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0 pointsveidr6y ago0 comments

Yes, absolutely virtualization works so much better. In fact you can boot Mac and run VMWare Fusion, or boot into Windows 10 and use either Windows Subsystem for Linux or VMWare Workstation, and you will have a pretty great experience with Linux.

OTOH if you try to install Linux on any recent MacBook Pro, you are in for hours and hours of googling weird shit with like only 2 comments on forums you have never heard of, and you will still never get Wi-Fi, sound, and sleep/hibernation all working at the same time.

It's just not worth it. If you are so hardcore about software freedom that you demand to install Linux natively on the metal then you should absolutely not, now or ever, buy a Mac.

OTOH if you just need to like, build some shit that only builds and runs on Linux, and you have $200 — VMWare. I don't like VMWare in theory (the Monsanto of tech companies) but I sure like them a lot in practice.

I have needed a Mac/Windows/Linux laptop for my job for the past decade. In former times, I installed Windows and Mac OS X, and ran the latest Ubuttnu in either VMWare Workstation or VMWare Fusion.

But since 2016 I just use VMWare Fusion for both Windows and Linux. If you want to use a Mac, I am confident that's the "best" approach.

(For me, that means "runs all GUI and CLI programs reasonably well, with the minimum hours per year spend fucking with shit just to make it work. But if you actually need efficient GPU acceleration or real high performance (like not a web app or GUI app, but some kind of computationally expensive whatever) under Linux — well, then get something other than a Mac.)

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7 comments · 3 top-level

0xff00ffee6y ago· 3 in thread

I run multiple OSes as part of my job.

The small investment in VMWare Fusion was worth it but I still need some dedicated machines.

I just have a few issues:

Problem #1: Disk space requirements. I have a late 2013 MBP and windows gobbles up a min 60GB for the image, which is 1/4th my SDD. This is why I ended up buying cheap beige boxes for every other OS (or AWS).

Problem #2: Clipboard on VMWare is a trainwreck. Same goes for VNC and Microsoft Remote Desktop which I also use. My workaround is to use a text file on my router's USB drive so that I cut and paste through that in each OS.

----> I would pay someone $1,000 to come to my house and fix my clipboard problems.

Problem #3a: The magic mouse blows chunks on anything but macOS. And even running Excel on macOS is impossible with a magic mouse. The left-right slop makes it difficult to scroll vertically without drifting diagonally... I don't know how macOS apps solve that.

Problem #3b: I would kill for a mouse with a real middle button, not a scroll+button. Unix/X middle click paste is a feature I sorely miss on macOS and Windows.

MonaroVXR6y ago

You can buy an Windows or Linux "computer" and run MacOS in a virtualmachine. VMWare Workstation is great for it. You can do it also with Virtualbox or KVM. But the latter doesn't have "hardware acceleration" support.

_bxg16y ago

You know you can use regular mice on macs, right?

0xff00ffee6y ago

I explain how I'm running on 3 OSes and you actually think I don't know that?

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MonaroVXR6y ago· 1 in thread

Wait a minute, I can run Windows, MacOS and Linux on the same machine with VMware Workstation. I run MacOS in a VM. The same goes for Linux and Windows.

So you don't need a MacBook or an iMac to run MacOS.

veidrOP6y ago

Totally possible, yes. But, in my experience the Mac's OS updates break things fairly often, and running macOS on non-Mac hardware isn't supported or well-tested by VMWare.

But it might be worth it, depending what you need to do.. I tend to do my actual work writing code and on the Mac side, even if the code is running on Linux, so for me it makes sense to keep the Mac experience the native one.

yadco6y ago

You can get a license key on eBay.

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