There is no Linux desktop experience that is consistent, or coherent. You'll frequently want to use software that happens to be made for the other window manager, and suddenly you have different keyboard layouts depending on the window that's active. Toolbars are sometimes on top, sometimes in the window. Sleep absolutely definitely will never work, unless you muck around in the kernel for a bit. Then it works but your wifi cuts off when you're playing music.
Most of design is either created by people who want to punish you for leaving the command line, or these people who put blinking, nascar-style ornaments into their water-cooled, wall-mounted, intel-inside-stickered towers.
Oh, and battery life on Skylake is about half of what a Macbook gets.
So, I can't directly disagree with most of what you said on point, except for sleep/hibernate/suspend. Especially in the last decade, it often works without any low-level tweaking, and I can get it going in MOST cases without too much fuss.
In the last 10+ years, my wifi experience on Linux has been very solid, often more solid than my OSX-using co-workers.
But this is all anecdata.
Though Ubuntu (and to a much lesser extent, some others) have come light-years toward producing a consistent, coherent Linux desktop experience, it still lags painfully behind OSX and Windows.
With all of these disadvantages, though, the 'all the way down' reliability and no-bullshit you get from a Linux desktop (or server) is worth its weight in gold. It's just that the entry fee is still too high.
That beings said, the vast majority of consumers, and I suspect the vast majority of developers, do not rely on such applications (or their equivalent w/r/t Windows).
Agreed in a sense. All OSes have their issues. They're just different issues.
> Linux on the desktop is nowhere near macOS.
And that's because it's a different OS. It's not trying to be MacOS. And I'm glad it isn't. Because if I wanted MacOS I'd run that, don't you think?
> Sleep absolutely definitely will never work, unless you muck around in the kernel for a bit. Then it works but your wifi cuts off when you're playing music.
I've yet to experience any issues like this on any of my hardware, but I've been shopping around from Linux-friendly OEMs like Dell XPS laptops and Lenovo ThinkPads. So maybe that's just you being unlucky about your hardware? Hard to tell over an internet comment.
But let's be real here: Linux as a general purpose desktop OS mostly works on pretty much any hardware you throw at it. OSX works on maybe 3 models made by 1 vendor.
Trying to arrest Linux for poor hardware-support in this scenario is a pretty weak hand to play, honestly. Because out of the three big OSes, MacOS is clearly the general purpose operating system with the weakest hardware support of them all. Its hardware support is piss poor.
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The only issue so far is that when I unplug an external display, it sometimes fails to shrink my desktop accordingly. I've seen issues of a similar level of annoyance on macs as well.
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There are the other standard linux things (every piece of software is configured differently &c.) but as we are talking about someone who uses linux on the server already, I didn't consider that apropos.
Try updating your firmware. My Skylake laptop gets 10 hours or so. If a Macbook got 20, I'd be quite impressed. :)
Straight up FUD. This isn't the experience at all. Linux had these issues in the mid 2000s, that hasn't been my experience in years.
I agree with the "inconsistency" but I see the same "inconsistency" when I open matplotlib windows (wxgtk I suppose) and they look different, only closing the window fails randomly on OS X and leaves Python interpreter running while I've yet to experience that on Linux.
Then, I'd try to kill the non-responding app, and kill works on Linux, but on macOS, it is inconsistent. And that wasn't ten years ago, that was may be two or three days ago.
You didn't ask for advice, but if I had any, it would be to avoid Ubuntu. Most of the poorly functioning and randomly crashing processes I've seen on Linux was on Ubuntu machines.
Since Windows is not an option for me, I switched to a Mac.
I don't recommend gentoo for everyone although it really isn't that bad--if you can develop a web app, I'm sure you're definitely capable enough to use a supposedly "advanced" distro like arch or gentoo, but Ubuntu isn't that sterling of a system in my experience especially when you need something beyond the defaults.
I also enjoy pacman a lot more than apt.
Hate that Ubuntu == Linux for many people.
I've toyed with Arch during Windows 7 times - after hearing how linux is more stable than windoze/windblowz - and then nVidia drivers crashed, X server crashed, aaand upon starting X - all GUI applications were closed.
Are. You. Friggin. Kidding me? People were talking about stability when such things happened? Linux stability compared to Windows 7 - zero. At that time.
Has it changed?
This is an often repeated myth that just isn't true, (unless you have [testing] enabled). I had a single Arch install survive for 3 years without any problems and that involved switching over to a new init system.
I only had to install Windows back on the machine because I went on to sell it and get a new one.
(Performance is another matter, of course, but for regular desktop use, it does not matter that much.)
I personally haven't had the video driver crash on me, but even so, I think a video driver is not the OS, so not sure what you're talking about.
Kernel panics would be more understandable comparison.
Is it as refined as MacOS? No. Does it have the same polished application selection? No. Does it need both of those to be useful? Up to you, and you can help mold it and become part of the community
This is a problem. I want a desktop, not a job with "feeling good" salary.
That's why I said you can do it, the days when you had to do it are long gone.
Seriously, I think two of the biggest problems facing desktop Linux are:
- people having outdated experiences - equating Ubuntu, (not that great), with Linux and thinking that Ubuntu problems are Linux problems.
I would argue that hidpi doesn't look as good as Mac, but better than Windows. I'm primarily committed to Gnome, so I cannot speak for other desktop platforms, but GTK applications look pretty good and the font rendering is fine (again, not great like Mac, but not bad like Windows).
But there's always that one tool that just isn't there...
- GNOME 3.22 has pretty great HiDPI and most GTK apps work very well with it + it looks great with the Arc theme + Numix icons
- A small virtual machine for Lightroom may be easier than Wine, or try a commercial, supported fork like Crossover
- The system is just soo much lighter and more responsive than macOS, no constant locks or spin wheels in 1/3rd of the CPU+RAM usage of a Mac.
- A package manager like pacman runs circles around Homebrew and the whole UNIX CLI toolset feels much more like a first class citizen
- Bugs are visible and traceable in the open and patches are often provided within a couple of days.
- WiFi on my 2015 15" MBP constantly drops for me, never happened to me under Linux (Arch specifically)
- The kernel can be compiled with only your specific modules, allowing for even faster, leaner system
- systemd is amazing and makes managing the system super easy
- Greater choice of file systems to fit your needs, most of which are not 30 year old and do not operate on a single file at a time.
- Even if the GUI freezes, it's super easy to switch to a tty and restart the display server, avoiding a hard reset
- Hardware with proper GPU available, allowing you to play over 2000 games on Steam, including some which are not on Mac at all
- Vulkan support/more likely to support future games
- Runs cooler and quieter
- Not subject to one company's whims and control
- I also have an iPhone, apart from iOS dev, why is this a concern for you under Linux?
- Rolling release if you want it, (contrary to popular opinion, very stable, I had the same install for 3 years without issues and that involved swapping the entire init system)
- Free as in freedom software, passionate people and community, generally much more of a developer/like minded individual type of crowd if you care about that With it comes a sense that you're contributing to something having real impact out there.
I'm dual-booting Windows for Photoshop and Lightroom, and using the 1Password Web interface since there isn't a Linux client.
Like you, I still have my MacBook Pro around for when I really need a Mac. But I'm tired of supporting Apple when its clear they're not especially committed to the Mac anymore.
That doesn't really solve your other issues though. Personally I use lastpass which works fine in Linux but I haven't used 1password enough to be able to say whether it's a valid comparison or not. Lightroom might work under Wine or in a VM if you don't use it so often that you really need it to be native.
Windows vs. OS X have quite different philosophies in font rendering:
> https://blog.codinghorror.com/font-rendering-respecting-the-...
"Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible, even at the cost of a little bit of blurriness.
Microsoft generally believes that the shape of each letter should be hammered into pixel boundaries to prevent blur and improve readability, even at the cost of not being true to the typeface."
Also under Windows font hintings and other subtile details of the font format have much more importance on a good-looking font display than in the font rendering algorithm than under OS X.
Source:
> https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/a-closer-look-at-fo...
(This article is from 2012; I don't know whether it is still up-to-date):
"On Mac OS and iOS, we hardly have any control over the rendering, which is acceptable (since it’s generally very reliable). [...] On Windows, hinting matters—especially for TrueType-based fonts (the only Web fonts Internet Explorer 6–8 will accept). Apart from that, one significant control we have over the rendering is the choice between TrueType and PostScript. Except for very well-hinted fonts in smaller sizes, the latter is equal or superior in rendering, and easier to produce. Even though DirectWrite is making Windows rendering more pleasant, it will not remove the necessity to provide well-hinted fonts."
HiDPI was broken for me on my external display once I "upgraded" to Sierra. In order to fix the problem, I had to install the most recent beta of the OS - not a move I liked making, but one I felt necessary because my external display is such an important part of my work.
This marks the first time that I've had this kind of issue with a macOS upgrade so soon after release. Lesson learned. Now I plan to hold off, with future releases. These new versions aren't bringing any new features that I care about, in the end, so there's no need for the new & shiny version of the OS anyway.
It seems that if you have a GTK3 desktop (I've tried elementaryOS, GNOME 3 apparently works well as well) most of the developer related things will work well at 2.0 scale - like Mac does it. At least I've tested out Sublime Text, Chrome, Terminal apps, GVim and other included GTK3 apps.
Another thing is if you lug your computer around a lot, I often go from one 3-monitor setup at work to another at home however this always messes up my window placement and I haven't seem to found any DE/WM which handles this cleanly in a convenient way even near the experience on macOS.
This experience have made me realise that even though Linux is workable as a developer OS today it is nowhere near as convenient and seamless as macOS.
Have you tried a tiling WM like i3? If you unplug and replug monitors you're just changing what workspaces are displayed where. The experience is identical if you have one or many monitors.
It was much easier getting nvidia-docker, tensor flow and caffe running than getting the desktop to limp along.
I would recommend giving something with GNOME 3.22, like Arch or Gentoo a serious try instead.
You can use something like https://antergos.com to install Arch and https://www.sabayon.org for Gentoo.
[ It still has terrible battery life, and chucks out a load of heat though ].
I did have other problems -- some serious. Right now, running Fedora 24 and Gnome 3, it seems to be a reasonably workable machine, but yeah, it's been more trouble than you'd like for the money. Part of it seems to be that Skylake is just wonky on its own. Some of my issues in Linux have been issues with the dual-booted Windows 10 install as well (e.g., sometimes rebooting instead of waking from sleep).
I'm not saying Lightroom will run in a VM, I haven't used VMs for heavy programs, this was just an anecdote of me being surprised by how someone could use huge engineering programs inside a VM.
Personally whenever I use the clone/heal brush Lightroom slows down to almost unusable performance and this is on an i7 + 8GB RAM - I can't imagine running it in a VM. I am sure this is Adobe's fault though cause the same tools in Photoshop perform multiple times faster.
Which is what I do nowadays, my netbook is the only surviving desktop still having a native install of GNU/Linux.
HiDPI is just a waste of processing power and money anyway.
> * Lightroom is a pain to run over wine or some other tool (and no, Darktable is not there yet)
Sure, but that's an Adobe issue.
> * 1Password still has no linux client
KeePass?
> * I like the iPhone and do not plan to move away anytime soon > * iOS app builds - not really a problem to keep my old MBP around just for doing builds
Being that tied to your desktop OS sounds like a huge reason to move away from iOS.
I don't really care whose issue LR is. It's a tool really without equal, and it's required for my use case.
Keepass is what I would move to, but 1Password is so much nicer. Hopefully they support Linux fully at some point.
Why would I move away from iOS? The hardware and software as a package work better than anything on Android I have used, again for my use case. Part of my job is building apps for both platforms. There is no way we would stop doing the iOS version.
You're right, we should all go back to 640x480 CRT screens.
After being on HiDPI displays for years, old LCDs are practically unusable. More eye strain, lower max information density, less visually appealing.
As someone who ran Linux both on the desktop and laptop for well over a decade, for me Windows 10 has finally gotten to a usability point that I accept, WRT the window manager. That may sound odd, but I was "that guy" you might have run into who had a fully hand written FVWM config that was extremely customized to be efficient, so the fact that Windows is often sufficient now is quite a feat to me.
That said, my workflow does often consist of just browser + email + terminals, so take that into consideration.
Every windows update (which MS now shoves down my throat at the most inconvenient of times) seems to want to force me to use Cortana. Every update also re-adds shortcuts to the windows store to my quicklaunch. I'm constantly seeing nags and offers for things I'm not interested in using on the lock screen.
It feels like there is no one at Microsoft really in charge of the user experience and every department within the organization gets to add their "must haves" to the next version with little consideration on how it affects the overall experience of the operating system. In this regard, Apple is and always has been lightyears ahead of MS and that just doesn't ever seem to change.
Then there's still long standing issues that exist that completely boggle my mind - I just plugged in a new USB mouse the other day and had to restart after installing the software for it.
I do agree it's a bit naggy at times. As for the updates... I have complicated feeling about that. It's annoying that it auto-restarts, but the alternative is so much worse. There's a registry hack to prevent it, which if you think it's a good idea to turn auto-updates off, you should probably feel comfortable making a registry change to show you know enough to be responsible about that. The windows store stuff seems to only come back from certain updates, I'm not sure which ones.
> I'm constantly seeing nags and offers for things I'm not interested in using on the lock screen.
I've seen multiple reports of this, but I don't see it, so can't really comment on it. My lock screens are just images (rather good ones actually, like for the chromecast, IMO).
> Then there's still long standing issues that exist that completely boggle my mind - I just plugged in a new USB mouse the other day and had to restart after installing the software for it.
Was it a specialty mouse? Did it install it's own software (it sounds like it, when you mention "installing the software for it")? If it automatically launched a third party installer that decided that you needed to restart, that one can't be totally blamed on MS (beyond expecting them to blacklist the device for poor driver quality/installation, which won't exactly make people happy either).
The problem with the MS platform is that as it's the primary market for most people and devices, you get some very low quality stuff. That same stuff might not work at all on other platforms, or be feature poor (e.g. a mouse that can't use all it's swizzy features because it's using the base USB HID stuff). That's a common problem with hardware on Linux (until the device gets open source support, if it ever does), so I'm used to it. Sometimes I choose not to install the proprietary driver for Windows anyway, just because I don't want their crap on my system.
Poor third party driver quality has historically been a large cause for instability in Windows systems, and IIRC around Vista was where they changed how drivers worked to address this problem, and now Windows is much more stable IMO. So, crappy devs shunting crappy drivers with their products is less of an issue, but still a problem, and one that's not really going to go away as long as closed source third party drivers are allowed without careful vetting (which they may be doing to some degree now, I'm not sure).
The one-two punch that routinely frustrates the hell out of me is when the vendor driver software requires an update, and the reboot process in turns fires off the windows update install. Now, instead of sitting down to play a game, I'm waiting fifteen minutes for two different software updates to finish and reboot my computer.
* HiDPI does not seem to work as well on other platforms.
* Lightroom is a pain to run over wine or some other tool (and no, Darktable is not there yet)
* 1Password still has no linux client
* I like the iPhone and do not plan to move away anytime soon
* iOS app builds - not really a problem to keep my old MBP around just for doing builds
I have been using linux for years on the server and I'm really amazed how short this list has become.