Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X(bitcannon.net)
bitcannon.net
Finding an Alternative to Mac OS X
http://bitcannon.net/post/finding-an-alternative-to-mac-os-x/
334 comments
>Note that I don’t currently consider Windows a viable alternative. For the work that I do (Rails) and tools I use something *nix based is the best choice for me.
For what it's worth Windows 10 now has a bash shell based on Ubuntu available.
http://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to-install-and-use-the-l...
For what it's worth Windows 10 now has a bash shell based on Ubuntu available.
http://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to-install-and-use-the-l...
Many articles about wanting to leave the macOS ecosystem mention Sketch. Sketch is macOS only (and will be for the forseeable future), so it's understandable that people want to consider the implications of switching away from it.
Recently, however, I stumbled upon Figma, a web-based, real-time collaborative interface design app (i.e., a competitor of Sketch). After convincing my group to experiment with it for a school project, I was pleasantly surprised.
- It's web based, so it works on Linux.
- It imports .sketch files
- It's real-time (you can see everyone's cursor and selection). This was great, because it meant we didn't have to walk through the snow to get to campus to have a discussion about tweaking a few elements.
I understand that some people may still need access to Sketch to work with people on their team or at their company. But for me, I'm officially striking Sketch off the list of software that's tying me down to macOS.
Recently, however, I stumbled upon Figma, a web-based, real-time collaborative interface design app (i.e., a competitor of Sketch). After convincing my group to experiment with it for a school project, I was pleasantly surprised.
- It's web based, so it works on Linux.
- It imports .sketch files
- It's real-time (you can see everyone's cursor and selection). This was great, because it meant we didn't have to walk through the snow to get to campus to have a discussion about tweaking a few elements.
I understand that some people may still need access to Sketch to work with people on their team or at their company. But for me, I'm officially striking Sketch off the list of software that's tying me down to macOS.
> The first option I tried was an i3 based desktop. However whilst I wanted to like tiling window managers I decided it wasn’t for me.
It took me a week or so to get used to i3, but once I did I can't see myself ever going back. I've been using i3 at work and at home for about year now, and every time I get on my (Mac Book) laptop it's a frustrating experience: I feel like I spend more time trying to figure out how to get to the window I want that actually using it...
It took me a week or so to get used to i3, but once I did I can't see myself ever going back. I've been using i3 at work and at home for about year now, and every time I get on my (Mac Book) laptop it's a frustrating experience: I feel like I spend more time trying to figure out how to get to the window I want that actually using it...
I'm currently running the latest release of ElementaryOS which runs off Ubuntu 16.04 it is great. It is very minimalist, and the desktop environment is really well done. Before ElementaryOS I was using ParrotSec OS which is on par with your typical pentesting / hacking type of distros but it comes with the latest and greatest of programming language tools. They're based off of Debian with their own modifications to the kernel to harden it, and out of the box you get TOR features that I never really used, but I'm sure that may interest some. Overall it was a great Distro my only gripe was not being able to properly install and use Steam on it. ElementaryOS has a nice Desktop Environment I appreciate but it either installs or doesn't. Fortunately this laptop took ElementaryOS, where in the past I have had issues installing it. I use ElementaryOS for everything from Python back-end RESTful service development to .NET Core application development with Rider. I'm also considering using SublimeText to save on startup time, although "Scratch" isn't too bad a text editor, it suffers poor naming (try to google for Scratch and you'll find the language before you do the text editor itself).
I had the same prejudice about Fedora and RedHat back when I was a debian fanboy. But if you look at what Redhat is doing with their money and their company then you soon realize that Redhat Inc. not only IS a large part of the Linux community, but also supports the open source movement in many ways.
So Fedora has been my main distro of choice for a couple years now. I still hesitate to order RHEL licenses at work, unless the client specifically has a good argument for choosing RHEL I tend to lean them towards CentOS.
And I can speak from 12 years of professional sysadmin experience in BSD and Linux that yum or dnf is a very stable package manager.
I've had more issues on Debian 6,7,8 than I've ever had on CentOS or Fedora.
So Fedora has been my main distro of choice for a couple years now. I still hesitate to order RHEL licenses at work, unless the client specifically has a good argument for choosing RHEL I tend to lean them towards CentOS.
And I can speak from 12 years of professional sysadmin experience in BSD and Linux that yum or dnf is a very stable package manager.
I've had more issues on Debian 6,7,8 than I've ever had on CentOS or Fedora.
The lack of equally high standard replacements for software such as
For me, it's Devonthink Pro (http://www.devontechnologies.com/solutions/writers.html) in particular and also Lightroom. Yes, there is progress on Dark Table, but there's too much useful software on OS X and despite Apple's faults its laptop hardware still leads the pack.
Yes, the lack of ports on the new MBP is annoying. If I had to buy a new MBP today I'd just get the last version—which is still fantastic—refurbished, and kick the hardware can down the road a couple years.
For me, it's Devonthink Pro (http://www.devontechnologies.com/solutions/writers.html) in particular and also Lightroom. Yes, there is progress on Dark Table, but there's too much useful software on OS X and despite Apple's faults its laptop hardware still leads the pack.
Yes, the lack of ports on the new MBP is annoying. If I had to buy a new MBP today I'd just get the last version—which is still fantastic—refurbished, and kick the hardware can down the road a couple years.
If you're an iOS/Mac developer, there's no alternative.
If you want an alternative for graphics work (or other development), try Windows.
For other web development, in general, you'll be able to work well with Linux.
Keeping work on different machines quickly starts to become unmanageable, that's why MacOS still leads. It gives the best of most options on the best hardware.
P.S. - I tried ElementaryOS last month, for couple of hours and didn't find it an alternative in any way. It's UI is quite clunky (of course, since they are trying to copy Macs UX, but don't have the finesse). The eye candy can't make it a Mac alternative in any way; it's still Ubuntu under the hood, and less intuitive than Ubuntu.
If you want an alternative for graphics work (or other development), try Windows.
For other web development, in general, you'll be able to work well with Linux.
Keeping work on different machines quickly starts to become unmanageable, that's why MacOS still leads. It gives the best of most options on the best hardware.
P.S. - I tried ElementaryOS last month, for couple of hours and didn't find it an alternative in any way. It's UI is quite clunky (of course, since they are trying to copy Macs UX, but don't have the finesse). The eye candy can't make it a Mac alternative in any way; it's still Ubuntu under the hood, and less intuitive than Ubuntu.
I have been watching elementary from the sidelines and I am wondering how deep is the keyboard integration in Pantheon?
I moved from OSX to Linux recently too and I am generally pretty happy with multi-monitor and pseudo-tiling support in gnome3. I can do most of my window movement and application switching with few shortcuts (it requires few gnome extensions). Such as -
1. switch application with shortcut rather than alt-tabbing (something like - Super-1 for Emacs, Super-2 for terminal etc). It requires a gnome extension.
2. Tile the Windows with shortcuts. Currently gnome3 has limited support but it mostly works out of box.
3. Launching or switching application with a global shortcut. Requires a gnome extension.
4. Move Window between monitors etc.
Such things usually requires at least 2 or 3 paid apps on OSX. Divvy, Sizeup etc.
Oh and 1Password works perfectly okay via Wine, including the browser extension. So, that is one thing you should checkoff your list if that is stopping you. :-)
I moved from OSX to Linux recently too and I am generally pretty happy with multi-monitor and pseudo-tiling support in gnome3. I can do most of my window movement and application switching with few shortcuts (it requires few gnome extensions). Such as -
1. switch application with shortcut rather than alt-tabbing (something like - Super-1 for Emacs, Super-2 for terminal etc). It requires a gnome extension.
2. Tile the Windows with shortcuts. Currently gnome3 has limited support but it mostly works out of box.
3. Launching or switching application with a global shortcut. Requires a gnome extension.
4. Move Window between monitors etc.
Such things usually requires at least 2 or 3 paid apps on OSX. Divvy, Sizeup etc.
Oh and 1Password works perfectly okay via Wine, including the browser extension. So, that is one thing you should checkoff your list if that is stopping you. :-)
To the point (reality) of Arch's amazing docs; I fully agree with the author. I've never experienced a more comprehensive and up-to-date doc regarding a distro. For this reason, I exclusively use Arch for both desktop and laptop. It is a freeing/empowering experience installing Arch.
Another path you can take: build your own desktop and install a Hackintosh OS!
Here's my build (http://pcpartpicker.com/list/pYWQMp), which runs into some driver issues but can be fixed with Kext utility. This setup allows me to do CUDA programming + Deep Learning stuff natively in OSX, while having access to pretty Mac software. It's great, I highly recommend it!
Here's my build (http://pcpartpicker.com/list/pYWQMp), which runs into some driver issues but can be fixed with Kext utility. This setup allows me to do CUDA programming + Deep Learning stuff natively in OSX, while having access to pretty Mac software. It's great, I highly recommend it!
Author mentioned separately Ubuntu add Gnome, but what about Ubuntu Gnome [1]?
I switched from Mac OS X to Ubuntu Gnome after release of latest Apple's MacBook "shame" Pro. It took few weeks to find new dev tools, but today I can't complain. Linux is much more mature nowadays than it was ~10 years, ago when I switched to Mac. I'm working more with terminal now and not using Git GUI anymore, but as long as you are not XCode coder, everything is similar, for half of the price.
[1] http://ubuntugnome.org/
[1] http://ubuntugnome.org/
I am impressed by how perfectionist some people can be. All I want from a desktop is little icons for launching programs. One of those icons should launch a command shell. That's it.
I don't have the nerve to learn all the other features anyway...
I don't have the nerve to learn all the other features anyway...
After the refresh of the Macbook Pro I decided to get a desktop replacement laptop.
Whether or not that is acceptable for your use cases depends. For me, I already have a Surface Pro 3 for ultra portable needs. Because of that, I found myself never using my Macbook Pro when I couldn't plug it in. And given how slowly cpus are gaining in performance these days, if plausible, it makes more sense to me to focus on performance over battery & weight.
Whether or not that is acceptable for your use cases depends. For me, I already have a Surface Pro 3 for ultra portable needs. Because of that, I found myself never using my Macbook Pro when I couldn't plug it in. And given how slowly cpus are gaining in performance these days, if plausible, it makes more sense to me to focus on performance over battery & weight.
Not even a mention of NixOS. May I ask why not?
Edit: I'm appreciating the feedback for "why not?" and am sending it around to people in the community. :)
Edit: I'm appreciating the feedback for "why not?" and am sending it around to people in the community. :)
I installed Ubuntu + GNOME on my Mac a couple of years ago as a toy but a have slowly been migrating to it as my main OS.
For what I use it for (light web dev) it is the same or better than OS X.
The only thing stopping me from throwing out OS X completely are the Adobe apps (InDesign in particular) but even with that I have switched to doing most of 90% of my work on paper or in a text file then only complete layouts in OS X.
For what I use it for (light web dev) it is the same or better than OS X.
The only thing stopping me from throwing out OS X completely are the Adobe apps (InDesign in particular) but even with that I have switched to doing most of 90% of my work on paper or in a text file then only complete layouts in OS X.
Reads and feels like a sponsored post trying to get the attention of people who are using OSX, Fedora and Arch into elementary OS.
It presents a huge list of OSes but then it just says "After evaluating each I was left with a top 3." Without providing any reason as to why.
To top it there is no QubesOS and no NixOS on the list. This in 2017.
It presents a huge list of OSes but then it just says "After evaluating each I was left with a top 3." Without providing any reason as to why.
To top it there is no QubesOS and no NixOS on the list. This in 2017.
<rant>People worry too much about what they use to host text editors and terminal windows...</rant>
His only whines are about hardware that is too thin/light and does not have legacy ports and OS that won't work on some junk and don't let you publish hacks in some rarely visited moderated store (just like windows, or linux)
And instead of ordering dirty cheap hackintosh with up to 4 CPU Xeons with all memory he can get and compatible wifi, that will be no thin and no light and he can run familiar terminal window to remote build his diamond code while listening to sound of coolers,
He starting to search OS with better GUI than OSX (Elementary it is) and dreaming about hardware you can run FreeBSD (like PS/2 mouse and glorious VESA 2.0 12801024?)
I expect next article will be a tour to the wonderful world of 15" 1366768 Celeron laptops that let you upgrade memory (up to 8Gb!), spacious replaceable 4200 hard drive and have USB 2.0 ports and VGA in addition to HDMI 1.4. People will know in detail how good terminal window run there on FreeBSD with Elementary OS theme (without 2D acceleration of course).
He makes alot of sense, that mate.
And instead of ordering dirty cheap hackintosh with up to 4 CPU Xeons with all memory he can get and compatible wifi, that will be no thin and no light and he can run familiar terminal window to remote build his diamond code while listening to sound of coolers,
He starting to search OS with better GUI than OSX (Elementary it is) and dreaming about hardware you can run FreeBSD (like PS/2 mouse and glorious VESA 2.0 12801024?)
I expect next article will be a tour to the wonderful world of 15" 1366768 Celeron laptops that let you upgrade memory (up to 8Gb!), spacious replaceable 4200 hard drive and have USB 2.0 ports and VGA in addition to HDMI 1.4. People will know in detail how good terminal window run there on FreeBSD with Elementary OS theme (without 2D acceleration of course).
He makes alot of sense, that mate.
Trying to do exactly the same thing - I still have a maxed out rMBP 2013 that works great, so setting up alternatives now before I'm forced to.
The Intel Skull Canyon NUC is what I'm using, with Elementary running on Virtualbox in Windows 10 (waiting for the Samsung 960 EVO to sell globally before setting up a native install).
The one massive problem for me that keeps me going back to the laptop is that the Mac absolutely nailed keyboard layout by separating the command and control keys. And no other OS is currently able to do so.
I use the basic emacs shortcuts for navigation in all the apps that support them (crtl a,e,n,p), and the command key to issue commands like close tab, save, new tab etc.
This is absolutely impossible to replicate on any other OS (AFAIK). I can map the command key to the control key, but that's about it - it just becomes a new way to hit control. Being able to consistently map and access the command key (as SUPER) simply can't be done.
The Intel Skull Canyon NUC is what I'm using, with Elementary running on Virtualbox in Windows 10 (waiting for the Samsung 960 EVO to sell globally before setting up a native install).
The one massive problem for me that keeps me going back to the laptop is that the Mac absolutely nailed keyboard layout by separating the command and control keys. And no other OS is currently able to do so.
I use the basic emacs shortcuts for navigation in all the apps that support them (crtl a,e,n,p), and the command key to issue commands like close tab, save, new tab etc.
This is absolutely impossible to replicate on any other OS (AFAIK). I can map the command key to the control key, but that's about it - it just becomes a new way to hit control. Being able to consistently map and access the command key (as SUPER) simply can't be done.
I'd Love to see someone take on GNUStep are run with it. The constant reinvention of the wheel with FOSS desktops and Window Managers is mind boggling. Too much 'not invented here' syndrome? Sadly the task is way beyond my capabilities. Still one of the best ever... Of course, YMMV!
Where's the commentary on FreeBSD? It certainly seems like the right idea (to replace OS X), but I want to know their experience.
I'm kind of in the same boat, and I'm slowly, gradually, replacing my Macs with both Windows and Linux devices. As somebody with zero investment in earlier Windows versions, I quite loved Windows 8, and found Windows 10 to be a step back from that, but still a good alternative to the Mac. There are also various different Linux systems that make great desktop operating systems.
Reading the linked article, I have some observations, particularly about the requirements Wesley lists:
> One tool for each job.
This strikes me as a somewhat peculiar requirement. The Mac certainly doesn't work that way, particularly since OS X, and as long as the different tools available aren't hurting you, their availability won't be much of a problem.
> A sensible/minimal selection of pre-installed applications.
To me, a more useful requirement would be "no bloatware". Linux distros in particular often come with a ton of pre-installed applications, but they are generally good applications, and having them does not cause any harm.
If you buy a Windows computer, on the other hand, you'll likely find its installed Windows version to be borderline unusable due to all of the preinstalled manure.
> Simple, easy to use/understand interface
As somebody who has used Macs since the early 90s, I'd argue that ever since Mac OS X, the Mac hasn't really offered that. It's still ahead of most Windows versions (excluding perhaps Windows 8, but clearly including Windows 10, which sadly has reintroduced much of the clutter from earlier Windows versions), but many Linux distros are now much cleaner and simpler than OS X (both Elementary and Pixel come to mind as examples of this).
So to some degrees, Wesley is requiring these operating systems to offer things that the Mac hasn't truly offered since the late 90s. This is not entirely unfair; as a Mac user, he's used to the Mac's oddities and flaws, and so it is perhaps useful to require the system he's switching to to be better than Mac OS in some respects.
Still, I think it's fair to point out that the Mac itself probably couldn't easily fulfill all of these requirements.
Reading the linked article, I have some observations, particularly about the requirements Wesley lists:
> One tool for each job.
This strikes me as a somewhat peculiar requirement. The Mac certainly doesn't work that way, particularly since OS X, and as long as the different tools available aren't hurting you, their availability won't be much of a problem.
> A sensible/minimal selection of pre-installed applications.
To me, a more useful requirement would be "no bloatware". Linux distros in particular often come with a ton of pre-installed applications, but they are generally good applications, and having them does not cause any harm.
If you buy a Windows computer, on the other hand, you'll likely find its installed Windows version to be borderline unusable due to all of the preinstalled manure.
> Simple, easy to use/understand interface
As somebody who has used Macs since the early 90s, I'd argue that ever since Mac OS X, the Mac hasn't really offered that. It's still ahead of most Windows versions (excluding perhaps Windows 8, but clearly including Windows 10, which sadly has reintroduced much of the clutter from earlier Windows versions), but many Linux distros are now much cleaner and simpler than OS X (both Elementary and Pixel come to mind as examples of this).
So to some degrees, Wesley is requiring these operating systems to offer things that the Mac hasn't truly offered since the late 90s. This is not entirely unfair; as a Mac user, he's used to the Mac's oddities and flaws, and so it is perhaps useful to require the system he's switching to to be better than Mac OS in some respects.
Still, I think it's fair to point out that the Mac itself probably couldn't easily fulfill all of these requirements.
If a Macbook sshing into your work computer is good enough, why isn't a Windows laptop sshing into your work computer?
I'm full-time OSX user/developer, but if Rails is really your sticking point, shouldn't the linux subsystem make Win10 at least viable for a trial? Or, frankly, anything that can run VMWare or Virtualbox?
It is apitty FOSS project like GNU-Darwin / PureDarwin never took off and people use Hackintosh. But Apple is here to blame. They could even support the users by charging some fee.
Or the other way:
Finding an Alternative to Windows 10
That non-optional phone-home, non-optional updates, ads on startmenu, little QA (buggy like never before) - Windows up to Win7 was so nice, since Nadella everything went downhill, so sad, but true. Good that Win7 is supported until 2020, and promising alternatives are around the corner with Google Android/Fuchsia, macOS, Linux - although, the transition will be painful and but necasserry. It's a little late and all trust is gone, but maybe they fire the CEO and make a u-turn.
Finding an Alternative to Windows 10
That non-optional phone-home, non-optional updates, ads on startmenu, little QA (buggy like never before) - Windows up to Win7 was so nice, since Nadella everything went downhill, so sad, but true. Good that Win7 is supported until 2020, and promising alternatives are around the corner with Google Android/Fuchsia, macOS, Linux - although, the transition will be painful and but necasserry. It's a little late and all trust is gone, but maybe they fire the CEO and make a u-turn.
I use Albert on my Arch Linux installation as an alternative to Alfred. Not quite as good, but it works and is familiar (also extensible).
If you're looking for clipboard management, there are tons of linux solutions for that, see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/list_of_applications#Cl...
As for an alternative to Karabiner, I use Xmonad and manage my keymapping through the use of Xmodmap (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xmodmap)
If you're looking for clipboard management, there are tons of linux solutions for that, see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/list_of_applications#Cl...
As for an alternative to Karabiner, I use Xmonad and manage my keymapping through the use of Xmodmap (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xmodmap)
Hi guys, can you suggest me any laptop + os that have trackpad work like apple's (multi guesture, smooth scrolling)
I love to leave them but, their trackpad... are so good.
I can use *nix quite ok, so os isn't a problem for my dev station.
I've been using Xubuntu on my Macbook Air in a VM and it feels amazing. It gets the job done and I really like the UI.
elementaryos is perfect for a MacOS user but it feels like it's not ready yet for day to day use.
elementaryos is perfect for a MacOS user but it feels like it's not ready yet for day to day use.
I also found that there were a lot of workarounds/alternatives to software/tools that I thought I would miss on Mac. I've managed to find pretty much everything I needed and/or realized I could easily live without the stuff I couldn't find alternatives for.
Having said all of that, if you have a dependency on something like XCode because you're maintaining an iOS app, you're kinda stuck with a Mac. My experience with Hackintoshes is that even if you buy the right hardware off the latest Hackintosh compatibility list, it's still a bit of a time suck. Alternatively, you could also run OSX in VMWare Workstation/Player, but you don't get graphics acceleration and some OSX software won't run properly in a VM.
[1] http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2014UltimateDev...