4 ms·

Hasn't OS X become "linux on the desktop". Homebrew is there for a lot of the main packages and its easy to bring up virtual machines with whatever flavor of Li

Hasn't OS X become "linux on the desktop". Homebrew is there for a lot of the main packages and its easy to bring up virtual machines with whatever flavor of Linux distribution one wants for more particular needs. If you already have Apple hardware, I feel OS X is a great compromise. A great mainstream OS with a lot of support for good GUI apps plus great support for a lot of linux software. What's your reason's for wanting to move away from OS X?

teacup50 13y ago
MacPorts has been there for something like 12 years now, so "linux on the desktop" software availability is not really the problem. However, it's growing clear through Apple's actions that they aren't interested in supporting the traditional desktop computing market, and that they see iOS-style black box computing as the road forward. For someone whose contributions to the platform have run the gamut from kernel drivers to VM runtimes to desktop apps, living in an iOS-like desktop is simply not tenable; I can't wait years for a platform vendor to decide that my particular use-case is worthy of their support. It's like owning a wood shop and only being able to produce Ikea-style furniture. Endless streams of vendor-approved Ikea furniture, and nary a 30' hand-built sloop in sight. However, most of the industry-changing software has been exactly the kind of thing you or I could never build on iOS -- even HyperCard would technically run afoul of Apple's iOS rules regarding downloaded code. Apple lost their way, so I need to find a new platform.
moystard 13y ago
Who does use vanilla OSX though? I mean people here are complaining about having to install extensions on Gnome, but isn't it what we do when we install a launcher (Alfred), web/documentation searching tool (Dash), clipboard manager (Alfred again), a new terminal (iTerm2), better touch tool, etc. etc. We are just extending the system to make it suit our workflow. We just have to accept that developers expect a lot of their environment, more than traditional users want, and more than what should be available by default in an OS. I am okay with installing plugins/tools/etc. to make me more productive.

teacup50 13y ago

MacPorts has been there for something like 12 years now, so "linux on the desktop" software availability is not really the problem. However, it's growing clear through Apple's actions that they aren't interested in supporting the traditional desktop computing market, and that they see iOS-style black box computing as the road forward. For someone whose contributions to the platform have run the gamut from kernel drivers to VM runtimes to desktop apps, living in an iOS-like desktop is simply not tenable; I can't wait years for a platform vendor to decide that my particular use-case is worthy of their support. It's like owning a wood shop and only being able to produce Ikea-style furniture. Endless streams of vendor-approved Ikea furniture, and nary a 30' hand-built sloop in sight. However, most of the industry-changing software has been exactly the kind of thing you or I could never build on iOS -- even HyperCard would technically run afoul of Apple's iOS rules regarding downloaded code. Apple lost their way, so I need to find a new platform.

moystard 13y ago

Who does use vanilla OSX though? I mean people here are complaining about having to install extensions on Gnome, but isn't it what we do when we install a launcher (Alfred), web/documentation searching tool (Dash), clipboard manager (Alfred again), a new terminal (iTerm2), better touch tool, etc. etc. We are just extending the system to make it suit our workflow. We just have to accept that developers expect a lot of their environment, more than traditional users want, and more than what should be available by default in an OS. I am okay with installing plugins/tools/etc. to make me more productive.