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by nicoburns 241 days ago
> With Apple, it is "Do things the Apple way, or not at all".

Well kinda, you don't have to use all that much Apple software on macs though. If you can live with the window manager / desktop environment then you can use whichever apps you choose for pretty anything else.
2 comments
klardotsh 241 days ago
Which would be less of a problem if the window manager and desktop environment weren’t some of the absolute worst parts of the entire OS.
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godelski 241 days ago
I'm not sure this is true, especially if you're a "power user"[0]. Here's an example: I want to modify `~/.ssh/config` to define a machine's alias depending on the SSID I'm on. So I want this logic

  If on MyHomeSSID:
      Host FooComputer
          Hostname      192.168.1.123
  Else If tailscale-is-running
      Host FooComputer
          Hostname      100.64.0.123
The reason you might want to do this is so that you can have your ssh connection adapt to the network you're using. You can just always write `ssh FooComputer` and get the connection you want. This can get much more complicated[1], but is incredibly useful.

How would you accomplish this? Well actually, I don't know ANYMORE[2]. The linked thread had a solution that worked, but `ipconfig getsummary en0` now redacts the SSID (even when running sudo!). Though `system_profiler SPAirPortDataType` still works and I can get the result in 4 seconds... So not actually a solution. Yet it shows the idiocracy and inconsistency of Apple's tooling. There was a solution, then Apple changed it. wtallis helped me find a different solution, and well... then Apple changed it. YET `system_profiler` still doesn't redact the SSID so what is going on? Why is it even redacted in the first place? I can just throw my cursor up to the top right of the screen and see the SSID information. If it was a security issue then I should not be able to view that information in GUI OR CLI and it would be a big concern if I could see it in some unprivileged programs but not in others.

And that's the problem with Apple. If I write some script to do some job, I don't know if that script is going to work in 6mo because some person decided they didn't want that feature. So I can find some other command to do the exact same thing and end up playing a game of Wack-a-mole. *It is absolutely infuriating.* This is what I mean by "constantly punching you in the face". The machine fights you and that's not okay.

[0] I put in quotes because the example I'm about to give is to some "complex" but others "dead simple". I'd actually say the latter is true

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41596818

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41633547

[side note] I've used a similar SSID trick to write myself a "phone home" program in termux for Android and other machines. I can get my GPS coordinates and other information there so you can just write a <50 line program to ping a trusted machine if your device doesn't check in to trusted locations within certain timeframes. Sure, there's FindMy, but does that give me a history? I can't set an easing function to track if my device is on the move. Can I remote into the lost machine? Can I get it to take pictures or audio to help me locate it? Can I force on tailscale or some other means for me to get in without the other person also having technical knowledge? Why not just have a backup method in case one fails? I'm just trying to give this as an example of something that has clear utility and is normally simple to write.

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