3 ms·

I think this is the kind of blogpost someone writes when they are angry, but not necessarily assertive. He's just installing Ubuntu on his Apple laptop, that's

I think this is the kind of blogpost someone writes when they are angry, but not necessarily assertive. He's just installing Ubuntu on his Apple laptop, that's all! And pretty soon he'll miss something from OSX and then -- dual boot. Next thing you know Apple does something nice again and the Ubuntu partition is just erased. I experienced something similar when Apple wouldn't release Java 6 for OSX. I had a second partition with Ubuntu on it which I used for my Java 6 work and I was mad at Apple, but as soon as Apple released Java 6 I couldn't erase that partition fast enough ! Actually -- I didn't even wait for Apple to release Java 6. A smart guy (Landon Fuller) released a Java 6 openjdk port which was using X11 and it was enough for me to erase Ubuntu and use OSX instead. This is how much worse it was on Linux! My number one gripe were the Linux fonts but there were many other issues. I remember Ubuntu launched some nice project called "100 paper cuts" to fix those small but annoying bugs in Ubuntu. This is how using Linux feels after OSX: like bumping not into large issues but all these small points of friction that ruin your flow.

Zak 17y ago
To provide a counterpoint, when my laptop was stolen a few months ago, I spent about three weeks using a borrowed Mac Pro. I had a similar experience - a hundred little things drove me nuts. Among them were: The lack of a package manager. Sure, I installed Macports, but it wasn't integrated in to the system, and there weren't ports of popular cost-free commercial applications like Skype. No way to change the focus/raise model. I want a click inside a window to focus it, but not raise it. I want a click on the title bar or boarder to raise it. It didn't properly detect when something was plugged in to the headphone jack (that may have been hardware). Customization of the visual appearance is very limited. I want light on dark for most things. I really don't understand why it seems that most people prefer to stare at the equivalent of a light bulb. I'm sure I could think of more. I'd expect OS X to be a nicer experience for most users, but it isn't for me.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- ptomato 17y ago
  Skype? You mean like this: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/ http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/ In general also mac applications don't need a package manager. Download, drag application to Applications directory, done. If you want to get rid of it, delete it from there, it's gone. Updating, http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/ http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/ is used in the vast majority of non-Apple software these days. Focus/raise model yeah, there's no way to change it that I know of, and personally my biggest annoyance with OS X is the inability to change window management in general. The headphone jack thing is almost certainly a problem with hardware, it works just fine on every Mac I own/have used. You can invert the display to use white-on-black with Ctrl-Alt-Command-8, or via System Preferences -> Universal Access, though that's probably not exactly what you're looking for.
  - Zak 17y ago
    I know how to install software on Mac OS. I didn't know about Sparkle. It looks nice, but doesn't provide quite what I want; apt lets me have an upgrade process that's simultaneously automatic and controllable. I knew about the display inversion. It is most certainly not what I want.
- blasdel 17y ago
  Focus-follows-mouse (without raise) is extremely difficult to pull off on OS X because of the menu bar model. 10.6 added a hidden preference to make Terminal.app do focus-follows-mouse, and that's good enough for me. A lot of keyboard shortcuts don't work correctly though, because they're dispatched through the menu bar.

Zak 17y ago

To provide a counterpoint, when my laptop was stolen a few months ago, I spent about three weeks using a borrowed Mac Pro. I had a similar experience - a hundred little things drove me nuts. Among them were: The lack of a package manager. Sure, I installed Macports, but it wasn't integrated in to the system, and there weren't ports of popular cost-free commercial applications like Skype. No way to change the focus/raise model. I want a click inside a window to focus it, but not raise it. I want a click on the title bar or boarder to raise it. It didn't properly detect when something was plugged in to the headphone jack (that may have been hardware). Customization of the visual appearance is very limited. I want light on dark for most things. I really don't understand why it seems that most people prefer to stare at the equivalent of a light bulb. I'm sure I could think of more. I'd expect OS X to be a nicer experience for most users, but it isn't for me.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
ptomato 17y ago
Skype? You mean like this: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/ http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/ In general also mac applications don't need a package manager. Download, drag application to Applications directory, done. If you want to get rid of it, delete it from there, it's gone. Updating, http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/ http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/ is used in the vast majority of non-Apple software these days. Focus/raise model yeah, there's no way to change it that I know of, and personally my biggest annoyance with OS X is the inability to change window management in general. The headphone jack thing is almost certainly a problem with hardware, it works just fine on every Mac I own/have used. You can invert the display to use white-on-black with Ctrl-Alt-Command-8, or via System Preferences -> Universal Access, though that's probably not exactly what you're looking for.
- Zak 17y ago
  I know how to install software on Mac OS. I didn't know about Sparkle. It looks nice, but doesn't provide quite what I want; apt lets me have an upgrade process that's simultaneously automatic and controllable. I knew about the display inversion. It is most certainly not what I want.
blasdel 17y ago
Focus-follows-mouse (without raise) is extremely difficult to pull off on OS X because of the menu bar model. 10.6 added a hidden preference to make Terminal.app do focus-follows-mouse, and that's good enough for me. A lot of keyboard shortcuts don't work correctly though, because they're dispatched through the menu bar.