Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? The cynic's guide to desktop Linux

I have a L shaped setup. My Windows with two monitors on one side, my M1 Mac Mini with an Ultra-wide and mini monitor on the other. I prefer my Mac for Developing every time. It’s a far faster workflow , the trackpad feels amazing, and the ability add my iPad as a third monitor or a side screen via Universal Control is undefeated.

I have the Touch ID Keyboard making sign in seamless (and that’s if my Apple Watch doesn’t unlock if first). Everything is fast, smooth, and if I move away from the screen but want to keep looking at what I’m doing (like reading documentation) I can take my iPad and use either Handoff or iCloud tabs to keep it going. If I deviate from my iPad or go somewhere new and want to continue that process, I can airdrop the page to my Mac or use the aforementioned features to do the same.

This isn’t even touching document previewing in files but just pressing the spacebar , opening any PDF file in Preview, viewing my synced Notes, calendar, and Mail in the native apps and be assured they’ll show up on my other Apple Devices .

All of these things add up to a calm seamless workflow when I develop or do anything on my Mac. All without having to download a single thing. On windows I have to rely on third party services to replicate the same. Added friction that I just don’t have to deal With Mac . It just works (for me). The only edge my windows has over my Mac is gaming (which isn’t an issue for me issue that’s what having a windows machine is for and I prefer having a dedicated machine for that) and windows snapping that I solved using Magnet from the App Store that ensures it’s sandboxes and not collecting data per the App Privacy Page.

I discovered recently you can set notifications on macOS to 'do not disturb'

System Preferences -> Notifications -> Do Not Disturb

I set Turn On Do Not Disturb 'from 12:01AM to 11:59PM'

I have two macs. And, yes, I surely I can afford many more of it.

But, whether you own a mac or not, once you start using Linux (and it takes patience to do so _effectively_), I can guarantee that you _will_ never want to use anything else.

- Linux user for the past 22 years (for the most part been so much fulfilling).

1) I believe this is app-specific? I've definitely used many applications where the menu bar just goes over the full-screened window.

2) Yeah, this one could be better. Right/alt click and "Clean Up" might help you a bit.

3) You can also right/alt click the icon in the Dock to force quit [0], but agreed that a hanging application shouldn't cause OS components to hang.

4) I'll admit I wasn't even aware of the option-click ability, so fair enough. In my experience though, the options under Scaled have almost always been the most sensible options for the display.

5) As someone else mentioned, you can turn this off. I personally also hate that they made this the default. Spaces as a whole work really well though IMO.

6) IIUC it _can_, depending on the app. I wouldn't say Windows is any better, though... it's not like Windows deletes files when you uninstall something. Cleanup is purely up to the application's implementation. Also, there's the registry. Also, if you just "delete" an application (i.e. the executable) like you would any other file, you likely just broke the application, not uninstalled it. You might've even broken the uninstall functionality.

7) Yeah, Finder does make some strong assumptions about how you're expected to use it. It doesn't completely replace using text, but try the multi-pane view. It largely accomplishes a similar navigation style involving the up function (which you can also directly achieve with Cmd+Up).

8) The default terminal (Terminal.app) is actually quite good, if barebones. It has some of the lowest text-to-update latencies out there [1]. Though admittedly, I have no idea about terminal latencies on Windows.

And you touch on probably the single-biggest issue I have with Windows: backwards (in)compatibility to a fault. If they made a better terminal, why is that not just the terminal now? I know the answer is "because people are familiar with Command Prompt", but that's kinda my point. MS rarely replaces anything. They just keep adding more versions that are available. It's great that you get the choice, but it sucks that you have to make all these choices [2] for a useable system.

I have a similar issue with Control Panel vs Settings. Edge vs IE [3].

And I'm not saying I want them to replace all the applications every year or something like that. Too bad MS does that, too. Except you also have to use the old one.

9) Totally agreed on this one. It sounds trivial but is absolutely infuriating.

10) I'm... not sure what happened here. Confusing, but sounds like it's okay?

[0]: Although honestly, this might hang as well.

[1]: https://danluu.com/term-latency/

[2]: Assuming you're even aware of the choices.

[3]: To be fair, IE is EOL, but that process has taken a LONG time. Edge and IE have both been included in Windows systems for the better part of a decade at this point.

Yeah, next time I’m unemployed and thus without an employer-provided Mac this will be the setup that I try! I might also try a de-googled ChromeOS a shot too.