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From macOS to Arch Linux

juxt.pro

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Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#61

Post by SxC97 »

Offpics wrote: post #37
sunaurus wrote: post #10

I just completed my migration in the opposite direction after using Arch Linux as my daily driver for ~10 years. I think Arch Linux is by far the better OS for pretty much all power users, but when using multiple devices, the benefits of the "Apple Ecosystem" outweigh the benefits of an amazing desktop OS for me, which is why I ended up switching to Mac OS. Some key points which I believe are much worse on Mac: * No…

Im going to switch from arch to mac in one month. What I should consider installing on it beside homebrew?

Not OP but it depends entirely on how Linux-y you want your experience to be. I regularly hop between pop, manjaro, and macOS.

Brew is a given, but I also run karabiner elements for key remapping, Yabai+skhd+limelight for windows management, sketchybar as a panel, and Alfred as the run launcher since d-menu for Mac is still in early development.

This gives me some nice consistency between OSs since I use BSPWM+Polybar+Rofi on Linux.

There are several other neat little utilities that could come in handy like bettertouchtool and keyboard maestro for system wide automation with a gui and hammerspoon if you want a lua based automation program.

I personally use hammerspoon to bring up a list of Yabai shortcuts for windows management since I have too many keybindings.

As for dev tools, I use nvim, doom emacs, or VSC so it’s pretty easy to carry my config between OSs.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#63

Post by Koshkin »

fsflover wrote: post #25
hnrj95 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i agree. the mental overhead is too much for me to justify, personally, for my own machine

So don't use Arch. Use Debian.

That's a great advice! On the other hand, what is it that Arch offers and Debian does not? (Asking this as a long time Slackware fan.)

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#64

Post by Enginerrrd »

alexarnesen wrote: post #34
gbrown wrote: post #7

Can an Arch person explain to me why their approach is worth it over something with a more comprehensive package manager like apt or dnf? I don’t mind compiling programs myself when needed, but for most things I’m happy to not have to hand-hold my OS when it comes to updates. From the wiki: > Before upgrading, users are expected to visit the Arch Linux home page to check the latest news, or alternatively subscribe to…

Arch is the first system I have been able to support, fully. As in, 100% of the issues I run across with my distro, I can resolve. I used to run Ubuntu as my gnome desktop distribution, and when it worked (99% of the time), it was a superior experience to Arch. However when running Ubuntu I would inevitably run across some issue that seemed to require a level of sysadmin chops that I never have possessed. For the pas…

This has been exactly my experience as well. Ubuntu would have fewer issues initially, and almost no setup, but after setup it would break more often and always find ways to break in new and interesting ways that were very difficult to resolve, and I never could understand what was wrong.

With Arch, I was able to fix every issue that came up, full stop. But it required much more setup. It also breaks way less often. Prior to Arch, I never really felt that "full-empowered linux-user" feeling. It was always voodoo. Now I DO get that feeling and I really feel in charge and in control of my system. Interestingly, I still run ubuntu server for a couple servers, (I generally prefer debian for servers, but that's a separate discussion.) and I still find the occasional issues that come up to be difficult-to-resolve voodoo, despite having a much greater level of understanding of how linux works and does things.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#65

Post by deergomoo »

Offpics wrote: post #37
sunaurus wrote: post #10

I just completed my migration in the opposite direction after using Arch Linux as my daily driver for ~10 years. I think Arch Linux is by far the better OS for pretty much all power users, but when using multiple devices, the benefits of the "Apple Ecosystem" outweigh the benefits of an amazing desktop OS for me, which is why I ended up switching to Mac OS. Some key points which I believe are much worse on Mac: * No…

Im going to switch from arch to mac in one month. What I should consider installing on it beside homebrew?

Not OP, but give MacPorts a try to see if you prefer it to Homebrew. It tends to push more of the configuration onto the user, but if you’re coming from Arch you might well prefer that. It’s also much faster than Homebrew in my experience.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#66

Post by MegaDeKay »

gbrown wrote: post #7

Can an Arch person explain to me why their approach is worth it over something with a more comprehensive package manager like apt or dnf? I don’t mind compiling programs myself when needed, but for most things I’m happy to not have to hand-hold my OS when it comes to updates. From the wiki: > Before upgrading, users are expected to visit the Arch Linux home page to check the latest news, or alternatively subscribe to…

As another plus, the Arch wiki itself is absolutely fantastic. People will point to the Arch wiki even when running other distributions. For example, it is the place to go when doing something like GPU passthrough to another OS running on qemu/KVM.

Re: From macOS to Arch Linux

#69

Post by jjoonathan »

popey wrote: post #49

"There are still many things I need to set up on the new laptop, for example: suspension/hibernation on closing the lid doesn’t always work" For me, this is one of those things that should work out of the box. I appreciate Arch is one of those distros you configure manually, and can thus choose whether to implement this or not. But I'd rather not have my laptop burn out in my bag because the system didn't suspend pro…

I tried Manjaro the other day and had to try 3 kernel versions before I found one that woke from sleep without crashing, the display wouldn't hold its resolution through display sleep, bluetooth wouldn't connect without writing a custom config file, and CUPS auto-detected the wrong drivers.

I went back to Ubuntu and it all Just Worked.

My conclusion: yeah, the Debian stale package problem sucks, but it doesn't suck as badly as the rolling release instability problem.

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