Hey, folks,
My laptop broke the other day, and I need a replacement asap. But here’s the rub: I despise windows. I’ve been a full time fedora user on my main device for a decade now, and I run Ubuntu on my desktop that I rarely touch because it’s ooooold. I am not a techy person. At all. I’m an idiot, actually. I use Linux because it’s cheaper, it keeps my aging hardware alive longer, and because politically I align pretty well with the idea of FOSS. And because I absolutely hate windows. I don’t even like KDE, because it reminds me of windows. Cinnamon? Too much like windows! Lol. I love my workflow in gnome, I love that it’s shiny and pretty and looks nice. And for the most part, I’m a browser based user. I rarely have cause to do much outside of the browser, except for sail the seas for some audiobooks. Even my papers for school are written in Google docs.
But also, on my desktop or a secondary device, I don’t mind having to fiddle with things and get them working, I enjoy it. It makes me feel like I have actual tech skills when I absolutely do not. But on the device I use for school I just want something that works and I never have to think about. I feel like a traitor to the cause even considering it, but I think I want to get a used m1 air. I’ve never used a Mac before, though. I used an iPhone once, for about 10-15 minutes, and I hated it. But, like, of course I did. It was completely different, and incapable of doing the thing I wanted it to do.
How painful is the Linux to Mac transition? If I’m using an android phone, an Ubuntu desktop, and a MacBook, how awful is everything going to be to switch between devices? Am I going to regret this purchase, or, worse yet, become an apple fan boy and abandon my glorious FOSS devices forever?
Please assist
i think i might do the same thing soon since framework costs as much as a mac and linux-first laptops like system76 are re-badged clevo laptops with mac price tags.
in the past, i always put fedora on my macs and i think i’ll do the same thing with asahi linux when it comes time to get one.
i use macs with macos for my work laptops and the transition has never been difficult, except for the control key placement, but mac makes that easy to solve.
My thinking is basically that I am broke. I’ve got 400 or 500 to spend, and that’s coming out of student loans. If I get a budget windows at that price, even with the linux boost to it, I’m going to be kinda boned. That’s not a lot for a laptop. But the m1 air seems to be really holding up
i bought a budget windows laptop and put linux on it too; how is that getting boned?
Because as a general rule I am not techy enough to fix things when they go wrong, and in my experience, budget windows laptops tend to have things that go wrong. Fans die, components need to be replaced, et cetera. I’m a big fan of linux, and I’ve been full-timing it for at least a decade now. I never plan to change out my desktop, and if I ever end up with a second laptop, I’ll likely keep linux on one of them. Fedora is an absolute joy to use. But sometimes, and especially when it comes to the thing I do actual school work on, I don’t want to have to do things like running a virtual machine so that I can access the one screen writing program that my school allows, or deal with inconsistencies in which apps, websites, or services just refuse to play nice. It’s not a fault of linux, it’s a fault in the world that they won’t allow certain things to function with the OS that most of the internet is built on. Like proton drive. Love it. It’s great. But still no desktop client for linux. Not even a snap out in ubuntuland. I kinda… Just want simplicity in my life right now, and I don’t want to have to worry about cheap hardware falling apart, and excellent software that the powers at be have decided isn’t going to get acknowledged. And sadly, I’m not smart enough to do anything to help that situation for myself.
this is the reasoning i used to buy linux-first laptops 10-ish years ago before this one.
Why not get a lenovo for 1/4 the price and either install linux or buy one from them that ahips with linux… I always go on ebay, get a used thinkbook or some such device (dells have also been easy to put linux on), that way I’m not paying money for the windows license that I have no use for. It’s not that hard to put linux and it will have much easier compatibility with your other devices. Mac will lock you into the mac ecosystem and in a few weeks you’ll be back on here for iphone recommendations, because your macbook says fuck you to anything not apple related. Apple is a lifestyle brand. They want you running around with the apple watch and the iphone and this and that “smart,” device and there is just no room for your linux or android compatibility if you want to be in the mac club. It’s really just a cult.
for me macos have premium user experience.
If you used GNOME mainly, the transition probably won’t be too bad. GNOME is the Linux DE most like MacOS. I used GNOME for years before buying my first MacBook and I wouldn’t say I felt right at home, but I was home-adjacent lol. Still mainly use Linux on my desktop, but don’t mind switching to my MacBook when I’m on the go. It helps that MacOS is Unix-based, so it’s way more compatible with my workflow than windows, and a lot of CLI tools I used in Linux just transfer right over.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about anything.
