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Whoa whoa whoa, your painting with really broad strokes here! Slow your roll a bit there, Mac laptops are definitely not the number one laptop at all Linux even

Whoa whoa whoa, your painting with really broad strokes here! Slow your roll a bit there, Mac laptops are definitely not the number one laptop at all Linux events. From personal experience, I saw very few Macs at SeaGL, there were more at LFNW, but most people were running some Linux distro on their laptop.

morganvachon 9y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the Mac laptops one sees at such events are actually running a Linux desktop. Apart from EFI quirks, Macs (especially older Macs) tend to be Linux friendly which extends their life far beyond Apple's official support lifecycle. You can even keep a PPC Mac alive and useful thanks to Linux support. I've got a 2006 era Mac mini that is only officially supported to 10.6 Snow Leopard; I've managed to install 10.7 Lion via an installer hack, but it's slow and unstable. Meanwhile the most recent releases of Slackware, Debian, and Ubuntu all run fine and in Slackware's case, blazing fast on that old piece of kit.
- baldfat 9y ago
  Linux runs pretty poorly on Apple Hardware. I have tried 2 times and the rule of thumb is 2 generations back has the best support since it takes a while to iron out the bugs. I laugh at people when they say they use Linux on their new Macbooks and they say they have a partition but don't really use it due to something. Macbook 2016-2017 Not Working - Input and Output Sound - Doesn't Work - Suspend - Doesn't Work - Bluetooth - Doesn't Work - Touch Id - Doesn't Work (Not surprising) - Wifi on 13.2.and 13.3; 14.2 and 14.3 - Doesn't Work https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6a92f9cd7 https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6... https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux
  - morganvachon 9y ago
    "the rule of thumb is 2 generations back has the best support " That's exactly what I said, older Macs (as in those no longer supported by Apple) are great candidates for Linux.
baldfat 9y ago
So what was the most popular laptop? The second closest I came across was the Dell XPS 13. I would say around 50% were running with Mac Books.
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  Depends on the conference or event, which conferences or events have you seen that at? I'm pulling my experience from the conferences and events I've regularly attended over the past decade as a broke student in Seattle.
jamesrcole 9y ago
> Whoa whoa whoa, your painting with really broad strokes here! Slow your roll a bit there, Mac laptops are definitely not the number one laptop at all Linux events. Umm, aren't you arguing precisely over what the "broad strokes" are?
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  No, purely pointing out that what @baldfat said was a broad claim that is plainly false. > For the last 10 years at all Linux events the number one laptop is a Mac. If you go to any of the linux fests in the Pacific Northwest, you'll see a low percentage of Macs. Thinkpads vastly outnumber Macs at these events, where you'll have a room of 300 people with 100+ Thinkpads and perhaps a dozen Macs, if that.
  - jamesrcole 9y ago
    > No, purely pointing out that what @baldfat said was a broad claim that is plainly false. I get that you're saying it's false. But what you and them are talking about is a broad claim. Any answer to "what is the most commonly used type of laptop at these events?" is by definition a broad claim. Even if your answer is "there is no one single type, because it varies" you're still making a broad claim about overall usage patterns.
    - StudentStuff 9y ago
      I've aimed to stay within my area of knowledge, eg: conferences I have attended. Not making any broad claims here FYI, merely stating what I've seen firsthand.
      - jamesrcole 9y ago
        "what @baldfat said ... is plainly false" is a broad claim
        StudentStuff 9y ago

morganvachon 9y ago

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the Mac laptops one sees at such events are actually running a Linux desktop. Apart from EFI quirks, Macs (especially older Macs) tend to be Linux friendly which extends their life far beyond Apple's official support lifecycle. You can even keep a PPC Mac alive and useful thanks to Linux support. I've got a 2006 era Mac mini that is only officially supported to 10.6 Snow Leopard; I've managed to install 10.7 Lion via an installer hack, but it's slow and unstable. Meanwhile the most recent releases of Slackware, Debian, and Ubuntu all run fine and in Slackware's case, blazing fast on that old piece of kit.

baldfat 9y ago
Linux runs pretty poorly on Apple Hardware. I have tried 2 times and the rule of thumb is 2 generations back has the best support since it takes a while to iron out the bugs. I laugh at people when they say they use Linux on their new Macbooks and they say they have a partition but don't really use it due to something. Macbook 2016-2017 Not Working - Input and Output Sound - Doesn't Work - Suspend - Doesn't Work - Bluetooth - Doesn't Work - Touch Id - Doesn't Work (Not surprising) - Wifi on 13.2.and 13.3; 14.2 and 14.3 - Doesn't Work https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6a92f9cd7 https://gist.github.com/roadrunner2/1289542a748d9a104e7baec6... https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux https://github.com/Dunedan/mbp-2016-linux
- morganvachon 9y ago
  "the rule of thumb is 2 generations back has the best support " That's exactly what I said, older Macs (as in those no longer supported by Apple) are great candidates for Linux.

baldfat 9y ago

So what was the most popular laptop? The second closest I came across was the Dell XPS 13. I would say around 50% were running with Mac Books.

StudentStuff 9y ago
Depends on the conference or event, which conferences or events have you seen that at? I'm pulling my experience from the conferences and events I've regularly attended over the past decade as a broke student in Seattle.

jamesrcole 9y ago

> Whoa whoa whoa, your painting with really broad strokes here! Slow your roll a bit there, Mac laptops are definitely not the number one laptop at all Linux events. Umm, aren't you arguing precisely over what the "broad strokes" are?

StudentStuff 9y ago
No, purely pointing out that what @baldfat said was a broad claim that is plainly false. > For the last 10 years at all Linux events the number one laptop is a Mac. If you go to any of the linux fests in the Pacific Northwest, you'll see a low percentage of Macs. Thinkpads vastly outnumber Macs at these events, where you'll have a room of 300 people with 100+ Thinkpads and perhaps a dozen Macs, if that.
- jamesrcole 9y ago
  > No, purely pointing out that what @baldfat said was a broad claim that is plainly false. I get that you're saying it's false. But what you and them are talking about is a broad claim. Any answer to "what is the most commonly used type of laptop at these events?" is by definition a broad claim. Even if your answer is "there is no one single type, because it varies" you're still making a broad claim about overall usage patterns.
  - StudentStuff 9y ago
    I've aimed to stay within my area of knowledge, eg: conferences I have attended. Not making any broad claims here FYI, merely stating what I've seen firsthand.
    - jamesrcole 9y ago
      "what @baldfat said ... is plainly false" is a broad claim
      - StudentStuff 9y ago