4 ms·

Well, if you're very opinionated regarding your setup, trying to force macOS into your ways won't work, macOS is great and very easy to use and gives you zero p

by midrus 5y ago

Well, if you're very opinionated regarding your setup, trying to force macOS into your ways won't work, macOS is great and very easy to use and gives you zero problems but you have to adapt to it. I've also moved after many years of linux and I could not be happier. I like easy and I like to focus on getting my actual work done, I got tired of spending weeks personalizing stuff, dealing with drivers issues, tuning the trackpad, adjusting applications to work with different dpi screens, etc, etc. For me it was a never ending war and a lot of time wasted.

hughrr 5y ago
Exactly the same story here. It’s pretty bad when you show everyone enthusiastically that when you open your MacBook it wakes up immediately and actually works. They think you’re insane rather than a former Linux user who has programmed irrational fear that the AMD mobile GPU drivers are going to cause a panic.
- fearface 5y ago
  Same story here, and little anecdote: In a pure mac shop we had a guy apply and he brought his Linux notebook and 5mins into the interview he started hating on hiw bad macos is. Before he had to show some of his work in his linux notebook we had a little coffebreak, after we came back somehow LUKS crashed he wasn’t able to boot the system or restore the disk. We gave him a USB Stick and 3hrs to solve it or admit that he was wrong about bashing macos.
  - knolan 5y ago
    Similar experience when applying for a job at a major UK university back in 2009. My Dell laptop with Ubuntu crashed when trying to present my slides. There was an old iMac at the back of the room taunting me. I ended up working there through a different route and bought a 2010 13” MBP that served me perfectly for four years before I sold it for an impressive amount of cash to buy a 2014 15” which was also flawless.
- BadOakOx 5y ago
  But is it faster? And does it actually work? I might be unlucky, but I can't count on my two hands how many times did my 2019 MacBook Pro become unresponsive (and occasionally it restarted itself... After being unresponsive for 10 minutes). It's a work laptop and there is some admin software on it (afaik), so that might influence my experience... But after a year of use, I still sometimes feel the need to defenestrate it... My favorite bit is that after a restart sometimes it gives me a screen where I can't change the keyboard layout.. and I can't type my password because of the special characters I use. So, I just restart again and hope I get a login screen with the keyboard layout change possible. (And yes I have changed the default layout multiple times, but it always switches back to some other default)
  - hughrr 5y ago
    You want to try one of the new ARM based ones. The experience is completely different.
  - midrus 5y ago
    Either a defective unit or the admin software doing something wrong. I've had many personal and work provided MacBook air/pros and never faced anything of this Actually the biggest issue I've had has been related to the terrible keyboards they used to put in the 2018~2020 models
    - how_gauche 5y ago
      My partner also works in tech. Between the two of us, and between home and work, we've bought or used probably 25-30 of these over the years. I gave her an M1 air this holiday season! We've had pros, airs, and iMacs in four or five different colors occupying our living spaces for fifteen or twenty years now. We've used them for work and for play, for software development and video editing and graphic design and media consumption. My verdict is: the hardware is usually GREAT but MacOS isn't. It bothered me when I quit the platform ages ago, and it is still bothering me now: little I care about has changed or improved. New annoyances though! In aggregate I'd say I've spent ca. 15 hours staring at the beachball. Intrusive admin software has been a problem in the past for sure -- especially at Google -- but I've bought dozens of these for home use as well. Either 90% of their units are defective or we're using our computers very differently. Terrible keyboards are another thing entirely, Lenovo went through a bout of that with the X1. My gripes about Macs are almost entirely about OSX performance/reliability and command-line habitability: version over version, it almost never improves. For my workflows
amelius 5y ago
> Well, if you're very opinionated regarding your setup, trying to force macOS into your ways won't work Huh, they said they really tried to like macOS for an entire year ...
- midrus 5y ago
  How is it "trying to like it" when you try to replace everything and re arrange the entire OS to your liking? I think they just tried to convert it to Linux for 1 year and that didn't work, which as I said, that's expected, it might not be the OS for you and that's fine. We're lucky we have options, and we are all not the same. As I said in the comments, macos is for people that can accept the trade offs, that can adapt to a more rigid and propietary system in exchange for something that just works and allows you to focus on your actual work, and not on tuning your computer as if it was a hobbies sports car. Again, nothing wrong with that, I've been like that in the past. Now I just prefer things that just work and I don't have to waste my time maintaining. We are all not the same, thanks God.
  - tored 5y ago
    > for something that just works No, it doesn’t, perhaps works better than the alternatives most of time, but definitely not all the time.
  - lambic 5y ago
    I've been using a linux laptop for years. It just works and allows me to focus on my actual work without rigid proprietary systems getting in the way. I can't remember the last time I had to spend time "tuning" my computer.
    - midrus 5y ago
      Good for you then. As I said it depends a lot how we work, what kind of work we do, and what we prefer. Enjoy it.
iamwpj 5y ago
Yes, it's like being mad that your salmon doesn't taste like tuna, even though you clearly chose it at the market.

by midrus 5y ago

hughrr 5y ago

Exactly the same story here. It’s pretty bad when you show everyone enthusiastically that when you open your MacBook it wakes up immediately and actually works. They think you’re insane rather than a former Linux user who has programmed irrational fear that the AMD mobile GPU drivers are going to cause a panic.

fearface 5y ago
Same story here, and little anecdote: In a pure mac shop we had a guy apply and he brought his Linux notebook and 5mins into the interview he started hating on hiw bad macos is. Before he had to show some of his work in his linux notebook we had a little coffebreak, after we came back somehow LUKS crashed he wasn’t able to boot the system or restore the disk. We gave him a USB Stick and 3hrs to solve it or admit that he was wrong about bashing macos.
- knolan 5y ago
  Similar experience when applying for a job at a major UK university back in 2009. My Dell laptop with Ubuntu crashed when trying to present my slides. There was an old iMac at the back of the room taunting me. I ended up working there through a different route and bought a 2010 13” MBP that served me perfectly for four years before I sold it for an impressive amount of cash to buy a 2014 15” which was also flawless.
BadOakOx 5y ago
But is it faster? And does it actually work? I might be unlucky, but I can't count on my two hands how many times did my 2019 MacBook Pro become unresponsive (and occasionally it restarted itself... After being unresponsive for 10 minutes). It's a work laptop and there is some admin software on it (afaik), so that might influence my experience... But after a year of use, I still sometimes feel the need to defenestrate it... My favorite bit is that after a restart sometimes it gives me a screen where I can't change the keyboard layout.. and I can't type my password because of the special characters I use. So, I just restart again and hope I get a login screen with the keyboard layout change possible. (And yes I have changed the default layout multiple times, but it always switches back to some other default)
- hughrr 5y ago
  You want to try one of the new ARM based ones. The experience is completely different.
- midrus 5y ago
  Either a defective unit or the admin software doing something wrong. I've had many personal and work provided MacBook air/pros and never faced anything of this Actually the biggest issue I've had has been related to the terrible keyboards they used to put in the 2018~2020 models
  - how_gauche 5y ago
    My partner also works in tech. Between the two of us, and between home and work, we've bought or used probably 25-30 of these over the years. I gave her an M1 air this holiday season! We've had pros, airs, and iMacs in four or five different colors occupying our living spaces for fifteen or twenty years now. We've used them for work and for play, for software development and video editing and graphic design and media consumption. My verdict is: the hardware is usually GREAT but MacOS isn't. It bothered me when I quit the platform ages ago, and it is still bothering me now: little I care about has changed or improved. New annoyances though! In aggregate I'd say I've spent ca. 15 hours staring at the beachball. Intrusive admin software has been a problem in the past for sure -- especially at Google -- but I've bought dozens of these for home use as well. Either 90% of their units are defective or we're using our computers very differently. Terrible keyboards are another thing entirely, Lenovo went through a bout of that with the X1. My gripes about Macs are almost entirely about OSX performance/reliability and command-line habitability: version over version, it almost never improves. For my workflows

amelius 5y ago

> Well, if you're very opinionated regarding your setup, trying to force macOS into your ways won't work Huh, they said they really tried to like macOS for an entire year ...

midrus 5y ago
How is it "trying to like it" when you try to replace everything and re arrange the entire OS to your liking? I think they just tried to convert it to Linux for 1 year and that didn't work, which as I said, that's expected, it might not be the OS for you and that's fine. We're lucky we have options, and we are all not the same. As I said in the comments, macos is for people that can accept the trade offs, that can adapt to a more rigid and propietary system in exchange for something that just works and allows you to focus on your actual work, and not on tuning your computer as if it was a hobbies sports car. Again, nothing wrong with that, I've been like that in the past. Now I just prefer things that just work and I don't have to waste my time maintaining. We are all not the same, thanks God.
- tored 5y ago
  > for something that just works No, it doesn’t, perhaps works better than the alternatives most of time, but definitely not all the time.
- lambic 5y ago
  I've been using a linux laptop for years. It just works and allows me to focus on my actual work without rigid proprietary systems getting in the way. I can't remember the last time I had to spend time "tuning" my computer.
  - midrus 5y ago
    Good for you then. As I said it depends a lot how we work, what kind of work we do, and what we prefer. Enjoy it.

iamwpj 5y ago

Yes, it's like being mad that your salmon doesn't taste like tuna, even though you clearly chose it at the market.