Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by sivers 101 days ago
“I don't feel like we own them.” ← Well-put!

I was 100% Apple: Mac Mini on the desktop, Macbook Air laptop, iPhone, and two iPads.

Then came Tahoe.

I hated it so badly and it wouldn't let me change the things I hated.

I noticed a subtle sneer as I worked, having to use this stupid computer that wouldn't let me adjust it to my liking anymore.

Then I noticed I wasn't working as much as I used to because I just viscerally hated having to work in that Tahoe environment.

At first I did the thing of erasing the entire computer and doing a USB install just go back to the previous.

But then like you said: “I don't feel like we own them.” I didn't trust Apple to not keep making it worse.

So I switched. Got a Linux desktop, and a Framework laptop. Sooooo nice!! Snappy-fast Linux just the way I want it.

While I was at it, got my first Android phone and installed GrapheneOS on Google Pixel. Sooooo nice! So quiet, doing only what I want.

Even got my first Android tablet to replace the iPad. (OnePlus Pad 3.) It's great too. I'm loving the whole Android ecosystem, when made nerdy like Linux.

So yeah I'm 100% off Apple now and will never go back.

That's how bad Tahoe is.

1 comments

I am currently all-in on the Apple ecosystem and have been for almost 13 years now. But quality of life in Apple land has steadily been getting worse, so I have been considering making the sort of change you describe, but not quite ready to make that leap yet. What would you say was the hardest part of the transition for you?
None. Way easier than expected.

Even GrapheneOS on an Android phone, which I’d heard was hard to install, was dead easy and so worth it.

For Mac to Linux, you can just rsync your /Users/{me} to /home/{me} and enjoy updating some old habits.

I’m firmly anti-Tahoe and haven’t updated, and I’ve started to find Apple despicable. But…

Anyone saying they had no trouble migrating away is either lying or delusional.

Just off the top of my head: external accessory issues when Linux wakes up from sleep; trackpad quality; battery life; full-disk encryption is still spotty if you, for example, want to use ZFS; boot-level security can be a nightmare to setup (although Evil Maids aren’t a concern for me); systemd things that don’t work and don’t report they’re not working; inconsistent shortcuts for basic things.

Man, I like the ideals behind BSD and Linux, but we gotta stop pretending that basic UX stuff is done and fixed, when we know perfectly well that it’s been broken for a decade (running Linux servers or desktop-on-the-side since 2015).

I don't remember ever having external accessory issues, I don't use a track pad, battery life is fine (although I will admit macs seem to do better) and the ZFS one is just odd. Literally first time I hear this because while it sure would be nice... everyone uses btrfs or xfs or even ext4 with FDE without any problems for the last.. 15 years? Just one FS apparently has some issues?

Maybe your definition of broken is just as subjective as mine (aka I don't remember ever seeing window management so bad as OSX since fvwm)

ZFS got me into a weird race condition with systemd trying to unlock different filesystems that it couldn’t find because the root system itself wasn’t ready. ZFS-on-root is itself not really recommended, but you work around that.