Tried to upgrade to a new machine last month. New-ish (and not name brand) hardware made Linux unusable on it (keyboard & BT wouldn't work), while Windows was passable. After some work I decided to try working on Windows again. Honestly the worst OS experience I've had in years, because at every step there's some default setting that basically equates to "Microsoft will do whatever they want on your machine" and it's hard to turn off permanently.

Then I tried to go back to Manjaro where I had a stable work experience from 2020-2022, and compared to macOS, it was just a pain getting the same dev environment back up. Ubuntu wouldn't have been much different.

I dislike Apple for a lot of things, and really don't like the absurd Apple Tax on having a usable amount of RAM, but it is still the best (and most stable) dev machine I've had in years.

(Not that it really makes much difference in Intel-world anyway, the difference these days is not very noticeable - I am typing this on a Thinkpad X1 Gen 5, which was released... in 2017. Can't justify buying a new laptop, each year I have a look and wonder, what the benefit would be.)

I loathe cellphones, though, so I have an iPhone. It is fine. It belongs to Apple really. Someday maybe it will be easy enough to put together something like a Raspberry Pi cellphone. But, for now, I’ll just rent one from Apple and let them handle everything.

They make fine devices for people who don’t like that type of device. No wonder they are doing so well, people who hate tech is a huge market, and we’re doing our best to expand it every day.

idk why people think macos is super locked down, it's not at all like the phones. the reason the AI revolution is happening on Apple second is because there's actually an enormous amount of technical people using macos these days. if they couldn't run a python script how would pytorch have ever happened etc?

...is because Apple goes out of their way to arbitrarily disable your ability to run Nvidia drivers?

So much for "not locked down" I guess. But at least they still lets you install apps for free, it's nothing like the phones. How generous.

That's unfortunate, since the article notes: "Another method of bypassing the account lockdown still exists. You simply have to enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO in the command prompt during the Windows 11 setup process, which allows you to skip the connection to the Internet and thus also the link to a Microsoft account."

Valve's been bringing eberyone forward. I wish System76 et al to keep on their optimistic trajectory, for what that's worth. And Framework would be in a great position to spin out a dist or just offer a community install (fingers crossed Manjaro don't get them loljk).

Sure, you can use a browser on any distro and pretend it's fine, but the buck stops the moment something as innocent looking as printing or transferring a file to your phone comes up.

If you need to use local hardware you haven't used before; it's always a good idea to arrive well in advance to get yourself set up. You never know what you might run in to.

I installed my old projector ages ago, on a 1st version PPC Mac Mini running Debian and the Freevo media player (if memory serves, Kodi didn't even exist as XBMC back then). No problems whatsoever setting up the whole thing, aside the atrociously loud BONNNG! the Mac Mini played when turned on, but that's another story. I think setting up hardware is a hit and miss, and sometimes crap happens also under Windows where drivers are packaged according to brand, not chipset, and often bring all sort of junk with them.

Cleared all the crap, did not have the energy to work around online accounts, so setup one. All working. Great! 6 months later, Genuine Windows warning shows up on desktop, windows keeps asking to add product key. We never received one.

All the guides to retrieve it fail. I gave up, wiped the machine, installed Linux but had to give the person another windows laptop bc they had no idea how ot use Linux desktop.

Currently, my brother wants my help setting up some apps on his windows (he's an architect, so you know the heavy CAD stuff). I'm running away from him like the plague...managed to avoid him for 2 months, wonder how long I can last til he corners me.

Partially true, but I wouldn't rule out the marketing driven belief that cellphones are just like smaller laptops, which is utter BS.

Regarding Linux, I've installed Manjaro on some laptops and desktops for non techies, even seniors, and all of them (but one due to incompatibility with a proprietary Windows app) kept using it without any issues. I'm more a Debian user, also liking Alpine a lot on small systems and servers, but found Manjaro to be quite good for laptops and desktops that need to just work without fiddling too much with the command line.

Kinda makes me think, tech literate people have a moral responsibility to push back somehow and contribute towards a more healthy relationship between technology and humanity.

Not like Apple is different, they apply the worst user hostile practices they can get way with and then tell you it's for your good. Like you don't even own the computer you bought.

Think of the app store alone, or installing another OS. You can't run any software you want on their machines, you can't even repair them.

https://asahilinux.org

With suggesting Linux, I too have trouble, but honestly, that's mainly because people don't need it. I believe it to be superior to Windows, morally and technologically, but the fact is that people prefer convenience, and Windows is more convenient. Windows also has a lot of moat built by business machinations, so now the de-facto PC platform is Windows, and the de-facto office formats are MS Office formats, and while Linux has some compatibility, this is not something that people want to fiddle with, when they just need it "work".

What actually works is when manufacturers build an entire OOTB experience on top of Linux - like how the Steam Deck is.