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Comment by pktgen | Hacker News Reader

Just curious, what Linux distro is everyone switching to? At this point I am seriously considering it, because this is pathetic. (I suspect I'll remain with Apple hardware for the foreseeable future, because they still have the best laptops IMO, but running another OS is not out of the question.)

I like elementaryOS, but it really doesn't feel as polished as OS X. Things like their choice of font don't help IMO.

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Personally, I run Debian Wheezy in its default desktop install, GNOME3 and all. It works very well in my opinion, but is neither as shiny or "solid-feeling" as OSX.

I'm a fan of archlinux running the cinnamon desktop environment. Archlinux might be a bit intense depending on your command line fu; you might want to try Linux Mint instead.

Hardware wise, Lenovo also makes decent hardware. The Yoga 2 is a pretty solid machine comparable to most of Apple's offerings.

If you're seriously considering switching to Linux, then be aware that nothing you find is going to feel as polished as OS X. Linux developers tend to be more focused on security and under-the-hood improvements while Apple focuses on user experience, plus Apple is a business that can easily afford to hire as many developers as they need while most Linux distros are community-driven.

That said, the Linux user experience has improved dramatically over the past several years, and my recommendation would be openSUSE (what I run), or Ubuntu if you're completely new to Linux.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking. elementaryOS seems to get the closest but still isn't ideal. I have to think about it. Thanks.

I use Linux on servers, but I've always found the options lacking in some way for desktop.

Debian jessie.

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