OS X vs. Linux? | Hacker News Reader

OS X vs. Linux?

7 pointscode4eva20 comments

I was an avid user of Linux on a Thinkpad until January. I switched to a Macbook Pro running Yosemite. Was really impressed by the hardware ( great battery life and an awesome keyboard ). For a few days, OSX seemed fancy too. But I really missed Ubuntu with its fantastic package manager and minimalistic UI. I was being less productive by using OSX. I was starting to get depressed. I made the switch by dual-booting Ubuntu on my MBP. Works just fine, but has heating issues ( the area around the trackpad feels warm), terrible battery life, roughly around 3 hours and occasionally the screen freezes and then I have to do a hard restart. I am going back to Linux running on a Thinkpad. Seems like the perfect machine for development and getting things done. What do you guys think ? I am not starting a flame-war or something, I would just love to hear views on this.

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If you want to try to stick with OSX you could try homebrew[1] + homebrew-cask[2] as a package manager, even if it probably won't be as good as what you were used to.

For battery life if you want to switch to ubuntu, the issue is probably that you are not using a good power manager which OSX does automatically behind the curtain. This could be a starting point : http://askubuntu.com/questions/285434/is-there-a-power-savin...

[1] http://brew.sh/ [2] https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask

I run Linux on a VM on my MBPro, and I honestly can't tell the difference between that and another dedicated laptop running Linux .. VMWare (and the newest Parallels) is pretty good at running Linux these days, and - unless you need raw metal performance - is performant enough that I don't even really notice the difference. Its like having two machines in one.

Yeah, I tried that. I notice a difference when developing on my Ubuntu VM I need to run a Vagrant VM for my app while also running IntelliJ IDEA on the Ubuntu VM. :)

VMs are good enough for many tasks, but not ideal for development.

I've been a linux user for about the last decade, but I've also had a macbook for about the last 4 years. I don't really mind the differences since I spend most of my time in the terminal anyways. After installing homebrew for package management I can pretty much do everything on OSX that I could under linux.

The thing that gets me with OS X vs Linux or Windows is that the muscle memory in my hands works well with Windows and Linux shortcuts and window management. I have a MBP circa 2010 and love the hardware but the OS is meh. I really love how I can just close the lid to hibernate and it will stay like that for days. I haven't seen Windows or Linux be able to do that, although Windows on SSD boot up is very fast.

I use vagrant based VM's on Windows and OS X for development. Much better alternative than cygwin or similar. And you can custom build the vagrant VM to match your production environment.

When you are copying files, opening/closing windows, etc. all of that should be done without thinking. When it comes to differences in the OS you should go with what you are most comfortable with. They are all pretty much the same under the hood.

I used Windows (business), OS X (iOS dev), and Linux (backend dev) side-by-side -- sharing a mouse with Synergy -- for about a year.

As a regular user, I'd choose Windows, hands down. As a developer (or long-time Linux user, like you), I'd choose Linux. Ubuntu is the only OS I run now.

I recently installed Yosemite on my 2013 MBP, hoping it had fixed some of my complaints about previous versions. It was, instead, as massive regression. Many others have pointed out the same.

Stick with Linux. If you're productive and happy, why consider anything else?

The unfortunate thing is that non-Apple hardware is lacking in some ways, but you can shop around a bit and find something close.

Yeah. Still waiting for a linux apple-like-hardware machine. I have heard the Thinkpad X1 is a very close competitor to the rMBP.

If you like running something BSD-based, maybe try one of the *BSDs ... I suggest starting out with PC-BSD: http://www.pcbsd.org/.

I switched from Linux to a custom FreeBSD setup a while ago and I'm enjoying it - I find it simpler, more stable, better engineered, better documented (the FreeBSD handbook is great!) and just generally a nicer OS to use. Hard to quantify, really, but it just feels nicer to use overall.

I do most of my development work on OS X and Linux, but for desktop environment, I would hands down use nothing else other than OS X.

I just love the integration. Everything looks nice (yes I even like Yosemite), the system is very stable, I can go days without so much as a restart, it doesn't break after I install a package from a package manager, the upgrade process is seamless, the hardware is second to none (even Linus Torvalds agrees), and I can always get help from the Apple Store if something goes wrong. Some of these things you can get with Windows/Linux, you can actually get pretty close, but you never seem to get them all.

The hardware and software integration on Linux seems to be really iffy, even if you get Linux to dual boot on OS X. The hardware support isn't there unless you compile your own kernel, which you have to get (if it's a newer system) an unstable version of, the touchpad gesture support isn't as nice, the whole OS doesn't look as nice as OS X, and you miss out on the integration between iOS, which is really important to me, at least. OS X is a proper Unix system, so any Linux command line tool will also run on OS X. And you actually get the basic tools out of the box (vim, ruby, python, zsh, tmux, perl, etc, etc). If not, you can get a really good package manager in the form of homebrew, and while it's not as powerful as apt-get, it's pretty much all I want from a system package manager.

I am also not a big fan of managing windows or using a tiling window manager, I don't even use them when I'm on Linux. I actually prefer using OS X's default Mission Control/Expose behavior (I know.). I toyed around with Moom, Slate (https://github.com/jigish/slate) but gave it up. I don't like windows to snap, that's an absolute asinine behavior that seems to be the default on Linux desktops these days, that I always have to unset. I never knew why anyone would be a fan of it, unfortunately, most people are. I just have my terminal run tmux and live there. Command+Tab is enough for me.

That all said (sorry if the above turned out to be a bit of a rant), Linux desktop environments are slowly getting much better, I'm really liking the look of Plasma and Gnome 3 (although that huge chrome, seriously?), and Elementary OS is easily the best Linux distro I've used.

I will have to disagree on your say about software/hardware integration. Its bad on the Mac, but I have had no issues related to integration after 3.xx kernel upgrades on any other PC. I find a heavy online supportive community for Linux if I happen to encounter any issues down the lane compared to OSX. Like you mentioned, brew isn't as great as apt-get for which I keep going back to using dmg's.

Well, the integration between HW/SW is the best on OS X because of the fact that Apple actually makes their own hardware, as well as the software. That means, you get HW/SW support from day ONE. That's key and you can never get than on Linux. Period. Heck, for work, I have to try to make Linux work on Surface 3, and you have to patch the Linux kernel yourself to make the touchpad and keyboard work nicely. Sort of a convoluted example, but you get the idea. The heavy online support is nothing compared to going in to the Apple Store and having guaranteed support.

About apt-get vs homebrew, what do you miss from apt-get? I'm not trying to sound dumb, I genuinely want to know. For me, homebrew is much more easier to use, and you can add taps (sort of like PPAs), you can even add a tap to get OS X apps. I've never used it but I've heard good things about it, for instance, you can type `brew cask chrome` to have chrome installed.

I have to juggle between installing softwares using a dmg or using brew because I am unsure if I am able to install a particular software using brew whereas in the case of Linux, I am very sure that I can install any software using apt-get

How is this different from apt-get? For any missing packages, or any outdated packages, you have to hunt for a ppa or you have to compile it yoursel while hunting for the correct configure switches if you want specific features like for vim

Two weeks ago I gave up on OSX / MBPs too. Consider the Dell XPS 13/15 line or the ThinkPad Carbon line as a replacement.

I opted for the Dell XPS 15 -> http://amzn.to/1JeO1T2

PS: I already own a Dell XPS 13 (2013 model) running Linux

I've been using OS X personally since about 2000. Used Windows and Linux plenty at work.

Right now I've been messing around trying to switch over to Linux. I'm using Arch and it's very rough around the edges.

My computer feels a lot faster but still trying to work out the kinks. Fools errand?

It'll take a while for you to find your preferred config. SO many desktop environments, so many window managers, so much customization is possible. Its a bit of a journey.

But once you get the right config, Windows / OSX or even default setups for GNOME, Unity etc. will not come close. :)

I think I am at least 150% more productive on my Linux laptop.

What's stopping Linux running as well as on a Thinkpad on MBP?

If even Linus uses it, then surely the heating, battery life, etc problems could be easily solved. But AFAIK, they haven't yet - it just doesn't make sense? Anybody able to shed some light on why it is so?

Same thing here [ubuntu 14.4 on MBP]. Also, my inbuild camera does not work. :(

Also, if I accidentally unplug my ethernet cable, I have to reboot my machine to get an internet connection again

My camera works fine. I am running Ubuntu 14.04 on MBP 9,2.

Perfection only lives in your mind.

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