Linux Mint vs Mac OS

[macjunk(ie)]

I've run Fedora in the past, but the I couldn't even boot up on the USB with the Fedora install. I'm generally happy with Ubuntu, but I'm researching the wifi bug. So far changing the powersave mode /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-mode-on.conf from 3 hasn't helped but when I wake up the SB I think I'm getting promising results from running nmcli c up <network name>. If that's the case. I don't mind running a script to fix it.

I think you might be setting yourself up for disappointment because from what you have written here, it seems Linux compatibility is poor with the Surface Book. I went through half a dozen Arch and Ubuntu based distros on my Thinkpad T470 and everything worked out of the box, including sleep and resume.
I only had an issue with Elementary OS bugging out on occasion but all other distros worked flawlessly. The only issue in this ecosystem is the lack of polished third party software.
I would also recommend PopOS. They have done some work in enabling hidpi screens

 

[maflynn]

I think you might be setting yourself up for disappointment because from what you have written here, it seems Linux compatibility is poor with the Surface Book

Yeah, I know. I'm not looking to do any heavy lifting with the SB, its more of a fun thing to do. So far though I'm pretty pleased with the result.

 

[MacDawg]

I run Ubuntu 16.04 and 16.04 Server on 2 VMs on my MBP and they work very well for me
I have to say 16.04 was a nice change from 12.04 and 14.04 which were a little buggier and tougher to work with

I run PHP Server Monitor on the 16.04 server and VPN to my work to monitor all my systems and it is ACE

 

[maflynn]

I would also recommend PopOS. They have done some work in enabling hidpi screens

From what I've read, Pop!_OS is best if you buy one of System76's machines with it, otherwise, its by and large just another ubuntu distro.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

From what I've read, Pop!_OS is best if you buy one of System76's machines with it, otherwise, its by and large just another ubuntu distro.

it has sensible defaults. Remembers my monitors. Consistent UI. Not sure if the hidpi work they did is in the upstream
Two issues seen:
- Hardware decode is wonky (on all Linux distress AFAIK)
- Pop Shop (App Store) can take extra CPU cycles if you there are corrupted PPAs. This is a bug carried over from Elementary

 

[belvdr]

I've run Fedora in the past, but the I couldn't even boot up on the USB with the Fedora install. I'm generally happy with Ubuntu, but I'm researching the wifi bug. So far changing the powersave mode /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-mode-on.conf from 3 hasn't helped but when I wake up the SB I think I'm getting promising results from running nmcli c up <network name>. If that's the case. I don't mind running a script to fix it.

I always had issues with Ubuntu on a portable from sleeping to shutdown. My systems have always had hybrid graphics so maybe that's it.

For what it's worth, Fedora 28 includes some power management features that are baked into the kernel for portables.

Also, for your script, you may find you need to down/up the profile as such:

nmcli con down <profile>
nmcli con up <profile>

 

[S.B.G]

From what I've read, Pop!_OS is best if you buy one of System76's machines with it, otherwise, its by and large just another ubuntu distro.

Here are a couple of good reviews of Pop!_OS on a Lenovo X250 Thinkpad.

and

 

[maflynn]

Whelp, play time is over, at least for the Surface Book.
My opinion is that the SB is ill suited to run Linux, here's my reasons why.
1. Lack of touch screen/pen support
2. Lack of compatibility to use it in tablet mode (related to #1 but slightly different).
3. Sleep issues, though I think that could be solved by installing the nvidia proprietary drivers
4. wonky wifi

Overall, I was happy with Ubuntu, I tried a few different distros, Neon kde, Elementary os, Fedora (wouldn't boot up), and of course vanilla ubuntu 18.04 LTS. I think I could keep using it, except for one major issue. I need to run gotomypc to connect to my work computer. My company has all other remote access blacklisted. Gotomypc is the only way and it appears that gotomypc stopped supporting a universal client, they had one years ago, but I guess they determined it wasn't worth the price of upkeep.

To keep playing with it, I divided up my MBP's drive in half and its now running ubuntu. I may continue to see how it works, and use virtualbox or wine to see if I can gotomypc to work

 

[macjunk(ie)]

...I think I could keep using it, except for one major issue. I need to run gotomypc to connect to my work computer. My company has all other remote access blacklisted. Gotomypc is the only way and it appears that gotomypc stopped supporting a universal client, they had one years ago, but I guess they determined it wasn't worth the price of upkeep.

...

This is how much of the Linux experience ends. The lack of reliable software even if you are willing to pay for it. Almost all software I use on Linux is libre but none of them expect me to hold it to high standards cause it is free. And in general, I agree with the sentiment that Linux is way too fragmented with all the various flavours and desktop environments. If only all development went into one desktop environment...I believe we would have had a high quality replacement for Windows and OSX today.

 

[S.B.G]

And in general, I agree with the sentiment that Linux is way too fragmented with all the various flavours and desktop environments. If only all development went into one desktop environment...I believe we would have had a high quality replacement for Windows and OSX today.

That's probably the single biggest weakness, if you will, about the world of Linux. With that said, Linux has always been the OS of choice for people who like to tinker with things and don't mind finding alternative ways of doing things.

But if someone really wanted a Linux distro with professional level releases and support, Red Hat would probably be that choice. Fedora, I believe is the distro which is based on Red Hat and is the free version.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

 

[maflynn]

The lack of reliable software even if you are willing to pay for i

No question, I use lightroom, and while there are substitutes, I need adobe software. I use ms office, though I could probably get away with libre. I'm not willing to give up on ubuntu yet, but its clear that for my needs, it won't be a fulltime replacement, even if I do throw windows or macos in a virtualbox vm

I agree with the sentiment that Linux is way too fragmented with all the various flavours

I actually think its worse now then when I last used linux. All those varients of ubuntu each with their own app store, and/or forked apps. That was one reason why I was more inclined to stick with ubuntu in general.

I believe is the distro which is based on Red Hat and is the free version.

CentOS is the free version of rhel, Fedora is the bleeding edge, new stuff that may make it into rhel

 

[762999]

Thinking of making the switch. Want to be in control of the hardware I use since Apple refuses to update the Mac Mini/Pro. Is Windows worth the price tag and frustration to run most programs (gaming) or is Linux nice and simple and free? What can't Linux do?

You seem to do the switch for the wrong reasons. If most of your programs are games, you should probably get a console. Switching to another OS will require a major adaptation. There is no reason to switch to linux if your focus is only gaming oriented. The major non-iOS gaming platform is Windows. If that is your focus, it should be the solution.

My desktop and servers are 100% Linux.

You can still download a live ISO and use it on your current computer (without installing it) and see if you like it.

You might feel at home with ElementaryOS or Deepin.

 

[krause734]

You seem to do the switch for the wrong reasons. If most of your programs are games, you should probably get a console. Switching to another OS will require a major adaptation. There is no reason to switch to linux if your focus is only gaming oriented. The major non-iOS gaming platform is Windows. If that is your focus, it should be the solution.

My desktop and servers are 100% Linux.

You can still download a live ISO and use it on your current computer (without installing it) and see if you like it.

You might feel at home with ElementaryOS or Deepin.

Thanks. I have a PS3 for occasional gaming and Blu Rays. Never got into PC gaming (somewhat interested) and I don't think switching to Windows is worth it although it opens up a lot of possibilities that Mac OS and Linux don't offer. I have switched to Linux Mint and it has been great so far. It's not intrusive or nagging at all. Really a breath of fresh air and does everything I need it to do for 0 dollars.

 

[762999]

Thanks. I have a PS3 for occasional gaming and Blu Rays. Never got into PC gaming (somewhat interested) and I don't think switching to Windows is worth it although it opens up a lot of possibilities that Mac OS and Linux don't offer. I have switched to Linux Mint and it has been great so far. It's not intrusive or nagging at all. Really a breath of fresh air and does everything I need it to do for 0 dollars.

Well, you can game on Linux, I have steam installed. You can also install Windows games through wine/playonlinux. Here is one compatibility list (beside the ones you can already play natively): https://www.playonlinux.com/en/supported_apps-1-0.html

But who need games when you got vim.

 

[S.B.G]

You can also install Windows games through wine/playonlinux.

I was just trying to get AOE2 to work using this earlier today and I got Steam installed, AOE2 installed but when I tried to launch the game, nothing happened.

 

[762999]

I was just trying to get AOE2 to work using this earlier today and I got Steam installed, AOE2 installed but when I tried to launch the game, nothing happened.

steam linux or windows? there is a documented method here..

you don't have to do the command line.. just open the add/remove software and search playonlinux.
https://pedronveloso.com/how-to-run-age-of-empires-2-hd-on-arch-linux-steam-version/

 

[S.B.G]

steam linux or windows? there is a documented method here..

you don't have to do the command line.. just open the add/remove software and search playonlinux.
https://pedronveloso.com/how-to-run-age-of-empires-2-hd-on-arch-linux-steam-version/

Thank you for the link. I have been working on this for the last couple of hours and was making progress until it needed to download some .exes. The downloads were triggering rule sets in my firewall/IDS and I was trying to open those rules up for this project but it was just getting too deep for me to keep going.

I still have my Alienware PC with AOE2 on it, so I can always use that to play. Still would have been cool to do it on Linux though.

Appreciate the link though.

 

[leo-tech]

Thinking of making the switch. Want to be in control of the hardware I use since Apple refuses to update the Mac Mini/Pro. Is Windows worth the price tag and frustration to run most programs (gaming) or is Linux nice and simple and free? What can't Linux do?

At some point it dawned on me that only Linux and VMware ESXi can be trusted to run on non-Apple bare metal, and on that machine I would also need a stable and reliable macOS-in-VM (a.k.a. V-Hackintosh).

IMHO, the logic and (Linux Mint and macOS) works better, compared to logic or (Linux Mint or macOS, or Linux Mint vs macOS). To state the obvious, Win-in-VM can also be added to the mix.

I'm still planning to renew my Apple hardware (Mini 2011 --> Mini 2018, if it's good enough, or alternatively iMac 27" i5 2017), but also I intend to keep using macOS-in-VM on non-Apple hardware and further exploring macOS virtualization regardless.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I stopped using Apple a log time ago. My wife still uses it for basic stuff but Windows and Linux are my primaries. Mint a a great starting point for diving into Linux. I prefer CentOS as it is similar to Redhat which I use at work.

For someone using Redhat for work ... I'm VERY surprised you don't use FedoraCore as it's the prenuptulate of Linux close to RedHat as it was once created and funded by Redhat for so many years. FC3 is the last linux I've used.

This thread conversation has me scratching my head though.

I do like the Azure VM/MBP VM/USB Live Linux options as best way to begin with any linux to get used to. I figure if you're VERY good with your Unix commands, then Linux should not be very hard as many of the shells and commands are compatible or were some 10yrs+ ago.

 

[Mikael H]

For someone using Redhat for work ... I'm VERY surprised you don't use FedoraCore as it's the prenuptulate of Linux close to RedHat as it was once created and funded by Redhat for so many years. FC3 is the last linux I've used.

It depends a bit on your priorities. If you want a stable "Redhat Enterprise Linux with only the free stuff", then CentOS is the way to go.
If you want "The bleeding edge that at regular intervals is frozen into new RHEL-versions", then Fedora is the distro for you.

 

[maflynn]

then CentOS is the way to go

Definitely go with CentOS, if you want a Red Hat experience without paying for the support. Fedora, is definitely bleeding edge.