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As a developer I work with text all day, a task made thoroughly more pleasant with good font rendering and proper HiDPI support, neither of which are available

As a developer I work with text all day, a task made thoroughly more pleasant with good font rendering and proper HiDPI support, neither of which are available on Linux. I'll take my 13 inches of Retina display over a pair of 27-inch externals any day. SSH and rsync for remote editing work just fine from an rMBP.

salmon30salmon 11y ago
I feel the same way. Every few months I will have a moment where I think, "I really shouldn't be using this small screen 14 hours a day, lets hook up my 22 inch monitor" and I use it for all of 8 minutes before I switch back. The text rendering is absolutely beautiful.
mbrock 11y ago
It's possible to use HiDPI on Linux, but I guess it depends on what software you use. I've used it for almost a year. I set my DPI in X and GTK. I believe GNOME understands DPI, but I just use ratpoison so I don't know. After turning off hunting, fonts look very nice. Don't bother trying to connect an external monitor with a different DPI though, hehe. I've heard that problem is unsolvable with the X11 paradigm but will be fixed in Wayland (whatever that is).
- askafriend 11y ago
  I want you to re-read the first paragraph you wrote. That's exactly why I don't use Linux. I don't mean this to be a condescending comment, but really, the contents of your entire first paragraph are just things that I don't want to deal with. It's all just bullshit, and I don't have time to deal with bullshit like that. I really just don't want to even think about stuff like that. Not even a tiny bit, not even for a second.
  - slgeorge 11y ago
    > It's all just bullshit, and I don't have time to deal with bullshit like that It's bullshit to you, but it doesn't make Linux bullshit - others prioritise different aspects. You care about HiDPI - perhaps you are a designer, so it's important. But, you're not everyone. For example, I have no need for HiDPI and I personally have much more focus on the power and control Linux gives me. I wouldn't want HiDPI if I had to give up a proper Window Manager. Your choice is fair enough, but it's no more than a personal preference.
    - sjwright 11y ago
      He might not "be everyone" but his priorities are relevant to more people than your priorities by a factor of perhaps 100:1 or more. I haven't met a single person that didn't immediately appreciate the benefits of HiDPI when they saw it.
      - tingol 11y ago
        Well you sure convinced me with your accurate statistics. You talk of benefits as if higher dpi cures cancer, it looks better and that's it. I really don't know what the big deal is, I have a HiDPI screen, works fine under linux as most of my work is done in terminals all I've had to "configure" was turning off hinting for my emulators and that was that. But they are waay more important things I would like from my machine so there's no need to be condescending just because you and your friends were impressed by the high res screens.
        sjwright 11y ago
        You seriously think more than 1% of computer users care about some esoteric configuration flexibility of a Linux window manager? How insular is your view of the world? Oh, and higher DPI cures cancer.
        askafriend 11y ago
        I honestly don't care what "hinting for my emulators" means or why it matters that it's off. This is exactly what I'm talking about. I just want to get work done in a sane way. Linux is insane to any normal human being.
        mbrock 11y ago
        Since when is this a forum for normal human beings?
        sjwright 11y ago
        It's certainly not a forum for one single particular type of computer enthusiast.
  - ekianjo 11y ago
    Wow the word bullshit get thrown very easily by people who use OSX and dont want other people to disagree.
  - mbrock 11y ago
    Sure, that's fine with me, you can choose to spend your time however you want. Someone said proper HiDPI support is not available on Linux. So I replied that I have used HiDPI on Linux for a long time without major issues. That's not an advocacy argument for anyone to choose Linux. So I might ask you to re-read my paragraph—unless you're so allergic to Linux "bullshit" that mere anecdotes cause you pain, in which case I'm sorry. (That's meant to be just slightly condescending...)
bitL 11y ago
Use Linux Mint with Cinnamon - HiDPI is awesome there, Linux finally looks good! I switched development over there from OS X & Win, on three 4k monitors and a notebook with 3200x1800 resolution.
AndrewUnmuted 11y ago
You should check out the Infinality[1] patch sets. Installation is extremely simple when using your distro's package manager. The improvement made on rendering text is astronomical. [1]http://www.infinality.net/blog/ http://www.infinality.net/blog/
- tetheno 11y ago
  Or just enabling subpixel-hinting and font-smoothing. I didn't bother with infinality after that.

salmon30salmon 11y ago

I feel the same way. Every few months I will have a moment where I think, "I really shouldn't be using this small screen 14 hours a day, lets hook up my 22 inch monitor" and I use it for all of 8 minutes before I switch back. The text rendering is absolutely beautiful.

mbrock 11y ago

It's possible to use HiDPI on Linux, but I guess it depends on what software you use. I've used it for almost a year. I set my DPI in X and GTK. I believe GNOME understands DPI, but I just use ratpoison so I don't know. After turning off hunting, fonts look very nice. Don't bother trying to connect an external monitor with a different DPI though, hehe. I've heard that problem is unsolvable with the X11 paradigm but will be fixed in Wayland (whatever that is).

askafriend 11y ago
I want you to re-read the first paragraph you wrote. That's exactly why I don't use Linux. I don't mean this to be a condescending comment, but really, the contents of your entire first paragraph are just things that I don't want to deal with. It's all just bullshit, and I don't have time to deal with bullshit like that. I really just don't want to even think about stuff like that. Not even a tiny bit, not even for a second.
- slgeorge 11y ago
  > It's all just bullshit, and I don't have time to deal with bullshit like that It's bullshit to you, but it doesn't make Linux bullshit - others prioritise different aspects. You care about HiDPI - perhaps you are a designer, so it's important. But, you're not everyone. For example, I have no need for HiDPI and I personally have much more focus on the power and control Linux gives me. I wouldn't want HiDPI if I had to give up a proper Window Manager. Your choice is fair enough, but it's no more than a personal preference.
  - sjwright 11y ago
    He might not "be everyone" but his priorities are relevant to more people than your priorities by a factor of perhaps 100:1 or more. I haven't met a single person that didn't immediately appreciate the benefits of HiDPI when they saw it.
    - tingol 11y ago
      Well you sure convinced me with your accurate statistics. You talk of benefits as if higher dpi cures cancer, it looks better and that's it. I really don't know what the big deal is, I have a HiDPI screen, works fine under linux as most of my work is done in terminals all I've had to "configure" was turning off hinting for my emulators and that was that. But they are waay more important things I would like from my machine so there's no need to be condescending just because you and your friends were impressed by the high res screens.
      - sjwright 11y ago
        You seriously think more than 1% of computer users care about some esoteric configuration flexibility of a Linux window manager? How insular is your view of the world? Oh, and higher DPI cures cancer.
      - askafriend 11y ago
        I honestly don't care what "hinting for my emulators" means or why it matters that it's off. This is exactly what I'm talking about. I just want to get work done in a sane way. Linux is insane to any normal human being.
        mbrock 11y ago
        Since when is this a forum for normal human beings?
        sjwright 11y ago
        It's certainly not a forum for one single particular type of computer enthusiast.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  Wow the word bullshit get thrown very easily by people who use OSX and dont want other people to disagree.
- mbrock 11y ago
  Sure, that's fine with me, you can choose to spend your time however you want. Someone said proper HiDPI support is not available on Linux. So I replied that I have used HiDPI on Linux for a long time without major issues. That's not an advocacy argument for anyone to choose Linux. So I might ask you to re-read my paragraph—unless you're so allergic to Linux "bullshit" that mere anecdotes cause you pain, in which case I'm sorry. (That's meant to be just slightly condescending...)

bitL 11y ago

Use Linux Mint with Cinnamon - HiDPI is awesome there, Linux finally looks good! I switched development over there from OS X & Win, on three 4k monitors and a notebook with 3200x1800 resolution.

AndrewUnmuted 11y ago

You should check out the Infinality[1] patch sets. Installation is extremely simple when using your distro's package manager. The improvement made on rendering text is astronomical. [1]http://www.infinality.net/blog/ http://www.infinality.net/blog/

tetheno 11y ago
Or just enabling subpixel-hinting and font-smoothing. I didn't bother with infinality after that.