7 ms·

Hard to beat a Thinkpad with Linux for dev work. a year ago I switched from a mbp to a Thinkpad with Ubuntu and I cringe every time I have to go back to the Mac

Hard to beat a Thinkpad with Linux for dev work. a year ago I switched from a mbp to a Thinkpad with Ubuntu and I cringe every time I have to go back to the Mac in order to do something.

noir_lord 7y ago
Indeed, my personal machine is a T470P (i7-7700HQ/2560x1440 and I upgarded the ram to 32GB) it's a little beast and Fedora Cinnamon is hands down my favourite host OS for development but practicially made me pick a Macbook for work since I'd be getting questions about stuff on a platform I'd never used, I like OSX generally but there are days where I still miss Linux (though iterm2 is phenomenally good, not aware of anything comparable on Linux which is a little ironic).
- krob 7y ago
  there is a terminal emulator called terminator. It has a lot of nice features, including split screen keyboard broadcasting. very useful if you have many machines with the same configuration. https://terminator-gtk3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://terminator-gtk3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- mahesh_rm 7y ago
  Guake
- arpa 7y ago
  If you want something incredible, try terminology. It has a few nice commands baked in starting with 'ty' - like tyls and tycat. I'm not going to spoil them for you by telling what they do. Just try it, you are going to love it.
- jakogut 7y ago
  I haven't used iterm2, but after another comment on HN suggesting Tilix as a replacement on Linux, I switched full-time to it a few weeks ago.
pottertheotter 7y ago
I was just contemplating the idea of someday switching from macOS to Ubuntu. Curious what it is you dislike so much about macOS? I think the biggest thing I would miss is being able to send texts from my computer. I use that all the time. I and a Windows computer at work for a bit and it absolutely drove me nuts.
- Nullabillity 7y ago
  KDE Connect is pretty great for that.
  - jen20 7y ago
    Does it connect to iPhones?
    - Nullabillity 7y ago
      Doesn't look like it: https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect#Installation https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect#Installation
- dahauns 7y ago
  >I think the biggest thing I would miss is being able to send texts from my computer. I use that all the time. I and a Windows computer at work for a bit and it absolutely drove me nuts. That's primarily an issue with iOS APIs (or lack thereof), though. Gotta switch phones as well :)
- cosmie 7y ago
  Dell released an app[1] that allows for this, which supports both Android and iPhone. While in theory it's intended for use on Dells, there are workarounds[2] to get past that check and install it on any Windows computer. [1] https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-mobile-connect/ab/dell-mobile-connect https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-mobile-connect/ab/dell-... [2] https://hothardware.com/news/dell-mobile-connect-installation https://hothardware.com/news/dell-mobile-connect-installatio...
anarazel 7y ago
They have plenty of thermal issues too, though.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
rb808 7y ago
what screen do you have? I definitely prefer Thinkpads, but Mac screens are generally better. 4k sounds like it sucks battery too much.
closeparen 7y ago
As much as I want to do this, Apple has spoiled me with seamless high-DPI display support. I cringe every time I see 1366x768.
- mceachen 7y ago
  FWIW, Windows laptops (that you can then install Linux on) have had hidpi screens for more than 15 years (!!), and Ubuntu's fractional scaling works really well right out of the box now.
  - Groxx 7y ago
    "have had" and "works reliably" are very different things. Every Windows and Linux machine I've used has had issues with individual apps, and most of the time I've plugged them into things that cross multiple scaling factors simultaneously, they've have had rather significant issues (when it isn't just "issues with everything except device-native"). I haven't had an issue with that at all in a few years now on my Mac, and I plug it into literally 10x more screens and configurations.
    - mceachen 7y ago
      Just to add to the anecdata, my MBP would kernel panic ~25% of the time it was plugged into a 4k displayport 1.1 monitor. I'm glad your system is stable, though!
- jjoonathan 7y ago
  And spotlight. Why is desktop search so bad everywhere else?
  - bobbiechen 7y ago
    True. I recently picked up Albert [1] on my Ubuntu machine because I was missing spotlight search. So far it works well - it would have been nice if something like it was included by default. https://github.com/albertlauncher/albert https://github.com/albertlauncher/albert

Hard to beat a Thinkpad with Linux for dev work. a year ago I switched from a mbp to a Thinkpad with Ubuntu and I cringe every time I have to go back to the Mac in order to do something.

noir_lord 7y ago

Indeed, my personal machine is a T470P (i7-7700HQ/2560x1440 and I upgarded the ram to 32GB) it's a little beast and Fedora Cinnamon is hands down my favourite host OS for development but practicially made me pick a Macbook for work since I'd be getting questions about stuff on a platform I'd never used, I like OSX generally but there are days where I still miss Linux (though iterm2 is phenomenally good, not aware of anything comparable on Linux which is a little ironic).

krob 7y ago
there is a terminal emulator called terminator. It has a lot of nice features, including split screen keyboard broadcasting. very useful if you have many machines with the same configuration. https://terminator-gtk3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://terminator-gtk3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
mahesh_rm 7y ago
Guake
arpa 7y ago
If you want something incredible, try terminology. It has a few nice commands baked in starting with 'ty' - like tyls and tycat. I'm not going to spoil them for you by telling what they do. Just try it, you are going to love it.
jakogut 7y ago
I haven't used iterm2, but after another comment on HN suggesting Tilix as a replacement on Linux, I switched full-time to it a few weeks ago.

pottertheotter 7y ago

I was just contemplating the idea of someday switching from macOS to Ubuntu. Curious what it is you dislike so much about macOS? I think the biggest thing I would miss is being able to send texts from my computer. I use that all the time. I and a Windows computer at work for a bit and it absolutely drove me nuts.

Nullabillity 7y ago
KDE Connect is pretty great for that.
- jen20 7y ago
  Does it connect to iPhones?
  - Nullabillity 7y ago
    Doesn't look like it: https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect#Installation https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect#Installation
dahauns 7y ago
>I think the biggest thing I would miss is being able to send texts from my computer. I use that all the time. I and a Windows computer at work for a bit and it absolutely drove me nuts. That's primarily an issue with iOS APIs (or lack thereof), though. Gotta switch phones as well :)
cosmie 7y ago
Dell released an app[1] that allows for this, which supports both Android and iPhone. While in theory it's intended for use on Dells, there are workarounds[2] to get past that check and install it on any Windows computer. [1] https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-mobile-connect/ab/dell-mobile-connect https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-mobile-connect/ab/dell-... [2] https://hothardware.com/news/dell-mobile-connect-installation https://hothardware.com/news/dell-mobile-connect-installatio...

anarazel 7y ago

They have plenty of thermal issues too, though.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

rb808 7y ago

what screen do you have? I definitely prefer Thinkpads, but Mac screens are generally better. 4k sounds like it sucks battery too much.

closeparen 7y ago

As much as I want to do this, Apple has spoiled me with seamless high-DPI display support. I cringe every time I see 1366x768.

mceachen 7y ago
FWIW, Windows laptops (that you can then install Linux on) have had hidpi screens for more than 15 years (!!), and Ubuntu's fractional scaling works really well right out of the box now.
- Groxx 7y ago
  "have had" and "works reliably" are very different things. Every Windows and Linux machine I've used has had issues with individual apps, and most of the time I've plugged them into things that cross multiple scaling factors simultaneously, they've have had rather significant issues (when it isn't just "issues with everything except device-native"). I haven't had an issue with that at all in a few years now on my Mac, and I plug it into literally 10x more screens and configurations.
  - mceachen 7y ago
    Just to add to the anecdata, my MBP would kernel panic ~25% of the time it was plugged into a 4k displayport 1.1 monitor. I'm glad your system is stable, though!
jjoonathan 7y ago
And spotlight. Why is desktop search so bad everywhere else?
- bobbiechen 7y ago
  True. I recently picked up Albert [1] on my Ubuntu machine because I was missing spotlight search. So far it works well - it would have been nice if something like it was included by default. https://github.com/albertlauncher/albert https://github.com/albertlauncher/albert