Lemmy is so Linux-focused and people are surprisingly opinionated about it.
Macs are my daily driver and have been for decades. You’ll have to fight me to take mine.
I use Linux for VMs and NUCs and servers. Less than I did a decade ago, but that’s only because I have less energy to put into random projects as I get older. Gone are the late-night hackathons until 4am. I support mostly Windows at work.
Been a Mac user for 15 or so years. Then hackintosh and then when that died went to various Linux distros for my desktop but I use a M1 MacBook pro for work still and an M3 MacBook Pro for personal use. Tho I’m falling out of love with apple I enjoy the usability of macOS (at least past versions). Really wish Linux had that level of polish.
I’ve got Windows 10 on a few machines at home, strictly out of inertia. LTSC packages too, so no plans to change over yet.
Everything I’ve acquired since then gets some flavor of Linux, though.
Yes I use a MacBook to remote into my Linux boxes. Because Apple hardware is just so much better than anything else you can buy, and zsh terminal is fine. I would probably put Linux on it if I could, though to be honest the ergonomics and vertical integration with MacOS is just very good, and I’d have to really consider tradeoffs. Like swapping and memory management on MacOS is just magic on Apple silicon. I have a thinkpad with Debian as my “utility knife” laptop, and it has 8GB more, slower RAM, but my M2 MBP is significantly smoother even on stuff like FreeCAD which it is basically a RAM/swap stress test.
Can you explain what you mean by “ergonomics” when talking about an OS? I’m kinda confused.
Basically the user experience is well thought out, polished, and high quality. The workflows are mostly intuitive for doing basic things. The only exception to this is the lack of repository and package manager. The .dmg drag and drop thing is… honestly kind of jarring.
I use everything.
Windows 10 still on my main desktop, although there is a Zorin nvme setup inside, just need to make the final change. Got a 3070 rtx a few years ago I barely get to use.
Windows server 2022 for my DNS/pinhole setup
Windows 10 LTSC for my seeding/downloading
Zorin on my main laptop
Zorin on my kids old renewed 12" MacBook air.
Windows 11 on my kids desktop (he’s my guinea pig)
I just used opencore legacy patcher to put sanoma on a 2012 27" iMac that was meant to be recycled. Just ordered kit to take it apart and upgrade the hdd since it’s slow as fuck.
I have bazzite on an old Lenovo gaming laptop
Windows 11 for work
Husband uses genuine MacBook pro from 2016 or so
Truenas scale for my home file server and Plex media. Old secondhand AMD ryzen 7 3700x and as much ram I could find from recycling old devices. 4x 20TB drives I bought refurb in 2024 when I rebuilt it all, had had this thing almost 20 years, just upgrading as needed
Truenas scale (second) for my backups with Veeam, secondhand AMD ryzen 5 4500 and 32G recycled RAM.
Proxmox server for testing fun things.
I love dabbling in everything and keeping old hardware alive. Nearly all my hardware is from clients that needed their devices wiped and recycled. I destroy their data and save what I can for fun/education. Things that are just too old or unreliable or unsupported for businesses are great.
I wipe and reload many I can’t use, give them away. I think that’s all my stuff.
I use Linux (though dual boot Windows for Fusion 360 and a lot of Windows at work), but if someone asks me about switching to Linux I don’t ram it down their throat. It’s good and all but it’s really not for everyone, and despite what people on here would have you think it’s certainly not as easy to use as Windows. You’re much more likely to run into a difficult problem and not know how to fix it though it’s changed a bit since you can just get Claude to take a look at things now. Windows can have annoyances but generally you can live with them.
Linux, I think, is for people who are quite technical and people who aren’t technical at all (and just need a web browser). For the people inbetween Linux can be a struggle. It’s improving incredibly quickly but the out-of-the-box experience is still pretty terrible (looking especially at KDE here).
out-of-the-box experience is still pretty terrible (looking especially at KDE here).
I have to wonder how long ago you used KDE. It has very sane defaults these days, and arguably has since the Plasma 5 days.
It’s good and all but it’s really not for everyone, and despite what people on here would have you think it’s certainly not as easy to use as Windows.
Absolutely. You have to be prepared for things to not work the first time and have basic troubleshooting skills to investigate, even if the answer is simple.
I deal with people who freak the fuck out if their app isn’t pinned to their taskbar. I’ve learned to deal with these people, I would never in a million years talk tech to these people in a serious manner.
I use all three. Hopping between them made me appreciate the effort that went into commercial systems a lot more, from UX to compatibility to forward thinking.
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040513-00/?p=39353
Same here. Have been using all three for 3+ decades. Have also dabbled in BeOS, Amiga OS, the other unixes, CP/M, and other forgotten platforms.
I find most of the complaints about windows to be way overblown, company policies aside. If you invest a lttle time setting up your environment properly, using things Sophia script, then you can have a very functional, stable, non-telemerty broadcasting Windows system.
I’m late to the thread but I’m a freak who has all three.
Grew up on Windows, went full Linux in my teens, got a M1 MacBook Air last year and use it daily.
My current computer lineup now is a M1 MacBook Air running macOS, and a 2015 MacBook Air 11" dualbooting Debian 13 (GNOME) and Windows 10
They both get used daily or near daily. I am stupidly productive on the M1 MBA, especially with a portable USB-C monitor. The 2015 MBA is this beat up old thing that is stupidly portable and therefore convenient. It’s so cute.
I use a Mac. It’s like Linux (UNIX actually, OS X is based on NextStep which was based on UNIX) but with corporate backing. It’s as user friendly as Windows. And the AI has an off switch. Siri can be disabled.
I like it. I feel like Apple is the last real computer company left that makes their own software. I don’t know how “real” the company is, though. The iPhone is straight up jank. Always hallucinating text on the keyboard after you type it. Changing what you say to appease some unseen overlord. But I don’t want to use a phone made by an advertising company either. That’s dystopian AF, topped only by the legions who will defend it. But I’m not sure it’s entirely worse.
I use windows because I have no desire, time, or reason to put effort into switching to linux. Whenever I need a computer I am mostly asked to work with ms office anyway. If I will ever need to use computers more I might make the change, but so far I use my broken ass windows computer.
Work: windows laptop. It’s fine.
Home: dual-boot. More windows time than Linux generally (I’m almost afraid to “admit” that on this forum, ha)
Personal and work laptops are Macs. I’m also playing around with a Linux Mini PC as a potential future homelab but I’m already thinking why not get a used Mac mini that will be less of a bother.
Planning to get a small gaming PC with a ready to use Linux on it though, like the Steam Machine. Windows can suck my ass.
I use macOS as my daily driver and Windows on my dedicated gaming PC. I have a server running Linux.
I’ve used Linux as my main desktop OS in the past and liked it (certainly more than Windows), but I just don’t enjoy tinkering with my computer in my free time. I spend 8 hours a day messing with computers for work. I don’t want to do it when I’m not working too.
I definitely see the value in having full control over every part of the OS, but it also means it takes more effort. Especially since I’m the kind of person who, given the option, will configure every little detail to my liking. With Linux that’s basically a never ending project.
I have to deal with windows all day at work. Azure, servers, desktops.
I do it all from a Linux machine and remote in.
I use Linux because I don’t want to have to deal with all the windows crap and I want a computer to just work.
In my experience, Linux is the predictable, easy to use and less troublesome option. There is nothing to tinker with, it just works. Predictably.
people are surprisingly opinionated about it.
Getting repeatedly burned by soulless multibillion dollar comanies tends to do that to a person.
That, plus this is a FOSS service. You don’t come to Lemmy if you don’t like FOSS to some extent, so it follows that people would gravitate towards a FOSS OS too.
I’m in the Apple ecosystem, hardware-wise, and pretty happy about it. Not much to discuss, if other people feel differently, that’s fine.
My only complaint Hardware wise is all the extra lengths that Apple go to to make sure that things are less upgradable etc.
I’m not defending Apple, but they made a choice. Less repairable, but more durable. Needing repairs less vs. being easier to repair.
Have they succeeded in “needing repairs less”? Arguable. But for the iPhone, few phone last as long as long as you take even minimal care of it.
Also, the vast majority of laptops are not upgradeable, never have been.
Only the desktops have this issue. And for the more “normal” desktops, they are actually upgradeable. At least the last version of them was. Not sure if it will be still when the update it… wouldn’t count on it. Like I said it’s clear Apple made their choice.
All laptops I own are upgradeable. I didn’t buy them with that in mind. I just bought most of them cheap and used on eBay. The most recent one I got I upgraded the m.2 WiFi to wifi6 a few years ago. Bumped it from 16 to 32GB of ram. 256Gb Nvme to 1Tb.They even sell 4k panels for them. Though that is a very Advanced upgrade. The only thing I can’t upgrade is the CPU and the Apu inside.
All modern apple silicon desktops or laptops have soldered in Ram and proprietary storage. All of them. Unfortunately this seems to be a trend that other manufacturers are looking to follow. The storage is technically kind of upgradable. But you have to jump through massive Hoops to do so compared to any standard computer.
Maintaining a system? Apple has many pieces hardware locked to a system. Going to get a replacement board for your apple silicon laptop? Good luck. If you get lucky it might not be hardware locked. This was one of the major bullshit things that got Louis Rossman on his right to repair campaign specifically.
Durability? Yes Apple Hardware is way more durable than your standard 200 dollar cheap chromebook. But if you look at similarly priced devices. Most of the time they’re just as durable. I would actually like apple silicon if it wasn’t for all the anti-repair anti-competition lockdown that they performed. If Apple would just provide basic device trees Etc allowing the BSD and Linux communities to build their software for their devices. They would be my preferred Hardware. But they and Qualcomm are notoriously bad about that. Leaving everyone to feel around in the dark reverse engineering things needlessly.
A MBP is super easy to open up compared to just about every other shitty piece of plastic held together by clips molded into the case.
Me too ✌🏻 I like it, the hardware is rock solid and software-wise I try my best not to get too far into the walled garden. It’s a good compromise
