I was also extremely annoyed at the lack of upgradable storage as my needs quickly outgrew the pitiful base storage. I gave up and switched to an older thinkpad that runs Linux natively and I now have 4 times the storage of the MacBook for peanuts and can easily add more for cheap. Slightly slower but feels much faster than macOS due to linux being much lighter.
The idea of using an older Thinkpad with Linux having fewer “speed bumps” than any Mac seems hard to imagine based on my own experience. Guess it depends on what you use a computer for.
I can use either one but I find the older hardware with Manjaro on it more productive for me. I do a bit of .NET dev and Docker / Distrobox stuff but honestly it is mostly office work ( Zoom, MS Teams, presentations, spreadsheets, email, Slack, and the web / cloud ). All the software I use is totally up to date though and, as above, I just run into fewer “speed bumps” on Linux.
To be fair, that suits my wife just fine. She is in Marketing and teaches as a prof. She definitely prefers the Mac experience the newer iMac brings. Then again, she asks me to help her with stuff quite often. So she is certainly running into her share of “speed bumps” too.
But as soon as I upgraded, everything went away. I remember something weird like I could “pick up” a window and swap workspaces and drop it and it was perfect.
I can only guess that that feature was some emergent property of the implementation and not a design goal because I never really got it back.
My advice to the Ubuntu, Fedora, etc teams: focus ruthlessly on creating a smooth experience for the office/enterprise clientele who mostly use a narrow set of hardware (thinkpads x/t, dell inspirons, etc). Get this to a place where everything just works and lobby partners when it doesn't. Example from two days ago: shared my screen on zoom, clicked to stop screen sharing and the UI on my side didn't update. So another attendee went to share their screen and I couldn't see it - I had to rejoin. Worst still, that happens intermittently.
That said, I'm personally bearish on this ever happening against a much more well funded incumbent that is now producing ground breaking hardware with the M1s, etc.
That said, I use Zoom daily on Manjaro and have not had that happen. It happened to me just last week on my iPhone though.
While I love Airplay, I use Plex to stream media not only to my iPhone and the Apple TV downstairs but also to my Roku, my LG TV, an Amazon Fire stick, and my son’s Android tablet. Even after buying expensive apps, I could never get AirPlay working on the Fire stick or the LG TV ( the places my wife wants to watch ).
There are some cool features like clipboard being shared between my computer and my phone, but e.g. sending a website between the two machines is “half-baked”, as it simply shares a link, which is pretty useless when I want to continue reading the hn thread from the same point I left it on my other device. Opening the same link can be “hacked” into android and kdeconnect just as well, it’s not some difficult thing.
Focus mode and friends are yet again, quite trivial. I can accept that the ipad as an external screen thingy is cooler that these examples, but I don’t have experience with that.
M1 Mac Mini .......... $1099
M1 MacBook Air ....... $1399
M1 iMac ......,....... $1699
M1 Pro Mac Studio .... $1999
M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" $1999
M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16" $2499
What would high-cost really be? $5/workday isn’t even high-cost to me if it was a daily coffee bill, but certainly not if it’s your main computing device.
The problem is initial capex: you have to have that amount of money all at once, even if it is cheaper in the long run. Some people do not have access to even credit of that amount, let alone the cash for it.
About my own laptop, given my kind of work (web development Rails, Django, Elixir) I don't see reasons to buy something more recent and faster. On a current project Rails test suite it's slower than a M1 75 s vs 50 s but I can live with that considering that we're not running all tests every time. Typing in an editor is as fast as any computer was in the last 30+ years. I expect to have to replace it either because of missing spare parts or some NVIDIA / Linux kernel incompatibilities in the next years.
I don't like Macs these days, but this is 100% true. In my experience, people who buy macs keep them significantly longer, so comparing simply the price tag of Mac vs. PC is very misleading. The correct comparison is "total cost of ownership".
As for desktops, I use them for even longer. I still use a first gen PPC Mac Mini as a in-home music streamer. I no longer run Mac OS X on it since there are no security updates.
And if they can’t afford comparable PC’s, then Macs are not affordable. There are many affordable non-mac options.
In the US, $20 or $30 is negligible to the frivolous expenses of the average household budget. In laptop-buying households, even more so. Let's not confuse misperception of value to affordability.
I think 1440p displays work well too, or at least they did back in 2014 when I was using Macs, but I didn't see any for sale when I was shopping for an interim while I wait three months for the Studio Display to ship.
Stay away from an old 2K 1440p at this point. Since Apple removed the old sub pixel rendering, those 1440p panels look too soft anymore. The 4K scaled 1440p looks much sharper than those.
Are they though? Properly specced PCs have more than decent lives too. The build quality of a Mac or an equivalent-ish ( so not the plastic cheapest possible model ) devicedecent OEM like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus aren't that far off.
They're reasonable for top end buyers, but not as reasonable for consumers, and everyday coders.
Its still fine for most things, if I need to compile something large, I connect to my 64 core build machine. But of course I tend to use my (also fairly old) desktop more than the laptop anyway.
PS: It is a cheap dell 14" inspiron with a 1080P screen, integrated GPU, and its a bulletproof linux machine. Supports S3 standby, and idles at a few watt's. So even with its sorta crummy 3 cell battery (also replaced once) it lasts 8+ hours just browsing the web and running a text editor.
Not FOSS in general, but specifically the Linux desktop ecosystem is very chaotic. There is this rush to get a close-enough adoptation of features from other desktops which in itself adds chaos. I did learn a lot from dealing with the chaos but even when I had free time, practical things like editing government forms or sending a resume in a specific format (converting botches the formatting) made me almost pull my hair out.
Unpopular opinion: Linux desktops needs to be proprietary software friendly. As in accept blob installers that can install desktop applications that work well on any major DE and without consideration for package managers. Paid apps should also be a thing on Linux.
Isn't this already the case? I'm running Spotify and Steam games with no issues here.
While I agree with your greater point that a system that gets out of your way is nice, I always find myself swearing when using Windows and trying to bend macOS to do things the way I want. In the end I just gave up and went back to Linux on a "basic" PC (no Nvidia or multiple GPUs on my laptop).
The two major things I miss are HD streaming on PrimeVideo and Photoshop, both of which work well on Windows and macOS. For the former I bought I firetv stick and for the latter, I dual boot (I only need it occasionally).
It depends on what you are doing I guess. I remember getting frustrated at windows too. Linux is the best at being configurable and controllable from an administrative workload perspective but not from a productivity or entertainment application UX.
On Linux, having gdb launch apps is easy, though debugging running apps needs sudo or tinkering with yama. On macOS, having lldb launch a release-mode app (eg. ls or cat) requires disabling SIP then entering your admin password or Touch ID. And Valgrind doesn't work on Mac.
True, editing government forms on Linux is a pain. Chrome is close to usable, though its formatting is iffy. Though I dread contaminating Windows installations with Adobe's bloatware.
And I've had Arch and Paru break sometimes, rebuilding software and such.
Point in case, my Thinkpad X1 Nano which I was toying with the idea of flipping over to a pure Linux machine recently. Most of its hardware is supported well by Linux (Intel iGPU, Intel networking, etc and no bizarro components like you tend to see in cheaper laptops), but it comes with a display that's best run at 150% or 175% UI scale, which Linux still struggles to get right. Using the latest Fedora as a base so I'm not missing out on newer additions, I tried GNOME and KDE Plasma under both Wayland and X11 as well as Cinnamon under just X11 (since it lacks Wayland support) and none of them handled fractional scaling correctly/optimally across all the apps I need to use.
Meanwhile, Windows 10 and 11 on the same machine handle UI scaling fine, even with apps I wouldn't expect that from.
So to use Linux, I'd need to make a concession somewhere, whether that's with some apps not rendering their UI correctly or by using a laptop that has a "normal" DPI screen and probably the terribly low screen brightness that typically comes with those panels. That concession-making is not fun.
> desktop applications that work well on any major DE and without consideration for package managers
The ability to run proprietary software like that was a goal of the LSB. Everyone abandoned the LSB effort because it was preventing the CADT Model (https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html) from rewriting the stack every 12 months. (Sorry, I am a bit jaded in this regard.)
Even windows vs mac, a mac with less resources than windows performs much better for me and I am so much more productive. On windows everything lags, crashes, freezes when monitors are plugged in, hardware changes, wakes up from sleep and it is horrible at the amount of disk i/o it uses. I constantly have to reboot it else it falls apart. I could go months without rebooting a mac.
slowish when it comes to file operations (so for example it will take eons to delete a node_modules folder, though that is only partially the fault of windows) and has “strange” file locking mechanisms where I will get insanely angry for not allowing me to delete that shitty file n levels deep because some software is using it. Also, not being UNIXy enough, which is the common target of dev tools.
I am currently using OSX for work, but first of all, I have to believe that the kernel is simply behind the linux one in terms of resource management. E.g. intellij can’t import one of the projects because it will choke on Too many open files. I have never ever had to change this kernel param on linux for example.. second, window management is quite bad and that changing desktops must take 0.1ms is really infuriating. Also, I do like their sandboxing (in that they have one at least compared to linux’s complete lack of security) but I would have expected it being able to handle runtime permission changes. Me having to go to settings to allow screen sharing and then restart the app is quite bad.
And finally, linux kernel-wise is much better than these I believe (which is not that surprising that it pretty much runs the internet with huge players investing in this aspect quite heavily). And while I don’t like every aspect of gnome, but the most recent version is buttery smooth, and desktop switching is actually as fast as my gesture is (which is strangely what iphones do best, yet osx’s animation is constant minimum duration..). On supported hardware bluetooth is quite good especially with pipewire, and wayland is a very welcome direction. My only gripe is the lack of security.
I was a big Linux proponent for a while, then Apple won me over with Macs for a time. They did "just work" for my day-to-day(DevOps).
However, last spring, I bought a new personal system for freelance work/side projects, and have been running Ubuntu as my daily driver. Funny enough, it seems like during that same period the my UX on my work-supplied Mac(2019-era MBP) has been steadily declining. I've been dealing with maddening slowdowns and numerous bluetooth issues(with Airpods no less!).
Conversely, I find working on the Ubuntu machine much more enjoyable, and I'm exploring the option of getting a Linux machine supplied by work as well. I'll caveat by saying it took some time to hone in on solid configurations, tweaks, and a good DE/WM(i3wm), but I gotta say Linux is winning me back over.
All that being said, I'm not deluded enough to think Linux(in its current state) is ever going to make inroads with Apple's consumer/pro-sumer userbase. It's still very much an enthusiast option in my mind.
Trust me, you can tweak macOS to your liking, as well. I used to be a Linux lover, but after trying for almost a decade, for my desktop needs, I’ve given up on Linux, and adopted macOS.
macOS is a POSIX environment, and you have almost the whole GNU ecosystem available to you, if you want.
Every Linux just works, even with obscure keyboard layouts, and installs security updates or necessities without ever dragging you into some store login drama.
It would be interesting if people really finished a proper Darwin setup that could provide a good POSIX without service dependencies on Apple. But at that point, there are the existing BSDs.
Mac gets int way when programming, video editing, data management, power system.
I used Linux daily for many years, then switched to Mac for 7 years (entirely due to HW/price being better at the time than other options), then back to Linux for the last in couple.
I was happy to leave the Mac ecosystem because it looked to me like the OS was slowly sliding down the drain.
Also, people saying that macOS is POSIX and therefore almost like Linux remind me of people saying having cats is just like having children. At this point I just smile and nod sagely :)
Serious question: why do you assume that?
My "tweaking" of a new Ubuntu machine is normally limited to changing the background. I am busy getting work done and don't really want or need to tweak things.
In my case, absolutely not. I'm using Solus (Budgie) on my notebook and that's because it suits me basically OOTB. What I do have though is a headless NixOS server to which I connect with VSCode for a dev environment. But I wouldn't use NixOS on desktop when Solus is a much better choice, best of both world in my opinion.
My thinking was by showing the Mac has all these nice things that make me productive, this can somehow influence and move the needle so Linux devs who follow my blog have datapoints on what they can work on.
Perhaps some enterprising dev has already read it and is working on an answer to AirPlay, or adding rich text to KDE Connect's clipboard plugin. I would love to do it myself if I had the time.
The particular one that bites me over and over with the latest versions of macOS is that USB 2.0/3.0 ports will die on macOS for varied and mysterious reasons with hubs and dongles and the only thing you can do is reboot.
This was such a big problem that it finally forced me off of macOS. I have things that I need to plug into USB-A ports. This failure mode is fairly common, reported, and totally due to Apple. Earlier versions of macOS do NOT exhibit this bug. Unfortunately, newer machines can't use the old OS's because "Apple".
Other laptops do not exhibit this bug with Apple and non-Apple hubs and dongles--presumably because they actually have to ship with USB-A ports so that code path actually gets tested.
And, that, in a nutshell is why I finally took the plunge and switched to Linux for daily driving.
But the Apple Maps point felt like a stretch - Google Maps is available everywhere. I don't see much to suggest you'd need it as an app, it works great in the browser with hardware accelerated graphics, which it has had for 10+ years.
When I was "all-in" on the libre ecosystem, I used a ThinkPad for laptop and Talos for desktop. The ThinkPad had just the Intel iGPU that didn't work right in Firefox, and the Talos had blue lines through everything in OSM because "lol x86 monoculture" meant Firefox's Layers didn't work right on Power.
I had graphics acceleration working in raw Mesa, so if there was a native app, it would have Just Worked – probably on both systems.
The Linux desktop moves at incredible pace. The experience I had 2 years ago was more crude than my desktop in 2022.
Sounds like Mac is great for blogging, happy to hear it; as long as I’m doing software development, deployments, etc, I’ll stick with Linux.
I loved my time with macOS but window management was definitely the worst thing about the OS for me.
Also: I just punched directions into GNOME Maps and it worked flawlessly and cast my entire desktop to my Shield TV via Chrome browser.
Which bit don’t you understand? macOS is stable with fantastic professional QA and support, and it lets you run more cross-platform ported software than Linux does.
That's a stretch and i find it unlikely, but it's not like we have numbers. However, macOS makes it hard to run random software ( like a utility from GitHub) with their code signing "security" stuff ( working around it is anything but intuitive).
Your experience may differ if you're not "all in" on the Apple ecosystem, but using mostly/only Apple devices means that everything integrates, and integrates well. You may recreate a similar experience with Android and KDE (or Windows i guess), but it feels much more "tacked on" than in MacOS where it just works out of the box.
I also mostly use "stock apps" which may or may not improve my experience. Instead of trying to force MacOS to fit my workflow, i fit my workflow to the tools available, and it has rewarded me well.
I still keep a VM with Gnome (Debian 11) running every now and then, but it's mostly just for fun.
This is something that frustrates me, and it's one of the reasons I'll never go "all in" on the Apple ecosystem. It's tantamount to John Deere designing special cupholders in their tractors that cost $150, lest you risk your drink tipping over. I'm not paying more money to a company that actively wants to price me out of new experiences. I think Snow Leopard to Mojave was a really good time to own a Mac; generally speaking, the software and hardware experiences complimented one another. Nowadays, Apple is a hardware company that sells software products, and Tim Cook is doing everything he can to continue driving up the marginal utility they capitalize on. It's an absurd business, I refuse to support it.
TL;DR: Another very happy Apple customer. It seems that they are not looking back at the Linux Desktop.
What can the Linux Desktop ecosystem learn from this?
That you can have the most open source, extensible, low-to-no-cost, powerful operating system, and still lose out to a UI/UX that appeals to and is accessible to someone who doesn't know what an Ubuntu is, never mind how to install it. Apple took it one step further by not only providing this UI/UX to the "what's a driver" crowd, but also to developers.
For developers, they get enough nonsense over the course of their day from npm version conflicts, build failures from compiling on unsupported architecture, and trying to figure out why their k8s pods are crash looping. To then add on more headache from trying to develop and compile with Ubuntu outside of the described use cases? No thanks.
OSX (in most cases) just works: most developer tools provide a dedicated OSX package, you get the UIX benefits inherited from the "what's javascript" customers, and the hardware-software integration makes things consistently smooth.
Unless one of the big linux distros finds the money to make the experience more appealing for the "Java? Like coffee?" userbase, this will continue to be the case.
Usability and functionality trumps ideology.
The Linux world has spent (and is still spending) insane amounts of time & effort on ideological battles such as software freedom or the endless arguments against systemd while commercial OSes put that time towards actual functionality and end up ahead most of the time.
I don't care how "free" your thing is, none of that freedom is useful if I can't use the thing because it just can't do what I need it to do.
The worst thing about mac for me is how the things are named, it is very often that I want to find some option and it's just named differently than I'd expect
Most of people's complaints with Linux are things entirely controlled by 3rd parties like specific software and DRM for crap like Blu-rays and 4K Netflix. Modern DEs like KDE and GNOME are extremely usable and functional.
However, that doesn't stop a group of people from the first group from breaking away and creating their own stack. It's been attempted many times before (etoile, elementary, and in fact kde/gnome started out this way), but they never gain sufficient momentum and crash back into obscurity (etoile, elementary) or mainstream compromises (kde, gnome).
Fundamentally the problem is lack of alignment between all the different people working on the Linux desktop. Nobody is in charge promoting a single vision and herding all the cats to achieve it, and nobody ever will be, because the Linux community won't accept it.
That leads to fragmentation, and because there are so many moving parts that aren't developed in alignment, users need to tinker with their desktops to get the outcomes they want.
The problem is, some people seem to think Linux on the desktop can become popular with the general public despite the fragmentation and tinkering needed to make it work. That's not going to happen. The Linux community cannot have it both ways: fragmentation and success on the desktop are incompatible.
For a while, it seemed possible that Ubuntu would overcome that contradiction by offering a curated Linux desktop for normal people that would become so widespread it would end up being the de facto Linux desktop, and anything else would be a special flavor for people who really wanted to tinker. But that hasn't really panned out, and a lot of the opposition to Ubuntu comes from within the Linux community.
The problems with the Linux Desktop ecosystem are not tech problems but human problems. Everybody tries to be the smartest person in the room and push their own pet projects on everybody else via tools, distros, etc. All it does is dilute the ecosystem and erode the experience. I have no idea how to fix this- it's a result of the freedom.
Sweating every detail of a graphical computer is expensive. This cost can be mitigated somewhat by controlling the hardware design. The money to do this comes from people paying for things.
Maybe people are different (as I usually note when I say that I hate the 'close lid for sleep' on laptops and go out of my way to disable that) :P
I continued to use Linux at work. I recently set up a home firewall with OpenBSD and have an itch to assemble a desktop exclusively for *BSD and Linux. If only hardware prices were not so high...
I find this a funny point, as Things is one of the apps that has a near-direct clone[0] on Linux. It also costs $49.99 less than Things!
Things pays attention to the tiniest detail in every single aspect, and it really shows that it's natively written for each of it's platforms, not some quick and cheap Electron crap.
I've paid for Things on 4 platform and I'm very happy about it. I have no qualms paying for good software like that, I just hope these people make more software for me to use.
Almost to a comedic extent, Planner does copy a lot of the touches that Things has. For example, dragging the plus icon in the corner to a folder will create a new task there, much like Things. Each section of checkboxes also gets a tiny status indicator, and everything in it is drag-and-droppable. I understand your skepticism, but this really is a complete ripoff of Things in a glorious way. If nothing else, you can't deny the fact that it's more bang-for-your-buck being free and whatnot.