4 ms·

Converting a machine that works well out of the box into a machine that requires custom scripts and constant tinkering to handle simple tasks seems like a waste

by j7ake 6y ago

Converting a machine that works well out of the box into a machine that requires custom scripts and constant tinkering to handle simple tasks seems like a waste of time.

hajderr 6y ago
Yup, Never ever would I try this. A running pc laptop is a much smarter choice.
djhworld 6y ago
Couldn't agree more, but what's the fun in tinkering if you can't kill some time doing it?
hugg 6y ago
Learning scripting means you learn things that can be applied to other things.
viraptor 6y ago
> that works well out of the box That may be your experience, but it's not universal. I wanted to do this, regardless of how many hacks it took, but I'm on the new-and-broken model unfortunately.
growse 6y ago
"Works well". I have a 2019 mbp16. It does not "work well". For me, the graphics driver crashes me out of my login session pretty much daily, the network stack occasionally shits itself (reboot) and various internal processes (the... window server?) like to use >50% CPU for no reason at all. Looking around, I'm not the only one who has issues.
- jafjaf 6y ago
  AFAIK the macOS activity manager doesn’t show task usage as you’d expect. It displays resource usage based on total current usage rather than maximum capacity.
  - gowld 6y ago
    Citation needed. That doesn't match my experience at all. When Activity Monitor shows high CPU in the process list, it corresponds to high CPU in the CPU monitor.
- jki275 6y ago
  I have the same machine and none of those issues. Probably yours is broken somehow. Would recommend bringing it in for service while it's in warranty.
  - growse 6y ago
    The fact that I can point at both colleagues and strangers on the internet with the same issues makes me think it's actually just crap software that doesn't work.
    - jki275 6y ago
      I think if that were the case there would be a lot more people with the issues you’re talking about. My whole shop uses Macs and nobody has this issue. I’m on one of three different variant MBPs (including one like yours) all day every day - literally around 18 hours a day - and I’ve never seen it. That’s why I would really suggest opening a ticket on it, especially with a new laptop. I suspect there’s a hardware issue.
sgt 6y ago
I'm running Linux on a 2015 MBP as a server. Rest of the household are Macs only, but I figured it would be useful to have a server and stick it into a closet. It's rife with issues. Power management is odd, brightness sometimes doesn't work, and most annoyingly, the keyboard and trackpad sometimes stops working after 2-3 weeks of 24/7 operation. I solved most of the issues by disabling the GUI and just letting it boot to the console. I also set mitigations to off in GRUB and it ran cooler. Not ideal with security in mind, but it's just a home server after all.
xyzzy_plugh 6y ago
Honestly, I run Linux on a 2015 MacBook Pro. It works much better than it did "out of the box". I get better battery life, because I can turn off things I don't need. I don't have to restart the audio service before every Zoom call. I don't have to reboot to get external monitors to work again. My Yubikey doesn't drain the battery in a few hours. My system boots to the login screen in the time it takes for the Apple logo to finish showing. I don't have to fight with the App store to keep software up-to-date. I don't have to work around a shitty developer experience with homebrew or docker/virtual machines. I never have to deal with Xcode! In any case, I probably spent a tenth of the time setting everything up, tweaks and all, than I did unfucking the default install of OS X to be usable.
- toyg 6y ago
  That sounds horrendous! My experience is fairly opposite though. > I get better battery life, because I can turn off things I don't need. I had horrible experiences with Linux and battery life on laptops. Fans on all the time, poor or absent support for sleep and hibernate... Proprietary systems consistently performed better for me in that area. > I don't have to restart the audio service before every Zoom call. That's really weird. I wouldn't even know how to restart the audio service on OsX. > I don't have to reboot to get external monitors to work again. I have occasional issues in that area, but typically it just takes a bit of "nagging" osx to re-detect the monitor, like bringing up the System Preferences panel related to wallpapers. > My system boots to the login screen in the time it takes for the Apple logo to finish showing. One shouldn't need to reboot OsX more than once weekly, or less, but yeah, boot times in OsX have gone to the dogs in the last few years. Windows absolutely smokes it, I guess some Linux distros would too. > I don't have to fight with the App store to keep software up-to-date. It's been alright until recently, but I agree that the last few moves to persuade us to move to "Vistalina" have been annoying. > I probably spent a tenth of the time setting everything up, tweaks and all, than I did unfucking the default install of OS X That's really the opposite for me. The time I always end up spending on stuff like fonts (!) on the average Linux desktop, is just ridiculous.
- cpursley 6y ago
  How did you get the Webcam to work?
xu44 6y ago
It's definitely a nice feeling to call everything you don't understand a waste of time.

by j7ake 6y ago

Converting a machine that works well out of the box into a machine that requires custom scripts and constant tinkering to handle simple tasks seems like a waste of time.

hajderr 6y ago

Yup, Never ever would I try this. A running pc laptop is a much smarter choice.

djhworld 6y ago

Couldn't agree more, but what's the fun in tinkering if you can't kill some time doing it?

hugg 6y ago

Learning scripting means you learn things that can be applied to other things.

viraptor 6y ago

> that works well out of the box That may be your experience, but it's not universal. I wanted to do this, regardless of how many hacks it took, but I'm on the new-and-broken model unfortunately.

growse 6y ago

"Works well". I have a 2019 mbp16. It does not "work well". For me, the graphics driver crashes me out of my login session pretty much daily, the network stack occasionally shits itself (reboot) and various internal processes (the... window server?) like to use >50% CPU for no reason at all. Looking around, I'm not the only one who has issues.

jafjaf 6y ago
AFAIK the macOS activity manager doesn’t show task usage as you’d expect. It displays resource usage based on total current usage rather than maximum capacity.
- gowld 6y ago
  Citation needed. That doesn't match my experience at all. When Activity Monitor shows high CPU in the process list, it corresponds to high CPU in the CPU monitor.
jki275 6y ago
I have the same machine and none of those issues. Probably yours is broken somehow. Would recommend bringing it in for service while it's in warranty.
- growse 6y ago
  The fact that I can point at both colleagues and strangers on the internet with the same issues makes me think it's actually just crap software that doesn't work.
  - jki275 6y ago
    I think if that were the case there would be a lot more people with the issues you’re talking about. My whole shop uses Macs and nobody has this issue. I’m on one of three different variant MBPs (including one like yours) all day every day - literally around 18 hours a day - and I’ve never seen it. That’s why I would really suggest opening a ticket on it, especially with a new laptop. I suspect there’s a hardware issue.

sgt 6y ago

I'm running Linux on a 2015 MBP as a server. Rest of the household are Macs only, but I figured it would be useful to have a server and stick it into a closet. It's rife with issues. Power management is odd, brightness sometimes doesn't work, and most annoyingly, the keyboard and trackpad sometimes stops working after 2-3 weeks of 24/7 operation. I solved most of the issues by disabling the GUI and just letting it boot to the console. I also set mitigations to off in GRUB and it ran cooler. Not ideal with security in mind, but it's just a home server after all.

xyzzy_plugh 6y ago

Honestly, I run Linux on a 2015 MacBook Pro. It works much better than it did "out of the box". I get better battery life, because I can turn off things I don't need. I don't have to restart the audio service before every Zoom call. I don't have to reboot to get external monitors to work again. My Yubikey doesn't drain the battery in a few hours. My system boots to the login screen in the time it takes for the Apple logo to finish showing. I don't have to fight with the App store to keep software up-to-date. I don't have to work around a shitty developer experience with homebrew or docker/virtual machines. I never have to deal with Xcode! In any case, I probably spent a tenth of the time setting everything up, tweaks and all, than I did unfucking the default install of OS X to be usable.

toyg 6y ago
That sounds horrendous! My experience is fairly opposite though. > I get better battery life, because I can turn off things I don't need. I had horrible experiences with Linux and battery life on laptops. Fans on all the time, poor or absent support for sleep and hibernate... Proprietary systems consistently performed better for me in that area. > I don't have to restart the audio service before every Zoom call. That's really weird. I wouldn't even know how to restart the audio service on OsX. > I don't have to reboot to get external monitors to work again. I have occasional issues in that area, but typically it just takes a bit of "nagging" osx to re-detect the monitor, like bringing up the System Preferences panel related to wallpapers. > My system boots to the login screen in the time it takes for the Apple logo to finish showing. One shouldn't need to reboot OsX more than once weekly, or less, but yeah, boot times in OsX have gone to the dogs in the last few years. Windows absolutely smokes it, I guess some Linux distros would too. > I don't have to fight with the App store to keep software up-to-date. It's been alright until recently, but I agree that the last few moves to persuade us to move to "Vistalina" have been annoying. > I probably spent a tenth of the time setting everything up, tweaks and all, than I did unfucking the default install of OS X That's really the opposite for me. The time I always end up spending on stuff like fonts (!) on the average Linux desktop, is just ridiculous.
cpursley 6y ago
How did you get the Webcam to work?

xu44 6y ago

It's definitely a nice feeling to call everything you don't understand a waste of time.