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Switching from macOS: The Basics

blog.elementary.io

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Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#481

Post by mirkules »

veidr wrote: post #357

My own burning hatred towards Apple runs a little hotter than most, and I have been seriously googling (and trying) alternatives since 2012. That was when my $9000 Mac Pro — which had been a great machine, and still was, except for the little detail about not having been updated since 2009 and thus being stuck with USB 2 (!!!) to say nothing of Thunderbolt and any kind of modern accoutrements — started to feel like a…

Exactly. In addition to the functional problems you outlined, every Linux GUI I've tried feels fake and plasticky, like it was designed for kids. Gnome is miles ahead of where it used to be, but design-wise it is now at about Windows 98-level.

Is there a problem attracting quality graphic designers to open source projects?

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#482

Post by pjmlp »

Unkechaug wrote: post #260
natch wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the emphasis including that in the article on pretty is a fundamental misunderstanding of why developers like macOS. For me and a lot of others what I really want is a UNIX that just works. Meaning it just works with its hardware in all ways... audio and video playing, recording, editing and everything else all work very well, without having to recompile the kernel or hunt down and install alpha drivers witho…

Yeah, everyone is over complicating the issue. Why is it so hard to understand that people want UNIX without the pain? Unfortunately that doesn't exist apart from macOS right now.

Maybe because when I see people using UNIX systems in 2016, I can hardly see a difference with people using 21' monitors with Aix full with xterms in 1994, as if nothing has changed.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#483

Post by philbot1008 »

matzipan wrote: post #196
bluedino wrote: post #177

Are there any distributions where the display scaling works at least as good as Windows 10? I don't expect it to be as perfect as the Mac but the current Ubuntu is a mess when you change the scaling factor.

elementary should automatically handle your hidpi quite well.

source?

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#484

Post by r3bl »

tolger wrote: post #468
bischofs wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bravo sir, I could not have said it better myself. I purchased a brand new XPS15 ubuntu 14.04 and it was a disaster - The battery lasted about three hours, the $300 graphics card did not function at all because of poor drivers (graphics switching is still theoretical on even user friendly linux os' because of dark age xserver) I had to spend two weeks to get the wifi working by messing around with conf files The conc…

Did the machine come with Ubuntu out of the box, or did you install it yourself? That is one of the reasons my company went with System76. They ship with Ubuntu installed and will provide support, drivers for all the hardware, etc. The OryxPro is a nice desktop replacement.

Dell XPS 13 has a special "developer" edition, which comes with Ubuntu 14.04 pretested and preinstalled.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#485

Post by mirkules »

claudius wrote: post #480
tomtheelder wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> copy paste with a highlight+middle mouse button is frankly awesome in GNOME Oh my gosh, this is my least favorite thing about using gnome! I accidentally paste all the time and can't turn it off particularly easily. Very sad.

It’s a generic feature of X available in all desktop environments (essentially there’s two copy-paste mechanism which you can use independently). Much easier to use than manual C-c C-v, especially if you have a third mouse button also on your laptop.

And this is the problem. There is zero thought being given to different usage scenarios, and when it is, it's a chaotic solution that works some of the time. How do you middle-click-paste if you are on a trackpad with only two buttons, for example?

I'm only picking on this to illustrate the point: things are hacked together at almost every level for a workstation. This is why "The Year of the Linux Desktop" never happened.

In stark contrast, I am much, much happier with Linux as a server machine than as a workstation, and prefer it to any others.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#487

Post by vamur »

aorth wrote: post #15

Yes, the Elementary team has been doing great work for years. Sad that it's all parallel to the efforts of the larger GNOME Desktop project. I don't know how much code gets shared between the two, but I cringe to think that Elementary is dragging along a suitcase full of patches! Some of their apps are forks, while others are written from scratch to fit their design (UI/UX/simplicity) goals. I think their decision to…

Epiphany uses Webkit, and Gnome and Elementary are clearly emulating OSX. Also, unlike Chrome, Epiphany is well integrated with GTK3 apps - for example you can drag/drop text from Epiphany to Nautilus. And Firejail+Epiphany should be similar in terms of security.

Of course, Chrome is still better feature wise, however, Elementary or any other distribution would need Google's permission to distribute Chrome.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#488

Post by vondur »

Elementary is one of the least stable Linux distros that are out there. I have a friend who's been running Debian forever using Afterstep as the WM, and it's rock solid. Granted, he does most of his work in the terminal using emacs. I've never had good luck with linux on the laptop, but I've had good luck using it on the desktop, so long as I stuck with Intel chipsets and Nvidia GPU's. The lack of apps is going to be an issue for most people though.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#489

Post by gldnspud »

lloyd-christmas wrote: post #252
natch wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the emphasis including that in the article on pretty is a fundamental misunderstanding of why developers like macOS. For me and a lot of others what I really want is a UNIX that just works. Meaning it just works with its hardware in all ways... audio and video playing, recording, editing and everything else all work very well, without having to recompile the kernel or hunt down and install alpha drivers witho…

The single thing that keeps me with macOS is a universal key that is truly universal. Apps on mac are built around the command key. The windows key and the linux super key don't have anywhere near the consistency across applications that the command key does. `cmd + shift + [` flips through tabs in every application I have. In linux, it works only if I set up the keys for that application, and only if that applicatio…

I had a very similar experience. I switched for the pretty fonts, and stayed for the key bindings. You can even add your own key bindings to (almost) any menu item in (almost) any Cocoa app using System Preferences. After I discovered that, I just dug in even more.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#490

Post by JadeNB »

matzipan wrote: post #156
jordigh wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's kind of difficult to do that when you are talking about the OS, isn't it? Not necessarily. It's not like you expect the buyer to do a careful analysis of what it's worth before they pay. You can usually decide this sort of thing based on very quick impressions. Also, there's the aspect of it just seeming nicer to ask after the download has happened. Then it's clear that you already have the product, now it's u…

It does seem nicer to ask after, but then again, 99% of us simply close the tab after the download starts. We just do it automatically.

> 99% of us simply close the tab after the download starts.

Really? On most sites that I visit, I 'Save As' every link that I care to download, so that there is no separate tab to close. (But maybe you were referring only to this specific site.) Maybe the solution is just to make sure that there's more of interest on your download page than just the download button?

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