[rbanffy]

The M1-based Macs are faster, lighter, offer seamless compatibility, run iOS software, have better screens and better battery life than modern comparable laptops. It's also faster than this Snapdragon chip. And starts from $999.

It also runs a really good Unix OS. This laptop still won't run Linux out of the box.

[pjmlp]

WSL2, as good as it gets.

[vladvasiliu]

While I agree WSL2 is pretty good, and it's great that it's available on Windows, you still have to put up with the day-to-day annoyances of the OS.

The general UX is the main reason why I don't use Windows. I actually gave it an honest try in 2020. I was pretty excited about Windows terminal, the inclusion of OpenSSH (I always hated Putty) and even went on the insider channel to test out WSL2, with Docker desktop and everything. And it was better that I had remembered.

But I just gave up after a few months. The laggy search in the start menu, which I had to fix with some registry change to prevent it from searching the web (!?). The random "quick access" folders in the explorer, which also required registry wrangling to remove. Bonus points for all these reverting randomly after an update.

The hidden taskbar, which would become permanently visible in case a window demanded attention, and no way (that I've found) to disable this behavior. However, it seems fixed on Windows 11.

The windows which would look active, with a blinking cursor and everything, but wouldn't actually be active, and input would go to some other random window. New windows starting up behind the active window, etc.

And my favorite: turning on the computer in the middle of the night for some reason if left in hibernation. I had set the GPO to NOT turn on to uninstall updates, so no idea what it was up to.

[rbanffy]

> I always hated Putty

It has a redeeming quality: it supports Tektronix graphics.

> and input would go to some other random window

Specially annoying when the input is Control-W.

> turning on the computer in the middle of the night for some reason if left in hibernation

Corporate laptop does that. I always assume one of its overlords summoned it.

[pjmlp]

I moved back from a Linux zealot into Windows, because the day-to-day annoyances of the OS running on Laptops, and for graphics programming, are much more berable on Windows.

Running Linux on VMs since 2012, since VMWare made it painless to do so.

[vladvasiliu]

It's funny how varied experiences can be.

I've been running Linux on my work laptops since 2018, after a long stint on MBPs. They've both worked perfectly, even though the manufacturer doesn't support Linux at all. The only thing that didn't work was the fingerprint reader on the previous one. On the new one it works, but I don't use it since it's not in a practical position.

I'm getting the same kind of battery life as on Windows, Bluetooth headphones work great, it actually sleeps when I close the lid, etc.

The current one actually worked better on Linux than on the pre-installed Windows. For some reason, Windows couldn't get the brightness all the way up, even on battery power and "performance" mode.

I don't do anything graphics-intensive, though. I'm quite happy with the integrated GPUs. Although on my desktop, I have a Radeon that I use for gaming, and it also works great. But it's true that I specifically avoided Nvidia to not gamble on Linux support.

For the curious, the laptops are HP ProBook 430 G5 and 845 G8.

[trelane]

Nah. Why would I run Windows when I can just run the OS that I actually want?

[pjmlp]

Depends on how much fun you want supporting 100% of the laptop hardware.

[trelane]

That's why I buy System76. They make _Linux_ hardware and they actually support their products. I don't have time to play system integrator.

[rbanffy]

Just get a good laptop and you'll be OK.

[criddell]

macOS is a Unix. Is WSL2?

[pjmlp]

Depends how much UNIX you consider Linux distributions to be.

[tomComb]

> It also runs a really good Unix OS. This laptop still won't run Linux out of the box.

That's misleading - these Macs don't run Linux well at all. I would love to see Linux fully and properly supported on these great new chips, but let's not pretend that is already the case.

[rbanffy]

No, but they still run a Unix pretty well.