Also, with regards to linux, what stops you from making that the default that students onboard to? I would imagine that something like this becomes quite easy if you have a culture where group members help onboard the new ones into the ways of doing things.
It's not like we can buy them a work laptop. At least not for each undergrad.
I’ve found the following to work quite well:
Have a docker compose file setup that runs a container with all the necessary build tools and anything else.
Map home directories, /opt and anything else you want to persist as named volumes.
Run docker compose up -d
Use the remote development extension of vscode to connect to the container and develop almost as if it was local.
Yeah, "not the OS's fault" etc. But Windows did all of that fine.
But speaking of laptops made for Linux, a lot of modern Lenovo Thinkpads have unpatched issues with Bluetooth audio, and my coworkers are constantly fighting with that. So even us techies have an easier time with Macs.
Mac and Windows both have some great "power user" features - but I think for the average person, Ubuntu is far superior for usability.
I remember 10 years ago when my friends would use my Linux laptop and expect it to be impossible and couldn't believe how easy it was to use and figure out.
Maybe for a few rare laptops that have perfect driver support, it's on par. But this isn't a common case.
The main problem with Linux is for laptops - the power management is simply not in the same league as MacOS.
Has had like 20 different maybe-superior UXes, often 2-3 for a single distro... which in a way is worse than one bad one that you get to know well. Like, I logged into my Linux machine at work one day, and the entire UI was suddenly different, ???
I have an external Thundebolt dock that actually works. I'm not on the Xcode treadmill forcing me to update an OS because Apple dropped support. Updates are on my schedule instead of Apple's. I can use an actual standard 3D API (Vulkan) rather than the undocumented pile of crap that is Metal. My Bluetooth speakers are more reliable than they were on macOS. I can set my monitor resolutions without buying a dumbass Mac App. My printing system never gets confused forcing me to reinstall all my printers. I can go on and on.
Is it flawless? No. About once a week, my cursor response goes to absolute shit for about 90 seconds for no obvious reason. Occasionally, I hit one of the Wayland corner cases. Lots of software still doesn't run on Linux--so I have to keep a Windows box floating around, but I had to do that even with macOS. I've had 2 hangs over the last 12 months.
But, overall, while I can list grievances about my Macs endlessly, I have to actually think hard about what has genuinely pissed me off about Ubuntu.
I'm not going to deny anyone's experiences because when that's done to me I just get pissed off. In addition, I made a point to buy somewhat more expensive hardware that was a decent match to Ubuntu (better quality laptop, i5 for better thermal performance, max RAM and SSD). I'm just providing a counterpoint that for some of us Linux is a better environment than Windows or macOS.
It's such a convenient way to manage the desktop space and credit to System76 for making it available to other Gnome-based distros.
For what it’s worth, this is only true if you buy a device with poor Linux support which is kind of like buying a hackintosh and complaining about how much tinkering OSX requires. If you buy a good Linux box and put Fedora or PopOS on there, I think you’ll be productive instantly.
My biased 2 cents.
Nah it works completely fine. There is no photoshop, yes, but stuff does work.
Headset does not work on Windows: “This is crap, I’ll tell everybody I know to stay away from these headphones!”
My comment was in reply to someone saying Linux just works without needing to tinker, and as much as I’d prefer to be using a Linux based laptop, those are 3 things I have spent countless hours tinkering with to try and get working without success.
If not, then why do you do that for Linux?
I don’t encounter such laptops except when they run Linux.
Other OSes have their own litany of issues, however the topic under discussion was how well Linux just worked without tinkering, and these things are still pain points for Linux that I don’t encounter on other platforms.
This is not to imply that Linux is bad out that you shouldn’t use it, just that it is still not tinker free.
My point is that yes you do. You just immediately attribute the problem to the other parts, not to Windows. Myriads of Windows users everywhere have all sorts of problems with all sorts of hardware, and everyone just accepts it as some sort of problem that they’re having. But a problem where Linux is involved somewhere? Then it’s suddenly Linux which is prone to problems.
No I don't.
This was running the latest Ubuntu at the time (20, and then 21).
Perhaps things have changed in the last year?
This is still the case. I was just trying to get this to work. You can't use the mic on a Bluetooth headset. There's supposedly a workaround that requires you to install and run a smartphone software stack on your laptop, but I could never get it to work.
Is this supposed to work on Mac? Does it need configuring? Is it something I need to enable? I always had to remove and reinsert the power cord to wake a sleeping docked Macbook.
My Samson G-Track Pro USB microphone does not get recognised on M1 Macs. It worked fine on a previous Intel Mac.
- Ads to try Apple Music free for a month.
- Ads to try News+
- Ads to try Fitness+
- Try Safari (if it’s not your default browser)
- Try/log into iCloud if you’re not logged into iCloud.
- Try the latest macOS release if you aren’t on it.
As an aside, you do not want to even log into the Mac App Store with a personal account on a work computer.
Logging into just the Mac App Store effectively logs you into your iCloud on that machine and sensitive personal data is then strewn across various files under ~/Library. The iCloud sysprefs will claim you are not logged into iCloud but ~/Library will show you the truth.
In addition to that, what personal data are you talking about in your last paragraph?
Not sure if OSX is like that, though, as I haven’t used it much in the last few years.
Is there an option like that on Windows?
The old macOS provided that the new Mac, not so much.
Likewise, if I just want to play music, and I decline the free introductory offer of an Apple Music subscription, why does it keep offering?
Like newsletter popups, having something get between me and what I want to do is annoying.
It’s the creeping “Not right now”, “Maybe later”, “We’ll in your face again after a random timer” bullshit I hate.
Frankly, I am rather pessimistic with the industry as a whole. Problems never seem to stay solved. There is constant churn, constant disruption of workflow and UI patterns. Constant change for its own sake and no reflection on what is really important.
Windows is… not for me either.
It seems like after a certain level of complexity product design is a very difficult thing to do.
My guess is that few people have the skill to really get product refinement just right over the long term. So you end up with either stagnation, where people are afraid to improve things or random unnecessary changes that make stuff worse.
Linux I find what's painful about it is that some things will always be kind of broken, for me it was bluetooth, I used bluetooth all the time, it did work, but I had to fight it into submission fucking daily. Windows? My goto example of what a shitshow windows is by far is the incoherent settings menus, and generally whereas Android and iOS and MacOS and Linux and all the OSes people actually use follow a lot of similar conventions Microsoft is SUPER SPECIAL and of course must do everything in their own unique way.
KDE is pretty nice.
I'm sure that Apple would put ads in the Mac App Store if it were profitable for Apple. But it's likely not a big enough market to be worth it.
Windows has adverts in the start menu!
Desktop Linux GUI is still painful and really only suitable for those who love to tinker.
Since I moved to Mac from Windows I’m thankful for macOS even if it could be better, it’s still much more usable than the alternatives.
I find myself spending more time on my professional work and less time fixing driver issues or fighting annoying in OS ads.