[judge2020]

Both of these are the cheaper option in their respective market. iOS and macOS are expensive because the hardware is expensive (as in, the hardware in part pays for the development of the software), and Linux is expensive in that it's almost always more time-consuming to set up since it doesn't have Windows' first-class driver, hardware, and software support.

[netr0ute]

> since it doesn't have Windows' first-class driver, hardware, and software support.

Ironically, Linux sometimes has better driver and software support for specialized things like Thunderbolt ethernet adapters, or software if it was written for MacOS but later adapted to Linux because of their similarity within the scope of POSIX. And, because Windows can't run 16-bit software on 64-bit CPUs at all, Linux has the total advantage here because WINE works with 16-bit as well.

[bravetraveler]

Agreed! Just wanted to pile on, the driver thing is a bit hit/miss.

Broadcom/Realtek (sometimes)? Good luck. Intel/AMD/Aquantia? Probably good to go.

There are vendors that give Linux first-class support; buy them.

edit: Realtek is a little hard to pinpoint, they tend to have drivers... but fairly buggy.

I have to replace the r8169 module or something similar with r8125 for my (onboard) networking to work under stress. If I push too much bandwidth, it'll just drop.

[2Gkashmiri]

come on. i use an old dell latitude e7440 which i run kde neon on. takes 15 minutes to get installed and i can get surfing in 16. No nonsense, no nothing. i assume newer devices would be better but "time consuming to set up" is something i have not seen in the last 3-5 years of my using 100% exclusively linux devices.

[gizmodo59]

Not sure why macOS (M1) is expensive here. For the hardware/performance/software you get it’s not really expensive if you compare the alternatives like surface or any of the intel based laptops. Sure, you can get a cheap laptop for under 500$ but that won’t last long either.