[throwaway284534]

In my opinion as a Linux and Mac user, a lack of consistent user experience. And I’m not talking about raw functionality, but the character and demeanor of a Linux computer. Here’s a short laundry list of personal gripes:

I don’t know why HiDPI support is still so flakey, especially so with multi-monitor setups. Sometimes apps just work, and other times the UI is comically small or oversized. The only *nix adjacent OS I’ve ever seen address this ChromeOS and MacOS.

Sleeping, hibernation, deep snoozing or whatever the term is — I can’t trust a single Linux distro to not drain a laptop battery dry while the lid is closed. I’ve tried all the tricks and there’s always a catch, usually me opening the laptop to a kernel panic, ironically with 1% battery left and the processor underclocked to Celeron speeds.

Lastly and most certainly not least, the trackpad support. “Synaptics” is a synonym for unpleasant, bumbling, and janky. Granted, Windows laptops usually don’t do much better, but these clueless drivers make large trackpads basically unusable. True palm rejection seems to remain illusive, partially fixed with like dead zones, keypress timeouts, and other bandaids. And please don’t bring up Bill Harding. He’s doing his best, but the fact is that one single person carrying this responsibility speaks volumes for how much the community values this experience.

And yes, I’m aware that these things don’t just happen. I’m just saying what’s wrong. I can only send so many pull requests before giving up and buying a MacBook.

Edit:Two more things. Distros need to pick some better branding. Names like Ubuntu, Pop_OS, Elementary… It’s impossible for regular people to understand these things. And get rid of Tux on the boot screen. A penguin with a gut is unpleasant to look at and makes the whole OS seem like a niche interest for computer nerd tropes of the 90s.

[awilfox]

> I can only send so many pull requests before giving up and buying a MacBook.

It's funny because that was what happened to me, too. I believe my final set of contributions was an attempt at fixing some low-level thing in Mesa that was causing the entire X server to fail to start with some older Radeon GPU. The Mesa devs themselves were helpful, but the community around them were abusing me to just buy a newer Radeon. In 2020. With the chip shortage and crypto insanity.

> branding

Personally, I think Elementary is a fine name for an OS. I haven't seen Tux on a boot screen in over a decade, but I guess if you compile your own kernel and enable CONFIG_LOGO, you might.

[goosedragons]

Is Macintosh really a better name than Elementary, Ubuntu or Fedora? And what big distro has Tux anywhere still?

If you do a bit of research you can get a Linux laptop with working sleep and a good trackpad or just buy one from an OEM like System76 if you can't be bothered. You wouldn't expect a good macOS experience on a random $600 HP laptop so why do you expect that from Linux? The fact that so much DOES work is impressive.

[mbreese]

> You wouldn't expect a good macOS experience on a random $600 HP laptop so why do you expect that from Linux?

Because we are lead to believe that Linux will run on anything. And if it doesn’t, then because it’s open source we can just add support ourselves. One of the main avenues for Linux adoption is predicated on the notion that you can install it on hardware you already own.

But those two notions are wildly unrealistic. Mac provides an outstanding user experience because of the coupling of software and hardware. It’s a lot easier to support a select handful of hardware drivers. And because of that, the system tends to work better as a whole (quality trumps quantity).

“Doing a bit of research” to find a compatible Linux laptop is not something just anyone can do. But anyone can walk into an Apple store (or buy online) and be guaranteed to walk out with a working Mac.

The number of voices working for a “Linux desktop” is staggering and no one has a unifying vision. It has been this way for decades. That’s okay. Linux doesn’t need to “win” the desktop. It just has to be useful for those who decide that they are more productive (or just enjoy) using Linux over something else.

I’d even argue that the most successful user-facing Linux projects were done by a group completely outside of the traditional Linux desktop world: Android and ChromeOS. In both cases, they were driven by a single entity (Google) where they could be opinionated as to what to keep and how things should be designed.

[throwaway284534]

Respectfully, I believe we have different standards of a “good trackpad.” You’re absolutely right that a premium price would command a better experience. I’m just not seeing it. System76 is selling a rebranded Clevo shell with all the issues I expressed above, with all models starting around the $1,500 price range.

The closest thing to a Mac experience on Linux I’ve experienced was a Chromebook Pixel running a chroot, and even that has its own limitations.

[hnaccount_rng]

Agreed with everything except the last one. Tux is one of the main reasons I'd like to use Linux. And yes I just like the Mascot...