
My Failed Attempt Switching to Linux - ahawkins
https://medium.com/@ahawkins/my-failed-attempt-switching-to-linux-daf6c52a5147
======
franciscop
Buy $500 laptop with a fake description, install a _hard_ distribution and
complain that it doesn't work. Author buys a Macbook Air for God knows how
much and say it's way easier. This is not really a fair attempt at switching!
This is like using a Raspberry Pi and complaining about its performance. For
the next time:

1\. Get a decent laptop, preferably one that is known to work in Linux (though
in my experience, most 1-5 yo laptops have decent drivers). I got mine for
$650 with IPS 1080p (Zenbook UX305CA).

2\. Use a easy distribution such as Ubuntu where you just have to click "next"
few times.

3\. Enjoy your Operative System!

~~~
chimeracoder
> Buy a Macbook Air for God knows how much and say it's way easier.

...or buy a Dell XPS 13 which actually has Linux pre-installed by the OEM, and
comes with hardware that's actually tested on Linux by the OEM.

Apple hardware is notoriously difficult with Linux, because they obviously
don't test it on anything but OS X, and the hardware is completely opaque and
may even vary within a given {model, year} combination, making it even more
difficult for Linux developers to target than most PC hardware.

By contrast, Dell actually sources hardware specifically for the Linux edition
(ex: they use a different wireless card for the Linux and Windows editions for
this exact reason[0]) and pushes any driver patches upstream to the kernel.

Aside from the philosophical argument for voting with your wallet for a
manufacturer that actually devotes resources towards building hardware that
works with Linux, you'll just have a way easier time getting everything
working.

I'm a longtime Linux user, and having experienced the process on an XPS 13, a
Thinkpad, and a Macbook Air, each multiple times over, there's no way I'd ever
consider running Linux on any laptop but an XPS 13 (or the Precision, its 15''
counterpart) again.

[0] In other words, don't buy the Windows edition and install Linux on it,
because you'll probably have issues with your wireless card if you do. Even if
you want to install a different distribution, buy the Ubuntu version - Dell
upstreams all its patches, so the wireless card that ships with the Ubuntu
version will work on any Linux distribution.

~~~
therealmocker
I think the parent poster was referencing the Macbook Air purchased in the
article, not suggesting it as a base for new Linux installation.

~~~
chimeracoder
> I think the parent poster was referencing the Macbook Air purchased in the
> article, not suggesting it as a base for new Linux installation.

Right (they edited the comment after I posted, which makes it less ambiguous).
That said, I wrote this mostly preemptively, because I've seen way too many
people try to install Linux on the hardware that they happen to have available
(usually an old Macbook of some form) and then complain that X doesn't work.

It's fine if you're just testing things out, but if you really want an apples-
to-apples comparison for the top-of-the-line experience on each operating
system, you have to run Linux on hardware that's actually tested with Linux in
mind.

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bpizzi
A better title would be 'My Failed Attempt Switching to a Lenovo X260 from a
MBP 13"'. His 'failure' has not really something to do with Linux itself (he
did tried a BSD), more with inadequation between hardware and driver support
(btw, if the author wander here: you should have tried at least ubuntu before
jumping on arch or nixos).

~~~
cylinder714
Yes, absolutely. And OpenBSD may have been a better fit for his X260 with
regards to device drivers.

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cpburns2009
If you're going to switch to Linux, why would Arch Linux be your first pick?
I'm sure there are even harder distributions to choose from but wouldn't
Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint be much easier to start with? I like Arch Linux and
I'm currently running it on my laptop. I like to think I'm a moderately
experienced user after using Linux for 9 years, but it took me around 2 weeks
of evenings tinkering with Arch to get it fully set up. That just seems like a
terrible choice if you're coming from a Mac.

~~~
beojan
And having failed with that (though I don't know why he had to write his own
PKGBUILD) why would you then try FreeBSD and NixOS?

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ProAm
This reads more of a guy buying the wrong product and not knowing anything
about linux and giving up quickly.

~~~
dep_b
> not knowing anything about linux and giving up quickly.

to be honest, he said in the article:

> I have a life to live

I mean how do you need to know about macOS before it runs really smooth on
your MacBook? You're not getting paid figuring out which Linux set-up with
which patches and config tweaks makes it run just as smooth as a MacBook out
of the box. Of course it's not a problem if you _like_ to do this stuff or
you're a professional Linux developer.

~~~
bussierem
Outside of the download of the install ISO, getting stock Ubuntu installed
takes about the same amount of time as setting up a new Mac/W10 machine...
Answer a few questions, hit "Next" a bunch, and poof you already have stuff
installed and ready for you to do all the normal stuff.

Very much unfair to claim you need patches and config tweaks and such these
days, unless you're straying from the beaten path.

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edflsafoiewq
The title is very misleading. The vast majority of the post is about laptop
specs. The only things he says about Linux are: he had difficulty writing a
PKGBUILD under Arch, and the palm detection didn't work under NixOS.

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TwoNineA
OP complains about MacBook Pro and needing 32 GB of RAM yet he accepts a 720p
screen because it's good for writing/Vim never mentioning why he needs 32 GB
of RAM.

~~~
svennek
He probably uses an editor made on electron like atom... That is what the cool
kidz use today..

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sevensor
Why on earth was the author trying to write a PKGBUILD? 4 years of daily use
at home and at work, and I've never needed to do that to get a system up and
running. Where would you even get the idea that this was necessary?

~~~
wink
Same here, was running Arch on an older laptop for years (recently bricked it,
not Arch's fault), replicating my usual setup as far as possible and unless it
has something to do with newer hardware... why?

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jsnk
I had a good time switching to Windows / Ubuntu and I talked about my
experience here.

[http://blog.jasonkim.ca/blog/2017/01/01/my-macbook-pro-
alter...](http://blog.jasonkim.ca/blog/2017/01/01/my-macbook-pro-alternative/)

You do need to spend some time tweaking and fixing up minor issues here and
there when you install ubuntu, but in the end it was worth it.

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jancsika
Why is the author comparing an OS _designed_ to run on that particular
hardware to _manually_ installing an OS on a machine for which the author
hadn't investigated compatibility?

If you compare OSX on Apple hardware to Linux on hardware that _ships_ with
Linux pre-installed (probably Ubuntu) I imagine the usability would be
comparable.

edit: typo

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svennek
Allow me to add: If you own a Mac now, please do yourself and every happy
linux user a favor and stay there… Reading the never ending torrent of “linux
is not as great as MacOS and no hardware is as great as a Mac” gets really,
really tiresome… Different folks, different tools…

If you are/were attracted to a Mac, you would probably never be happy with a
linux box… For myself it was the other way around (years, and years ago),
bought a Mac, hated it furiously, fire-sold it a few months later (a top of
the line last-gen PowerMac G4, when it came out)… Having to use the bloody
trackpad is so bad ergonomics (when used to the TrackPoint), way to closed-off
and “magic” OS, no reasonable good free software (at the time).

Same as reading a review of a Landrover from a guy that has been driving
sportscars all his life.. “Not low enough”, “bulky”, “boring sound”….

(copy paste from my comment on the article)

~~~
pavel_lishin
Seconding this, based on my own limited experience of running Linux at home.
It's just a desktop with Ubuntu, but I've had all sorts of weird, one-off
problems with it that cause me headaches. I would hate to have to deal with
this on a day-to-day basis on my primary machine - so I choose not to.

Mac, despite slipping software quality, still mostly Just Works without having
to google a dozen forums with half-answers.

~~~
svennek
> Mac, despite slipping software quality, still mostly Just Works without
> having to google a dozen forums with half-answers.

Which people like me find to be the fun part :)

~~~
pavel_lishin
I completely understand the fun in solving a puzzle, but for my day-to-day
machine I want something reliable - puzzles are great for the weekend. It's
the difference between having a Honda Accord for a daily driver, and a
19600-something-or-other as a fun fix-up project in the garage. (Sorry, I'm
not a car guy, that analogy went off track very rapidly.)

~~~
svennek
It is more like having a simple tool that works reasonable well with minimal
training (for example a shovel) vs. having a highly customized tool that
requires quite some learning and "tweaking" (like having a hydraulic motorized
digger)...

And after you have learned enough, the latter is as reliable (if not vastly
more) that the former.. I haven't had a single day for the last half-decade,
where my linux box let me down...

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syncaddict
Installed Debian 9 on my 2014 Macbook Pro 13" and am very happy with it. It is
just for experimenting purposes, but it was so smooth I hang on to it.
(complete story here :[https://syncaddict.net/2017/08/ubuntu-16-04-on-macbook-
pro-1...](https://syncaddict.net/2017/08/ubuntu-16-04-on-macbook-
pro-111-success-story/))

I did buy the late 2016 MBP 15" with touch bar, but it is really not that
excellent. Not as excellent as my 2013 MBP 15" was. It is a good machine, but
underwhelming by Apple standards.

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mikejmoffitt
> You want a fucking good trackpad. [...] This is your primary input device.

Heh, alright buddy.

~~~
tarboreus
Maybe he should just get a big button that says "push here" on it.

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lewisj489
1\. You don't know how to search for laptops. 2\. Try Windows?

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type0
I wonder why he didn't try Gentoo also

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binaryapparatus
Very low value article. Sigh.

