I've always found MacOS less productive than any Linux installation with desktop environments like XFCE or KDE, and also even less productive than Windows.
I found the complete opposite about using Linux on the desktop for work.
- Native MS Outlook and Teams apps are not available on Linux so everything has to be done thru the web browser since MS deprecated the Linux desktop client. Teams crashes in Chrome very often and running it in Edge means every link that is clicked opens in Edge. I do not want to use Edge.
- Font scaling issues at 4K, while I have tweaked a lot of apps to support this it is a constant battle to keep the fonts looking crisp thru updates and some apps just don't support great font scaling.
- Last week I had to reboot my desktop because a single press of CRTL+V was pasting things twice (this was also happening on right click > paste so it wasn't my keyboard)
- Random freezes when I close the laptop lid, which has been solved by some BIOS updates but it still happens.. just not as frequently.
- Bluetooth issues, switching between multiple devices isn't flawless.
- Package manager sprawl, homebrew maybe slow but it usually has the latest version of CLI apps I need to use. Whereas on Linux apt packages are usually way out of date, flatpak won't do CLI apps, asdf doesn't have enough of the tools I need, aqua is very inconvenient, nix takes a long time to configure. AUR is probably the best but you must run Arch. I run Fedora with Linuxbrew and don't need to spend effort on figuring how to install some random CLI binary I need.
Sorry if this sounded a little incoherent. There's more nuances I could go into but overall I do not want to spend days/weeks configuring my desktop OS. There's something to be said about MacOS having very opinionated decisions but for the most part everything just works for my needs and I don't have to struggle reading thru the Arch wiki or blog posts trying to get bluetooth devices to work or whatever is fighting me.
I really like seeing System76 building laptops that work smoothly with PopOS but even that there's struggles with certain hardware or software. It feels like using a Linux desktop is a constant game of cat and mouse on debugging odd issues.
Hmm you are right on that. Sometimes certain things are inconvenient on the Linux desktop world too. And also, some hardware combination just don't work good.
That is why for the last couple of years I have been only using Invidious/Piped (on desktop) and NewPipe (on Android).
I have my subscriptions there and only new videos of the channels I'm interested into appear. No distraction, no trending low quality videos in my feed anymore. I only get what I'm interested into.
When I want to look for something new, I head over the popular/trending sections and maybe navigate a bit on vanilla YouTube to look for new things.
IMO the problem of Instagram is not only related to Reels, but is more generalized. For the past ~5 years I have been noticing a serious decline in the quality of the interactions and of the content around.
Any interaction nowadays on Instagram feels fake, for the sole purpose of getting attention. The old-style pictures that are almost sure to generate more interactions are recycled old jokes that people with common sense are now tired of reading, but somehow a lot of users still enjoy them.
There are also some unexplainable phenomenas, like pictures with absolutely trash content that probably took zero effort to produce, getting thousands of likes and comments.
These situations (and more...) for me have eventually taken away all the fun of using the app.
This is exactly correct. For most folks, whatever sound the integrated card makes is enough. Until you are producing music, that is - and then, the external has easy connections for the equipment.
Thanks for the recommendation. I've been needing better audio quality from my machine than it can produce, but it's actually pretty hard to figure out how to accomplish that if you don't already know.
Been through three different external audio devices, and they've all sucked. I'll try yours.
I have MOTU, Universal Audio and Audient which are all good. But they are general aimed at musicians/producers etc. I would also recommend RME if you use a Mac or just the ASIO drivers on Windows.
The drivers are really important, and often audio interfaces aimed at professionals will use a driver that a DAW can utilise with control over latency. macOS users tend not to need to worry about this so much because as long as they are good it works, and on DAWS on Windows I use ASIO because MME, WASPI and WDM have had poor behaviour and/or latency in the past. But for general music listening those other driver types should be ok if the manufacturer supports them well - but this is where the problem might be.
I am guessing it might be the driver that sucks in your experience?
Have you tried S/PDIF output to an external convertor?
There are many other respectful audio interface makers, not only Focusrite Scarlett line: MOTU, Arturia, SSL, M-Audio, Native Instruments, Behringer, Steinberg, Presonus…
I think in practice all of them are good enough but if you’re into numbers, dB, Hz, and measurements, check out Julian Krause audio interface reviews on YouTube.
I have an external soundcard but don't use it as the DAC in my laptop is now good enough that I don't hear the difference. Either the laptops have better chips or my ears got worse
And for connectivity. Even for the small band I was in, doing "home" recording we had ~10 microphones and 2-3 direct line-ins set up recording simultaneously trough an external interface and out to 5 headphones or two different sets of speakers.
