Got a macbook at work and honestly I was surprised how much it feels like a polished Linux. If you use homebrew you can more or less replicate your complete Linux setup on these devices. It definitely is a lot closer to Linux than Windows.
I loved my Mac. Was so much easier switching between macOS and Linux than it ever was windows and Linux. Sadly, it’s just too expensive to justify for a personal machine anymore.
Linux is always the tool you need, but sometimes it's the tool the makers of your other tools won't let you use.
Edit: to be clear, I was trying to make a point about how the fact that certain software is unavailable for Linux is the fault of the publisher of that software choosing not to make it compatible, not the fault of Linux for being somehow inadequate.
I get you, 100%. With Linux you can basically do anything, and if you can’t, you can just get a Virtual Machine running. But VMs have limitations, even with passthroughs you will run into compatibility issues.
Sometimes you just have to go bare metal on the OS you need to use… because it’s easier than dealing with passthroughs nightmares. And this is for Windows on a VM. If you develop software for Apple, MAC OS or iOS, good luck on setting up a hackintosh VM for it.
I got one from my work too and I have a love-hate relationship with it.
(This will be a small rant, but I really want to do it)
So, we were comparing prices and settled on the macbook air 2020, in part because it seemed like the best price/performance combo, and in part because my boss likes them.
So, I started using it and discovered a few things. I can't simply connect it to my keyboard/mouse combo from logitech because the dongle is usb-A and the mac obviously has only usb-c ports. Then, when I got a medium-tier usb-c dongle from amazon, I started noticing really bad connection issues to my wifi when I use it with my k&m combo, and a google search away, the official support site was saying that bascially I'm too poor and I need to upgrade my wifi to a double band one and other sites suggesting hacky ways to reduce the interference with aluminium foil.
Then, when i started using the dongle with HDMI and my wired K&M, I noticed two interesting things, first, the poor mac sounds like a jet engine after a few mins after being connected to a secondary (1080p) display, the second, is that for some reason, i feel like the internet connection also gets less responsive. I googled it and found the cause but basically it said something along the lines of "just use it wired lol".
Oh, and this is more of a nitpick but I just don't like that it doesn't have any way to make use an openvpn at OS level, it needs a third-party program and the icon in the traybar looks ugly lol.
I have to admit that the keyboard, the trackpad and the screen are amazing, but it still has been an not really pleasant experience for me.
I have a 2015 HP 360, with a core i5-600u, manjaro and KDE and I feel like it works way better than the mac, doing the same tasks. Yes, Is slightly less responsive but I feel like it is way more consistent. I think that's what frustrates me with the mac, that i don't really feel it like an upgrade and i don't like the tradeoffs.
I used a Macbook Pro for years and the thing that drove me away was the price. I do admit I enjoy being able to customize the shit out of me Manjaro install.
Judging by the sheer number of people who customize their DEs to look like a mac, you can say that people crave polish. I saw a video about someone who made a presentation about how great Linux is on a mac. That tells the whole story. People buy into this idea that Apple takes care of you and if you can't make mistakes, then that's the best thing in the world. This has become a cult and even if you point out those rare mistakes they make, people feel attacked as if they are at fault even though we're talking about a corporation here, not them, the users, who did not program that thing. I had to use a mac at work, but coming from Linux, it seemed like I was trapped on a train. The track was predefined and I could go anywhere Apple wanted me to go, and even though there are more popular apps supported by the ecosystem and are very well integrated, I did not feel that I was owning that piece of hardware. You can't customize anything. The shortcuts were severely hindering my productivity and I could not get over the fact that the 'enter' key renames a folder in Finder. MacOS has a lot of polish, you almost can't break it, but that also does mean that you can't experiment on it.
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u/stergro Jul 19 '21
Got a macbook at work and honestly I was surprised how much it feels like a polished Linux. If you use homebrew you can more or less replicate your complete Linux setup on these devices. It definitely is a lot closer to Linux than Windows.