

Linux in a nutshell: Just awful in a laptop, meh in a desktop, and first-class as a server.

I'm heavily biased and an expert user, but I do also have a Mac from work, and my Linux laptop genuinely is more trouble-free with docking and Bluetooth acrobatics than the Mac (a M1 MBP).

Every time the Mac decides today's another day when flipping it shut will randomly also disable the external display, I get a little more frustrated, or when it's dumb about not switching my headphones out of bi-directional headset mode to a HQ audio profile once a call ends. These things are just flawless on my Linux system.

Battery life on the M1 Mac is absolutely stellar and probably about double of the Intel-based Linux one, though, which I agree is a valid deciding factor for quite a few users because it can really change how you go about your day.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#42

Post by porridgeraisin »

eth0up wrote: post #23
1970-01-01 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is disingenuous, yet also accurate. HN mostly agrees: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32964519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42569926 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42122686

I've never used anything but Linux on the 20 or so laptops I've gone through. Suspend can be an issue, fan control can be suboptimal, but the only thing I find intolerable is the touchpad, so I use a mouse. I've had one or two bad laptops, but most were sufficient. If I had a laptop presently, it would be running Linux.

You use it with a mouse... That is telling. Have you considered that people actually want to use the laptop all by itself? Without an external mouse? That's the experience you're supposed to benchmark for.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#43

Post by jazzyjackson »

rednafi wrote: post #22

I loathe macOS but stick with it mostly for the hardware. I use a beefed-up 16-inch M3 Max for work and a baseline 15-inch MacBook Air for writing and OSS work. I love the Air’s hardware and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Before switching to Mac, I was running a maxed-out 16-inch Dell XPS and enjoyed using Ubuntu and Pop!_OS on it. But the hardware just wasn’t there—the trackpad felt cheap, and the keyboard would cr…

Asahi Linux has come a long way. I think the only finicky thing I dealt with was Bluetooth audio so switched to a USB DAC which works fine, and they don’t have hdmi over usbc working yet, but the hardware hdmi port works fine. (edit: just realized they are not up to m3 yet, just m1/2)

Besides that the fedora gnome desktop has won me over, I was able to install everything I wanted from the software app (logseq, gnucash, thunderbird, filezilla), stable as a cow

A couple of QoL wins against macOS (besides coming with a package manager {even windows has winget now!} and, you know, being free): they’ve combined the functionality of Spotlight with Mission Control/alt tab, just tap cmd and switch apps or search for app/file/setting. I cannot reacclimate to having two different shortcuts on Mac now. Drag window to the side for split screen or top for full screen works fine. The other is small: when I mouseover the volume slider in the taskbar I can scroll to control it. Mac does not, have to click and drag. Call it a finishing touch.

I liked it so much I slapped an SSD into a 2014 Intel Mac mini (can you believe we had gigabit and usb3 over 10 years ago?) and put fedora workstation on that too. Truly the year of the Linux desktop (for me anyway).

EDIT: oh yea! Only other annoyance is Signal doesn’t work on either! Electron builds fail for aarch64 (not asahi’s fault) and even on x86-fedora it throws up warnings that it doesn’t know what secure keychain to use, would I like to store database plaintext? Uh, no! I’ll just go back to email ffs

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#44

Post by sweeter »

rednafi wrote: post #22

I loathe macOS but stick with it mostly for the hardware. I use a beefed-up 16-inch M3 Max for work and a baseline 15-inch MacBook Air for writing and OSS work. I love the Air’s hardware and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Before switching to Mac, I was running a maxed-out 16-inch Dell XPS and enjoyed using Ubuntu and Pop!_OS on it. But the hardware just wasn’t there—the trackpad felt cheap, and the keyboard would cr…

I have an M1 mac with Asahi Linux and Hyprland, and I just love it. Its sleek and powerful but has the freedoms of Linux and I hate that MacOS feels like playing in a padded room. Like wth is up with Finder? Its awful. But if I ever need photoshop or w/e, I just boot into the Mac partition and call it a day.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#45

Post by mtillman »

rednafi wrote: post #22

I loathe macOS but stick with it mostly for the hardware. I use a beefed-up 16-inch M3 Max for work and a baseline 15-inch MacBook Air for writing and OSS work. I love the Air’s hardware and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Before switching to Mac, I was running a maxed-out 16-inch Dell XPS and enjoyed using Ubuntu and Pop!_OS on it. But the hardware just wasn’t there—the trackpad felt cheap, and the keyboard would cr…

Many years ago Apple added twitter support at the OS level. At that moment, they chose to become an ad network instead of a technology company. The hardware is very nice of course and just like you it’s the only reason I stay.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#46

Post by toshinoriyagi »

Dalewyn wrote: post #20
zb3 wrote: post #19

Normal people will probably not read these long essays, but they might complain about their M$ OS getting worse.. and that is a great opportunity to present linux as the solution (because it is), you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work (it's 2025, they will in most cases) and how there's nothing to fear. For me, it actually worked! Of course I did offer some help just in case she got stuck or…

>you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work Microsoft Office and games. No, not LibreOffice and Tux Racer. Wine has gotten a lot better compared to years past, but if you need/want Windows software you still need Windows. You also only get one shot at convincing them, since first impressions are everything. A better argument might be recommending MacOS, at least Microsoft Office works just fine…

The majority of games run well on linux. I've had exceedingly few issues. Between Steam/Bottles/Lutris/Heroic and more, the vast majority of games work with no effort.

The only reason I don't always play on Linux is games with an anti-cheat that doesn't like Linux and not having access to a some Nvidia software like DLDSR and RTX HDR. Nvidia has devoted far more resources to it recently. Linux even has DLSS frame gen now.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#47

Post by [deleted] »

freeone3000 wrote: post #32
zb3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft Office and games. No, not LibreOffice and Tux Racer. Not everyone will be as displeased with LibreOffice since not everyone uses MS Office professionally.. I'd argue further: for MOST people this is acceptable! > Wine has gotten a lot better compared to years past, but if you need/want Windows software you still need Windows. Not the case for PhotoScape for example (which was on the "required" list in thi…

ok, but what if you need something off-the-wall, like a scanner?

[deleted]

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#48

Post by sweeter »

Dalewyn wrote: post #20
zb3 wrote: post #19

Normal people will probably not read these long essays, but they might complain about their M$ OS getting worse.. and that is a great opportunity to present linux as the solution (because it is), you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work (it's 2025, they will in most cases) and how there's nothing to fear. For me, it actually worked! Of course I did offer some help just in case she got stuck or…

>you can then explain how programs they use will continue to work Microsoft Office and games. No, not LibreOffice and Tux Racer. Wine has gotten a lot better compared to years past, but if you need/want Windows software you still need Windows. You also only get one shot at convincing them, since first impressions are everything. A better argument might be recommending MacOS, at least Microsoft Office works just fine…

games is a terrible example here, basically everything runs perfectly fine. If you use Steam, there is absolutely no perceivable difference or inconvenience to speak of. The only argument to be made in this department is proprietary kernel level anti-cheats. Other than that, its download Steam -> install game -> click big green play button. I have like 500 hours gaming on Linux, from indie titles, to triple A games on day one (every fromsoft game, baldurs gate 3, even Genshin impact etc...) I have a Mac and the gaming selection is abysmal.

The other thing is hyper-specific and proprietary peripherals, but even then, most things work well. I have multiple drawing tablets for example, and these guys even release Linux drivers these days.

If you specialize in using Microsoft Office daily, or Photoshop, then sure... but thats not most people.

Besides that, you don't need to be super absolutist about it, you can throw Asahi linux on a mac, or an older laptop/pc. Its not all or nothing.

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#49

Post by jazzyjackson »

sweeter wrote: post #44
rednafi wrote: post #22

I loathe macOS but stick with it mostly for the hardware. I use a beefed-up 16-inch M3 Max for work and a baseline 15-inch MacBook Air for writing and OSS work. I love the Air’s hardware and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Before switching to Mac, I was running a maxed-out 16-inch Dell XPS and enjoyed using Ubuntu and Pop!_OS on it. But the hardware just wasn’t there—the trackpad felt cheap, and the keyboard would cr…

I have an M1 mac with Asahi Linux and Hyprland, and I just love it. Its sleek and powerful but has the freedoms of Linux and I hate that MacOS feels like playing in a padded room. Like wth is up with Finder? Its awful. But if I ever need photoshop or w/e, I just boot into the Mac partition and call it a day.

Yes I’m really impressed with how nicely the installer works and able to choose on boot. Brings me back to my boot camp days of triple wielding. Maybe someday now that windows is on arm…

I think I read a blog of theirs to the effect that the apple developers clearly made a choice to leave the opening in the secure boot chain to allow for a separate partition to install, giving them a hat tip, it would have been easy to lock out alternate OSes (Windows secure boot with bitlocker does) but Apple lets you have it both ways.

I word of warning for others - I did manage to fubar my install when I wanted to undo it, I didn’t pay enough attention and deleted a partition I wasn’t meant to and got in a boot loop. Following recovery to reinstall macOS worked fine, just had to blow away my macOS partition, so, you know, back it up if you don’t want to lose it :)

Re: Switching to Linux: Reclaim Your Freedom

#50

Post by tap-snap-or-nap »

al_borland wrote: post #26
rednafi wrote: post #22

I loathe macOS but stick with it mostly for the hardware. I use a beefed-up 16-inch M3 Max for work and a baseline 15-inch MacBook Air for writing and OSS work. I love the Air’s hardware and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Before switching to Mac, I was running a maxed-out 16-inch Dell XPS and enjoyed using Ubuntu and Pop!_OS on it. But the hardware just wasn’t there—the trackpad felt cheap, and the keyboard would cr…

The other advantage I see to macOS is commercial app support. Like it or not, it can be a fact of life for many. Photoshop users don’t want to use GIMP. While Electron has made Linux on the desktop much more viable in this respect, there is are some key apps that macOS has where Linux is lacking. And of course there is also working between mobile and desktop, which macOS/iOS seem to do best. Part of me longs for the…

A lot of free software have a huge learning curve but the payoff long term is always much more than sticking with commercial software which gets nerfed and eventually subscription model with few feature additions and many subtractions.
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