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Comment by Yaggo | Hacker News Reader

With the current Ubuntu & your Air-like better quality machine (what's that by the way?), is it possible to have:

  1) Sleep/suspend/resume
  2) Hardware-accelerated OpenGL
  3) Compiz/fusion or whatever it's called nowadays
  4) Support for external monitor
  5) No random crashes once per week with 1-4 enabled
  6) Hardware-multiplexed sound output in all programs
  7) No two months of tinkering to get 1-6 working

I'm honestly asking this. Between 1998 and 2006, when I used various Linux laptops as my primary machine, I never had all the above issues solved. Maybe things have changed?

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I have 10.10 installed on my MacBook Pro, and I can confirm the 1-5 are no longer an issue :) (resuming from sleep takes at least 2-3 times longer for me than on OS X though). I don't know enough to confirm 6, but if that is also covered then 7 should be as well.

Does Linux still consumes more battery power than MacOSX?

I had this issue in the past on my MacBook. It was very notable: on Linux the total battery time was about 60-70% of what I had with MacOSX.

I did some debugging and while the kernel itself also consumed slightly more than MacOSX, the biggest problem where the applications, esp. the window manager (tested both Gnome and KDE). They do a lot of stuff and mostly prevent the CPU from going into low-power mode or wake it up all the time.

Not so sure about that. I recently put Ubuntu on a low end Acer laptop - the kind that's been around for years - and still had problems with a lot of things.

My Vaio TZ has all those things working out of the box with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, along with microphone and camera, memory card readers, and Sprint EVDO card.

I agree with you that getting Linux to work on laptops can often be frustrating, but if you check compatibility prior to purchase (Ubuntu forums are great for this), then you'll get a good idea of what to expect before you buy.

I am in love with this machine (haven't bought it yet), but I can only assume it handles all your issues.

http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&produc...

You need to update to the SSD, but it still makes it below the starting point of the MBA.

I think #7 is the kicker.

To be fair Windows isn't that much better. My reason for moving to OS X was the continual drip drip drip of reinstallation, update, tweak. It all works on day one but keeping it working and performant is work.

Better now that it was a couple of years back (I still use Windows at work) but still some way to go.

Strangely, this is one of the things I don't really like about OS X. There's nothing to do to it. It just works and doesn't require any real tweaking or customization to be sleek and effective.

It's a point of pride to me that my Win7 box at work is so slick and well-tuned, compared to other peoples' Windows machines. But for the life of me I can't make my MacBook look any better than my Mom's. Nothing makes me happier than being able to be brutally effective on my cool-looking Ubuntu box at home that uses customized window managers and a dozen productivity hacks. But you don't even have to be nerdy to use a Mac well. Where's the fun in that?

This comment is only half tongue-in-cheek.

I used to be the same and I think a lot of self respecting geeks see the configuration as a challenge rather than a chore. I used to have pride in being able to make my PC spin on it's head and knowing it was safe and secure (or at least as safe as XP could be).

But as I got older and my free time shrank it just felt like an overhead and time I'd rather spend doing other stuff.

Same here, configuring my KDE desktop used to be a hobby for me. With OS X, besides setting the desktop background, the only customization I do is hiding the dock and mapping caps lock to control.

I also prefer built-in software to 3rd-party alternatives – Safari over Chrome/FF, Terminal over iTerm, Spotlight over Quicksilver, etc. It took a while to adopt Apple's way of thinking, but it has made my life easier in the long run and saved tons of time to do more important things (eg. spend time with my kid^H^H^H^H^H^HHacker News).

Interesting perspective, customization and optimization is fun. On that note there are a few UI customization programs that I find useful on OSX:

nocturne - invert or dim the screen, helps your eyes stay relaxed in different lighting situations: http://http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-nocturne/

divvy - quick window management, surprisingly handy, spaces becomes more useful with this as well: http://www.mizage.com/divvy/

visor - system-wide terminal via a hotkey: http://visor.binaryage.com/

I'm running 10.10 on an ASUS 2.5 year old "gaming" laptop and a ASUS netbook and 1 - 7 seemed to be fixed. YMMV.

YMMV is exactly the issue.

Does the new Macbook Air still have overheating issues that cause it to shutdown due to its poor thermal design? Honestly asking:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Air#Issues

Hopefully things have changed.

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