djdarren

Last time I went into a store was 3 years ago, specifically looking for an iPhone 13 mini as an upgrade to my iPhone XR. They didn’t have any in stock, attempted to sell me a few different, more expensive devices, then just told me to try online.

Ended up going with a different provider.

And all of them retractable.

The one thing I desperately want for Linux is BetterTouchTool. That one piece of software alone plugs SO MANY gaps in how to navigate macOS, but Linux has nothing like it. Not that I’ve yet found, anyway.

I’m lucky enough that my MD barely understands what a computer is, let alone gives a shit what we use to do our work. So I just said fuck it and put Kubuntu on mine. As long as I can do my work, no one cares how I do it.

What I don’t understand is how GrapheneOS runs on any Pixel because that’s the one device that lends itself to an alternative OS, but none of the various mobile Linux distros support anything past the Pixel 3.

Or am I coming at this from the wrong direction?

I’m a recovering Apple user, and the Apple tax is absolutely a thing.

Yeah, the hardware lasts. In my little office I currently have a 2011 MacBook Pro running Arch(btw), a 2014 Mac mini running Mint, an M1 mini, and an M2 Air. That '11 Pro refuses to die. However I’m under absolutely 0 illusions that I’ll get the same lifespan from the M1 and M2. The hardware may well last as long, but them being effectively locked down right to macOS means that when Apple decide they’re done, they’re done. I could run Asahi on them, but that comes with a bunch of annoying compromises that aren’t the fault of the Asahi devs, but are as a result of Apple trying to lock down the Mac platform in the same way they have iOS.

And sure, the entry level hardware can be cheap. The M4 mini is an astonishing deal. But they’re betting on locking you in with iCloud Drive subscriptions, and the like. Then, after a few years, when your Mini goes obsolete, you’ll either upgrade to a new one or have to spend a bunch of time trying to work out how to shift your online storage to another provider.

And not to mention things that they’ve branded that are commonly available for free elsewhere. “Buy into the Apple ecosystem to get Universal Control!” or just install Deskflow on the shitty old ThinkPad you already have, because the function of the software is exactly the same. “Apple’s Continuity stuff is super neat!” Aye, and so is KDE Connect. Which is free and runs on any device this side of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine.

You pay a lot for Apple hardware, and yeah, that money gets you great hardware, but the value proposition is getting slimmer every year.

In my experiemce it’s not. Unless you’ve not got Mac hardware, in which case it’s your only choice from those two options.

Now, how is Mint better than macOS on older Macs?

Well. I used OCLP to run Sequoia on my 2014 Mac mini. It ran, but it was a dog egg. The fan was basically a continuous jet engine. So I used it to dip my toes in Linux and put Mint on it. 100% improvement. Mint doesn’t mind only having 8Gb RAM, and doesn’t really give a shit what it runs. It’s modern and up to date and not growing new security holes with every month that passes. Running Mint, that little computer has become the hub of my homelab. Sure, there’s better hardware for the task, but the best gear is the gear you’ve got, right?

However, if my M2 MacBook could run Mint, I’d still be running Sequoia on it, because there’s a swathe of shit that macOS does out of the box that it’s taken me a year of using Linux to give up trying to emulate with any level of success.

But not macOS 26 though. Oh Jesus fuck no. I’ve tried it on the M1 mini I have and it’s fucking awful.

I’ve put Mint, Kubuntu, and Arch on a few different Macs from 2011-14, and the Broadcom drivers are an arsehole every time. I wish I was smart enough to save a note on how I did it.

I have a 2011 MBP running Arch (btw). The thing won’t fucking die. Well, apart from the battery, which went spicy as hell a couple of years ago.

The 2018 mini is a wonder of a machine. It’s the last one with replaceable RAM, so max that bad boy out and go wild with the distro of your choice. I’m running Mint on a 2014 which is solid.

Word of warning though, setting up the wifi on Mac hardware can be a ballache initially. So make sure you’ve got a wired connection.

I spent several hours trying to figure out how to install Arch manually, before discovering Archinstall.

I now have it running on two old laptops.

My main PCs are running Kubuntu though.

Obligatory you should use Arch btw.

(Good luck)

+1 for Winboat. As long as you’ve got the RAM and CPU cores to spare, it’s a really nice solution to the Windows software that you really can’t replace. My PC has an 8core CPU and 16Gb RAM. Much less than that and it gets pretty taxing.

WinApps is more complete, in that you can right click on a file to open it in an installed Windows app, which isn’t something you can (currently) do with Winboat, but WinApps is more of a bastard to set up.

God, Takk… is a masterpiece. Dammit, I’m gonna have to listen to it again.

Yep. It’s off by default, but is the first thing I switch on when I first install Libewolf on any machines.

You end up with a classic FF experience without any of the bullshit.

In settings, turn on Firefox syncing, and boom! you have password saving.

Yeah, it’s literally one button and cookies remain.

Personally I’ve left that setting on, but click the one in the address bar on every site that I want to retain cookies. There aren’t that many of those.

Also, turn on Firefox syncing and it’s just like using regular Firefox, but without the nonsense.

I’ve (mostly) moved over from macOS.

Generally I actually prefer macOS to Linux (I’ve settled on Kububtu mostly), but I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with Apple over the past few years. The cost of their services and products creeping, being able to see business decisions that falsely cripple cheaper devices, and general all round shittiness that I no longer wish to be a part of.

I had a series of iPhones from a 3GS in 2009 up to a 13 mini, but grew tired of having to jump through hoops to make iOS do what I wanted from it - a feeling exacerbated by using iPadOS on my iPad mini. So last February I grabbed a Pixel 9 and put Graphene on it. hell of a learning curve, but one that showed me that there were better, more equitable ways to achieve what the interconnected Apple ecosystem can do. It might not be as polished, but it’s significantly cheaper, and uses equipment that won’t be rendered obsolete and unable to be upgraded or used in some way.

Then Tim Apple pulled that stunt giving Trump the big gold trophy and I knew that Apple was no longer a company that shared the least of my values. Not that I really believed that before, they’re a multi-trillion dollar company, after all, but of the available options they seemed the least shitty. But not any more.

So now I only use macOS on my M2 Air. When that eventually falls apart I’ll replace it with something I can put Linux on.

Everyone is tracking everything anyway, but having been a user of Apple products since 2007, they’ve got what they can on me.

From a European perspective, at this stage I think I’d prefer the Chinese tech over the American.