4 ms·
I'm curious, what is your workflow? I'm asking because I'm assuming your real issues are with your stated reasons, since MacPorts is a "proper package manager
by prewett 6y ago
I'm curious, what is your workflow?
I'm asking because I'm assuming your real issues are with your stated reasons, since MacPorts is a "proper package manager" (being ported from one of the BSDs) and if you don't like that one, Brew is certainly popular. And I've never directly benefited from Linux being an "open operating system", since I don't write code that interacts with anything lower-level than the C API, but macOS' Darwin kernel and many of the binaries are open source.
I'm kind of old-school (my intro to Unix was a DECStation), and I find macOS to be plenty Unixy. If I'm not using Xcode I'm using Emacs (in VI mode). I've never said "I wish I had <Linux feature>"; actually, it's been rather nice that my Wifi doesn't break, I don't have to deal with PulseAudio, it goes to sleep--and wakes up!--when I open and close the lid, the UI is unified, networking is easy to use, etc. However, if you run the Linux GUI applications on macOS it's a klunky experience, so you benefit from finding native applications. Also, Docker wasn't very pleasant, but that might have just been Docker; fortunately I've only had to use it for one project.
As someone who loves the macOS + Unix experience, I'm just curious what workflow it doesn't work well with.
- smoldesu 6y agoWell, I write quite a bit of GTK, and as you mentioned that's not necessarily a first-class experience on MacOS, which I expected and was fine with. It was quite a bit more frustrating to get the Rust toolchain working though, and from what I understand it will be a while before they iron out the issues on the M1. Another papercut. Then I had issues with binaries disappearing out of nowhere, similar to the aforementioned git disappearance. My Rust programs automatically were removed from PATH, and I still don't know what causes the issue. As for the package managers, I think Brew and Macports are both fine pieces of software, but they don't even come close to how robust and compatible something like pacman is. Working with the App Store is a frustrating experience, and I'd prefer to have all my software managed in one place. Maybe it's just different strokes for different folks, but I'd much rather just clone my dotfiles and have a Linux workspace up and running in ~10 minutes tops. Moving my workflow over to MacOS feels like trying to board a plane while it's taking off, and it doesn't bode well for my productivity when I can't rely on my tools even showing up in the first place.
- prewett 6y agoMy experience (as a user) is that GTK on macOS is functional at best, and I find it an unpleasant experience, so macOS is definitely not ideal for that. No experience with Rust, but it isn't the path the tools expect, for sure. I've never had a problem with PATH not working, maybe the new shell in Big Sur is mostly-but-not-quite like bash? You could try changing your shell to bash, if you haven't already. If you really want an apt-get (never used pacman) kind of everything-repository experience, though, you're going to be disappointed on any system that doesn't prioritize a centralized repository of software. In practice, this eliminates a commercial OS, and probably commercial software, since there's no effective way to get a central repository. The App Store is the closest, but then you get people complaining you're the gatekeeper, or you get a free-for-all like Google Play. I think Linux manages only because the number of people that use it are small enough that bad actors go elsewhere.