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I almost never have major issues with macOS, except for the poorly-written corporate management software. :) But, I know a lot of that is simple familiarity. So

I almost never have major issues with macOS, except for the poorly-written corporate management software. :) But, I know a lot of that is simple familiarity. Someone who's used to Windows or a given Linux desktop environment is going to struggle a bit; I get frustrated with Windows laughably easily. I'm better with Linux, but I've run it -- and FreeBSD, for that matter! -- as full-time desktop environments in the past, and even though the "full-time" part of that is many years ago, some of it still sticks. (I also ran BeOS full-time for a bit over a year, and oddly, that's really the one that I miss the most.) > The other problem I see is that most people have an existing laptop and want to try Linux on it, and run into hardware incompatibilities. Yes, a thousand times. I ran into that more often than I would have expected just trying to get Linux to run in a VM on various Macs over the years, and once in a while on more recent PC hardware that I was trying to do something with. (Then I would write something that suggested Linux was still hard to install and people would argue with me. If it ever comes up again, I should definitely remember to add your caveat about existing hardware!)

aidenn0 6y ago
I don't think I've been happy to have upgraded macOS since about 10.4. something always breaks.
- chipotle_coyote 6y ago
  I've rarely had even anything minor break. I don't know how much of a unicorn this makes me. (I also never had an issue with running MacBook Pros in clamshell mode, which I did literally every day for years, but that's something I used to hear lots of complaints about from others.)
- Marsymars 6y ago
  Same. Off the top of my head, one upgrade broke my external monitors (by breaking DisplayLink drivers), one upgrade broke Karabiner (by breaking the way it remaps keys) which entirely broke my remote-work workflow, one upgrade broke my ability to play music (by removing iTunes, and having the Music app replacement not be compatible with the iTunes server capability on my Synology NAS), Big Sur for Apple Silicon broke my ability to install any CLI tools. (Homebrew didn’t have Apple Silicon support for some months after the launch of Apple Silicon Macs.) I get that these are in large part technically the fault of third-party developers, but it’s still pretty inconvenient as an end user to be unable expect to upgrade my OS without some major portion of my workflow being entirely non-functional for months.
- wpm 6y ago
  On the other hand I’ve only ever regretted one upgrade, the first Mojave beta.
artificial 6y ago
I've done the FreeBSD thing and I'm currently on macOS. Were you running actual BeOS or Haiku? I wish someone would dump a chunk of money into funding another OS for hardware support.
- chipotle_coyote 6y ago
  I was running actual BeOS. This was a long time ago. :) I think it'd be harder to do that with Haiku in modern times; BeOS had a nascent commercial software market for a fleeting moment, so I had a credible "Works" style office suite (GoBe Productive), a good text editor (Pe), a good GUI mail client (Mail-It), a surprisingly good object/bitmap hybrid graphics editor kind of like the old Macromedia Fireworks (e-Picture), and probably other things I'm forgetting. I think I had an AIM client, for instance. Which also dates this. But it was important then!
  - artificial 6y ago
    I regret not picking up a boxed copy of the office suite at Frys years ago. I still have my installation media for BeOS 4.5 and 5.0. The software I saw was for stuff like stage management. Thanks for sharing!
  - waddlesplash 6y ago
    > I think it'd be harder to do that with Haiku in modern times Probably, but maybe not for the reasons you would think... > so I had a credible "Works" style office suite (GoBe Productive) Haiku has a LibreOffice port. > a good text editor (Pe), Pe is still around, or you can use Koder (a new Haiku-native app), Notepadqq, GVim, Kate, ... > a good GUI mail client (Mail-It) We have a few mail clients; the native one is alright but could use some work; there is also Trojita and some others like it. > a surprisingly good object/bitmap hybrid graphics editor kind of like the old Macromedia Fireworks (e-Picture) e-Picture has gone the way of the dodo (though you probably can still use it on 32-bit Haiku which has BeOS binary compatibility.) You can instead use WonderBrush (a native application), Krita, etc.
    - 6y ago

aidenn0 6y ago

I don't think I've been happy to have upgraded macOS since about 10.4. something always breaks.

chipotle_coyote 6y ago
I've rarely had even anything minor break. I don't know how much of a unicorn this makes me. (I also never had an issue with running MacBook Pros in clamshell mode, which I did literally every day for years, but that's something I used to hear lots of complaints about from others.)
Marsymars 6y ago
Same. Off the top of my head, one upgrade broke my external monitors (by breaking DisplayLink drivers), one upgrade broke Karabiner (by breaking the way it remaps keys) which entirely broke my remote-work workflow, one upgrade broke my ability to play music (by removing iTunes, and having the Music app replacement not be compatible with the iTunes server capability on my Synology NAS), Big Sur for Apple Silicon broke my ability to install any CLI tools. (Homebrew didn’t have Apple Silicon support for some months after the launch of Apple Silicon Macs.) I get that these are in large part technically the fault of third-party developers, but it’s still pretty inconvenient as an end user to be unable expect to upgrade my OS without some major portion of my workflow being entirely non-functional for months.
wpm 6y ago
On the other hand I’ve only ever regretted one upgrade, the first Mojave beta.

artificial 6y ago

I've done the FreeBSD thing and I'm currently on macOS. Were you running actual BeOS or Haiku? I wish someone would dump a chunk of money into funding another OS for hardware support.

chipotle_coyote 6y ago
I was running actual BeOS. This was a long time ago. :) I think it'd be harder to do that with Haiku in modern times; BeOS had a nascent commercial software market for a fleeting moment, so I had a credible "Works" style office suite (GoBe Productive), a good text editor (Pe), a good GUI mail client (Mail-It), a surprisingly good object/bitmap hybrid graphics editor kind of like the old Macromedia Fireworks (e-Picture), and probably other things I'm forgetting. I think I had an AIM client, for instance. Which also dates this. But it was important then!
- artificial 6y ago
  I regret not picking up a boxed copy of the office suite at Frys years ago. I still have my installation media for BeOS 4.5 and 5.0. The software I saw was for stuff like stage management. Thanks for sharing!
- waddlesplash 6y ago
  > I think it'd be harder to do that with Haiku in modern times Probably, but maybe not for the reasons you would think... > so I had a credible "Works" style office suite (GoBe Productive) Haiku has a LibreOffice port. > a good text editor (Pe), Pe is still around, or you can use Koder (a new Haiku-native app), Notepadqq, GVim, Kate, ... > a good GUI mail client (Mail-It) We have a few mail clients; the native one is alright but could use some work; there is also Trojita and some others like it. > a surprisingly good object/bitmap hybrid graphics editor kind of like the old Macromedia Fireworks (e-Picture) e-Picture has gone the way of the dodo (though you probably can still use it on 32-bit Haiku which has BeOS binary compatibility.) You can instead use WonderBrush (a native application), Krita, etc.
  - 6y ago