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I currently use Mac. I’ve thought about switching to Linux (would be Arch + Plasma) — there’s a lot of things that bug me about Mac, but there’s a few major thi
by NobodyNada 4y ago
I currently use Mac. I’ve thought about switching to Linux (would be Arch + Plasma) — there’s a lot of things that bug me about Mac, but there’s a few major things that would badly break my workflow if I tried to switch:
- I’m used to a trackpad. I only had laptops growing up and never used a mouse; now, I can move the cursor very precisely on a trackpad, but I’m very inaccurate with a mouse. macOS’s trackpad support is miles beyond every other OS, in every aspect.
- I love the command key. There was a discussion just the other day on HN about how much more ergonomic it is to press modifiers with your thumbs; having to frequently reach over to control would be awkward to me. And having the command key for OS-level shortcuts be a different key than the control key for shortcuts in terminal apps is incredible, because I don’t have to memorize weird new shortcuts for basic functions like copy/paste/opening tabs in terminal apps. Perhaps I could swap the control and GUI keys on Linux, but I’d still have a lot of keyboard shortcuts to relearn, and I’d have to figure out what to do about terminal applications.
- I use a lot of music production software that’s Mac-only, so the best I could do is dual-boot, not leave macOS completely.
Still, last year it was time to upgrade my computer, and I was thinking about biting the bullet and making the switch because I wasn’t looking forward to buying a terrible butterfly keyboard touch bar Mac. But then the M1 MBP came out.
Maybe I’ll switch my workflows to Asahi Linux eventually, but it would take a lot of effort unless someone knows a good way to make these things less painful — especially the command keys.
- seanw444 4y agoAs for the music production part, my favorite DAW is Studio One (which is sadly Windows-only, and I prefer Linux). So I just have a mostly untouched (except for music-related software) high-performance Windows VM set up (CPU core isolation, GPU passthrough, that kinda setup) that I boot up when making music. I'm looking forward to Zrythm gaining more and more features and becoming an adequate alternative to mainstream DAWs.