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a frustrating personal project i need to undertake soon: switching back to Linux, after almost a decade of using macOS as my main OS

i am going to hope and pray that this is the last time i have to switch my main OS again. i've done it so many times :(

about ten years ago, OS X was for me the optimal compromise between developer-friendliness and normal people concerns (nice UI, graphical app compatibility, hardware compatibility, an OS that just works) for me. for context, i had switched so many times between windows and linux prior to that that i lost count. using OS X was a breath of fresh air: finally, an OS that's extremely pleasant to use, while being capable of all the things i needed from it.

but in those ten years, my interests have diversified, while at the same time OS X's app compatibility has reduced (my entire Steam library is gone now), and also i just need more disk space and i do not want to spend €€€€ per terabyte. i now find myself using my secondary, windows pc more and more, and as good as windows is at many things, i still hate it for development, i'm scared of the day when i'm forced to upgrade to the even-more-enshittificated new version (11).

and then, as much as it pains me to not be joining the glorious aarch64 future, as much as i would love to be a full-time asahi linux user... my next laptop will probably be a Framework, if they're still in business then 😭

it's funny how circumstance changes you. if i still had my cushy, well-paid and very interesting tech job (yes i am aware what an enormous privilege that was) i would just throw €2500 at apple and get me a max-spec m1 macbook air, and then not have to think about all of this for another few years, maybe switching to asahi if i got frustrated enough with macOS. but now i am living the "full-time passion project" (i.e. unsustainable finances) life, so.

and to be clear, it's not a bad thing that i'm forced to change course here. as a mac user i basically get trapped in an overpriced-storage ratchet. with each new mac, i double the space, and i can't ever reduce it much, so each new mac is more expensive than the last, even though the flash chips only get cheaper with time.

@hikari I have this idea of someday moving out of the Apple ecosystem in the back of my mind and I'm dreading it. I also switched to Mac about 11 years ago and not really used a different desktop OS since then (although I work with Ubuntu/Debian servers a lot). I also use a ton of Apple-specific apps. I guess the best way is to slowly switch one app/service at a time...

Good luck with your switch!

@stefandesu thanks! yeah i'm not looking forward to finding a new to-do list app, a new music player, no longer having handoff, a new disk encryption solution, and many other things like this

@stefandesu at least i've had my foot in all three worlds to some extent for some time, so i won't be completely lost once i make the big switch (windows gaming pc at home, linux pc at work for software development)

@hikari That's a start at least!

I recently got a Retroid Pocket 3+ for some retro gaming on the road which uses Android, and it took me quite some time to get used to the "Android way". 🙈 Maybe it's not such a good idea to stick with one system for a very long time and never dabble with alternatives. 😅

@hikari I really wish there were more good aarch64 laptops that aren't Apple. There is Thinkpad x13s that some people say is worth buying, but I'd rather wait a few years until there's more to choose from.

@themaxus https://twitter.com/hikari_no_yume/status/1698652120562712639

@hikari @themaxus The issue here seems like one of capable chips

@saagar @hikari There are lots of capable non x86 chips, ARM is already used in servers. Also modern powerful PowerPC CPUs exist for example POWER9

@themaxus @saagar Arm Limited have capable core designs but the SoCs incorporating them available on the market are another matter

@hikari @themaxus Disagree. Compare Cortex-A710 to, say, M2 or A16: the difference is frequently more than 20% on every microarchitectural detail

@saagar @themaxus yeah i knew what i said was wishful thinking actually. we're in a weird place where only Apple can build a good Arm-based laptop :(

@hikari @saagar @themaxus Nuvia 🙏

@osy86 @hikari @themaxus Remember when Arm was so confident in their capable core designs that they sued Qualcomm over their architecture license in an attempt to stop them using Nuvia talent for new processors

@saagar @themaxus @osy86 i think it would be more accurate to say the lawsuit is a way to get a higher license fee, but i don't know anything you don't

@hikari @themaxus @osy86 The lawsuit is to make their $50 billion IPO this month seem justified but I also have no special information and you should definitely treat this as investment advice

@saagar @themaxus @osy86 i agree. i'm pouring my life savings into nuvia, thanks so much

@hikari @saagar @themaxus wait noooo https://wccftech.com/qualcomm-oryon-problems-potential-snapdragon-8cx-gen-4-delay/

@hikari @osy86 @themaxus Look I’ll believe the chips when I see them but all I know is both Intel and AMD are doing a pretty decent job and Nuvia only seems to exist internally at the moment

@saagar @hikari @themaxus it’ll never happen but wouldn’t it be INSANE if it goes to court and QC loses and have to *checks notes* destroy all of their Nuvia based designs?

@osy86 @saagar @themaxus now that's how you extort a settlement

@osy86 @hikari @themaxus Qualcomm can’t lose this case, this is an area that’s their core competency. It’s cute that a tiny UK company thinks they can extract rent from a company that made Apple cry for mommy in licensing fees

@osy86 @hikari @themaxus This would be like trying to file a patent infringement case against Rambus. Like, lol, you do realize that 99% of the company is lawyers who do this all day because that’s where all their money comes from

@saagar @themaxus @osy86 the only photo on the wikipedia article for rambus is of their patent wall

@saagar @themaxus @osy86 actually that's not true, there's also a macro shot of one of the rare instances of their technology appearing in a real product, from three decades ago

@hikari @themaxus @osy86 Yeah Nintendo 64 is like the only product ever that used RDRAM

@saagar @themaxus @osy86 the only product worth buying!

@saagar @themaxus @osy86 why get a good processor with normal RAM when you can get a NetBurst Pentium 4 with RDRAM

@themaxus @hikari Servers typically use a different class of processor from laptops. ARM on servers is (slowly) gaining traction but typically because it’s cheaper or more efficient or you have a very special workload that takes advantage of the architecture.

@themaxus @hikari But the class these chips are operating in are nowhere near what you’d want in a laptop. If you scale the power budget down (say, from Neoverse-N2 to Cortex-710) the chips end up kinda wimpy

@saagar @themaxus it's a chicken/egg thing. they don't want to make high-end laptop or desktop chips if they don't think there's demand, but so long as there are none on the market there isn't going to be demand, IMO

@hikari @themaxus I mean there is plenty of demand for mobile SoCs and those are pretty bad too

@themaxus @hikari I really want a Framework laptop with an NVIDIA chip in it, Qualcomm always blocks off EL2 access for some reason.