How 6 Months Have Passed Only with Linux
There were very good and bad sides, and want to reflect on how 6 months have passed without macOS completely
If you follow my posts, you know I said goodbye to my 20-year friend, Apple, but only from the laptop side. I am going to try to make myself zero dependable to any system or service in the coming months and years, but it will not happen by tomorrow. As I have been in the Apple environment for a long time, I don’t have only machines but also accessories that cannot be easily got rid of or need to be sold very cheaply.
When I decided to say goodbye to my Apple Macbook Pro, people thought that it was about the money. It is contrary because I don’t think Apple products are expensive. They want you to accept that they are costly and unreachable for regular humans. Yes, it is true; if you don’t have a certain income and want to sell your kidney (sorry for them), you may not have it. The problem is that you think that you need it! Basically, you don’t, and I wanted to try by myself that I don’t need Apple, starting from the most used device in my life as a principal engineer: Laptop (I know that you thought it should be my mobile phone, but no, it is not for me the case).
Why did I want to dump Apple?
I summarized my reasons here and was attacked by Apple fanboys:
Good Bye My 20 Years Old Friend: Apple
Let me clarify: Apple fanboys, you have nothing to sell me. I have been there for a long time, and I know the environment, apps, hardware, etc., better than most of you. Maybe you were not born when I was using Apple products. I miss the old times, and if Apple is the same as the old times, I will probably never consider leaving, but it is not anymore.
Recently, Apple released macOS Sequoia, and I wanted to check out the new features. I picked up my old MacBook Pro, and it was not opening. It was the first time after all these times that I realized its battery was empty! Yes, I haven’t used it very long, even more than I feel, and it was empty. I am still alive and good without Apple MBP.
After the battery became available to run it (around 2%), I started installing the updates. Well, congrats to Apple, we have now:
A better scientific calculator (which has been in any Linux distro, I don’t know, maybe the last 10–20 years?).
iPhone mirroring (who wants to use an iPhone in a laptop with the same screen size? I don’t know, but hey, maybe I am dumb)
Easier Window Tiling (which has been in any desktop environment in Linux, maybe around 5–6 years? Some distros like Pop_OS also bring it very much further)
Safari upgrades (if you use it — now it has picture and picture mode, hell yeah! Use Firefox; it has been there for at least 2 years)
Passwords app (welcome to the club!)
Background replacement in video conference (I am just forcing myself so hard not to laugh)
You can react with more emojis in the iMessage app (thank you!)
and more bla bla bla… Here is the complete list: https://support.apple.com/en-us/120283
We know that Apple takes things very seriously, and they don’t do upgrades until a feature or something proves its maturity. It is excellent behavior if you want a very stable environment, and I cannot blame Apple for that. On the other hand, maturity is something, and ancient is another thing. If you are bringing features that are already ancient, it is not an upgrade.
I don’t want to use very hard words, but it is humiliating. You are paying a lot of money, and now, you can add background to your video call with Facetime. You are paying a lot of money for its accessories to protect it better, and now, you can react with more emojis in the iMessage app.
Linux is not challenge-free
In the last six months, I have faced many challenges, even though I have been using Linux as my second operating system and always on servers. I am used to using it, but I had many problems with it during that time. I don’t want to bother you with every detail because it may not be your problem, too, so I don’t want to grave the Linux under the soil as I have many issues. So, I will talk about the general Linux user experience.
Before diving into the details, I would like to inform you of my usage:
Developing software and architecture
Reading books and articles
Watching videos, generally on YouTube, Udemy, or Coursera
Listening music
Writing (books, articles as you are reading now)
Real-time messaging for specific topics, generally technology-oriented
E-mail, calendar, and online conference (listening or presenting)
Linux Distro surfing
I have described everything in my article that I want to move away from Ubuntu:
I Changed My Go-to Linux Distro for the First Time from Year 2006
Why did I switch from Fedora to Ubuntu after 2 years?
So, I started surfing my distro with Pop_OS and Fedora. I have used Fedora for around two years without any interruption except for trying several Linux distros in the short term:
I Tried Fedora 40, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Linux Mint 21.3, Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS, and EndeavourOS Galileo
In the end, I returned to Ubuntu for several reasons that I wrote here:
Why did I switch from Fedora to Ubuntu after 2 years?
The summary of the reasons: I have a better user experience based on my expectations in Ubuntu, although there are several controversial sides to using Ubuntu. I’ve parked them, although I’ve not accepted them. One important thing about Linux is that nothing works perfectly. Well, this sentence may piss off some Linux fans, but it is the reality. At least for me, there is no Linux distro which fits my needs and expectations properly even I would like to pay for it.
Problems without solutions
Linux desktop environments have had a huge problem for years: 4K external monitors. It is not only the Linux problem, but the macOS problem too:
Kernel Panics in New MacBook Pro 16" — Solution is Here
How to connect two or more external displays to an M1, M2, M3 or M4 MacBook
But Linux desktop environments’ problem is very fatal, basically there is no desktop environment which supports 4K monitors properly. There seems to be only one doing it properly, KDE, but I have faced many problems like losing my login screen or status bar completely several times:
I am Going to Switch to KDE for Just One Reason
Will KDE 6.1 Work?
I gave up using KDE because it created more problems than a solution and returned to GNOME. In GNOME 47, fractional scaling exists in the options menu (previously, you needed to do some hacky ways to make it shown), but it doesn’t work properly. When you enable fractional scaling, most applications provide blurry text, at least in my case. Only Firefox and Thunderbird work correctly. If you don’t go with fractional scaling, you have options like 100%, 200%, and 300%, which are extremely large even for 4K external monitors. So, the rendering is small at 100% for 4K monitors, and for me, 125% is better, but there is no proper option. You can go with the Gnome-Tweaks application and scale the text, but as you can understand from the settings’ name, it scales the text but not everything. You will still have weird menu icons or small menus in applications with non-proportional text as context. I still use it as 100% but 110% in web browsers. It works, but my eyes are not happy with it.
The package manager is another story now. After many problems, I decided to use only .deb packages in Ubuntu and .rpm in Fedora. I don’t have Snap, Flatpak, AppImage, or any other.
Applications are very challenging. You don’t have a similar environment in macOS as long as you are not using electron applications, which I don’t like because of their bugginess and high resource usage problems.
I understand the application developers: The Linux user base is very small, and we have a hell of a lot of packaging formats that they need to release. The beauty of freedom sometimes turns to ugliness, but this is the case, and I don’t blame application developers here. We have a very serious problem with standardization in the Linux world. There are parts that we follow very strict standardization, like Kernel development, but in general, we are skipping the important standardization and hiding ourselves under the “freedom” umbrella.
The Things I miss (if I force myself)
I would like to be 100% transparent: I didn’t miss any single thing about my MacBook Pro laptop except the external screen, which I think is the most frustrating thing.
If I force myself, I can say that I also miss the quality of the hardware, which has pros and cons, and it is not directly about Linux. The quality of Macbooks is top level with the cost of being heavy. Currently, my Lenovo laptop is like a notebook that I can carry easily.
If I really need to work in laptop mode most of the time, I will miss the battery life. Yes, Macbooks are extremely efficient about battery usage, especially in Apple chipset. On the other hand, I am not a “laptop mode” person because of ergonomics. In my usage, Lenovo’s battery life is more than enough, which I can also change if needed.
Environment integrity is great in Apple but again, it is not directly related with Linux. You feel comfortable about everything is connected to each other but this comfort zone is like a golden handcuff. You need too much extra time to get rid of it if you don’t want to continue.