Switching to a MacBook Pro
Buying a new computer?
Why?:
I’ve started to abandon my desktop, since I do not utilize the GPU power 90% of the time. When I do, it’s either for video recording or video editting. I ocasionally play games (once a month if not less). A huge factor is also: I like to have everything locally on my machine as well as backed up to a drive AND a server. I also want to be able to unplug my laptop and have the same windows open still.
Why a MacBook Pro (what do I need in a laptop)?
- Good display (The MacBook definitely has a good display, even 120Hz!)
- Good speakers (The MacBook definitely has those)
- Good keyboard (sorry r/ThinkPad, I dislike the old ThinkPad keyboard, and like the new MacBook Pro 14” keyboard better)
- Long lasting battery life, I use public transport a lot and since that can take a long time (usually about 2h per trip), I like to utilize that time by doing something productive.
- Not too big (I like a 14 inch display, nothing bigger. My ThinkPad X280 was a little too small to be honest (12,5 inch display).
- ThunderBolt 3 or higher. (The MacBook has 3 different TB controllers for the 3 TB4 ports.)
- Possible expansion later on (I know, the MacBook does not have that. It does have ThunderBolt 4, however).
- Good CPU/GPU performance (M2 Pro definitly has extremely good performance, coming from a Ryzen 5 5600X and i5-8350U combo…)
- And finally, it needs to be quiet. I need my machines to either always be silent or always be the same noise (looking at you, Ubiquiti switch…)
- GNU/Linux support (the MacBook currently lacks that, see #gnu-linux)
I’ve tried to get myself to like the Framework Laptop 13, but the fans make a lot of noise since it still has a boring x86 chip. The battery life is way worse than the MacBook, and it has a horrible keyboard in my opinion.
I like Apple more than Microsoft in terms of OS (although GNU/Linux is still the best), and hardware-wise, the is nothing like Apple makes (the MacBooks).
GNU/Linux?
I run GNU/Linux on all my machines (except for some VMs and my DVD/CD ripping machine), because I a: can’t stand Windows and b: can’t stand Microsoft’s “privacy” shenanigans.
I really mis some GNU/Linux features, but most of it is built right into MacOS. MacOS even supports yabai, a tiling window manager.
Replacements and supported software so far are:
| Gentoo GNU/Linux tool/app | Supported on MacOS? (Or replacement) |
|---|---|
| Portage | Brew |
| dwm | yabai |
| dwm-bar | SketchyBar |
| Kitty terminal | Kitty is supported, although I use iTerm2 |
| Fish shell | Supported |
| SSH | Supported |
| OpenVPN | Supported |
| Neovim | Supported |
| Element (Matrix client) | Supported |
| Signal (messenger) | Supported |
| opendoas | sudo, with alias |
| sxhkd/dwm key mapping | skhd and karabiner-elements |
| binutils | xcode-select —install (why does this take like 1.2GB???) |
Maybe, at some point, Asahi will be supported, but we can only hope for now.
So now onto the cool tips/tricks:
TouchID as sudo password:
doas nvim /etc/pam.d/sudoAnd now add as the first non-comment line:
auth sufficient pam_tid.so
Also, if using iTerm2, set this in the Advanced tab:
