And that doesn't even get into the hardware situation, where the number of laptops with long battery life and everything working without quirks can seemingly be counted on one hand.
What's wrong with cinnamon for you?
This is the opposite of my Linux experience, especially in comparison with MacOS. Linux, especially when using KDE, offers customization up the wazoo. The out of the box experience may be a less than optimal, but investing time customizing your installation[0] is very rewarding. Almost anything that can be done on/by your DE can be bound to a shortcut or automated. You'd have to purchase MacOS tools to come close to the configurability of KDE (e.g. window positioning)
1. Or copying your config directory.
Trust me, it’s macOS enough. I switched from a 16” M2 Max MBP to a HP Elitebook G1A Ultra with Fedora. It’s been a dream.
the laptop battery life issue is a real thing -- I kicked the can by getting an M1 MacBook Pro instead of a Framework for my most recent upgrade.
I’m shocked at how much “just works” like a Mac. It wasn’t like this even a short amount of time ago.
I’m really happy with the hardware too and all it needs is more battery life. Nothing an external battery doesn’t solve (and the framework is a lighter machine so the difference is moot).
Everything works. Fingerprint reader authenticating commercial apps like 1Password, graphics drivers are a part of the kernel and I’m enjoying Windows games on Steam, firmware gets updates from the OS instead of messing around in the BIOS like on Windows, KDE Connect is like AirDrop for Linux, it’s literally a better experience than Windows and Mac if you ask me.
I don’t mind that KDE resembles Windows, I personally think it’s a lot like Windows but without the dumbassery. And of course you can theme it and change settings to have it act more like a Mac (or go with Gnome).
As for battery life, it being crappy makes me wonder why I’m even bothering with laptops at all. More than half of their selling point is being portable, which needing to be tethered frequently heavily impinges upon. The sacrifices that come with the portable form factor just aren’t worth it for 3-5h life with real world usage.
I can confirm that there is nothing that comes close. Gnome is an abomination even if it might be appealing on the surface. KDE is still very rough around the edges, despite making a lot of progress with each version. I used XFCE for a long time because it can be tweaked to a reasonably useable state and it is light on resources. KDE can be occasionally dog slow on a $12k workstation with a 64-core Threadripper pro and 256 GB of RAM for a reason I cannot imagine. Using my Mac Studio is a much better experience overall.
Jabs aside, GNOME is pretty nice compared to where it used to be. Everything still takes a few iterations of touching, but not as many as it used to. Some things are frustratingly unsolvable (see: advanced monitor features), but at least it is a full replacement for Windows on the same hardware. Oh, and contemporary linux distress have audio drivers that appear to work out of the box without having to build the kernel.
When it comes to laptops: it'd be great if anyone made something that competes with a MacBook. It's been a long time. At this point I can only assume there is an economic reason rather than a technical one that Windows and Linux laptops are so bad.
You need to define what's a MacBook for you. I'm not a fan of the form factor, but I've seen dozens of clones of it for years now and kinda wonder where a Surface Laptop for instance fails for you.
You can find some that are 80% in the first two categories. There is nothing remotely in the same league in the last two.
Sounds to me like you never tried any. Which is fair if you're not trying to move away from macs in the first place, but if you're actively looking for alternatives there's a lot you are missing.
I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox and realized that kerning is completely broken. I can only assume that it's because of some setting that I changed but I'd rather reinstall the whole machine than go on a wild goose chase...
The list is endless, really. Everything looks "delightful" as fuck. Mac and iOS fonts, colors and text padding are immaculate, so it gives the impression of solidity and competence that isn't really there. A lot of things "mostly work" but aren't reliable, so I can't rely on them. They can list them as "features" but if I can't rely on them, I can't use them, because I don't want to deal with constant frustration. They act like all their systems are this one integrated whole that works well together, but it doesn't.
I don't think that everything will "just work" on Linux, but at least I won't be paying a premium for the privilege of having my needs as a disabled person ignored. I'll be able to customize my experience to meet my basic accessibility needs without fighting against a company that seems to hate me.
I also noticed worsened reliability in the heart rate tracking of my Apple Watch in recent workouts. It must have happened in one of the recent updates because it was fine previously. I could say it's programmed obsolescence but I'm sure I would be accused of conspiracy theory. But it is hard to interpret the failing reliability otherwise when it suspiciously happens after updates and around new hardware release. In any case, I don't think the Apple Watch is a very good product for the price, so whatever, the next watch will be focused on sports and the competition has made great alternatives.
I completely share the sentiment that everything looks good but doesn't work that well in practice. There are so many random issues that make the hardware prices very unpalatable.
Ah well, everything changes, not always for the better. The pain is in transitioning to something else, but that's something that is very true for most tech related things since we can't ever agree on proper standardisation.
Android Auto does the same thing for me, despite having auto-play disabled. One possible explanation I've seen online is that some infotainment systems send an unsolicited "play" signal to your device. For Android that seems to mean it will send "play" to the most recently used app that supports audio playback.
Android has the same issue with Google's keyboard, which will go back and change things you've typed correctly to be obviously wrong for no clear reason. I swear it used to work much better.
At least on Android alternative keyboards are easier to use. I have no idea how they both have such an awful implementation of it.
Edit: LOL, how could I forget Siri. I don't use it often - generally only in the car to switch music - but it's terrible at understanding what song/album I'm asking for. Tried repeatedly to get it to play the "Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast and I got some death metal instead. Completely useless.
Every. Single. Year. “Apple is taking away my laptop I’m switching to Linux.”
I’m grateful to you all though — I think your constant griping every year probably does at least apply some pressure on Apple to focus on keeping macOS good at what it does: provide a pleasant but still powerful desktop experience for those who just want to do stuff and not spend hours under the hood making some Linux flavor usable.
So much of the ecosystem doesn’t “just work” anymore and now instead of fixing those issues, they are actively working to make my computing experience worse. I’ve hade enough.
The more I investigate the current state of Linux desktops, the more excited I get. It seems like Linux is actually good for general use now, and I’ll have so many more options to make my technology fit me instead of the other way around.