This is why I’m not moving off Windows 10. I’d rather move to MacOS than Windows 11 and if they force me I’ll do it.
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I also enjoy the polish Apple provides in other ways -- the platform features you get if you're on a Mac, use an iPhone, have a Watch, etc, are all pretty great. Cobbling together something like that on my own under Linux probably isn't possible.
I switched from Mac to WIN a few years ago, because maintaining MB Pros became a nightmare, after having had six burned mainboards (with Macbook Pro devices each) within 3 years. I had definitely enough. Happy my former employer had to shell out the money for repairs/replacements. But each time getting back into a workable state with my backups still took north of two days.
And while for my day job I still need to use Windows, for my freelance business I am using Linux for quite a while now. Without any maintenance except regular updates (like with any OS out there). There is exactly nothing I am missing in terms of tools/software (for my line of work), while I am also benefitting from better performance, longer battery life and overall a smoother user experience.
Not going back anytime soon.
If you don't need that kind of thing then Linux is indeed pretty good these days. But especially in a business context, a lot of people do.
The problem is: it depends a lot on the specific program whether I want the newest or stay with some older version of some program. Many GNU/Linux distributions make this hard, while Windows makes this easy.
That hasn't been the case with Linux, any more than other OSs, for some time now. At least not if you chose an LTS release of a big “getting work done” oriented distro rather than something geared around the bleeding edge or customisability.
There are issues with some software support, but that is almost all Windows stuff that you'll have the same problems with on Macs as Linux.
There are occasional hardware issues, which is where Apple limiting choice in favour of known reliability can look attractive, but that is mostly on the bleeding edge too which isn't a concern if you are “getting work done” (I had issues with some 2.5GbE NICs a while ago and swapped them back out, retried with the same kit last month, at least on apt-release-update later, and things are working just fine).
> if you're on a Mac, use an iPhone, have a Watch, etc,
I can see that.
Though I prefer to select my devices based on what they are best at rather than being locked to a single manufacturer's ecosystem. My watch (Garmin) and phone (Android) talk to each other just fine and integration with the desktop when I need it (mostly for planning routes & pacing plans using maps on the big screen) is web-based so works just as well with Linux as Widows or Macs.
If WINE eventually works well enough I can confidently use random Windows programs, esp. if they can be installed in a nice sandbox, that would let me go to Linux.
That being said, I am eyeing up Framework for next laptop.
That hasn't been the case with Linux...for some time now
There are issues
There are occasional hardware issue
You're arguing against yourself.
Or did you mean that you want to pin an app to a specific version? This can be done also, trivially - not that it is a good idea in general.
Headset does not work on Linux: “This is crap, I’ll tell everybody I know to stay away from Linux!”
Headset does not work on Windows: “This is crap, I’ll tell everybody I know to stay away from these headphones!”
(Re-post from 2022: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32541772>)
I used Linux Mint for about a year and gave up because everything was constantly breaking and the software was a direct downgrade from MacOS in terms of usability and prevalence. Oh, and new hardware usually doesn't even work on Linux.
Linux is like Communism, sounds great in theory but in reality it doesn't work.
Windows has for it:
- the gazillion software, free or crazily expensive, that do not exist on linux
- the hardware compatibility, whatever is built, it is with windows on mind
- the office file formats that are the de facto standart
- the software installation model that is very crap but infinitely better than on linux
- the OS upgrade path also has it's issue but still much better than on linux
Of course linux has its strength also, and you can find it better in some cases on the points I listed
Maybe actually read the my comment, in which I mention such caveats, instead of just scanning to pluck out the few words which agree with your existing blinkered view. Your reply is like film posters paraphrasing quotes like “Terribly written, nothing good to say about it!” to “Terribly good!”…
It sounds like you're not very good at backups, then.
I've only ever needed to do a real DR once, after we were robbed, but my Time Machine restore had my replacement Macbook up, runing, and with my application states in place within about 2 hours.
>longer battery life
As an Apple Silicon user, I doubt that. ;)
I'm still using a 10 year old one as a poor-man's-NAS-controller. And the backup system that ships with the tool is insanely solid -- while I don't trust any single backup solution alone, the one time I did have to recover from backup (we were robbed), Time Machine had my new machine in exactly the same state as my stolen one within about 2h. I'm sure with faster bus speeds and drives now, it'd be even faster.
Nobody ever disputes that there are workarounds to the default packaging workflows of Linux distros. The problem is, your average user, even technical ones don't want using an OS to be a second job outside their real job.
It appears a site for software engineers can get lost in the sauce with the concept of something being "easy" - but Linux absolutely will never take off if it's a pain in the ass for the average computer user to install and use.
Same here. Had the 2017-era MBP (pre-M1 days). Still miss my 2014 though - that thing was solid.
The newer Intel ones ran stupidly hot, especially driving 4K externals at full res. Add corporate "compliance software" (read: bloatware that shall not be named) and those machines basically lived at 80-90°C. Heat up in the morning, thermal throttle all day, cool down overnight, repeat.
Our IT dept tracked failure rates - roughly 0.5-1.5% (depending on holiday season or not) of the MBP fleet was always out for thermal-related repairs at any given time. Not exactly confidence-inspiring for a $3k+ machine.
Moreover I think that not only windows' model is bad, and worse what makes it better than linux's model is the monopolistic and proprietary nature of windows.
At first, comparing both model can be thought as a joke: on windows, discovery and installations are manual, update are either manual or have to be implemented by the software developer, uninstallation is a bad joke that can let several gigabytes somewhere on your hard drive without even your knowledge or knowing how to find them (I'm not considering the app store, winget, etc because they are either bad or not well integrated).
But because windows versions last long, that they are very few of them and because the software is decoupled from the OS, installing a software on any windows machine that is less than 10 or 15 years old is downloading one of the maximum two installers, click to install and it's done. To update is just to accept the update for most software, but indeed to check first if there is an update for still many software and repeat the installation step. There is now redeeming the uninstallation: going to the parameter windows, uninstalling the software, and praying everything is properly removed.
In theory, on linux everything is better: click on the app center/use a command and look for what you want, clink install/type a command to install, everything is updated in one click/command, a software is uninstalled in on click/command.
But practice is different: discovery is still manual because you need to have more information and know the alternatives. Installation and update are where the real issue is: at the difference of windows, there is a close coupling of the OS and software. Every software has to be built and packaged for the dozen of distributions and all the versions of each distribution. The work is often duplicated: both the distrib managers and upstream propose their own packages. if you need or want to install from upstream, the dev must have their own repository that you have to add or you have do install the package manually. Update has the same issue: cross your fingers that your distribution and its version is covered either by the distribution or upstream, and that there is no conflict several sources are available. If you installed a package manually, it's not better than on windows. And because of the software-OS coupling, updating the OS means updating the software, and updating the software may mean updating the OS. Uninstallation is much better: afaik the issue of removing the dependencies is mostly resolved, and if sometimes some stuff is not removed, it's either small, not safely removable or easy to find.
For the OS updat, in theory again linux is much better, but in practice and since windows 7, here again because of the longevity of the OS versions and the decoupling OS-software I had less issues under windows
I'm sure you've never had the pleasure of working in a corporate environment where IT has banned Time Machine, external drives, and replacement machines that actually match your storage capacity. Where "backup and restore" means navigating a Kafkaesque ticketing system on your phone to get someone in a different timezone to temporarily unlock your account because you're now on an "untrusted device."
The actual data backup? 2-4 hours, worked fine. The rest was dealing with invalidated certificates, version mismatches in corporate "security" software (that ironically required Flash to be "compliant"), and finding a replacement machine that wasn't a 256GB base model when you need to restore from a larger drive.
But you're right - back when we were independent, before the corporate acquisition, Time Machine worked exactly as advertised. Two hours, everything restored perfectly. Then came the security theater that somehow made machines less secure while being infinitely more annoying to manage.
So yeah, clearly I'm just not good at "backups." Got it.
> As an Apple Silicon user, I doubt that. ;)
Feel free to doubt away - yours is definitely longer. For context: I'm comparing Windows vs Linux on the same dual-boot hardware (old Intel workhorse), not against whatever "M" you are running. Linux consistently delivers 40-45% better battery life than Windows on identical hardware. Still need the Windows partition for certain freelance client work, but working on eliminating that dependency entirely.
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously
> Don't be curmudgeonly. Thoughtful criticism is fine, but please don't be rigidly or generically negative.
> Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
> Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.
Well - I think this should start to cover it.
Unfortunately when we got acquired, we had to return all secondary devices with no buyout option (they used to let us keep older machines, but corporate policy changed that).
These days I'm running an older Lenovo Yoga that's actually holding up pretty well. Since I don't game and stopped doing video work, it covers my needs just fine. Swapped in a 2TB SSD and replaced the battery after about 6 years - can't complain about that longevity.
When this one finally gives up, Framework is definitely on my shortlist. Also planning to grab a mini PC for NAS/home server duties in the next few months - been putting that off way too long.
The repairability aspect of Framework really appeals to me after years of dealing with machines you basically have to replace entirely when something breaks. Seems like a much saner approach.
Why do I have to use Onenote? It's free. It syncs well with other computers and mobile apps. Sharing notebooks with other people works and is free. It's intuitive enough that my wife can use it. The search works, the formatting is rich enough, you can paste in pictures.
I don't need the rest of Office. The online versions or Google docs are good enough. If I can get Onenote and Fusion360 working well on Linux, I would likely switch to Linux.
Well, I mean, it kinda DOES seem like my critique was on point. It just wasn't YOU that was bad at backups. It's that your IT department is worthless.
But either way, it's not an Apple problem.
>Apple Silicon
The power management on the Apple chips is really just amazing. It's like nothing I've ever used before. This level of performance AND insane battery life feels like a magic trick.
Oh, and the heat management is all part of it. I've had this machine for 4 years, and a few weeks ago it started making a disturbing noise I'd never heard before. "WTF????", I thought.
And then I realized what it was: I'd finally triggered the fans, which had never come on before. Turns out, rendering a shitload of high-def 360-degree video down into a flat file for Youtube sharing is computationally intense enough to trigger the M1's cooling system.