When I moved from ChromeOS to Linux last month I made a small but significant change in my setup. I installed Firefox as the default browser on all my desktop and mobile devices: a Linux PC, an Android smartphone, and an Android tablet.
It's increasingly important to avoid monocultures, support open systems, and send web publishers the message open systems can't be ignored.
https://journal.paoloamoroso.com/system76-merkaat-with-linux-mint-first-impressions
@amoroso
I recently went the other way and bought a Porcoolpine from SimplyNuc that came with Ubuntu and put @pop_os_official on it (because I wanted a silent, fanless machine).
I prefer the way Pop OS handles worskpaces out of the box and it has the icons I want. (Mint has similar functionality, but it takes additional configuration).
Like you I was amazed at the simplicity and speed of installation: less time than setting up a new Mac or PC with preinstalled software.
@rob The mini PC is a terrific form factor.
@amoroso
My one fear right now is that my computer came with a 13th generation Intel chip and it is one of the bad ones that fails.
SimplyNuc has not released a BIOS update for it and I am concerned that I may burn it out…even though I am not really doing anything intense at the moment. This is our kitchen computer.
@rob
Yes, good point! trust is the thing one cannot afford when dealing with hardware (or software for that matter) nowadays 😅
Don't worry, Apple isn't much better in this regard — typing this on a 2011 MBP with fried AMD GPU: Apple had been refusing to admit this problem for four years (!) before starting this replacement program: https://9to5mac.com/2015/02/19/macbook-pro-repair/
My unit kept working fine and died in about a couple of months after the replacement program was over 🤦
@rob
Wow, lucky! Maybe it has something to do with that replacement program, sadly — mine had survived 😅
This sometimes happens with Apple, my friend's early plastic MacBook got its motherboard fried, he was expecting the worst, but they've just given him a new one and with Core 2 Duo — which was the newest at the time, replacing the Core Duo one he had 😂
@amoroso
@m0xee @amoroso
Between the 2 laptops, I used them for almost a decade. I wasn’t very pleased about the first one, never had one issue with the second one.
I’m grateful for the second laptop, but having a week without a computer on a business trip was…scarring.
In the end, I find Apple computers to be about as reliable as any other I’ve had: some good, some not so good.
At this point, they seem overpriced, loaded with features I don’t care about. Which is why I went Nuc.
@m0xee @amoroso
I didn't buy a Mac at this point for one simple reason - I'm not sure about installing Linux on the new M-series chips. Not that I would do it when I got the machine, but I would do it to stretch the life of the machine. And I have an 8-year old Nuc which does a lot of things for me running as a Linux server. The form factor cannot be beaten. And that machine keeps chugging along, so I bought another Nuc.
@m0xee @amoroso
Assuming that the chip lasts, I can highly recommend the SimplyNuc Porcoolpine. It is fanless (important), runs pretty cool for daily driver tasks and is tiny. Some might say it's ugly for a desktop, but I have grown to love it. And I got 64GB of RAM, so it should last me for many years to come.
@amoroso @rob
And damn… That machine looks packed: 64 gigs of RAM, a dozen of cores and you can probably even play older games with that iGPU — all that in a nice passively-cooled compact case!
I still like my old Mac Pro, but with newer machines I don't even see that point in all that computing power, I'd probably go with something… more basic.
@amoroso @rob
I've always liked the form-factor — my PowerPC MacMini, one of the earliest widely-available computers of this sort is turning 20 soon — still runs and it's at its limit, but it hosts my Pleroma Fediverse instance. Some hardware is very reliable — I think I've only replace the HDD in it, which died in two years or so — but since then it's running flawlessly 24/7 for over a decade.
@amoroso @rob
My Mac Pro is also more then a decade old — all the rubber plugs in it look worn, but it works and only requires vacuuming every once in a while. I also have one of the early fanless ARM-based machines — Genesi EfikaMX, also still runs and now acts as a VPN box and hosts a proxy server.
Some computers last for decades and break when you can't even get replacement parts for them anymore, others die right after the warranty has expired — truly sad 😩
@m0xee @amoroso
This is a weird conversation for me. I *also* had the 2011 MBP and had horrible reliability issues with it over the years, contacting Apple Care frequently. In 2015, I was on a business trip and the computer outright died. It was out of Apple Care warranty, but I called Apple Care anyway, hoping they would give me a discount on a new machine. Apple Care just sent me a new, specked out 2015 MBP, which I used for many years.