5 ms·

Why not move to Linux?

by x1798DE 11y ago

matt_wulfeck 11y ago
Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? Every year I try a switch to Linux desktop. This year I made it as far as trying to get multiple monitors working well. I also dabbed in gaming. In the end I went back to my work=Mac game=Windows duopoly.
- toyg 11y ago
  Some tools (docker etc) are typically borne on linux and later (not always) ported to OsX. Nothing you cannot get around with a bit of emulation, of course, but it can be painful at times. The whole python ecosystem is also better on Linux overall. Anything strictly desktop-oriented is better on OSX of course.
- zeveb 11y ago
  > Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? A GNU userland. A plethora of tiling window managers. A selection of clean terminals. Every single thing Debian's or Arch's repos offer which one must turn to brew for. And of course there's freedom too, which is nice. > Every year I try a switch to Linux desktop. This year I made it as far as trying to get multiple monitors working well. I've got multiple monitors running on Linux, over HDMI, at home & at work, at differing resolutions & orientations. I use arandr-configured xrandr scripts which set my desired orientation with a quick keystroke in my window manager. What more does one need?
  - matt_wulfeck 11y ago
    Maybe HDMI is better supported that DisplayPort.
    - diyorgasms 11y ago
      I've got monitors daisy chained using displayport on Debian, in mixed portrait and landscape modes. This is using an NVIDIA card and GNOME. It was plug-and-play.
      - willtim 11y ago
        That's great that it works for you. But for Skylake hardware, Displayport MST is completely broken and Intel have no plans to fix. The major players simply are not heavily investing in desktop linux, leaving the community to try and fill the gaps.
- bigger_cheese 11y ago
  In my own experience Linux has the following Advantages over OS X these are of course subjective: Better Desktop environment Better Package Management More Up to date packages Some of my knowledge of OS X is likely outdated I haven't used it since 2011 I started using Linux when I was at University late 90's early 00's (Mandrake was my first distro). I switched to OS X around 2005 and used it as my primary operating system for about 5 years. I used OS X because I'd purchased a MacBook Pro (mostly for the hardware) I still think Macbooks are the nicest laptops I've used to this day I went through 3 iterations of Macbooks before I stopped using OS X. I used OS X because it was good enough but I never fell in love with it. I absolutely hated the desktop environment, silly things like no ability to customise anything, lack of workspaces, having to hit command q to kill application (because the 'x' button wouldn't close them properly) stuff like that. Workspaces came in a later OS X update which addressed some of my gripes. It was never easy to install third party packages and libraries in OS X. I think this has improved now, when I used OS X it it was a mess (especially compared to the ease of something like apt). The native system packages were always really ancient - old version of GCC, old version of emacs, python etc. Trying to install newer version of these 'default' packages was not straightforward at all I remember having huge issues getting python 3 working. Nowadays I run Fedora very happy with it. Not compelled at all to switch back. Linux support for modern laptops is a lot better than it was when I first started using Macs. My current job is in an 'enterprisey' environment I'm forced to use a locked down version of windows here. Almost anything would be better.
- cyphar 11y ago
  > Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? Freedom, a full GNU userland, proper package management of the entire system, plethora of CLI programs which can fulfil your every need and only really work on GNU/Linux, configurable, etc. > Every year I try a switch to Linux desktop. This year I made it as far as trying to get multiple monitors working well. I also dabbed in gaming. In the end I went back to my work=Mac game=Windows duopoly. I use multiple monitors every day for my work under OpenSUSE and Arch. They both worked with either minimal (Arch) or no (SUSE) configuration. I use DisplayPort which works pretty well.
  - tychuz 11y ago
    >Freedom People are not interested.
    - cyphar 11y ago
      I am a person, therefore a subset of people. I am interested. QED. Not to mention that that wasn't the only thing I mentioned, it was just the first because it's the most important.
- khattam 11y ago
  >Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? I use Mac OS X and this is what I miss about Linux: - Clean package/software management and updates. - Basic customizability without having to install 3rd party binaries from untrusted sources - Multiple filesystem support (NTFS write not supported out of the box... needing 3rd party software... ext support has to be compiled, breaks with updates... generally PITA) - Easy installation of software/libraries from source (generally PITA to set up toolchain to compile general cross platform open source software) - Proper desktop environment (the one that OS X has is shit compared to Gnome) - Proper file manager (the one that OS X has is shit compared to Nautilus) - Up to date and standard command-line tools (The ones in OS X are old... for example check the version of unzip... they can't unpack zip files created by new zip tool) - Better command line system wide file search (I love mlocate, the one in OS X is shit) - Ability to run docker natively

Why not move to Linux?

by x1798DE 11y ago

Why not move to Linux?

Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? Every year I try a switch to Linux desktop. This year I made it as far as trying to get multiple monitors working well. I also dabbed in gaming. In the end I went back to my work=Mac game=Windows duopoly.

toyg 11y ago
Some tools (docker etc) are typically borne on linux and later (not always) ported to OsX. Nothing you cannot get around with a bit of emulation, of course, but it can be painful at times. The whole python ecosystem is also better on Linux overall. Anything strictly desktop-oriented is better on OSX of course.
zeveb 11y ago
> Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? A GNU userland. A plethora of tiling window managers. A selection of clean terminals. Every single thing Debian's or Arch's repos offer which one must turn to brew for. And of course there's freedom too, which is nice. > Every year I try a switch to Linux desktop. This year I made it as far as trying to get multiple monitors working well. I've got multiple monitors running on Linux, over HDMI, at home & at work, at differing resolutions & orientations. I use arandr-configured xrandr scripts which set my desired orientation with a quick keystroke in my window manager. What more does one need?
- matt_wulfeck 11y ago
  Maybe HDMI is better supported that DisplayPort.
  - diyorgasms 11y ago
    I've got monitors daisy chained using displayport on Debian, in mixed portrait and landscape modes. This is using an NVIDIA card and GNOME. It was plug-and-play.
    - willtim 11y ago
      That's great that it works for you. But for Skylake hardware, Displayport MST is completely broken and Intel have no plans to fix. The major players simply are not heavily investing in desktop linux, leaving the community to try and fill the gaps.
bigger_cheese 11y ago
In my own experience Linux has the following Advantages over OS X these are of course subjective: Better Desktop environment Better Package Management More Up to date packages Some of my knowledge of OS X is likely outdated I haven't used it since 2011 I started using Linux when I was at University late 90's early 00's (Mandrake was my first distro). I switched to OS X around 2005 and used it as my primary operating system for about 5 years. I used OS X because I'd purchased a MacBook Pro (mostly for the hardware) I still think Macbooks are the nicest laptops I've used to this day I went through 3 iterations of Macbooks before I stopped using OS X. I used OS X because it was good enough but I never fell in love with it. I absolutely hated the desktop environment, silly things like no ability to customise anything, lack of workspaces, having to hit command q to kill application (because the 'x' button wouldn't close them properly) stuff like that. Workspaces came in a later OS X update which addressed some of my gripes. It was never easy to install third party packages and libraries in OS X. I think this has improved now, when I used OS X it it was a mess (especially compared to the ease of something like apt). The native system packages were always really ancient - old version of GCC, old version of emacs, python etc. Trying to install newer version of these 'default' packages was not straightforward at all I remember having huge issues getting python 3 working. Nowadays I run Fedora very happy with it. Not compelled at all to switch back. Linux support for modern laptops is a lot better than it was when I first started using Macs. My current job is in an 'enterprisey' environment I'm forced to use a locked down version of windows here. Almost anything would be better.
cyphar 11y ago
> Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? Freedom, a full GNU userland, proper package management of the entire system, plethora of CLI programs which can fulfil your every need and only really work on GNU/Linux, configurable, etc. > Every year I try a switch to Linux desktop. This year I made it as far as trying to get multiple monitors working well. I also dabbed in gaming. In the end I went back to my work=Mac game=Windows duopoly. I use multiple monitors every day for my work under OpenSUSE and Arch. They both worked with either minimal (Arch) or no (SUSE) configuration. I use DisplayPort which works pretty well.
- tychuz 11y ago
  >Freedom People are not interested.
  - cyphar 11y ago
    I am a person, therefore a subset of people. I am interested. QED. Not to mention that that wasn't the only thing I mentioned, it was just the first because it's the most important.
khattam 11y ago
>Just out of curiosity, what does a Linux desktop offer that's not also natively offered in Mac and also highly polished? I use Mac OS X and this is what I miss about Linux: - Clean package/software management and updates. - Basic customizability without having to install 3rd party binaries from untrusted sources - Multiple filesystem support (NTFS write not supported out of the box... needing 3rd party software... ext support has to be compiled, breaks with updates... generally PITA) - Easy installation of software/libraries from source (generally PITA to set up toolchain to compile general cross platform open source software) - Proper desktop environment (the one that OS X has is shit compared to Gnome) - Proper file manager (the one that OS X has is shit compared to Nautilus) - Up to date and standard command-line tools (The ones in OS X are old... for example check the version of unzip... they can't unpack zip files created by new zip tool) - Better command line system wide file search (I love mlocate, the one in OS X is shit) - Ability to run docker natively