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

Post by philjohn » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 8:47 PM UTC

Retr0id wrote: post #330

sandreas wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the Palm-Detection work? To test this, you can do the following: Place your palm where the X-es are, then try to scroll with two fingers or move your mouse. I don't like that the mouse does not react anymore if the palm is placed there - it should just be ignored. ┌─────────────────────────┐ │XXX │ │XX │ │X │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └─────────────────────────┘

I performed your test and mouse movement and two-finger scrolling still works if my palm is there. Even 3-finger window switching gestures. My palm is effectively ignored.

Post by samgranieri » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 8:48 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #375

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 ge…

Post by sarlalian » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 10:06 PM UTC

pxc wrote: post #194

reactordev wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn’t have nano texture, I can guarantee that. His screen probably has fingerprints and glare and all sorts of issues like visible pixels. I’ve owned a hell of a lot of laptops and MacBooks are the best, not because of Mac, but because of the build quality. The touchpad is perfect, the aluminum body is rugged, the screen is amazing, and the audio truly is sorcery thanks to Apple acquiring Beat’s audionet. The wo…

Laptops only get fingerprints on the screen, unless they're touchscreens, when they try to be stupidly thin like MacBooks do, so that the screen routinely touches the keys. It's stupid design.

Post by SSLy » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 10:20 PM UTC

Wilder7977 wrote: post #215

samrolken wrote: post #211

I might consider something like this, but I can connect four monitors to my MacBook Pro. How easy is it to find a Linux-friendly laptop which can also do this?

How? Finding a Mac docking station that works with 2 monitors is already a lottery. 70% of people in my company, me included, ended up plugging the HDMI directly into the mac (and a DP into the docking station), while the same docking station worked flawlessly with 2 monitors on Linux. I haven't tried four monitors, but I have to say that multiple monitors handling is something so far I would list under the downsides…

Post by extraisland » Sat, Aug 23, 2025, 11:27 PM UTC

mythz wrote: post #272

I've owned several laptops over the years and have come to regret each of my non Apple laptop purchases which never got more than 3-4 years life without some hardware failures, Surface was the worst which died after 10 months of low sporadic usage. Whilst my gen 1 MB Air has been too slow for anything, my 2013 MB Intel still looks and runs great which the kids still make good use of. My latest M2 MB is by far the bes…