5 ms·
There are many good hardware choices at this point in order to replace a Macbook. What is entirely not clear is what software to use to replace a Macbook.
by antirez 10y ago
There are many good hardware choices at this point in order to replace a Macbook. What is entirely not clear is what software to use to replace a Macbook.
- tinalumfoil 10y agoLinux? Hackintosh? BSD? Windows? TempleOS?
- gkop 10y agoDebian Testing (Stretch) with all its defaults, including its default desktop environment (Gnome 3).
- antirez 10y agoI admit it's a few years at this point I don't use a Linux box as my desktop. Is it at a point where, to do all the obvious things like, use Skype, configure a printer, have a decent presentation or video editing software, update my system without hacking with the drivers, I can just have it? My fear is that I'll not be able to do everything I do with my Mac now. A solution could be to install Windows 10 in dual boot maybe, to use commercial software (for video editing, just to make an example, but others may want to do gaming). Trivia: I used only Linux for more than a decade, but I quit and went to macbook because it was a bit like fighting with the system to do basic stuff.
- minitech 10y agoSkype for Linux has a release that’s up-to-date with the Mac and Windows ones now. Can’t help you with presentation or video editing software, though.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoAs for video editing software: this may sound strange, but I've seen several people, some of them VFX professionals, recommend Blender as a very good tool. (Perhaps it's not so surprising when you consider it's been used for editing several feature-length movies.) For presentation software: personally I've completely switched to HTML5 based presentations (with reveal.js generated from markdown with pandoc), because even in 2016 I still see professionals at big conferences fail at playing back videos, or just plain hanging their Windows computers, when using PowerPoint. But when was the last time a video failed to play in your browser?
- qwertyuiop924 10y agoSkype on linux works well, last I checked. Configuring a printer is pretty good, actually: for the most part, you plug it in, and it Just Works™. Networked printers are another matter, but by no meand impossible. Presentation on Linux can be handled by LibreOffice, Google Slides, or Reveal.js (which has become increasingly popular with developers of late) I've never had trouble with updating my system, and I'm on ArchLinux. The one thing you may have trouble with is wifi, but if your wifi chip's supported, the rest is most likely good. However, it does depend on your setup. Really, the only thing you might have trouble with is video editing, and even that's not so bad anymore: OpenShot is as good as WMM ever was, and Lightworks, the NLE of choice for many professionals, has a Linux version. As for gaming, I've been gaming on linux since 2011, when Steam on Linux was but a madman's dream. It was possible to play many exellent games (some through wine, some native), and with the dawn of Steam on Linux, that's never been more true.
- antirez 10y agoThanks, looks like things are better than 7/8 years ago.
- mverwijs 10y ago> Skype on linux works well, last I checked. Nope. They (Skype/Microsoft) have not updated skype in years. It's still version 4.3, and recently on Linux Groupcall is problematic as all the other Skype clients got upgrades. Though digging around for a known workaround to that last problem it appears there is a new alpha-grade update for Skype-on-Linux: https://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-for-Linux-Alpha-and-calling-on-Chrome-amp-Chromebooks/td-p/4434299 https://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-for-Linux-Alpha-a...
- Chyzwar 10y agoAlpha do not work very well. You still can install old 4.3 version, work better than new version under Win 10. Skype need to be some kind of amazing mismanagement where with such simple product they keep losing quality. To compare Curse/Discord for games work and look way better.
- mst 10y agoMy current setup is Windows 10 on a Thinkpad Helix 2, with full-screen cygwin X11 for ssh-ing into other systems from an environment where I can use fvwm2 to manage my xterms, and a FreeBSD VM running under Hyper-V for when I need a real unix locally. I have no idea at all if that would be remotely close to suitable for you, but, y'know, have a random data point in case it turns out to be helpful.
- antirez 10y agoFor me Windows is fine as long as I don't have to deal with viruses, anti viruses, malwares that reconfigure your default search, and stuff like that. It's not that I'm particularly in love with MacOS UI, even if I think it's pretty good/consistent, I could adapt to anything else which is stable and works. Thanks.
- mst 10y agoThe only thing that's hit me (so far as I know) in years was an Acrobat Reader 0day that my installed antivirus missed (AVG? I think? years ago) but once I figured out how to sigkill the payload while it was still starting up, Hitman Pro ate it alive in short order. Windows Defender is apparently pretty good but it's never found anything to complain about on my systems except copies of EICAR in a local CPAN mirror. So, for me, as far as I can tell, "don't use IE" plus "don't install random crap you downloaded from the internet" plus "my mail client is mutt under screen on a server" between them are basically sufficient defense these days. How far that generalises I can't really say.
- zeveb 10y agoWell, I prefer a tiling WM over Gnome 3, and I prefer Debian Stable over Testing for anything I need to work on, but that's probably good enough for most folks.
- gkop 10y agoI spent two days trying to get Stable (Jessie) to work with Skylake before giving up. Meanwhile Stetch supports Skylake almost perfectly, and is quite stable for professional work; I've seen only one buggy package (ffmpeg), and it was easily rolled back, and ultimately fixed in just a couple weeks. I do use Jessie with Broadwell, and it runs quite well indeed. Gnome 3 is a full desktop environment with pretty good tiling functionality built in and enabled by default.
- einr 10y agoI'm amazingly out of the loop with modern x86 processors (my laptop has a 2008 Core 2 Duo, my desktop has a 2009 Phenom II, and I have not yet felt a need to upgrade) so I gotta ask: what are the issues with supporting a new iteration of an Intel CPU on an OS level? Isn't a generic x86 CPU a generic x86 CPU that runs anything you throw at it anymore?
- DowsingSpoon 10y agoThe newer CPUs include fancy power management features. Operating system participation is needed to make the most of that.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Matachines 10y agoThis is why I'm probably going to opt for a maxed out 2015 Macbook Pro. Yes, I know I'm paying for "old" hardware but I don't use VMs or compile anything heavy so it should last me a while. After selling my current one it should come out to about $1000 so not too bad. I'm just too invested in macOS in terms of apps, comfortableness, muscle memory, etc. I actually really like it as well.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago> I'm just too invested in macOS in terms of apps, comfortableness, muscle memory, etc. I actually really like it as well. I never thought I'd compare new Apple hardware versus Thinkpads to a presidential election, but here we are.
- Matachines 10y agoNot sure what you mean? I really hate the new Macbooks but I do like macOS and I'm quite productive and happy with it. Aside from a Hackintosh my only choice is a maxed out 2015 one that should last me about five years, if not more, with my current usage. It's not the choice I wanted to make but I'm not getting a $2000+ laptop without any ports I can use without adapters.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- slantyyz 10y agoI made the switch to Windows, and while it did require some research to ensure that my workflows stayed pretty much the same, it didn't take long at all (days, not weeks) to develop new muscle memory. I struggle using a Mac now. Your real switching cost, however, is in your apps. If you're dependent on something that is Mac only, it is really, really hard to switch. Most of my core apps are multiplatform (Sublime, Slack, 1Password, Evernote etc.) but I was concerned about Terminal and Aperture. Terminal was easily addressed by Cmder (and now you can use Window's Linux shell instead), and Apple EOL'ed Aperture, which meant I had to find a new RAW tool (I use DxO Optics Pro now, which is cross platform).
- ant6n 10y agoWhat I'm concerned about is the three-finger swipe left and right to access various desktops (I've seen that set up on linux, but it doesn't transition, it just pops to the next screen, which doesn't make sense for a scrolling action).
- kelvie 10y agoI'm with you here, for me (and probably you) at least, this is by far the best feature of OS X. I mostly use Linux, and bind Windows-key+left/right for switching desktops, in KDE, but whenever I use OS X for even a little bit, I miss it.
- spott 10y agoGood recommendations? I can't think of any that have the reputation of Apple when it comes to support or build quality, but I also haven't looked beyond apple for almost 10 years.
- antirez 10y agoMy only guess is that a mix of Windows 10 and Linux is needed, there are multiple solutions: 1. Run Windows 10 and Linux in multi boot, use Linux normally, Windows when you need stuff that are not available on Linux. 2. Run Windows and use VMs to have a Linux development environment. 3. Run Windows with some Unix-alike layer, like the one introduced in Windows 10 or something. I think for me it's "1", I don't think I'll be able to use Windows on a daily basis, since I still see people that install things like anti-malware/virus. I can't go back 15 years in computing experience easily. P.S. Note how people that need to develop for Apple devices, like mobile devs, don't have any way out of the Apple ecosystem, since the SDKs are Macos-only.
- facepalm 10y agoAs long as it has little icons you can click on, things should work out ok?
- Theodores 10y agoGive up on software, go Chromebook. Give up on files too, give up on being able to browse the LAN, only use things that are a web application of some sort. That might be too hard, but, if the cloud paradigm is totally unrealistic, then you do get an escape key plus you can run an LTS version of Ubuntu in a browser tab. Here you can run a dev stack, do work in real spreadsheets and run terminal windows for vi. Okay, no Adobe or other professional software but you do have Android apps. There are two options for Chromebook hardware. Much like how there is 0, 1 and infinity with everything pretty much in-between, for maximum Chromebook chic go for either the ultra high end Pixel or the ultra low end machines that cost less than anything else. Anything in-between is a compromise on minimalist stupidity. The bargain Chromebooks are designed for 9 year old kids and seem not to contain things like CPUs, RAM or other storagey stuff. They are indestructible and the battery lifetime is measured in days when in realistic usage, just charge them overnight once in a while. With either hardware route you can install a full cornucopia of operating systems in an Ubuntu chroot with Crouton, to have your 'Unity' desktop in a tab. Here there is an escape key for working in vi. Just for added operating system overhead and complexity you can run virtualbox in your Ubuntu chroot, then you can run Windows 10, Ubuntu and ChromeOS fully side by side. I have no idea if Hackintosh is possible on a Chromebook but that sounds like a bit too far. The Chromebooks are definitely RAM limited and ports are ancient history. However, if you go high end Chromebook Pixel LS to run the above stack then you do get the finest keyboard, 3:2 screen, aluminium case, sound system and browsing experience going. Nice hardware but a heap of operating system hacks to run useful software.
- miloshadzic 10y agoFeodra is great