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After over a decade of fiddling, twiddling, tweaking, breaking, fixing and generally trying to use Linux on a desktop, I gave up and went the opposite direction

After over a decade of fiddling, twiddling, tweaking, breaking, fixing and generally trying to use Linux on a desktop, I gave up and went the opposite direction, and I couldn't be happier. I no longer actively fight my package manager because it decides that my kernel needs to be broken at this very moment (looking at you, openSUSE). I don't have to deal with the twiddling that one must do to get a working laptop setup. Drivers just work. Suspend/resume just works out of the box. Best of all, I can get shit done without fighting with the OS. When I ran Linux as my desktop of choice, I floated between most distros with a pulse, trying out the ecosystem to find something that suited me. RPM, DEB, source, you name it I ran it. I avoided the forks of forks, sticking to mostly popular projects. In doing so, I learned that I really dislike KDE and Gnome, and I'm not too crazy about Xfce. I've tried the minimalistic approach (starting as far back as blackbox days) and something felt not quite right, like there was always something missing, and no amount of fiddling, tweaking or twiddling could rectify it. I guess my point, if there is a point to this, is that your mileage will vary with Linux. Caveat emptor and all that.

toadi 12y ago
I'm like you. I started using linux round the time the kernel hit version 1. It was ok because when I was young I could not afford a recent computer and linux worked best on my hardware :) First years of my proffesional life I installed linux on all my laptops. Broken kernels, not working hibernate/sleep, battery life that sucked,... Every time I bought a new laptop some new tinkering followed. I always laughed with macbook fanboys paying for their overpriced hardware. I switched and couldn't be more happier. Hardware is ok, OSX has a good terminal and as long as I can access this I'm happy. Decent and nice looking applications (I don't mind paying developers a good price for this) which are not on windows or linux. There are points of complaint but the overal experience of the mac and osx is still positive.
- pil4rin 12y ago
  "Hardware is ok" In your mind, who makes a better laptop than Apple? In my experience build quality is unparalleled, but that obviously comes at a price. Having owned multiple macs, I opened up and attempted to look at other models (for work) and the only model that came close was the Razer Blade pro (which is similarly priced as the MBP counterpart).
- gpinkham 12y ago
  I suspect a lot of this is per user.. I too have been using linux since the early days (slackware 1.1 which was kernel .99 or something like that). . I used linux on desktops and servers.. had tons of issues in the early and middle years with laptops.. but these last 4 or so years I have been running Ubuntu on a bunch of laptops with no sleep issues.. no battery issues.. no tinkering.. except to get the 3rd screen working with my lenovo.. then again never got that working with either of my macbooks.. so individual mileage may vary.. personally I like Linux.. but I'll probably have to go back to Mac simply for Office.. too many office docs come my way that don't work in Libreoffice..

toadi 12y ago

I'm like you. I started using linux round the time the kernel hit version 1. It was ok because when I was young I could not afford a recent computer and linux worked best on my hardware :) First years of my proffesional life I installed linux on all my laptops. Broken kernels, not working hibernate/sleep, battery life that sucked,... Every time I bought a new laptop some new tinkering followed. I always laughed with macbook fanboys paying for their overpriced hardware. I switched and couldn't be more happier. Hardware is ok, OSX has a good terminal and as long as I can access this I'm happy. Decent and nice looking applications (I don't mind paying developers a good price for this) which are not on windows or linux. There are points of complaint but the overal experience of the mac and osx is still positive.

pil4rin 12y ago
"Hardware is ok" In your mind, who makes a better laptop than Apple? In my experience build quality is unparalleled, but that obviously comes at a price. Having owned multiple macs, I opened up and attempted to look at other models (for work) and the only model that came close was the Razer Blade pro (which is similarly priced as the MBP counterpart).
gpinkham 12y ago
I suspect a lot of this is per user.. I too have been using linux since the early days (slackware 1.1 which was kernel .99 or something like that). . I used linux on desktops and servers.. had tons of issues in the early and middle years with laptops.. but these last 4 or so years I have been running Ubuntu on a bunch of laptops with no sleep issues.. no battery issues.. no tinkering.. except to get the 3rd screen working with my lenovo.. then again never got that working with either of my macbooks.. so individual mileage may vary.. personally I like Linux.. but I'll probably have to go back to Mac simply for Office.. too many office docs come my way that don't work in Libreoffice..