
Home and hotel – Switching from macOS to Ubuntu on a Dell XPS 13 laptop - mherrmann
https://fman.io/blog/home-and-hotel/
======
i_dont_know_
Linux is fine if you're at home and have a few hours to kill to figure out how
to tweak something, but if you're at work and need to do a video call using
startup-of-the-week's proprietary service _and_ use a projector at the same
time... good luck!

Seriously though, that's the main reason I use OSX... It's usually compatible
with the random toolsets my clients use without any additional tweaking.

~~~
mmjaa
Seriously un-true. Just this weekend I set up a friends old, aging laptop with
a fresh Ubuntu Studio install, and .. everything just works. Video playback,
drivers for everything. Seriously! Even multi-screen (i.e. projector)
extensions, and so on. We watched movies with it all weekend, just plain ol'
Ubuntu Studio.

So, anecdotal stories are yarns, yo.

(I say this as an Ubuntu and macOS developer, thus user: its functionally a
point where Ubuntu could un-seat macOS in terms of ease of use, on ..
admittedly a very much wider range of hardware.)

As for the MacBook hegemony, I point my wavy hands at things like the GPD
Pocket, and its future off-spring.

~~~
meneame2
Ubuntu is now really polished, and works great if you cherry pick hardware a
bit and avoid components with drivers that are not in the kernel.

But I'd go one step further and argue that, as a developer, Linux can give you
a unique experience if you stick to its strengths:

* Use a minimal distribution with few moving parts -> Things rarely break, and if something does it's usually easy to fix

* Try functional package management and administration (NixOS) -> Easy to reproduce setups, trivial to rollback, no dependency hell

* Try a simple keyboard-driven desktop -> A tiling window manager (XMonad), a web browser (Firefox) and Emacs (with Org, Magit, Eshell, Dired, Notmuch...) work incredibly well

~~~
gigatexal
Is there much that doesn’t have a kernel module? I know some can’t be included
because of licensing and such like some WiFi hardware but then distros could
just compile all drives as modules and hot plug them at boot no? (I bet this
is what happens anyway)

~~~
meneame2
For example, many Broadcom network cards do not have decent drivers. These are
really common.

------
pantulis
The Linux vs macOS comparison is valid, provided you only need a workstation.
In fact I dont see there is any real argument regarding this: Linux was and
will always be a better Unix development platform than anything, period.

But let's ponder for a second: why did web developers world wide embrace OS X
about a decade ago? Because it was a bona-fide developer platform _and_ a
state-of-the-art desktop, giving access to all the proprietary tools that are
missing in Linux, for example the Adobe suite, MS Office, etc.

What I'm positing is that the real contender for macOS is not Linux, it's
Windows, with the awesome Linux subsystem which, to the best of my knowledge,
is as undistinguishable from the Linux environment as the Darwin/POSIX layer
in macOS.

~~~
cweagans
I went down that road and it's certainly not as comfortable as macOS. The
biggest thing is that the Linux environment is more or less separated from the
actual desktop environment.

For instance, if I install Atom on Windows, I can't just pop open my WSL
terminal and install gulp or whatever and have Atom find it. On a Mac, it's as
simple as a `brew install whatever` and then any GUI application can use the
newly installed program.

If Microsoft burned the Windows kernel to the ground and started with BSD or
something so that Windows was actually Unix-y under the hood, I'd switch in a
heartbeat.

~~~
fetbaffe
Interop to call linux commands from Windows [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/wsl/interop](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/interop)

> If Microsoft burned the Windows kernel to the ground and started with BSD or
> something so that Windows was actually Unix-y under the hood, I'd switch in
> a heartbeat.

Sounds like a really bad idea. Windows NT kernel is far superior than the BSD
kernel. Fact that WSL is a subsystem to NT kernel tells you that. If they need
BSD support, they would implement that as well as a subsystem.

~~~
teekert
It only tells us that Microsoft prefers for whatever reason their own NT
kernel, "Fact that WSL is a subsystem to NT kernel" tells you nothing about
the quality of the BSD kernel.

~~~
fetbaffe
Sure, the BSD kernel is good, better than the Linux kernel, however why limit
your options when NT kernel can easily run any subsystem? Does not make any
sense.

When people complain about Windows, it is usually the win32 subsystem they
complain about. That has nothing to do with the NT kernel.

After last major update the interop for WSL works very well.

------
nickserv
A non-article if you ask me. And the issues described seem like they're linked
to the particular release he's running... I'm on a Dell with the latest
Kubuntu and everything just works.

------
true_tuna
I recently made the switch for my primary work computer and I’m thrilled with
it. Before this I was a Mac fan for decades. When they took away my ability to
say “no” I lost all faith. Apple product managers please take note. “Remind me
again later” is dehumanizing and offensive. What happened to “no”? Oh well.
Does fuck off forever work for you? Now I just need a phone that’s not Apple
or Google. Any suggestions?

~~~
xnzakg
You could either try the Purism phone, which is supposed to run a Linux distro
with Plasma Mobile, or you could try an Android phone with aftermarket
firmware - either Android based, like LineageOS, or Linux based, like
PostmarketOS or SailfishOS.

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dr_hooo
I'm sorry but what is the point of this article? TL;DR Alsa is buggy? Ubuntu
terminal is better than iTerm?

~~~
mherrmann
TL;DR: Ubuntu feels like it has my interests in mind, macOS feels like it
caters to Apple's.

"Feels like" mind you. Completely subjective.

------
ishtu
>macOS is like a hotel. Everything is polished, designed and cared for.

well not anymore

~~~
majewsky
Yeah, exactly. For me, it's the exact opposite. I've seen a ton of obscure
window management bugs on macOS, but never on KDE Plasma or i3.

~~~
bromuro
For example?

~~~
majewsky
Windows that are just invisible, as if they're located somewhere off-screen.

Windows that spawn in random places (such as the 3rd external monitor way
outside my FOV), instead of following a logical rule like "on the same desktop
as the cursor" or "on the desktop where this app is usually located".

Windows that get stuck in the middle of one of the fullscreen-related
animations.

~~~
majewsky
Oh, and that hilarious bug where the screen locker does not completely lock,
so Outlook manages to show modal dialogs (that can be interacted with!) on the
lock screen.

------
teekert
Strange issues for a laptop officially supported to run Ubuntu. Looks like he
is on 16.04, I wonder how 17.10 and later 18.04 would treat him.

I run Solus (Gnome) on an Asus bx410 and I have 0 issues. Would really love it
though if the DPI would adapt to the monitor and keep everything the same
size.

Oh, I shouldn't say more or my comment will be longer than the article.

------
mmjaa
I've been using Linux since the day Linus dropped it on us, and all I can say
is: you are what you eat. Hotel and home food is equally awesome and
undeniably potentially un-healthy.

Cook your own food, eat well.

------
sandGorgon
Please do try Fedora. You will find that the level of polish in Fedora today
far exceeds that in Ubuntu.

At some level, you feel the systemd, Gnome, Wayland integration as something
force fed to Ubuntu.

~~~
FLUX-YOU
>Please do try Fedora. You will find that the level of polish in Fedora today
far exceeds that in Ubuntu.

Fedora's a bit wonky with some Asus laptops though. If Fedora is flawless with
an XPS 13, I'd probably buy that.

\- iio-sensor-proxy has a 90 degree offset by default, meaning that the
display is rotated to portrait mode when the laptop is flat. This was the
biggest problem IMO, but locking the rotation once fixes it for subsequent
boots. Rotating the laptop to portrait puts the display in landscape mode, so
iio-sensor-proxy is either reversing the orientation from the sensor or the
sensor is reversed.

\- There are wifi errors in the log when shutting down. Something about key
removal, but has no impact when using

\- Really odd ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@... pattern also when shutting down

\- Boot takes 3-5 minutes with full disk encryption, but I have a mechanical
drive

\- dmesg had some other strange things in it, but I remember thinking "Is
there any platform where boot results in no error messages? That would be
nice". I'm sure Windows has similar things.

~~~
sandGorgon
I have a XPS 13. Fedora was the only distribution that installed with nvme
disks. Super happy with it.

~~~
mkesper
Debian 9 also installs without problems on NVMe.

------
oliwarner
As a decade-long Ubuntu user, it seems strange to see somebody so
enthusiastically compliment Gnome Terminal, something I apparently just take
for granted.

How bad can the MacOS terminal really be?

~~~
zupzupper
It's not great. Better than the default windows one, I think a lot of people
on OSX pick up iTerm2 instead.

~~~
oliwarner
"Better than CMD.exe"

High praise.

~~~
JdeBP
That's not what xe actually said. I hope that if zupzupper had wanted to name
the actual executable xe would have got the name right, and said _better than
conhost.exe_.

* [http://jdebp.eu./FGA/a-command-interpreter-is-not-a-console....](http://jdebp.eu./FGA/a-command-interpreter-is-not-a-console.html)

~~~
oliwarner
Only just caught this.

It was a joke; highlighting that comparing anything favourably to the pile of
crap that is the traditional Windows command interface (window, or interface,
it really doesn't matter for the comparison) is barely worth recognition for
its obviousness.

I'm glad it gave you so much amusement.

------
CSDude
I feel like at home at Linux but sometimes I want to burn that house when
using Desktop. It is really great, very flexible but it comes at a cost. I
used Linux desktop for 8 years, from Gnome 2 to Unity abomination, i3 to
awesomewm. HiDpi is really hard, random app shutdowns. But I really miss two
things a lot: A decent package manager and a fucking ALT+TAB button that can
cycle through all windows unlike MacOS where it groups by application.

~~~
jhasse
Check out [https://bahoom.com/hyperswitch](https://bahoom.com/hyperswitch)

~~~
memco
Also, you can use ctrl+f4, which is like cmd+` but for all windows instead of
just the active apps' windows. I'm sure you could reassign that shortcut if so
inclined.

------
davidcollantes
My servers run Linux, my workstation runs macOS. Nothing that others have said
(this submission I am replying included), nor anything I have experienced on
my own, have provided enough ground to make me change my mind. Same applies to
Android vs. iOS.

~~~
pfranz
I'm in the same boat as you. I was in a similar position as OP and started my
search looking at PCs (running Linux) to replace my Mac laptop. My current job
is remote (so more emphasis on integrated webcam), I occasionally need large
amounts of RAM and would like large amounts of internal disk space.
Previously, I'd buy a Mac and upgrade RAM and storage--but that's no longer an
option.

Unfortunately, all laptops in that class seem to have non-replaceable RAM. So
for 16gb I'd have to get the $1,499.99 configuration of the XPS 13. It doesn't
have a 1 tb drive option, but Crucial sells one for $289.99. The XPS has the
webcam below the screen next to the keyboard. Not only do you look up your
nose, my fingers showed up. I also very much dislike proprietary chargers, but
I'm not enthusiastic about going all-in on USB-C.

The Mac still cost more, but not double the price like I was expecting. I know
the battery will last, the ssd is faster than one on SATA, it'll last 5+ years
if I need, and will resell well if I take care of it.

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maxhallinan
Great analogy.

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hi41
The article equates macOS to hotel and Ubuntu to home. So The heading should
Change the order and read as Hotel and home instead.

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bruncun
Thanks for the concise and timely comparison.

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fleetfox
My experience with XPS 13 and Ubuntu is very bad. In particular ath10k
firmware and sleep/hibernate

~~~
mherrmann
Do you have the Linux edition of the XPS?

~~~
fleetfox
9360, it came with some flavor of Ubuntu preinstalled. It didn't have "Linux
edition" or "Developer edition" moniker on it.

------
truth_seeker
I switched to Elementary OS (Loki) last year and never looked back.

