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by tkubacki 4222 days ago
recently I replaced OSX on my macbook to Ubuntu and I'm very pleased for the following reasons:

1. better key shortcuts: no hassle to maximize, windows ninja moves without additional software, can do every UI operation with keyboard (most common with cmd+num run/bring back app), fn + arrow works as cmd+arrow on osx, same key shortcuts, UI on all desktops I use everyday

2. easier software install: apt vs brew (ex. installing postgres was pain in ass for me recently on osx)

3. no OSX maximize button madness

4. default file manager is much better on Ubuntu (eg. easy way to modify current path with ctrl+l)

5. same dev machine OS as production - no additional steps for docker (boot2docker etc)

6. sublime works great

Ubuntu has good support for my (non-retina) macbook 2012 (no driver problems at all!)

All this on default Ubuntu installation - no special tweak (except enabling mac WIFI driver in UI driver configurator) - so it just works.

I do understand someone likes OSX specific UI etc. but for me Linux (Ubuntu) matured enough to be better dev machine than OSX
1 comments
plg 4222 days ago
how is battery life? Last time I tried installing linux on a macbook pro (1) the machine ran hot all the time and (2) the battery life was seriously reduced compared to using os x.

Have things improved? Might be time to try again?

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tkubacki 4222 days ago
I think it' not much worse than osx but can't say anything for sure - I usually work with power cord (just sometimes in customer's office)
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Demiurge 4221 days ago
I really have no idea why someone would downvote your honest answer.... This is getting out of hand.

Anyway, in my experience it's been about 50-70% worse battery life on ubuntu compared to OSX. Which, as you point out, is no issue if you don't need all 4 or 8 hours of the full potential of MacBook battery life. A meeting might last 2 hours for me at most, but if traveling, battery life is a deal breaker for me.

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tkubacki 4217 days ago
>I really have no idea why someone would downvote your honest answer

there is a big part of HN crowd whose whole life purpose is to downvote something they didn't like or don't understand

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