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Ask HN: How do Linux/Ubuntu compare to macOS in terms of UI/UX and app support?

6 points by ahmedbaracat 6y ago

If you have switched recently from macOS to Linux or Ubuntu, how do they compare in terms of UI/UX, app support, responsiveness and overall feel?

jki275 6y ago
I use them both regularly. It doesn't. It's simply not even in the same discussion. There are some things you need to use Linux for, and where I need to do those things I ssh into a Linux VM for the most part. The fit & finish of X windows and Linux simply are not there in comparison to OSX.
- dllthomas 6y ago
  I used OSX at my last job. I think if you try to use Linux as if it were a Mac, it will generally be a sufficient but worse experience. The experience I want out of my computer doesn't resemble the blessed path on Mac, so my experience on Linux is much better for me.
rvz 6y ago
> ...how do they compare in terms of UI/UX, app support, responsiveness and overall feel? When you put it in terms of those requirements between macOS and any other Linux distro, there is no such comparison because of the level of UI/UX consistency that macOS has over any Linux distro is not even close. For a Linux distro to achieve this macOS-like consistency, they must have some sort of unified SDK for GUI development or a standard desktop stack for developers to work against. The difficulty here is that the nature of the Linux ecosystem is that the users are free to swap-in/out alternative system components. That's a blessing of freedom for its power-users and a curse for some developers. To some extent, macOS does both but limits which parts of its system can be swapped. This consistency even goes further into the hardware for MacBook users but that would be even more unfair as a comparison.
- codemusings 6y ago
  > For a Linux distro to achieve this macOS-like consistency, they must have some sort of unified SDK for GUI development or a standard desktop stack for developers to work against. The difficulty here is that the nature of the Linux ecosystem is that the users are free to swap-in/out alternative system components. That's a very superficial and uninformed view. I can write a Qt app for macOS and it doesn't have the same consistency as an AppKit app. It's also just a framework. I would also argue that lumping Linux distros together makes no sense because it's Apples and Oranges. OP basically needs to compare Desktop Environments to have a sense of what it's like. Personally I think Gnome and the underlying GTK framework is pretty close these days in look and feel compared to macOS. With the 3.36 release it has also gained a noticeable smoothness. They also have a HIG and generally strive for a consistent experience with a design group guiding the development. Fedora provides a very nice out of the box experience for Gnome. So does Debian or Ubuntu.
sbacic 6y ago
I use Linux for work and use an iPad for stuff like reading and browsing. The difference is night and day. The UI/UX is the main reason I'd switch to a Mac, if only they were competitively priced and didn't have some horrible glaring flaw. As a longtime Linux user though, it makes me sad that an OS with such potential is probably never going to achieve it because people keep reinventing the wheel rather than solving problems that benefit the entire community.
- ahmedbaracat 6y ago
  Even though I didn’t play with Linux recently. Your last paragraph intuitively stuck a cord. What do you think are the problems that are worth solving and would benefit the entire community?
  - sbacic 6y ago
    I would say general purpose libraries that can be used by other developers. A good example might be, for example, a better touchpad driver to match the Macbook one, as someone recently mentioned. Or for me personally: a macOS Sidecar clone. Or an easy to use, cross-distro way to run Windows apps inside a VM with GPU acceleration.
abdelhamidem 6y ago
Pop OS is the most UI/UX coherent linux based operating system i've ever used, and it's really not bad, although not as shiny as macOS https://pop.system76.com/ https://pop.system76.com/

6 points by ahmedbaracat 6y ago

If you have switched recently from macOS to Linux or Ubuntu, how do they compare in terms of UI/UX, app support, responsiveness and overall feel?

jki275 6y ago

I use them both regularly. It doesn't. It's simply not even in the same discussion. There are some things you need to use Linux for, and where I need to do those things I ssh into a Linux VM for the most part. The fit & finish of X windows and Linux simply are not there in comparison to OSX.

dllthomas 6y ago
I used OSX at my last job. I think if you try to use Linux as if it were a Mac, it will generally be a sufficient but worse experience. The experience I want out of my computer doesn't resemble the blessed path on Mac, so my experience on Linux is much better for me.

rvz 6y ago

> ...how do they compare in terms of UI/UX, app support, responsiveness and overall feel? When you put it in terms of those requirements between macOS and any other Linux distro, there is no such comparison because of the level of UI/UX consistency that macOS has over any Linux distro is not even close. For a Linux distro to achieve this macOS-like consistency, they must have some sort of unified SDK for GUI development or a standard desktop stack for developers to work against. The difficulty here is that the nature of the Linux ecosystem is that the users are free to swap-in/out alternative system components. That's a blessing of freedom for its power-users and a curse for some developers. To some extent, macOS does both but limits which parts of its system can be swapped. This consistency even goes further into the hardware for MacBook users but that would be even more unfair as a comparison.

codemusings 6y ago
> For a Linux distro to achieve this macOS-like consistency, they must have some sort of unified SDK for GUI development or a standard desktop stack for developers to work against. The difficulty here is that the nature of the Linux ecosystem is that the users are free to swap-in/out alternative system components. That's a very superficial and uninformed view. I can write a Qt app for macOS and it doesn't have the same consistency as an AppKit app. It's also just a framework. I would also argue that lumping Linux distros together makes no sense because it's Apples and Oranges. OP basically needs to compare Desktop Environments to have a sense of what it's like. Personally I think Gnome and the underlying GTK framework is pretty close these days in look and feel compared to macOS. With the 3.36 release it has also gained a noticeable smoothness. They also have a HIG and generally strive for a consistent experience with a design group guiding the development. Fedora provides a very nice out of the box experience for Gnome. So does Debian or Ubuntu.

sbacic 6y ago

I use Linux for work and use an iPad for stuff like reading and browsing. The difference is night and day. The UI/UX is the main reason I'd switch to a Mac, if only they were competitively priced and didn't have some horrible glaring flaw. As a longtime Linux user though, it makes me sad that an OS with such potential is probably never going to achieve it because people keep reinventing the wheel rather than solving problems that benefit the entire community.

ahmedbaracat 6y ago
Even though I didn’t play with Linux recently. Your last paragraph intuitively stuck a cord. What do you think are the problems that are worth solving and would benefit the entire community?
- sbacic 6y ago
  I would say general purpose libraries that can be used by other developers. A good example might be, for example, a better touchpad driver to match the Macbook one, as someone recently mentioned. Or for me personally: a macOS Sidecar clone. Or an easy to use, cross-distro way to run Windows apps inside a VM with GPU acceleration.

abdelhamidem 6y ago

Pop OS is the most UI/UX coherent linux based operating system i've ever used, and it's really not bad, although not as shiny as macOS https://pop.system76.com/ https://pop.system76.com/