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Switching from macOS: The Basics

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Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#531

Post by amirmansour »

chadgeidel wrote: post #503
amirmansour wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the need to respond here because in every thread about MBPs people mention the Dell XPS line as an alternative, and after buying one I can NOT recommend it as a good buy. The Dell XPS laptops have got one thing going for them: relatively good build quality. They don't feel or look cheap, which already puts it ahead of most PCs in the market. Just walk into your local Best Buy and see the junk they are selling…

It boggles the mind that no "PC" manufacturer has done what Apple has done with hardware design and integration. Apple has been hitting it out of the park for at least 4-6 years, plenty of time for some other company to do it themselves. Even Microsoft is struggling (although the "Surface" products are really good) The only thing I can think is that it's really difficult and expensive to iron out all those little har…

It is without a doubt not easy task to release a product with the polish of a MBP, but as you said, you would think there would be something competing at an equal level by now.

I don't think Lenovo's efforts lived up to the glory of the Thinkpad line, but I will give them credit for the X1 Carbon. Though the Carbon only comes in a 14" model.

From an industrial design standpoint, the Surface Book is fantastic and demands respect. I bought the Surface Book when it first came out, and that thing was always overheating, which is a no-go for something trying to be a tablet/notebook. It also suffered from various issues when it launched. Microsoft actually asked Best Buy to stop selling them for a brief moment while the issues were fixed.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#532

Post by TulliusCicero »

tomtheelder wrote: post #461
tempodox wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, that problem is as old as Windows and hasn't really gotten better. For a company that's specialized on software, that's a pretty abysmal bottom line.

I would strongly disagree. Windows works pretty flawlessly nearly all the time these days. My only real complaint with it at this point is that so little of my dev stuff runs natively. If that weren't the case, I'd probably switch over.

I concur. For development Ubuntu is definitely superior, but for everything else Windows works pretty great.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#533

Post by btschaegg »

tomtheelder wrote: post #461
tempodox wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, that problem is as old as Windows and hasn't really gotten better. For a company that's specialized on software, that's a pretty abysmal bottom line.

I would strongly disagree. Windows works pretty flawlessly nearly all the time these days. My only real complaint with it at this point is that so little of my dev stuff runs natively. If that weren't the case, I'd probably switch over.

And I'll have to disagree with you on that. I have to use "vanilla" Windows 10 at work and the various missing tools and kinks in the OS drive me borderline insane at times. How can it be that in 2016, the default "quick, dispensable" file editor (notepad) lacks pretty much every feature under the sun? The command line is still abysmal - even with the improvements of Win10. Powershell is not much better. Simple tasks have to be done using clicks all over the place, instead of just editing the according file from a cmd. The registry is still in heavy use (eww). The new virtual desktop feature (which *NIX systems had for decades) is clunky at best. IE is borderline unusable. Edge is worse. I could go on for ages.

In fact, if you subtract the gazillion of little 3rd party tools you have to install to make Windows usable, the actual OS is a disappointment, and if you can use those tools you still have to install them through a wizard - by hand. Microsofts dev tools (i.e. Visual Studio) also seem to suffer from the same symptoms, although that seems to be changing slowly.

One could argue that you have to install many tools via a package manager on other OSes, but at least, you get most of them (neatly organised) just by trusting one source (Canonical, Debian, whatever).

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#534

Post by achikin »

fizzbatter wrote: post #466
achikin wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird. I've been on MacBookPro since 2011 and have not experienced any crashes so far. What do you do to crash it?

Clearly something, but no idea what. I only use a small number of apps (iterm2, neovim, chrome, spotify, etc). Spend most of my day in iterm2, and avoid using new programs because i prefer cli programs.

Well, usually when an application crashes in macOS, it offers you send a crash report, so you should know what exactly crashed.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#535

Post by pjmlp »

Daishiman wrote: post #516
pjmlp wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a developer and most of my killer tools have their place on macOS and Windows.

Compiling or getting the latest version of any kind of CLI dev tools on either platforms is considerably more difficult than Linux.

Not all developers care about UNIX CLI tools.

I care about CLI tools developed for macOS and Windows in mind, that take advantage of the respective OS APIs.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#536

Post by reitanqild »

philbot1008 wrote: post #529
simula67 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been a Linux user for a long time ( ArchLinux with Xfce ). Recently, I switched jobs and my employer issued me with a Mac. I am having the same problem : the fucking OS . Why do I need to press multiple buttons to see how many applications I have open ? Why does command + tab cycle through every open application ? Why does it not limit itself to the applications in the current space ? What are spaces for anywa…

+ cycles open applications, but + cycles windows in the current application context I find this two-dimensional switching incredibly useful for multitasking, whereas Windows just flattens all windows to the alt-tab list, which quickly becomes overwhelming if you're a power user who doesn't like to close windows.

I have to believe you but this exact feature is possibly my biggest issue with Mac: breaking the stack.

In some of my workflows I jump back and forth between programs a lot. Example (not everything I do is this tedious : ) Alt + tab, tab, ctrl + shift + end, ctrl + c, alt + tab, ctrl + v.

When I was on Mac it felt like this would break down multiple times a day: CMD + tab, oh wait, another Window of the same App, that means CMD - tab to go back, then something I have forgotten, possibly CMD + | on my keyboard back then, then the same insanity next time.

Basically for someone like me who works quick but has lots of things to keep in mind this breaks down immediately.

I don't want to stop and think if this is another Window or another App, I just want to go back to that second last thing I worked on.

As I said, I have to believe you guys actually like it but for me this particular (mis- IMO)feature was one of the main reasons why I will ask nicely to get a Windows or Linuzx laptop instead of a Mac.

In return I ask that you believe me when I say that I haven't come across one of those jarring font issues that Mac people complain about in Linux. My touchpad is good enough, - I try to use my keyboard most of the time anyway etc etc.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#537

Post by Frondo »

bischofs wrote: post #455
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…

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…

I haven't hand-configured a laptop since 2009, when I switched to Mageia Linux. I don't know how they do what they do for hardware support, but it's frickin' brilliant.

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#539

Post by gotofritz »

simula67 wrote: post #467
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…

I have been a Linux user for a long time ( ArchLinux with Xfce ). Recently, I switched jobs and my employer issued me with a Mac. I am having the same problem : the fucking OS . Why do I need to press multiple buttons to see how many applications I have open ? Why does command + tab cycle through every open application ? Why does it not limit itself to the applications in the current space ? What are spaces for anywa…

> Also why do I have to press Command + whatever when there is a perfectly functional control key on the keyboard ?

Of all the OS X criticism, this is the most absurd. Command, Control, they are all arbitrary choice, why even whinge about it. Is like going to France and complaining everyone speaks French

Re: Switching from macOS: The Basics

#540

Post by mirkules »

ScottBurson wrote: post #518
snowwindwaves wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know for sure that in CDE with SunOS and HP-UX middle click was for paste. I think also on SGI with Irix, but that is going back to 1994 when I was a young teen so I don't remember exactly. Middle click to paste also worked on some linuxes, which is why it was important to get a 3 button mouse even though the middle button did nothing on windows. I want to say that "middle click to paste" is and old unix convention…

Middle click to paste is indeed an old convention. Xterm supports it, so I suspect it goes all the way back to the early days of the X Window System, c. 1984.

I don't have a problem with middle click being a backwards-compatible convention. It's that the option to change it is non-obvious, and therefore excludes laptop users.

As a counter-example: Much earlier versions of Windows had a menu in the top left corner. The shortcut to close a window used to be double-clicking in that corner. In Windows 7 (not sure about 8 or 10), that menu button/icon is gone. Of course, you can close a windows with the X in the right corner, but the old shortcut still works even though there is seemingly nothing there.

I can't remember where I read this, but I always think of it when it comes to UX design:

Always have more than one way to do the same thing in a UI. Users will pick whichever works better for their worklow.

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