4 ms·

I’ve been on Mac for about 30 years. I’m planning my switch to Linux (probably KDE) and GrapheneOS. I can’t keep giving so much money to a company that clearly

by dimal 1y ago

I’ve been on Mac for about 30 years. I’m planning my switch to Linux (probably KDE) and GrapheneOS. I can’t keep giving so much money to a company that clearly doesn’t have my interests in mind. So much of the ecosystem doesn’t “just work” anymore and now instead of fixing those issues, they are actively working to make my computing experience worse. I’ve hade enough. The more I investigate the current state of Linux desktops, the more excited I get. It seems like Linux is actually good for general use now, and I’ll have so many more options to make my technology fit me instead of the other way around.

matthewolfe 1y ago
What exactly doesn't "just work" anymore?
- kcplate 1y ago
  Was going to be my question too. Mine works…
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- dimal 1y ago
  Autocomplete on iOS is a shit show. It regularly autocompletes non-grammatical text, which is unforgivable in 2025 when we have AI that can write coherent sonnets and code. Dictation is still at the same level it was at 10 years ago - complete shit. Carplay sometimes randomly starts playing music when I get in the car, other times it doesn't. My Apple Watch regularly can't find my heart rate, for long time periods. The HomePod app and Watch display incorrect information about what's playing on HomePods about 50% of the time. There's no way to filter text spam. The Messages app on MacOS doesn't let you filter by known senders. If you delete a text thread on iOS, it doesn't delete it on MacOS, so my desktop messages are cluttered with fucking donation requests from PACs. Try to do anything with Siri, even simple things like playing a song. It still makes bizarre mistakes. It can't answer basic questions about my calendar. The list is endless, really. Everything looks "delightful" as fuck. Mac and iOS fonts, colors and text padding are immaculate, so it gives the impression of solidity and competence that isn't really there. A lot of things "mostly work" but aren't reliable, so I can't rely on them. They can list them as "features" but if I can't rely on them, I can't use them, because I don't want to deal with constant frustration. They act like all their systems are this one integrated whole that works well together, but it doesn't. I don't think that everything will "just work" on Linux, but at least I won't be paying a premium for the privilege of having my needs as a disabled person ignored. I'll be able to customize my experience to meet my basic accessibility needs without fighting against a company that seems to hate me.
  - seec 1y ago
    Siri has always been a shitshow for sure. I basically use it for timers and even that it fucks up a non-negligible number of times. For the few experiences I've had with it, at least Google assistant is a lot more reliable. I also noticed worsened reliability in the heart rate tracking of my Apple Watch in recent workouts. It must have happened in one of the recent updates because it was fine previously. I could say it's programmed obsolescence but I'm sure I would be accused of conspiracy theory. But it is hard to interpret the failing reliability otherwise when it suspiciously happens after updates and around new hardware release. In any case, I don't think the Apple Watch is a very good product for the price, so whatever, the next watch will be focused on sports and the competition has made great alternatives. I completely share the sentiment that everything looks good but doesn't work that well in practice. There are so many random issues that make the hardware prices very unpalatable. Ah well, everything changes, not always for the better. The pain is in transitioning to something else, but that's something that is very true for most tech related things since we can't ever agree on proper standardisation.
  - DangitBobby 1y ago
    > Carplay sometimes randomly starts playing music when I get in the car, other times it doesn't. Android Auto does the same thing for me, despite having auto-play disabled. One possible explanation I've seen online is that some infotainment systems send an unsolicited "play" signal to your device. For Android that seems to mean it will send "play" to the most recently used app that supports audio playback.
  - gs17 1y ago
    > Autocomplete on iOS is a shit show. It regularly autocompletes non-grammatical text Android has the same issue with Google's keyboard, which will go back and change things you've typed correctly to be obviously wrong for no clear reason. I swear it used to work much better. At least on Android alternative keyboards are easier to use. I have no idea how they both have such an awful implementation of it.
- AlexandrB 1y ago
  Can't go to previous track when "autoplay" is enabled in Apple Music. Clearly an intentional choice. Works on iPhone. But on Mac it doesn't "just work". Syncing my music library with Apple Music doesn't "just work" anymore either. Some albums are visible, but are greyed out and can't be played. Time Machine hasn't "just worked" in several years - would corrupt my backups and have to re-create from scratch every week or so, I've switched to Carbon Copy Cloner. Non high-DPI displays don't "just work" anymore. The forward button in Finder, the icons in Music settings, all squished horizontally like it's someone's first time adding clipart to a Power Point. Safari stopped "just working" with 26.0, now opening a new tab or typing into the search bar randomly presents me with a 1-5s delay - or sometimes the whole thing hangs. I could go on, I don't dare upgrade to Tahoe - it's death by a thousand cuts. Edit: LOL, how could I forget Siri. I don't use it often - generally only in the car to switch music - but it's terrible at understanding what song/album I'm asking for. Tried repeatedly to get it to play the "Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast and I got some death metal instead. Completely useless.
acephal 1y ago
Last I touched a Linux desktop was 10+ years ago and you had to muck about with FontConfig and third-party config packages to even come close to Windows or macOS type rendering. Has this seen significant improvement?
- cosmic_cheese 1y ago
  Don't quote me, but if I recall some number of years ago there were some font shaping/AA patents that expired and so good font rendering comes out of the box in most cases these days. Used to be only Ubuntu shipped like that.
- stefanfisk 1y ago
  This was my experience when trying to get fonts to look good in Ubuntu about a year ago. FontConfig, Gnome and of course some individual apps like browsers all have their own little settings for font rendering that interact in weird and not so wonderful ways. I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox and realized that kerning is completely broken. I can only assume that it's because of some setting that I changed but I'd rather reinstall the whole machine than go on a wild goose chase...
- mitchell209 1y ago
  I uninstalled my Bazzite partition because of the text. Initial searches showed similar frustrations on reddit without obvious and immediate fixes, so I decided to cut my losses and go back to using Windows full time instead of spending hours or days trying to get the rendering to an acceptable level.
- cassianoleal 1y ago
  I run Debian with KDE on Wayland on my desktop PC. Font rendering seems perfectly fine. I can't speak for other combos.
cosmic_cheese 1y ago
I want to be excited about Linux, but as a long time Mac user (started in the 90s) I don't feel like there's a desktop environment for me. I've used GNOME and KDE on and off for years with some Cinnamon, elementary/Pantheon, and minimalist WM thrown in for good measure, and none of them cut it. The big DEs are much closer to Windows or mobile operating systems than anything else. And that doesn't even get into the hardware situation, where the number of laptops with long battery life and everything working without quirks can seemingly be counted on one hand.
- dustbunny 1y ago
  I've been happily on cinnamon for years and find it similar to Mac but with way better window tiling out the box. What's wrong with cinnamon for you?
  - cosmic_cheese 1y ago
    Cinnamon gets a lot right and has some Mac-like aspects, like how the UI in its apps are laid out, but as a whole it's more comparable to Windows with its taskbar, windowing model, no global menubar, and Control-based key shortcuts among other things.
    - dustbunny 1y ago
      Cinnamon is like if Microsoft hired apples design department and gave them control of windows.
- ksec 1y ago
  You may want to give Omarchy a try. Not exactly Windows or Mac, but last time I checked myself 95 to 99% of my time on computer is spending inside a browser I think a lot of the old Desktop environment habits no longer matter as much. https://omarchy.org https://omarchy.org
  - cosmic_cheese 1y ago
    It’s nice, based on the demo video I watched but I’m not spending lots of time in web apps or terminals.
whynotminot 1y ago
It’s comical how you can copy and paste these same comments anytime there’s been a new macOS for probably the last 10 or so years. Hell maybe longer. Every. Single. Year. “Apple is taking away my laptop I’m switching to Linux.” I’m grateful to you all though — I think your constant griping every year probably does at least apply some pressure on Apple to focus on keeping macOS good at what it does: provide a pleasant but still powerful desktop experience for those who just want to do stuff and not spend hours under the hood making some Linux flavor usable.

by dimal 1y ago

matthewolfe 1y ago

What exactly doesn't "just work" anymore?

kcplate 1y ago
Was going to be my question too. Mine works…
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dimal 1y ago
Autocomplete on iOS is a shit show. It regularly autocompletes non-grammatical text, which is unforgivable in 2025 when we have AI that can write coherent sonnets and code. Dictation is still at the same level it was at 10 years ago - complete shit. Carplay sometimes randomly starts playing music when I get in the car, other times it doesn't. My Apple Watch regularly can't find my heart rate, for long time periods. The HomePod app and Watch display incorrect information about what's playing on HomePods about 50% of the time. There's no way to filter text spam. The Messages app on MacOS doesn't let you filter by known senders. If you delete a text thread on iOS, it doesn't delete it on MacOS, so my desktop messages are cluttered with fucking donation requests from PACs. Try to do anything with Siri, even simple things like playing a song. It still makes bizarre mistakes. It can't answer basic questions about my calendar. The list is endless, really. Everything looks "delightful" as fuck. Mac and iOS fonts, colors and text padding are immaculate, so it gives the impression of solidity and competence that isn't really there. A lot of things "mostly work" but aren't reliable, so I can't rely on them. They can list them as "features" but if I can't rely on them, I can't use them, because I don't want to deal with constant frustration. They act like all their systems are this one integrated whole that works well together, but it doesn't. I don't think that everything will "just work" on Linux, but at least I won't be paying a premium for the privilege of having my needs as a disabled person ignored. I'll be able to customize my experience to meet my basic accessibility needs without fighting against a company that seems to hate me.
- seec 1y ago
  Siri has always been a shitshow for sure. I basically use it for timers and even that it fucks up a non-negligible number of times. For the few experiences I've had with it, at least Google assistant is a lot more reliable. I also noticed worsened reliability in the heart rate tracking of my Apple Watch in recent workouts. It must have happened in one of the recent updates because it was fine previously. I could say it's programmed obsolescence but I'm sure I would be accused of conspiracy theory. But it is hard to interpret the failing reliability otherwise when it suspiciously happens after updates and around new hardware release. In any case, I don't think the Apple Watch is a very good product for the price, so whatever, the next watch will be focused on sports and the competition has made great alternatives. I completely share the sentiment that everything looks good but doesn't work that well in practice. There are so many random issues that make the hardware prices very unpalatable. Ah well, everything changes, not always for the better. The pain is in transitioning to something else, but that's something that is very true for most tech related things since we can't ever agree on proper standardisation.
- DangitBobby 1y ago
  > Carplay sometimes randomly starts playing music when I get in the car, other times it doesn't. Android Auto does the same thing for me, despite having auto-play disabled. One possible explanation I've seen online is that some infotainment systems send an unsolicited "play" signal to your device. For Android that seems to mean it will send "play" to the most recently used app that supports audio playback.
- gs17 1y ago
  > Autocomplete on iOS is a shit show. It regularly autocompletes non-grammatical text Android has the same issue with Google's keyboard, which will go back and change things you've typed correctly to be obviously wrong for no clear reason. I swear it used to work much better. At least on Android alternative keyboards are easier to use. I have no idea how they both have such an awful implementation of it.
AlexandrB 1y ago
Can't go to previous track when "autoplay" is enabled in Apple Music. Clearly an intentional choice. Works on iPhone. But on Mac it doesn't "just work". Syncing my music library with Apple Music doesn't "just work" anymore either. Some albums are visible, but are greyed out and can't be played. Time Machine hasn't "just worked" in several years - would corrupt my backups and have to re-create from scratch every week or so, I've switched to Carbon Copy Cloner. Non high-DPI displays don't "just work" anymore. The forward button in Finder, the icons in Music settings, all squished horizontally like it's someone's first time adding clipart to a Power Point. Safari stopped "just working" with 26.0, now opening a new tab or typing into the search bar randomly presents me with a 1-5s delay - or sometimes the whole thing hangs. I could go on, I don't dare upgrade to Tahoe - it's death by a thousand cuts. Edit: LOL, how could I forget Siri. I don't use it often - generally only in the car to switch music - but it's terrible at understanding what song/album I'm asking for. Tried repeatedly to get it to play the "Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast and I got some death metal instead. Completely useless.

acephal 1y ago

Last I touched a Linux desktop was 10+ years ago and you had to muck about with FontConfig and third-party config packages to even come close to Windows or macOS type rendering. Has this seen significant improvement?

cosmic_cheese 1y ago
Don't quote me, but if I recall some number of years ago there were some font shaping/AA patents that expired and so good font rendering comes out of the box in most cases these days. Used to be only Ubuntu shipped like that.
stefanfisk 1y ago
This was my experience when trying to get fonts to look good in Ubuntu about a year ago. FontConfig, Gnome and of course some individual apps like browsers all have their own little settings for font rendering that interact in weird and not so wonderful ways. I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox and realized that kerning is completely broken. I can only assume that it's because of some setting that I changed but I'd rather reinstall the whole machine than go on a wild goose chase...
mitchell209 1y ago
I uninstalled my Bazzite partition because of the text. Initial searches showed similar frustrations on reddit without obvious and immediate fixes, so I decided to cut my losses and go back to using Windows full time instead of spending hours or days trying to get the rendering to an acceptable level.
cassianoleal 1y ago
I run Debian with KDE on Wayland on my desktop PC. Font rendering seems perfectly fine. I can't speak for other combos.

cosmic_cheese 1y ago

I want to be excited about Linux, but as a long time Mac user (started in the 90s) I don't feel like there's a desktop environment for me. I've used GNOME and KDE on and off for years with some Cinnamon, elementary/Pantheon, and minimalist WM thrown in for good measure, and none of them cut it. The big DEs are much closer to Windows or mobile operating systems than anything else. And that doesn't even get into the hardware situation, where the number of laptops with long battery life and everything working without quirks can seemingly be counted on one hand.

dustbunny 1y ago
I've been happily on cinnamon for years and find it similar to Mac but with way better window tiling out the box. What's wrong with cinnamon for you?
- cosmic_cheese 1y ago
  Cinnamon gets a lot right and has some Mac-like aspects, like how the UI in its apps are laid out, but as a whole it's more comparable to Windows with its taskbar, windowing model, no global menubar, and Control-based key shortcuts among other things.
  - dustbunny 1y ago
    Cinnamon is like if Microsoft hired apples design department and gave them control of windows.
ksec 1y ago
You may want to give Omarchy a try. Not exactly Windows or Mac, but last time I checked myself 95 to 99% of my time on computer is spending inside a browser I think a lot of the old Desktop environment habits no longer matter as much. https://omarchy.org https://omarchy.org
- cosmic_cheese 1y ago
  It’s nice, based on the demo video I watched but I’m not spending lots of time in web apps or terminals.

whynotminot 1y ago

It’s comical how you can copy and paste these same comments anytime there’s been a new macOS for probably the last 10 or so years. Hell maybe longer. Every. Single. Year. “Apple is taking away my laptop I’m switching to Linux.” I’m grateful to you all though — I think your constant griping every year probably does at least apply some pressure on Apple to focus on keeping macOS good at what it does: provide a pleasant but still powerful desktop experience for those who just want to do stuff and not spend hours under the hood making some Linux flavor usable.