4 ms·

Honestly, modern Ubuntu is pretty sweet. Fire it up from a USB or CD without installing, or even in a virtual machine. Every bit as smooth as OSX.

asark 8y ago
For me, it's the built-in (or free-to-download) apps. Notes, Preview (god that is such a good piece of software), and their Office-alike programs are all great and work seamlessly across desktop and mobile. Well, not Preview—I truly might be using an iPad Pro as my main machine, with a remote Linux desktop for some things, if the iPad had Preview. Safari's the only browser that gives half a damn about battery life. Finder may kind of suck but it doesn't crash or do weird crap very often. Terminal is sufficient and snappy. Linux's equivalents all have a fair bit more jank, to put it mildly. Even for terminals, you've gotta do some research and tuning or compromise on features to get something that's as light & responsive as Terminal.app.
- prolepunk 8y ago
  I've been using Linux desktop for a decade, I've configured KDE just the way I liked it a while ago and now I just move that config between the machines. * Libre Office is good enough * Google docs are really good for collaboration. * Google keep is really good for synching notes between phone and desktop. * There are cloud-based implementation of libre office that I'm looking at to replace google services * I really like konsole and yakuake as terminal application, and for me Terminal.app always felt ancient. https://packages.debian.org/sid/konsole https://packages.debian.org/sid/konsole https://packages.debian.org/sid/yakuake https://packages.debian.org/sid/yakuake * Okular is an amazing pdf viewer (there was a thread about it recently on HN) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19478623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19478623 * Firefox might not be as battery optimized as safari on Mac, but I believe all Mozilla's respect for user privacy makes up for the lost battery life.
  - asark 8y ago
    Preview's more than just a PDF viewer. It's fast (opens almost instantly, low or no UI lag under almost all circumstances), light, renders PDFs excellently and without the artifacting and lag that's common in other readers. Adding signatures in it's a breeze. You can easily, visually, assemble new PDFs from pages of others. I'm not afraid of using features because they feel fragile or slow things down. It also has all the image & photo editing features I need 99% of the time. Similar for Pages and Numbers vs. Libreoffice or Google Docs. They're faster, lighter, and (despite having spent more time using Libreoffice/Openoffice total in my life) easier to use effectively. Another case where I don't hesitate to open them because they're quick to open, don't hesitate to close them for the same reason, and can forget they're open in the background because they're so light and don't bloat or crash when left running. Notes versus Google Keep or whatever is similar—it's a real program that opens very fast and is respectful of resources when running, not some browserware junk. KDE seems to be the most-integrated Linux UI but I've never managed to "click" with it despite trying since 2 (maybe something in the 1 series, actually? It's been a long time). I don't like the K-suite programs—they seem really heavy to me, and always have—and all the integration stuff goes out the window if you use others, plus then you're usually mixing GTK and QT which is rarely super pleasant. The "just works" integration of the K-suite has also never really "just worked" for me—bugs and inconsistency galore.
    - mcv 8y ago
      I strongly agree with all of this, and it's the main reason why I'm hesitant about switching to Linux. Preview is easily the best simple PDF viewer I've ever seen. I don't care much about word processors, but it's certainly true that KDE (and Gnome) make Linux feel clunkier than it should. It feels like they tried to look too much like Windows and not enough like OS X. Or maybe not enough like Sun OS.
sneak 8y ago
Except for the ugly fonts, the lack of good touchpad support, the wonkiness on connecting external displays, the lack of good color calibration, iffy power management, and lack of rootless/SIP, you’re spot on.
- prolepunk 8y ago
  I'm going to use debian as an example (since this is what I use): * Fonts configuration & tools -- https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts * I've always found if the touchpad was decent enough all the gestures could be easily configured and supported * Touchpad configuration and tools -- https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad * Connecting external displays stopped being wonky 5 years ago. In modern KDE this requires connecting the display and then opening display configuration dialog in System Settings. * For color calibration, have you tried something like ColorHug 2? https://hughski.com/colorhug2.html https://hughski.com/colorhug2.html A friend of mine has the previous version of it and likes it a lot, but I haven't had the need to calibrate my displays. * Power management -- If you choose the hardware with good linux support. * rootless/SIP -- there is selinux, but in general linux security model is different from apple, you just pick whatever technologies you more comfortable with and want to use.
- bproven 8y ago
  I dont know about Ubuntu, but on my Fedora 29 install most of these are not an issue: >ugly fonts I dont have a problem with ugly fonts. Default fonts in Gnome F29 are nice. I use it for dev/devops work, not graphic design so my stds are not exact. Could also be I don't know what a "pretty" font is ;) >the lack of good touchpad support, Mac touchpads have always been vastly superior to others. However, the TP Carbon X1 has a really nice touchpad/feel to me...close enough. >the wonkiness on connecting external displays, I don't have any wonkiness via chaining 2 external monitors via TB3/USBC - this might be a combo of better hardware in the TP? >the lack of good color calibration, not in graphic design so i can't comment here >iffy power management, Not sure what you mean here. Latest Fedora + maybe tlp is enough for me to get mac/windows type batt life. Sleeps fine/ wakes fine etc. no issues on TP Carbon X1 (or previously on T47x series) >and lack of rootless/SIP AFAIK this is a pretty unique feature to macos

asark 8y ago

For me, it's the built-in (or free-to-download) apps. Notes, Preview (god that is such a good piece of software), and their Office-alike programs are all great and work seamlessly across desktop and mobile. Well, not Preview—I truly might be using an iPad Pro as my main machine, with a remote Linux desktop for some things, if the iPad had Preview. Safari's the only browser that gives half a damn about battery life. Finder may kind of suck but it doesn't crash or do weird crap very often. Terminal is sufficient and snappy. Linux's equivalents all have a fair bit more jank, to put it mildly. Even for terminals, you've gotta do some research and tuning or compromise on features to get something that's as light & responsive as Terminal.app.

prolepunk 8y ago
I've been using Linux desktop for a decade, I've configured KDE just the way I liked it a while ago and now I just move that config between the machines. * Libre Office is good enough * Google docs are really good for collaboration. * Google keep is really good for synching notes between phone and desktop. * There are cloud-based implementation of libre office that I'm looking at to replace google services * I really like konsole and yakuake as terminal application, and for me Terminal.app always felt ancient. https://packages.debian.org/sid/konsole https://packages.debian.org/sid/konsole https://packages.debian.org/sid/yakuake https://packages.debian.org/sid/yakuake * Okular is an amazing pdf viewer (there was a thread about it recently on HN) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19478623 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19478623 * Firefox might not be as battery optimized as safari on Mac, but I believe all Mozilla's respect for user privacy makes up for the lost battery life.
- asark 8y ago
  Preview's more than just a PDF viewer. It's fast (opens almost instantly, low or no UI lag under almost all circumstances), light, renders PDFs excellently and without the artifacting and lag that's common in other readers. Adding signatures in it's a breeze. You can easily, visually, assemble new PDFs from pages of others. I'm not afraid of using features because they feel fragile or slow things down. It also has all the image & photo editing features I need 99% of the time. Similar for Pages and Numbers vs. Libreoffice or Google Docs. They're faster, lighter, and (despite having spent more time using Libreoffice/Openoffice total in my life) easier to use effectively. Another case where I don't hesitate to open them because they're quick to open, don't hesitate to close them for the same reason, and can forget they're open in the background because they're so light and don't bloat or crash when left running. Notes versus Google Keep or whatever is similar—it's a real program that opens very fast and is respectful of resources when running, not some browserware junk. KDE seems to be the most-integrated Linux UI but I've never managed to "click" with it despite trying since 2 (maybe something in the 1 series, actually? It's been a long time). I don't like the K-suite programs—they seem really heavy to me, and always have—and all the integration stuff goes out the window if you use others, plus then you're usually mixing GTK and QT which is rarely super pleasant. The "just works" integration of the K-suite has also never really "just worked" for me—bugs and inconsistency galore.
  - mcv 8y ago
    I strongly agree with all of this, and it's the main reason why I'm hesitant about switching to Linux. Preview is easily the best simple PDF viewer I've ever seen. I don't care much about word processors, but it's certainly true that KDE (and Gnome) make Linux feel clunkier than it should. It feels like they tried to look too much like Windows and not enough like OS X. Or maybe not enough like Sun OS.

sneak 8y ago

Except for the ugly fonts, the lack of good touchpad support, the wonkiness on connecting external displays, the lack of good color calibration, iffy power management, and lack of rootless/SIP, you’re spot on.

prolepunk 8y ago
I'm going to use debian as an example (since this is what I use): * Fonts configuration & tools -- https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts * I've always found if the touchpad was decent enough all the gestures could be easily configured and supported * Touchpad configuration and tools -- https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad * Connecting external displays stopped being wonky 5 years ago. In modern KDE this requires connecting the display and then opening display configuration dialog in System Settings. * For color calibration, have you tried something like ColorHug 2? https://hughski.com/colorhug2.html https://hughski.com/colorhug2.html A friend of mine has the previous version of it and likes it a lot, but I haven't had the need to calibrate my displays. * Power management -- If you choose the hardware with good linux support. * rootless/SIP -- there is selinux, but in general linux security model is different from apple, you just pick whatever technologies you more comfortable with and want to use.
bproven 8y ago
I dont know about Ubuntu, but on my Fedora 29 install most of these are not an issue: >ugly fonts I dont have a problem with ugly fonts. Default fonts in Gnome F29 are nice. I use it for dev/devops work, not graphic design so my stds are not exact. Could also be I don't know what a "pretty" font is ;) >the lack of good touchpad support, Mac touchpads have always been vastly superior to others. However, the TP Carbon X1 has a really nice touchpad/feel to me...close enough. >the wonkiness on connecting external displays, I don't have any wonkiness via chaining 2 external monitors via TB3/USBC - this might be a combo of better hardware in the TP? >the lack of good color calibration, not in graphic design so i can't comment here >iffy power management, Not sure what you mean here. Latest Fedora + maybe tlp is enough for me to get mac/windows type batt life. Sleeps fine/ wakes fine etc. no issues on TP Carbon X1 (or previously on T47x series) >and lack of rootless/SIP AFAIK this is a pretty unique feature to macos