
Have any developers regretted switching from OS X to Linux? - markhuge
For the last ~12 years I&#x27;ve been on OS X. Before that I was primarily Slackware user. I switched to OS X when I started doing a lot of A&#x2F;V work (at the time working with SDL dependencies was kind of a mess).<p>My Air is dying and I&#x27;m considering purchasing one of the newer Skylake-based 4K laptops to run Arch, rather than shell out $3k for a $1200 notebook. (It&#x27;s a value thing, not a cost thing. I&#x27;ll happily pay $3k for $3k worth of laptop)<p>I dev primarily in C, JS&#x2F;Node, Golang, Python, Ruby, and have started working with Elxir and Swift recently (I&#x27;m fine using a hosting CI server to build Swift projects). I also do a lot of audio production, consume most of my media through my laptop, and need to be able to interface with CNC&#x2F;Laser Cutters&#x2F;3D printers.<p>Has anyone who does some or all of these things switched to a modern release of Linux? If so, what was your experience?
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smt88
Developing C, JS/Node, Go, Python, and Ruby on Linux rocks. I liked it way
better than using OS X, but then again, all of the apps I used were cross-
platform. Is there anything on OS X-only that you think you'd miss? For
example, you should definitely investigate any RDBMS GUI that you use on OS X,
because there's nothing great in that area for Linux.

Audio production is... another matter. Linux certainly has hardware
weaknesses, even in areas that have been massively improved (like GPU
drivers). I've also done kernel upgrades that randomly broke drivers and had
to revert. So honestly the audio/CNC/laser cutter/3D printer thing is much
more iffy.

Consuming media through the laptop is another sticking point. I had tons of
bizarre issues with Chrome/Firefox and streaming video sites. It was just a
mess.

I'd be very wary of Arch, as well. If this is your primary work computer, I
strongly suggest a distro with a well-funded corporate backer. Arch is also
going to give you cutting-edge updates, but sometimes (theoretically) at the
expense of breaking things.

Have you considered a Hackintosh? And what's keeping you off of Windows? Since
Vagrant/Docker, developing on Windows doesn't require huge sacrifices, and
driver/media support on Windows is better than any other OS.

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adnanh
Really good RDBMS GUI for Linux (and other platforms)
[https://www.jetbrains.com/dbe/](https://www.jetbrains.com/dbe/)

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smt88
I honestly can't thank you enough for pointing this out to me. I love
JetBrains products, and I had no idea this existed!!

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billconan
about half year ago, I purchased a lenovo carbon x1. I run ubuntu on it.

for development, linux is the easiest. building stuff is often just make and
make install. convenient package manager...

there are two things I hate though.

linux doesn't support high dpi displays well. the default text is very small.
you can scale the ui, but it doesn't always look good.

second, no trackpad experience on other platforms can match that of macbook. I
never feel the need for a mouse when using mac notebooks, but when using a
linux or a windows notebook, I need a mouse connected.

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Spoom
FWIW I run Linux Mint on a Macbook Air, and it supports the (admittedly quite
nice) touchpad well. Obviously a little different than your particular issue,
but I thought I'd comment for anyone reading.

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billconan
what about the three finger move gesture?

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anonfunction
I've missed the screenshot tools, preview and keystrokes I've committed to
muscle memory.

