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Linux on the Mac – state of the union

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Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#61

Post by l1k »

codemusings wrote: post #49
maratc wrote: post #48

The basis of this article makes no sense. What developers love about Macs is the OS and the nice integration between OS and hardware. Even if you hate the new hardware, it makes sense to continue juicing your current one and see what comes along next year; it makes zero sense to install Linux on a fringe hardware (Mac).

I guess it depends on what kind of developers you think of. Unless you're developing macOS or iOS Software why bother with an inferior software eco system? Brew is a hot mess. MacPorts is slow as fuck.

Personally I've been using fink for >12 years now, I enjoy being able to use the familiar apt-get and dpkg to manage packages on macOS:

http://finkproject.org/

I even backported the then-current version to MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) last year. :-)

https://github.com/l1k/fink/commits/branch_0_38_tenfour

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#63

Post by op00to »

monochromatic wrote: post #58
rocky1138 wrote: post #12

I wish to thank the dedicated people who make this happen. I'm forced to use Apple hardware at work, but thankfully can run whatever OS I choose. Here's to the crazy ones.

What kind of office lets you install a new OS on their machines?

I work for a major enterprise software company. We can install whatever we want on our computers as long as we use full disk encryption.

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#64

Post by fulafel »

maratc wrote: post #48

The basis of this article makes no sense. What developers love about Macs is the OS and the nice integration between OS and hardware. Even if you hate the new hardware, it makes sense to continue juicing your current one and see what comes along next year; it makes zero sense to install Linux on a fringe hardware (Mac).

There are lots of developers happily running Linux on Apple laptops. It's traditionally been a good choice if IT dept makes you pick between a standardized random business laptop and a Mac.

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#65

Post by maratc »

maggit wrote: post #60
maratc wrote: post #48

The basis of this article makes no sense. What developers love about Macs is the OS and the nice integration between OS and hardware. Even if you hate the new hardware, it makes sense to continue juicing your current one and see what comes along next year; it makes zero sense to install Linux on a fringe hardware (Mac).

Macs have a good hw/sw-integration, but there are other features as well; I bought my first MBP for its trackpad, which is still unparalleled, and (as l1k puts it) its form language. I'm running Linux, which doesn't offer the same hw/sw-integration quality, but it's pretty good!

Couple of guys in my office did the same, but came back to OS X after weeks of suffering problems with high-DPI support, multiple screens, bluetooth etc.

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#66

Post by fulafel »

monochromatic wrote: post #58
rocky1138 wrote: post #12

I wish to thank the dedicated people who make this happen. I'm forced to use Apple hardware at work, but thankfully can run whatever OS I choose. Here's to the crazy ones.

What kind of office lets you install a new OS on their machines?

Why not?

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#67

Post by maratc »

codemusings wrote: post #49
maratc wrote: post #48

The basis of this article makes no sense. What developers love about Macs is the OS and the nice integration between OS and hardware. Even if you hate the new hardware, it makes sense to continue juicing your current one and see what comes along next year; it makes zero sense to install Linux on a fringe hardware (Mac).

I guess it depends on what kind of developers you think of. Unless you're developing macOS or iOS Software why bother with an inferior software eco system? Brew is a hot mess. MacPorts is slow as fuck.

I develop backend components that run on Linux servers. The editors, the terminal, the debuggers on Mac OS are pretty good for me. Brew works just fine for my line of work.

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#68

Post by maratc »

fulafel wrote: post #64
maratc wrote: post #48

The basis of this article makes no sense. What developers love about Macs is the OS and the nice integration between OS and hardware. Even if you hate the new hardware, it makes sense to continue juicing your current one and see what comes along next year; it makes zero sense to install Linux on a fringe hardware (Mac).

There are lots of developers happily running Linux on Apple laptops. It's traditionally been a good choice if IT dept makes you pick between a standardized random business laptop and a Mac.

I'm not saying there aren't; in my experience, Linux on a Mac didn't go smooth at all. Connecting Retina display and 1080p monitor at the same time, specifically, was a huge pain.

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#69

Post by andrepd »

l1k wrote: post #56
matt4077 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from being wrong, that narrative doesn't even make sense as an intro to this article: the criticism was directed at the new MBP hardware – so why would these super-professional uber-users buy it and then replace the OS? (Not to mention that, if I understood it correctly, Linux currently doesn't even support the keyboard, and is otherwise probably in its usual desktop mode of "WLAN, Sound, or functioning sleep –…

Author here. As explained in the intro, folks like antirez are considering moving back to Linux and in his linked HN comment he specifically talks about trying Linux on the MacBook he's currently using to see where he's headed. The article seeks to give these folks in particular a helping hand in understanding what works and what doesn't: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12820490 That said, the kernel developers…

> E.g. as stated in the article, the four Thunderbolt ports are interesting for HPC applications as you can build a portable compute cluster with up to five fully-meshed high-speed networked nodes. If that's not professional I don't know what is.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that? Are you implying a MacBook cluster is an effective HPC platform?

Re: Linux on the Mac – state of the union

#70

Post by gommm »

coldtea wrote: post #45
wyclif wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perception, as displayed in this thread, is that they are. Plus the overwhelming negativity from developers regarding the new MBP, as seen in numerous HN threads and other tech news stories. I don't really have any stock in whether the perception is a reality or not, so I'm willing to be persuaded. Hopefully in the next iteration the MBP will have at least 32GB RAM, and they will make a move that will please the…

> I don't really have any stock in whether the perception is a reality or not, so I'm willing to be persuaded. Hopefully in the next iteration the MBP will have at least 32GB RAM, The people lamenting the missing option for 32GB RAM as devastating for pros, never had it in the first place, as the previous generation didn't support 32GB either (and yet, they still worked just fine). Second, the limitation to 16GB is f…

Well people who are lamenting the lack of the 32GB ram bought a 16GB ram a while ago and are looking to upgrade.

Apple could have kept the previous form factor and not made the battery 20% smaller which would have allowed them to have an energy sucking 32GB option. Plus the new form factor is useless anyway, since we end up having to carry adapters which take as much space and weight as what was saved.

Anyway, I've developed a wait and see approach and reserve judgement next year when the next iteration of machines come out. Maybe I'm lucky and Apple even decides to bring back the 17 inch macbook pro

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