|OT| Apple Corner | I like MacBooks and I cannot lie.

Le Pertti said:
I honestly thought about installing Linux on my Mac mini. Mostly for proton but I like Mac OS too much and have my productivity so down now
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That’s the thing, i want Linux to mess around with it with Steam and Proton and the like, but I need a computer when Things Go Wrong.

Although my iPad has been very useful! I even did my taxes last week no prob.
 
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I don’t recommend installing Linux on a ARM Mac just yet. It’s very much still a WIP.

I want to eventually make the switch, but I’m nowhere near being there for my productivity yet.

Gaming on the other hand…
 
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Le Pertti said:
I honestly thought about installing Linux on my Mac mini. Mostly for proton but I like Mac OS too much and have my productivity so down now
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Nebulys said:
I don’t recommend installing Linux on a ARM Mac just yet. It’s very much still a WIP.

I want to eventually make the switch, but I’m nowhere near being there for my productivity yet.

Gaming on the other hand…
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I remember I mentioned Asahi Linux for ARM Macs once, but its only available for M1 + M2, and as far as I know it does not run on M3 + M4 — and it is indeed a Work-in-Progress, yep.

It is a shame because Linux is amazing for gaming, while MacOS is great of creative/productivity stuff, and the two together would be perfect (at least, until more software gets ported to Linux directly and I can eschew other operating systems completely – but I'd rather have MacOS than Windows 11)

But Linux is a lifesaver for any older Intel Mac that Apple no longer supports — I can recommend the Action Retro Youtube channel for some showcases of that.
 
Reason: Typo
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Le Pertti said:
appleinsider.com

Godot game engine confirms visionOS support is on the way

Developers using the Godot game engine will soon be able to build for the Apple Vision Pro, as visionOS support is actively being tested after Apple staff offered support.
appleinsider.com appleinsider.com

This is pretty cool, wonder if they are finally getting more serious about gaming.
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It needs controllers first.

Apple are so afraid of making a gamepad or VR controllers, to the point that they rely on others to make it, and this only hamstrings their platforms from a gaming perspective.

They should release a gamepad, bundle it with a AAA game and set a standard. Or bundle controllers with some of their devices, like Apple TV and Mac mini.

I also think Apple supporting Godot has more to do with them trying to ruin Tim Sweeney’s day than anything else.
 
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I do like the new visual style they are going for!

Cant wait to get this on my Mac. I keep refreshing the beta pages lol

Apple-WWDC25-Liquid-Glass-Home-Screen-clear-look-250609_big.jpg.large.jpg
 
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It reminds me of Windows Vista.

They haven’t really shown what it’s doing better. They just made it “look better” and never really made a compelling functionality case.

I’m not a fan.
 
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Nebulys said:
It reminds me of Windows Vista.

They haven’t really shown what it’s doing better. They just made it “look better” and never really made a compelling functionality case.

I’m not a fan.
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There are other improvements, mostly things I dont use that much, like spotlight and shortcuts(the macros thingie). I do like the visual style but not having color became disorienting so had to switch back. More visual customizing is nice.

They also seemed to have gotten rid of launchpad, now its just spotlight showing apps, not sure how I feel about that.

The dedicated games app I dont have much use for.

Might check into more about that shortcuts thingie, there are other things I do that takes time but could be done better I think, never bothered with it before.
 
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I always jump in on apples betas as soon as they are available, and always they have been pretty good and stable, but this latest one actually does break things. Like on steam Im having issues, games dont have all sounds playing, safari plugins not responding.
 
Le Pertti said:
Thought for sure that Valve would give up on Macs, BUT they finally updated Steam with an ARM version.
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I think Mac is less of a priority for them, but they haven’t given up.

I don’t know how much any Mac ARM version helps with other OSes, but ARM chips are appearing for Windows and Linux devices too, so I guess they are looking in that space regardless of what’s going on with their macOS business?
 
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Nebulys said:
I think Mac is less of a priority for them, but they haven’t given up.

I don’t know how much any Mac ARM version helps with other OSes, but ARM chips are appearing for Windows and Linux devices too, so I guess they are looking in that space regardless of what’s going on with their macOS business?
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Could be, I wouldn't be surprised if they will go ARM for a future deck. But still, they could have not bothered with Apples processors, they are still a specific ARM.
 
Le Pertti said:
Could be, I wouldn't be surprised if they will go ARM for a future deck. But still, they could have not bothered with Apples processors, they are still a specific ARM.
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Yeah, but a lot of the work done to bring over stuff to other ARM devices might be enough to justify doing the bare minimum on macOS.

I think they were looking at ARM for their VR headset, by the way. They've contributed to a version of Proton that works on ARM chips, and they've also been contributing to Waydroid too, which to me looks a lot like they're hoping to piggyback on Quest/Pico versions of VR games for their all in one VR headset.

Maybe a future Deck has it too, but I think VR is the main driver of this given the VR market is very Android-focussed right now.
 
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So this is kind of random but I've been really liking the M4 macbook pro. I got it a couple of months ago when I upgraded from my M1 Air. The Air was good enough for my use but I wanted a larger screen (my eyes were getting strained when using the 13" screen). The plan was to pick up a 15" M4 Air when it launched but when I checked prices, the M4 MBP was just a little bit more than the 15" Air. The downside, obviously, was that the screen wasn't as big as the Air but the upside was that the screen is much better and generally the computer is more powerful (insofar as active cooling makes these MBPs more powerful).

I was recovering from surgery at the time the M4 Air launched so I had called up the Apple store people and asked if they could home deliver the laptop, and that I was in two minds about which of them to get. What they did was send 2 folks from the store to my place with 4 laptops in hand. 2 of them were sealed, a 15" M4 Air and a 14" MBP. Then they brought 2 more open laptops which were the same laptops, but opened, so that I could evaluate both and pick which one I wanted. The 15" screen was nice but I decided 14" was big enough for me. And surprisingly, both these 2 laptops weighed roughly the same. In the end, they left me with the sealed MBP and took the other 3 back. Kind of amazing customer service. That's what this company is known for.

I'm very happy with the MBP. I watch movies and TV shows at night in bed on it and the superior screen really does shine through. Easily worth the extra money I paid for it. Watching Apple TV+ content on it is an absolute joy. I don't use Netflix enough to pay for the 4K tier but I'm often tempted to upgrade just to see their content in it's best form. My only complaints are that it weighs so much more than the Air I was used to. Can't do anything about it of course, but I do miss that super light thin frame. And that the colour I chose (Black) is a pure fingerprint magnet. Can't do anything about that either. But yeah, what a lovely machine it is.
 
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I do love my M4 Pro MBP. Glad I sprung extra for the faster CPU as I do play a bit of Civ VI and it makes a big difference.

I also miss the lightness of the 15” Air, but I needed more power so dropping an inch of screen for the Pro was the right move.

Great laptops.
 
I did consider the M4 Pro chip but it was 20% more expensive than the base M4 and also, as I mentioned, even the Air was more than enough for my needs. Plus I pay for Apple care plus so that added quite a chunk to the cost and I didn't want to increase it anymore.
 
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spindoctor said:
I did consider the M4 Pro chip but it was 20% more expensive than the base M4 and also, as I mentioned, even the Air was more than enough for my needs. Plus I pay for Apple care plus so that added quite a chunk to the cost and I didn't want to increase it anymore.
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Yeah, it’s an indulgence for sure. I bought it because there was a good offer and I got about 10-15% off the RRP from John Lewis.
 
Back on Safari.

I tried to use Orion and Firefox and it just wasn't working out, so I'm keeping two more sensible tiers:
  • Apple devices
  • everything else

I've gotta admit, it does feel good to be back on Safari. The plugin situation isn't as good, but I use Wipr for my adblocking and that shit is hyper aggressive in a good way. Even cookie consent notices get kicked into the dust, which I wasn't able to accomplish on either of my other browsers.
 
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Le Pertti said:
For me it's mostly that it synchs everything, bookmarks, passwords, open tabs and so on. And it works well, smooth, rarely have issues. But then again I haven't used anything else for over a decade.
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Ah okay. Vivaldi can do that too (although I don't use that feature and can't say how well it works — I just know it exists), and I believe several other browsers as well
 
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So what are peoples must have apps on Mac?

I use unarchiver for file compression and unpacking.

Transmission for torrenting.

cyberduck for ftp needs.

obsidian for notes.

then its mostly just apple apps and the common gamedev related apps.
 
My go to apps are:
  • iA Writer for writing
  • TickTick for to-dos
  • Soulver as my calculator
  • Sequel for media backlog tracking
  • NetNewsWire for RSS
  • SourceTree for a very simple Git client (willing to see what other people use, but this serves my purposes)
  • Aeon Timeline for timelining
  • Obsidian for notes
  • Nebo for PDF markup (used in conjunction with an iPad)
  • LibreOffice (the Apple office apps are better, but they're not as cross-OS compatible, which is more important to me)
  • Affinity suite for creative work
  • Figma for UX design
  • VS Code as my code editor (looking for an alternative, because fuck Microsoft)
  • Proton VPN
  • Proton Pass
  • Proton Mail (also includes a calendar)
  • balenaEtcher for bootable USB stick creation
  • FileZilla for FTP
  • Kagi for search on Safari
  • NotchNook for, well, the notch
  • Paprika for recipes
  • Parcel for parcel tracking
  • The Uncarchiver for Zip files
  • Wipr for ad blocking
 
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Nebulys Proton has apps? I did create an account again and considering if I should invent more time and use on their services again

But yeah for vs code alternative, I would love to know that too, when I dont code in Godot I use VS code, I kind of want to go old school and use VIM lol
 
Nebulys said:
My go to apps are:
  • iA Writer for writing
  • TickTick for to-dos
  • Soulver as my calculator
  • Sequel for media backlog tracking
  • NetNewsWire for RSS
  • SourceTree for a very simple Git client (willing to see what other people use, but this serves my purposes)
  • Aeon Timeline for timelining
  • Obsidian for notes
  • Nebo for PDF markup (used in conjunction with an iPad)
  • LibreOffice (the Apple office apps are better, but they're not as cross-OS compatible, which is more important to me)
  • Affinity suite for creative work
  • Figma for UX design
  • VS Code as my code editor (looking for an alternative, because fuck Microsoft)
  • Proton VPN
  • Proton Pass
  • Proton Mail (also includes a calendar)
  • balenaEtcher for bootable USB stick creation
  • FileZilla for FTP
  • Kagi for search on Safari
  • NotchNook for, well, the notch
  • Paprika for recipes
  • Parcel for parcel tracking
  • The Uncarchiver for Zip files
  • Wipr for ad blocking
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Thank you for all of this, I actually been having my 'now what' moment. I have only downloaded Canva and Wipr 2 so far.
 
I have these installed:

Vivaldi – web browser, email client, calendar, notes
Adobe CC ( Indesign, Photoshop ) – layouting, photo editing
FL Studio – music creation
Audacity – audio recording/editing
Kate – writing (can also be used for coding; and has a vi mode for those that like vi(m)
Konsole – Terminal emulator, anything that would need Unix commands
Xnview – image viewer + management
Libreoffice – office suite
Spotify - music listening
Steam – for using approximately 1/10th of my Steam library
Crossover – for the potential of using the rest of my Steam library, but not actually using it
ytDownloader – for downloading videos
VLC – for watching videos
Okular – for viewing PDFs
filelight – for checking which folders take up the most space; useful for the pitiful amount of storage space Apple ships with affordable models
Commander One – I just gave this a try as a Finder replacer, but Im not sold on it yet.
Homebrew – a Linux-style package manager / Cork - a GUI for it
Deskflow – a way of using the same keyboard and mouse on my Macbook and Linux PC
Handbrake – a video transcoder
krita – digital painting
kdenlive – video editing
Geforce Now – for using some more of my Steam library (or WOW) if I dont feel installing anything else

Apart from MacOS itself, I dont use Apples built-in software (I like their hardware, I dont like their ecosystem)
 
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Le Pertti said:
LEANIJA Why dont you use the built in terminal? I kind of like it, especially after installing oh my zsh
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I've used it before, but generally I'll use the applications I'm used to (if they're available – and Konsole is), and I'm partial to KDE and Linux programs in general (and I'm really glad that KDE has ported so many things to both Windows and MacOS. I wish they'd also port Dolphin)
 
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