4 ms·

So put linux on there. Then again, if you are so bad with computers that you are "paralysed by the possibility of nagware" then maybe you should be on ChromeOS

So put linux on there. Then again, if you are so bad with computers that you are "paralysed by the possibility of nagware" then maybe you should be on ChromeOS or something.

seanmcdirmid 13y ago
OS X works fine thanks. Leave Windows and Linux to people who want to worry about their computer.
- noir_lord 13y ago
  Nice FUD attempt there. I run all my computers on Linux (servers and desktops), I don't worry about them.
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    Do you ever have to break out a shell to maintain them?
    - vertex-four 13y ago
      Personally, I run a Debian Wheezy desktop, and after the first week I haven't needed to touch a shell. (And most "regular users" wouldn't need to touch the shell that first week.) Updates happen near-automatically, I get a dialog pop up when they happen that asks me to enter the root password and confirm that I'd like packages X, Y and Z to be updated. Those updates have never broken my system. When I upgrade my system from Wheezy to... I think it's Jessie, next, I probably will have to drop down to the shell, however the instructions are listed quite cleanly on the Debian website and elsewhere. Ubuntu, otoh, goes the whole way and provides a GUI tool for upgrading the system.
    - noir_lord 13y ago
      Break out a shell, I live in the shell? Servers don't have a GUI and I do about 90% of administration from the command line on the Desktops/Laptops (the only time I use a GUI for configuration is to configure the GUI..meta). Linux isn't Windows or Mac, The command line is expected to be used for administration (and this approach has lots of benefits, script-ability, reproducibility, the ability to send the same command to 50 identical servers to name a few). The unix (linux/freeBSD) command line is one of it's stand-out features (others been stability, cost and ease of deployment. I've yet to find a GUI that allows me to manipulate files and data in a general way that matches the linux command line, take this for example. #!/bin/bash php artisan routes | grep -i $1 |sort -k 4 | cut -d '|' -f 3 | sed 's/ GET //' | while read ln; do filename=${ln//[\/]/_}.png; echo $filename; cutycapt --url=http://metaflow.co.uk"$ln" --out=/home/dev/screenshots/$filename --min-width=1280 --min-height=1280; done (not this script is a hack job, bash-aficionados can wince now) That dumps out a list of all the routes in my currently developed webapp then loops over them converting the url to a sensible filename (/add/customer becomes _add_customer.png etc) then it uses a command line utility to visit that URL and grap an image of the page at 1280x1280 (using the webkit engine) and saves them in a folder in my home folder. With a single command I can dump 50 mock screens to png and name them with the URL and I can do this every time I change them automatically. This is what my home desktop looks like on a typical day http://i.imgur.com/vLMVAI8.png http://i.imgur.com/vLMVAI8.png
jacques_chester 13y ago
I tried 6 distributions. 3 versions of Ubuntu, Arch, Red Hat and Mint. They all either ran slow, were buggy, had incomplete software repos or didn't support my hardware. (Arch was my favourite, FWIW.)
- keenerd 13y ago
  99% of the time those sorts of problems are due to what could be summarized as bad marketing. If you are not familiar with the key phrases (and we don't go out of our way to tell people these phrases), you'll miss out on crucial stuff. If you'd like to have another go at making a perfect Arch system, drop me a line.
- throwaway1979 13y ago
  I have a Macbook pro at work and at home. But I use Linux on all servers. I suggest you consider standardizing on one so you can build up your skillset and be aware of the quirks. E.g. I now understand I'd better do an apt-get update periodically or before I want to install new software. The ubuntu desktop installs with sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop ... etc. You are right that it is easier to pay the OSX tax and I did. But the Ubuntu/Linux desktop is almost there ... such that I probably would be okay if my next laptop just ran Linux.
  - jacques_chester 13y ago
    I use ubuntu on servers, so the relative poorness of the desktop version was a rude surprise. I've been using Linux on and off long enough that my first distro was Red Hat Linux 4.

So put linux on there. Then again, if you are so bad with computers that you are "paralysed by the possibility of nagware" then maybe you should be on ChromeOS or something.

seanmcdirmid 13y ago

OS X works fine thanks. Leave Windows and Linux to people who want to worry about their computer.

noir_lord 13y ago
Nice FUD attempt there. I run all my computers on Linux (servers and desktops), I don't worry about them.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  Do you ever have to break out a shell to maintain them?
  - vertex-four 13y ago
    Personally, I run a Debian Wheezy desktop, and after the first week I haven't needed to touch a shell. (And most "regular users" wouldn't need to touch the shell that first week.) Updates happen near-automatically, I get a dialog pop up when they happen that asks me to enter the root password and confirm that I'd like packages X, Y and Z to be updated. Those updates have never broken my system. When I upgrade my system from Wheezy to... I think it's Jessie, next, I probably will have to drop down to the shell, however the instructions are listed quite cleanly on the Debian website and elsewhere. Ubuntu, otoh, goes the whole way and provides a GUI tool for upgrading the system.
  - noir_lord 13y ago
    Break out a shell, I live in the shell? Servers don't have a GUI and I do about 90% of administration from the command line on the Desktops/Laptops (the only time I use a GUI for configuration is to configure the GUI..meta). Linux isn't Windows or Mac, The command line is expected to be used for administration (and this approach has lots of benefits, script-ability, reproducibility, the ability to send the same command to 50 identical servers to name a few). The unix (linux/freeBSD) command line is one of it's stand-out features (others been stability, cost and ease of deployment. I've yet to find a GUI that allows me to manipulate files and data in a general way that matches the linux command line, take this for example. #!/bin/bash php artisan routes | grep -i $1 |sort -k 4 | cut -d '|' -f 3 | sed 's/ GET //' | while read ln; do filename=${ln//[\/]/_}.png; echo $filename; cutycapt --url=http://metaflow.co.uk"$ln" --out=/home/dev/screenshots/$filename --min-width=1280 --min-height=1280; done (not this script is a hack job, bash-aficionados can wince now) That dumps out a list of all the routes in my currently developed webapp then loops over them converting the url to a sensible filename (/add/customer becomes _add_customer.png etc) then it uses a command line utility to visit that URL and grap an image of the page at 1280x1280 (using the webkit engine) and saves them in a folder in my home folder. With a single command I can dump 50 mock screens to png and name them with the URL and I can do this every time I change them automatically. This is what my home desktop looks like on a typical day http://i.imgur.com/vLMVAI8.png http://i.imgur.com/vLMVAI8.png

jacques_chester 13y ago

I tried 6 distributions. 3 versions of Ubuntu, Arch, Red Hat and Mint. They all either ran slow, were buggy, had incomplete software repos or didn't support my hardware. (Arch was my favourite, FWIW.)

keenerd 13y ago
99% of the time those sorts of problems are due to what could be summarized as bad marketing. If you are not familiar with the key phrases (and we don't go out of our way to tell people these phrases), you'll miss out on crucial stuff. If you'd like to have another go at making a perfect Arch system, drop me a line.
throwaway1979 13y ago
I have a Macbook pro at work and at home. But I use Linux on all servers. I suggest you consider standardizing on one so you can build up your skillset and be aware of the quirks. E.g. I now understand I'd better do an apt-get update periodically or before I want to install new software. The ubuntu desktop installs with sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop ... etc. You are right that it is easier to pay the OSX tax and I did. But the Ubuntu/Linux desktop is almost there ... such that I probably would be okay if my next laptop just ran Linux.
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  I use ubuntu on servers, so the relative poorness of the desktop version was a rude surprise. I've been using Linux on and off long enough that my first distro was Red Hat Linux 4.