A week later, after using Mac OS for a week

Ubuntu
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Verdict? This thing kicks some serious arse, it’s quick as all f–k on nearly everything - but - I still feel like I’ve been ripped off… Yeah - it is UNIX running on a RISC CPU… but a week later I miss my Ryzen CISC machine - so I reckon I’ll go back to it as my daily driver…

I’m going to revert to running my Ryzen 7 desktop as my main machine @ home - with the Mac as 2ndary - and drive the Mac via Synergy from my Linux (Ubuntu 20.04) …

I thought Mac OS was supposed to be intuitive, but shit, out of the box Ubuntu 20.04 running Gnome feels 100 x more intuitive…

Installed Steam on the Mac, and a few native titles, and even when it’s running “top shelf” titles through Rosetta 2 (i.e. running native OS X x86_64 games on arm64) - it’s not getting pushed - but - I still prefer games like Borderlands 2 on Linux…

Multi monitor support (with different makes and geometries) on Mac OS nearly as shitty as it is on Windows… I’ve been spoiled ALL THESE YEARS running only Linux…

So : summary - a costly experiment, I will continue to use Mac OS for work, at the office or Working From Home - but will still mostly use Linux on my Ryzen 7…

Some things I love? “Sidecar” - I can take my Macbook Pro and my iPad Pro 12.9" to a customer site, and use my iPad (via Sidecar) as a secondary monitor over WiFi + Bluetooth… that feature alone almost makes it worthwhile… I can use my Apple Pencil in the full desktop version of Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for Mac OS, by using my Ipad Pro as a wireless display… Which means in theory I could work almost anywhere there’s some wifi, and have a wireless multimonitor setup…
– repent at leisure –
I just went back and tried to find the Lenovo I originally ordered, and then cancelled (after a fortnight of waiting) - and - it’s now the same price as the Macbook Pro M1!!! Was that a scam?
– gaming –
Got a “gaming keyboard” yesterday - it basically looks like an ugly fat version of a numeric keypad, but, its the left side of a normal QWERTY keyboard with WASD cursor control keys - so I can fire up any game and play with default keyboard settings (I used to spend hours setting up alternatives - because I’m left handed, I use the mouse and my right hand on the keyboard)… So yeah - I’m going back to Linux for gaming. Mac OS for work, Linux for play! The Macbook is still about half the weight, and twice the power, of the Dell Laptop I’d previously been using for work shit…

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But you buy Apple because it’s sexy …

You walk into a bar, Put your Apple pencil on the top, show off your Apple watch and everybody in the bar has exactly the same

That’s why I ride Harley … pulls all the best sort !

Really you pay your money, buy Apple knowing after 5 years you cannot update it and software support stops, it still runs the system as before.

I have loads of clients with iMac 2010 or 2009 who can no longer update. Thankfully I can now put Linux on the box and they can have more life out of them

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Why do I suddenly think: “OK, boomer”?

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The only decent thing about a Mac, is at least the hardware it’s installed on will last you till the end of time. That’s why they’re so expensive and the fact that Macs are everywhere in American culture on the TV for instance. Ever see the series Dexter? About a blood spatter analyst, who is actually a serial killer, who murders bad people. Mac was his main computer, for work and planning his next victims death. It’s because of popular TV shows that Mac has done so well, plus the fact and I still don’t know where they get their prices from? People must get brainwashed, though you can say the same about anything. I for work bought a mop and bucket and yes I read the bad reviews on Amazon, but it was the red that caught my eye. Mop In Question
My Review Of Mop
My point being is I fell into the trap of seeing something that was supposed to do what it says it does, when in reality it doesn’t. Linux does what proprietary systems can’t always do and it’s the same vice versa, plus yes going back to a proprietary system after being spoilt on Linux, I get where you’re coming from. I use Windows 10 for gaming on, but use Linux as my everyday Go To, because I don’t feel comfortable with Windows any more. It’s not so much the telemetry, it’s the fact it’s full of bloat that I don’t need, boots really slowly even though I’ve trimmed the SSD it’s on, all my games are on a separate SSD, Windows is on a 1TB SSD, that after initially setting it up for gaming through Steam and GOG, got NVIDIA drivers in, got it all updated. It’s left me with 831GB left on the drive. Okay so it’s formatted to NTFS. What’s new tech about that filing system? Answer nothing, the Journaling is shot to bits, so you have to trim your SSD or on a normal hard drive spend every few days defragging.

I’ve never used a Mac before and I know that the coding whether or not it is true, is based a little on UNIX. Don’t think I’ll ever get one though, simply unjustified pricing for one thing, plus tied to the Apple Store. Linux can be installed on virtually anything as you know, if only could be said for Mac, then maybe the prices of the hardware would not be so high?

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My Macbook pro in only 7 yrs old and running just fine. Linux can be installed on it using boot camp.

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I ride Harley for the low end torque. Out of 2nd gear I’m at 60 mph. Asian bikes have high end torque.

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Sportster 883 superlow 2003 anniversary 100 years
Tried bigger but at 5 ft 4 and 10 stone others were just too big or heavy, 750 street was too Japanese for me

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My Harley (2007 FLHX) hasn’t run for 3 years… Blew the outer primary gasket, never got around to changing it (did go and buy the gasket).

Got some money left from my tax - going to organise for it to be picked up and sorted out at a nearby Harley mechanic (not official)…

I’m now moving back to my Ubuntu 20.04 desktop machine. It seems odd to me how Apple try to position themselves as having a more intuitive user experience (they’re right if their only competition is Windows) - however I find EVERYTHING in Linux (default gnome experience on Ubuntu) way more intuitive and user friendly!

Some things I tried to make my Macbook behave more like a Linux desktop?

Installed a thing called “macpaste” that someone developed and put on github. It worked! And I didn’t have to install GCC or anything - I was able to make an M1 arm64 binary “out of the box” and run it. Basically (if you let it - it needs some security things unlocked) it monitors your mouse selection, and if you select some text it puts it in the clipboard, then go to any application and middle-button click and it pastes (note - MacOS terminal, and third party “iTerm2” both have this behaviour - but ONLY within terminals) it! Worked with that for a couple of days - until last Thursday.

I was sharing a remote RDP session during a “tech bridge” over MS Teams (Teams client running on Mac) - and - that macpaste utility was wreaking havoc in Windows! I had to start using the keyboard to copy, and switched middle-button paste in MobaXterm to right-button click… Every time I selected some text, my RDP session would replace it with a “c” character (i.e. the Mac was sending CMD+C!).

And reverse scrolling? On Linux, I can have “natural” scrolling on a touchpad, but “reverse” scrolling on a mouse wheel - but on MacOs those two things are the SAME thing - i.e. I turn on natural scrolling on the Mac touch control, and the scroll wheel behaviour changes for a physical mouse wheel! Doh! There’s all sorts of things you can install (and mostly pay for) like “Enable Scroll Reverser” or “Better Touch Tool” (which looks incredibly complex for something ostensibly designed to make life simpler).

So - the Macbook is now mostly back like it came from the factory - macpaste is disabled… I’ll just use middle button paste in terminals, and if I need to do some copy+pasta with text files to/from terminal windows, I’ll edit the text file in a terminal in vi…

Note : I cannot install Linux on this Macbook Pro because it’s Apple Silicon M1 : arm64 - it’s great - it’s fast - it’s snappy… I’m reasonably happy with it, but would still prefer a native Linux experience.

There’s a few glitches here and there, been ongoing since mid/late 2020 when the M1 Macs first came out - mostly around blutooth… things pair up just fine (Blutooth pairing in MacOS is WAAAAY more reliable and consistent than on Linux!) - but - while they’re paired, there’s horrible things happening, mostly ugly stuttering and buffering in bluetooth audio, which is unacceptable - so I’m using wired audio…

Other things I hate? I’m using a displaylink “dock” (Dell branded) and I’ve got native M1 displaylink drivers installed, and they work, except for one thing, M1 drivers don’t allow switching an external monitor to portrait mode! WTF? I can do that out of the box with Linux! Apparently the Mac Intel displaylink drivers do allow portrait…

Things I like? I LOVE “sidecar” - over bluetooth / wifi - I can hook up my 12.9" iPad prod as a 2nd monitor - I can imagine using this regularly working at remote locations, like breakout rooms in data centres, customer sites where their monitors / docking station solutions aren’t compatible with ANY laptops I bring (lost count of the times I’ve been promised a dual monitor setup that doesn’t work, to convince me to work on site). With sidecar, I can fire up Autodesk Sketchbook Mac version and display it on the iPad Pro and use my Apple pencil!

Tomorrow I’m planning on working from my work office desk for the first time in 3 weeks - and using my Macbook as my main computer - already organised a displaylink dock to use the 2 x 24" monitors…

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Famous last words… Missus just went and blew what I had left from my tax refund on a new Sony TV (to replace a 7 year old Sony TV that had a tiny row of dead pixels down near the left bottom corner - a perfectly usable TV is now landfill :grimacing:)… So the Harley won’t be going again anytime soon…
As for the Macbook? I’m using it right now - and I kinda hate it…
Ubuntu with Gnome 3.x is like 10,000 x easier to use than MacOS (and MacOS is 10,000x easier to use, for me, than MS Windows).
I’ll keep using it (the Macbook Pro) - but - soon as there’s a Linux distro that supports the Apple Silicon M1 and all the rest, I’ll be formatting it (I already wiped it once when I wasn’t happy about updating Big Sur 11.x to Monterrey 12.x) and installing Linux on it…
Anyway - aside from that - I’ve still got “two wheels” for outtings (Segway Ninebot Max G30 e-scooter)…

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Look at the bright side, Dan. You married her (actually, she chose you) a number of years ago. She has declined to kick you to the curb ever since, no matter what anyone tells her. Substituting a decent TV for repairs on the two-wheeler death wish was her way of preserving your future.

She’s not done with you yet, so be grateful.

Now, about the Macbook…can you off that to some sucker on the Australian version of Ebay? You might raise the funds to scratch-build a really slick desktop. Maybe a motherboard with three or four M.2 slots so you can have oodles of storage at your fingertips; add a killer graphics card, a ton of RAM, and a sizzling processor! You could build a metaphorical blow-your-hair-back two-wheeler by selling the Macbook. What’s not to like?

Regards to the Missus.

Bill