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Comment by jamesbfb | Hacker News Reader

I recently saved an old (2012) Mac Pro from the trash at work. As a lockdown project, I decided to do the rejuvenate the thing, thing. Cleaned it up, wiped and put a fresh copy of High Sierra on it. I am a long time Linux guy and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s almost fun to use!

That said, I believe High Sierra is the last release before things start getting...weird? My wife has a newer Mac (cannot remember the release) but I had some pretty crazy hurdles to install an unsigned bit of software. If that’s the trajectory Apple is taking, I don’t think I will be ditching Linux for MacOS.

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I haven't really had a problem getting anything done in Big Sur on my 2017 Macbook. Before my Macbook I had a Lenovo X1 Carbon with Arch and KDE; I really loved that setup but there are several conveniences with Macs. I prefer Excel to LibreOffice for example, and I like messaging integration with iPhone and all of the applications I use are really nice; I always felt like there were a few apps on Linux that were not well designed and I had to use them anyway. But, Arch has such a great package management system. You can easiy revert to any previous version of a package, you can quickly do a binary search to find which package broke you after an update etc. Homebrew is a total garbage fire. A couple weeks ago I typed "brew upgrade git" and it upgraded the version of every homebrew package on my system. My Postgres database wouldn't start because my databases had to be upgraded. I had a deadline... Also for some reason I'm more likely to run into build problems with certain native packages. I'm really on the fence about what my next computer will be.

To open unsigned software, right click, click Open, and click Open on the dialog that pops up. That’s for High Sierra and newer releases.

It's still annoying. Apple needs to realize, it's my machine, and I'll take whatever risks I want. Stop trying to police me as though I'm incompetent. I know full well at this point if some random executable is going to be sketchy and it's wholly on me if I run it. It's just a push to go to the app store, while convenient, it most certainly is not for developers who don't want to deal with their BS to maintain a presence there.

=Apple needs to realize, it's my machine, and I'll take whatever risks I want

...that's where you and Apple have a difference in opinion

So turn off Gatekeeper. It's just a couple terminal commands.

"If that’s the trajectory Apple is taking, I don’t think I will be ditching Linux for MacOS." - I take it you mean the reverse?

I'm similarly hesitant to lean in to additional oversight and control.

Crazy hurdles: right click the installer or app, click Open.

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