11 ms·
I switched from Linux Mint desktop to an M1 Air last year. Performance-wise, the M1 is very impressive, probably feels about 80% as fast as my 6 year old deskt
by larrik 4y ago
I switched from Linux Mint desktop to an M1 Air last year.
Performance-wise, the M1 is very impressive, probably feels about 80% as fast as my 6 year old desktop (that sounds like snark, but it isn't). Meanwhile, the battery life is insane (I've never brought the charger anywhere but my desk, and will often use it for a week out and about).
I opted for the Magic Keyboard and Magic Touchpad, because I had a lot of trouble with everything else.
I could not get a mouse setup that worked (I'm strictly no acceleration, and macOS's acceleration was literally making my arm ache).
I switched because I stopped being a fulltime developer, my main machine was getting old (6 years), and macOS has good MS Office support.
Overall I'd say I'm about 70% efficient vs on Linux, a bit less so when in active development. The mobility makes up for it, and efficiency just isn't as important to my day-to-day for now.
Many of my gripes are listed elsewhere, but things like middle-click paste is something that is easy to write off but was actually a gigantic part of my process. Also, the fact that everything I want to tweak requires buying an app?
I had to pay for an app in order to properly emulate middle clicks on the touchpad! That's bonkers!
I'll leave this final tidbit though:
On Linux:
* Open Spotify
* Press play button on keyboard
* Spotify plays
On Mac:
* Open Spotify
* Press play button on keyboard
* Apple Music opens ??????
- weakfish 4y agoI recommend linear mouse for acceleration - free and can also modify scroll behavior
- haneul 4y agodefaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1 Works on my M1 Max well enough to be satisfied with my mouse in SC2.
- larrik 4y agoThis simply hasn't worked for me in years. Haven't tried in about a year, though.
- Arie 4y agoDidn't that halve the cursor speed as well?
- dahfizz 4y agoThis helps, but does not actually result in a flat acceleration curve.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y agoIn the before-times, in the long-long-ago, we could modify basic system settings from a nice discoverable GUI control panel. Why is the future year of 2022, no doubt filled with flying cars and personal jetpacks, continually found to be unable to deliver features we took for granted in 1995?
- adamomada 4y ago
- cpleppert 4y agoThis doesn't work. Mouse acceleration isn't exposed using a defaults key anymore. You need to use a tool like linear mouse to modify the scaling value.
- ahepp 4y ago> Also, the fact that everything I want to tweak requires buying an app? I had to pay for an app in order to properly emulate middle clicks on the touchpad! That's bonkers! Yes I have noticed this too! I love my MacBook, but the idea that I would pay what, $20, for the top tier window snapping app is completely ridiculous. That’s something that should be built in to the shell!
- Supermancho 4y ago> Window Snapping Use https://www.spectacleapp.com/ https://www.spectacleapp.com/ - it's free. It's not exactly the same, but better in many ways - excepting the auto-drag snapping. Snapping is via key combination instead.
- trevoristall 4y agoIIRC Spectacle is no longer maintained and is spiritually succeeded by https://rectangleapp.com https://rectangleapp.com
- leaflets2 4y agoBut Apple gets a 30% cut of the money you spend on the extra apps?
- dahfizz 4y agoThe mouse acceleration curve on Mac drives me insane. There is a way to set it to "0" with some command line incantation, but it still does not set it to 0. Also, the fact that I can't independently control the scroll direction of mice and trackpads is insane to me. The whole selling point of Apple is that "it just works" , but I can't even get my mouse working properly! That's like the lowest bar for an OS.
- ryukafalz 4y ago> Also, the fact that I can't independently control the scroll direction of mice and trackpads is insane to me. Oh yeah I just plugged a mouse into a work Mac recently and was super confused at this. Yes I’ve gotten used to natural scrolling on touchpads by now, but no that doesn’t mean I want it on a scroll wheel!
- mattnewton 4y agoThis starts to make sense when you see the mice that apple sells don't have wheels, they have a touch surface on top. And if you aren't using an apple mouse you're off the happy path and stuck toggling settings forever.
- ryukafalz 4y agoYeah, I used to use a Magic Mouse years ago. They now aggravate my RSI terribly though. This kind of thing feels like Apple telling me their stuff is not for me.
- 411111111111111 4y ago> "it just works" It does just work. You're just using it wrong. Keep that second sentence in mind whenever people say that first line and you'll never have any issues with apple fans
- spicybright 4y agoI'm a fan of apple MacOS as of late, specifically because the rigidity leads to easier computer usage to me. I'd hesitate to lump all apple fans around the few vocal ones. The vast majority of people that like apple don't push a cult of "it just works". Most people I know just recognize a computer as a computer, not an identity.
- nopcode 4y agoFor those using Windows, macOS and Linux regularly with Keyboard/Mouse I recommend for mac: CursorSense to customise the acceleration graph (or disable). SensibleSideButtons so you can use mouse4/5 in the browser. ScrollReverser so scrolling on mouse and touchpad both make sense. Rectangle for window snapping.
- als0 4y agoSensibleSideButtons is great, though I wish it was part of the OS in the first place.
- microbass 4y agoI love Rectangle. I have a couple of external displays, and a 25 key macro pad. I've assigned various buttons on the pad to move my windows around using Rectangle.
- fistynuts 4y ago+1 for SensibleSideButtons and ScrollReverser. I find using a mouse painful without them, and I greatly appreciate that they're both free.
- b__d 4y ago+1 for cursorsense
- ubercow13 4y agoLinearMouse works for disabling mouse acceleration and is open source
- plafl 4y ago> and macOS has good MS Office support. This. I get the M1 must be very good but what I really want is something I doubt I'm going to get: native Office support in Linux. I use Office rarely but on those rare occasions it sucks to use Office 365.
- nailer 4y agoWSL gives you all the *nix bits of Ubuntu and native MS Office support.
- KolenCh 4y agoBut the kernel is wrong. I kind of buy this philosophically until I tried it. It just feels like you put the the wrong person in control, while all the time you really want to deal with another.
- larrik 4y agoYeah, Office 365 web version burned me hard too many times while collaborating. I had to switch to desktop only (which is still 365).
- goosedragons 4y agoDepending on your needs I find older Office versions play pretty well in Wine. 2007 is insanely easy to install and 2010 isn't too bad with PlayOnLinux or Crossover. Word, Excel and PP work very well although as you get outside those it's less good.
- kube-system 4y ago> On Mac: > * Open Spotify > * Press play button on keyboard > * Apple Music opens ?????? I just tried these steps. Spotify plays.
- KnobbleMcKnees 4y agoSame. Used half a dozen different MacBooks over the last 5 years and always had the right contextual behaviour for the function/touchbar keys
- benjilb 4y agoIf I have Spotify open, then Spotify plays. If I don't have it open, then Apple Music starts up instead.
- adamomada 4y agoTry out BeardedSpice[0] which handles the media keys [0] https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice https://github.com/beardedspice/beardedspice || brew install —cask beardedspice
- larrik 4y agoAfter a clean boot? I find I have to manually start Spotify once for it register on the media keys.
- officeplant 4y ago>Also, the fact that everything I want to tweak requires buying an app? I find this is often the case with MacOS, sometimes with open alternatives available. I wanted windows/linux like window snapping and found a free solution called Rectangle[0], but discovered however they do it was causing mouse lag in games. Apple dev friend investigated into it with logs from my machine and discovered they are "just not doing it properly, go buy bettersnaptool[1]" Sure enough I go spend $8 on bettersnaptool and all my mouse lag is gone and I've got the tweakable window snapping I crave. This is often the case it just depends if the open software solution is done "properly" or will have some small bug that may or may not bother you. Rectangle worked flawlessly in every other instance except once I would launch a game, the mouse lag was not present on desktop applications. [0] https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/ [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=12 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=...
- leaflets2 4y agoWhat about security, when installing "countless" of apps for minor things Do you trust Apple's app review
- pg_1234 4y ago>Also, the fact that everything I want to tweak requires buying an app? Like three finger (middle click) on the touchpad ... Apple just can't do it ... Linux sorted it for multiple manufacture's touchpads years ago.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 4y ago> I had to pay for an app in order to properly emulate middle clicks on the touchpad! That's bonkers! That’s just the traditional way in which the Apple ecosystem works. They provide you with a pretty phenomenal starting point and App developers fill in the gaps. Base macOS with Amphetamine, Magnet, and perhaps some utility for file/network access provide you with a desktop experience that comes close to the productivity of a tiling window manager, but certainly meets or exceeds the features built into Windows 10 or KDE for window management. Plus you can use AppleScript if you really want to get creative with desktop management.
- sneak 4y agoThe problem is that most of these apps are only available in the App Store which can only be used if you dox yourself to Apple (an Apple ID requires an email and working phone number). It also transmits your hardware serial to Apple when you use it.
- vonseel 4y agohttps://github.com/newmarcel/KeepingYouAwake https://github.com/newmarcel/KeepingYouAwake https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/ Both fully available off the App store. I'm sure you can find alternatives for most apps away from the App store.
- sneak 4y agoWireguard is only possible in the App Store because Apple won't notarize VPN apps for self-distribution. Many don't realize this.
- sneak 4y ago* Apple music opens and transmits your unchangeable device hardware serial, and your IP (coarse location) to Apple Modern Macs literally have a one-touch "send my supercookie to the manufacturer" button.
- blacksmith_tb 4y agoThe audio behavior is always a little funky on macOS, for the specific steps given I think the problem is that the 'play' button on the keyboard is more like a 'resume' button really, which can cause it to do seemingly bizarre things if you haven't been doing any audio recently. I would expect that if you clicked play in Spotify, then pause, then hit the key on the keyboard it should behave.
- larrik 4y agoIt DOES work in this scenario.
- FractalHQ 4y agoOn Mac: * Press cmd + option + S * Press space bar * Spotify opens and plays or * Press cmd + option + spacebar (opens terminal) * `sp` (my spotify cli alias) * Spotify opens and plays Custom hot keys are easy in MacOS settings menu. Even easier is the free app Hotkey! https://codenuts.de/en/posts/hotkey/ https://codenuts.de/en/posts/hotkey/
- MithrilTuxedo 4y agoIt seems like an oversight to have a physical backlit button with play/pause icons on it taking up space on the mac keyboard that can't be generally used to play/pause applications. It's like making TVs you can install arbitrary applications on, but shipping them with remotes with branded buttons to open one or two specific preinstalled applications.
- adamomada 4y agoI just tested this with the most bizarre app I could think to open at the moment. Play/pause works as expected on Plex HTPC app
- vonseel 4y ago> Custom hot keys are easy in MacOS settings menu. I use this feature all the time. Unfortunately, lately there seems to be a goblin in my system that's occasionally going in and deleting App Shortcuts for a specific app and I have to re-create them. Any ideas? I was thinking the app was getting updated or something like that so Mac forgets the settings.