5 ms·

I recently switched from macOS High Sierra to Fedora. I felt that Fedora was smoother, way more responsive on the same hardware (and yes, comparing fresh macOS

I recently switched from macOS High Sierra to Fedora. I felt that Fedora was smoother, way more responsive on the same hardware (and yes, comparing fresh macOS to fresh Linux install), more consistent and more intuitive, and more usable. The only thing I can think of that's better on macOS is the touchpad, which to the best of my knowledge is a gift given to us mortals by the gods. Oh, and the macOS default wallpaper is better.

macintux 8y ago
> The only thing I can think of that's better on macOS is the touchpad, which to the best of my knowledge is a gift given to us mortals by the gods. I'm absolutely unwilling to give up the Mac trackpad. When I see people who aren't artists using mice I have to question their value system, or assume they haven't discovered the absolute joy that is "tap to click". Obviously the configuration matters a great deal.
- modzu 8y ago
  nailed it. the trackpad is THE killer feature of the macbook. everything else has a comparable in other products.
- namibj 8y ago
  On my Thinkpad the whole touchpad depresses like a giant keyboard button. Yes, there is slightly more force than on an apple Touchpad, but you don't accidentally click by tapping, which is nice.
  - macintux 8y ago
    To my recollection, after discovering tap to click, I've not once accidentally clicked. That would be, hm, maybe 15 years now? The extra effort required/friction added to click really annoys me now.
    - namibj 8y ago
      I remember experiencing some issues around that, but it's been years and I was not used to the device it happened on. It might not have been a MacBook, but the alternative then would have been a dedicated area or physical button in the corner of the touchpad, so then it was preferable. I don't remember why, but I think the issue with palm rejection being necessary on some of the laptops I used (not owned) was the lack of sufficient space to rest the hands on that would neither result in them being on the edge of the case nor on the edge of the touchpad. This Thinkpad (T540p) does not have that issue, as the size seems to allow the keyboard to be far enough away from the front edge of the base. To be fair, the noise of clicking the touchpad is annoying some times, but mostly due to the mushy bottoming of the keyboard, which results in low noise despite a clear actuation point. My aversion to a MacBook is mostly coming from the repair-unfriendlyness, combined with the high prices on the secondary market compared to T/X series Thinkpads. As long as I can hold it for at least one hour on one hand, while walking, in a position that I can keep an eye on the screen and use the other hand for hitting keys if needed, I don't consider it to heavy. And screen size is only really restricted by needing to fit inside commonly available backpacks, and not hindering maneuverability which happens if it is too wide in the middle dimension (approximating as a cuboid) to fit within the width of the chest. Being able to fit with it on my lap in a row on e.g. public transit/long distance trains/ (airplanes) also sets a limit to the width in the maximum dimension of the cuboid approximation. As this limit is lower than that imposed by fitting within the flat space on my back, that restriction dosn't really apply for the laptop.
- erickj 8y ago
  I prefer the trackpad on my (personal) X1 carbon to the trackpad on my (work) Macbook Air
  - macintux 8y ago
    Configuration matters, but so does size. My built-in trackpad is fine, but the larger external one is the real joy.
- zchrykng 8y ago
  > I'm absolutely unwilling to give up the Mac trackpad. Too bad they already ruined it when they switched from the 2014 to 2015 models.
  - macintux 8y ago
    Haven't had a complaint with my 2015, but as I indicated elsewhere, the external Bluetooth trackpad is the real winner.
    - m_mueller 8y ago
      I was just looking into external trackpads yesterday because I'm about to switch to thinkpads. There's nothing! Even Logitech discontinued their version of Magic Trackpad. How is this possible?
- softawre 8y ago
  when I see people who don't use a mouse with additional buttons for things like navigate forward and backward in terminal and IDES, I also question them.
  - rkangel 8y ago
    Because during the work day if I have to touch the mouse to do anything that isn't web browsing then I and my operating system have failed.
hrktb 8y ago
An aspect that is often left out of the discussion: language support is way better on osx/windows. In particular japanese IME was still very primitive in comparison on linux (tried last year). That's the same situation as for ios/android really, it's not a deal breaker, but the quality of life difference is clear.
- arghwhat 8y ago
  Hmm, I have used both Linux and Mac Japanese IME's, and I didn't feel that big a difference. I may remember wrong, though. A cool but probably useless feature in the Chinese IME for Mac is the ability to draw Hanzi on the trackpad as a giant digitizer. Internationalization wise, I could never dream of using a computer in any language other than English, despite it not being my mother tongue.

macintux 8y ago

> The only thing I can think of that's better on macOS is the touchpad, which to the best of my knowledge is a gift given to us mortals by the gods. I'm absolutely unwilling to give up the Mac trackpad. When I see people who aren't artists using mice I have to question their value system, or assume they haven't discovered the absolute joy that is "tap to click". Obviously the configuration matters a great deal.

modzu 8y ago
nailed it. the trackpad is THE killer feature of the macbook. everything else has a comparable in other products.
namibj 8y ago
On my Thinkpad the whole touchpad depresses like a giant keyboard button. Yes, there is slightly more force than on an apple Touchpad, but you don't accidentally click by tapping, which is nice.
- macintux 8y ago
  To my recollection, after discovering tap to click, I've not once accidentally clicked. That would be, hm, maybe 15 years now? The extra effort required/friction added to click really annoys me now.
  - namibj 8y ago
    I remember experiencing some issues around that, but it's been years and I was not used to the device it happened on. It might not have been a MacBook, but the alternative then would have been a dedicated area or physical button in the corner of the touchpad, so then it was preferable. I don't remember why, but I think the issue with palm rejection being necessary on some of the laptops I used (not owned) was the lack of sufficient space to rest the hands on that would neither result in them being on the edge of the case nor on the edge of the touchpad. This Thinkpad (T540p) does not have that issue, as the size seems to allow the keyboard to be far enough away from the front edge of the base. To be fair, the noise of clicking the touchpad is annoying some times, but mostly due to the mushy bottoming of the keyboard, which results in low noise despite a clear actuation point. My aversion to a MacBook is mostly coming from the repair-unfriendlyness, combined with the high prices on the secondary market compared to T/X series Thinkpads. As long as I can hold it for at least one hour on one hand, while walking, in a position that I can keep an eye on the screen and use the other hand for hitting keys if needed, I don't consider it to heavy. And screen size is only really restricted by needing to fit inside commonly available backpacks, and not hindering maneuverability which happens if it is too wide in the middle dimension (approximating as a cuboid) to fit within the width of the chest. Being able to fit with it on my lap in a row on e.g. public transit/long distance trains/ (airplanes) also sets a limit to the width in the maximum dimension of the cuboid approximation. As this limit is lower than that imposed by fitting within the flat space on my back, that restriction dosn't really apply for the laptop.
erickj 8y ago
I prefer the trackpad on my (personal) X1 carbon to the trackpad on my (work) Macbook Air
- macintux 8y ago
  Configuration matters, but so does size. My built-in trackpad is fine, but the larger external one is the real joy.
zchrykng 8y ago
> I'm absolutely unwilling to give up the Mac trackpad. Too bad they already ruined it when they switched from the 2014 to 2015 models.
- macintux 8y ago
  Haven't had a complaint with my 2015, but as I indicated elsewhere, the external Bluetooth trackpad is the real winner.
  - m_mueller 8y ago
    I was just looking into external trackpads yesterday because I'm about to switch to thinkpads. There's nothing! Even Logitech discontinued their version of Magic Trackpad. How is this possible?
softawre 8y ago
when I see people who don't use a mouse with additional buttons for things like navigate forward and backward in terminal and IDES, I also question them.
- rkangel 8y ago
  Because during the work day if I have to touch the mouse to do anything that isn't web browsing then I and my operating system have failed.

hrktb 8y ago

An aspect that is often left out of the discussion: language support is way better on osx/windows. In particular japanese IME was still very primitive in comparison on linux (tried last year). That's the same situation as for ios/android really, it's not a deal breaker, but the quality of life difference is clear.

arghwhat 8y ago
Hmm, I have used both Linux and Mac Japanese IME's, and I didn't feel that big a difference. I may remember wrong, though. A cool but probably useless feature in the Chinese IME for Mac is the ability to draw Hanzi on the trackpad as a giant digitizer. Internationalization wise, I could never dream of using a computer in any language other than English, despite it not being my mother tongue.