No OS is perfect... Maybe there are better ways?

[Ericarthurc]

So real quick, I dont want to make this long lol, but I do a lot of coding, mostly full stack web development with: Nodejs, Go, Nim, React, Vue.. etc... and I deploy pretty much everything I work on behind an Nginx server on Ubuntu. With that said... I am struggle with my work flow in relation of the OS.. I have bounced around with a lot of different things.. and I am stuck lol. I deploy on Linux and working with unix while I code is very very ideal.. but I also work with a lot of the Adobe suite and Affinity programs.. 

Windows 10/11: can run all my software needs, but no native unix shell, can use WSL2 but it has its issues and requires manually setting proxy ports for external LAN... each reboot... sucks
MacOs: can run all my software needs and has (pretty much) native unix shell, but the os is horribly slow, animations are slow and garbage, and window management is trash even with magents/bettersnaptool, the os just feels sooo much slower than windows or some linux distros: I have an ARM64 M1 mac mini and an i7 8700k system and MacOs feels sluggish on both :C 

Linux/Ubuntu: native unix, great built in package managers, same system I deploy on, horrible software support.. no adobe or affinity :C

I just keep bouncing between my mac mini and my windows 11 desktop with WSL2... and honestly both just dont feel great.. compromises on both sides.. I want to use MacOs so bad.. but it just feels slow after using Windows for so long... and I want to use Windows but then I have second class linux support that I have to jump through hoops for :C

Am I just being super petty here? What OS do you all use and why? And have any of you found a better way then this? I even configured a gpu-passthrough windows vm on ubuntu with looking glass.. the tech is just not even close to being daily driven with a good experience... :C 

[WhitetailAni]

macOS being really slow doesn't sound right. I have it Hackintoshed with a Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 690 (flagship from 2013, 2GB of VRAM per GPU), Crucial MX500 500GB, identifies as MacPro7,1. It's pretty snappy, what do you mean by "the os is horribly slow"? What version of macOS on your 8700K; installed on SSD or HDD?
Personally I use Windows 10 most of the time, macOS 11.3.1 occasionally on the same system, then macOS 10.13.6 when I need to do something quick in macOS that doesn't require Catalina or Big Sur or Mojave or whatever's newer (usually fixing up my OpenCore config).

[Ericarthurc]

4 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

macOS being really slow doesn't sound right. I have it Hackintoshed with a Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 690 (flagship from 2013, 2GB of VRAM per GPU), Crucial MX500 500GB, identifies as MacPro7,1. It's pretty snappy, what do you mean by "the os is horribly slow"? What version of macOS on your 8700K; installed on SSD or HDD?
Personally I use Windows 10 most of the time, macOS 11.3.1 occasionally on the same system, then macOS 10.13.6 when I need to do something quick in macOS that doesn't require Catalina or Big Sur or Mojave or whatever's newer (usually fixing up my OpenCore config).

My i7 8700k is a hackintosh (thought this was a banned word so I didn't say it lol) running Monterrey 12.0.1 on a Samsung 970 Pro NVMe and the M1 is on the same.. Its not horrible slow... It's just the window resizing is so laggy and jittery.. even native safari resizes so slow. 

Windows 10/11 window resizing is insanely smooth and quick.

I don't know why but it just bothers me on MacOs lol... Maybe I just need to get over it.

[maplepants]

6 hours ago, Ericarthurc said:

It's just the window resizing is so laggy and jittery.. even native safari resizes so slow. 

Laggy and jittery window resizing is not at all normal on M1 Macs. Obviously different websites will handle the transition from "mobile" sized window to desktop better or worse, but Safari itself should never struggle with this.

 

Even on Intel Macs, I've never had any trouble with window resizing or any UI function so basic. Is it just Safari or do other apps struggle with window resizing?

[Nayr438]

7 hours ago, Ericarthurc said:

So real quick, I dont want to make this long lol, but I do a lot of coding, mostly full stack web development with: Nodejs, Go, Nim, React, Vue.. etc... and I deploy pretty much everything I work on behind an Nginx server on Ubuntu.

Windows 10/11: can run all my software needs, but no native unix shell, can use WSL2 but it has its issues and requires manually setting proxy ports for external LAN... each reboot... sucks

The solution is to get a secondary machine that has the primary purpose of running your Ubuntu Instance. You can push all your files and interact with the system over OpenSSH.

 

7 hours ago, Ericarthurc said:

What OS do you all use and why?

Arch Linux and all Native Linux Software. I don't rely any any products from Adobe or Affinity.

For Graphics I use inkscape and Krita.

For General Programming I mostly use KDevelop and Kate, though I have used Jetbrains products in the past and fall back to it when I have to use a Windows Machine.

 

Most things I deploy and test that are cross-platform happen through a local instance of Gitlab Community Edition where I have a CI Script to build and deploy it against my targets.

For a lot of Web Development work, I just use OpenSSH. I have a SFTP(OpenSSH) Directory mounted in my Dolphin File Manager and run everything over the Terminal through OpenSSH.

 

I use this Setup just because I like Linux and KDE, Windows and MacOS are mostly foreign to me.

[Dat Guy]

9 hours ago, Ericarthurc said:

Linux/Ubuntu: native unix

No. GNU literally says it's Not Unix in its name and quite a lot of Linux commands behave differently from actual Unix commands.

 

9 hours ago, Ericarthurc said:

What OS do you all use and why?

On my servers:

• OpenBSD: It has entirely replaced my FreeBSD machines now. The system is coherent and has a legendary reliability and a good security record. Perfect for servers. Also, it comes with quite a few (OpenBSD's own) server-related daemons by default, including an SMTP server and a (rather good) HTTP server/load balancer.
• OmniOS: Native Unix , one of the forks of the (discontinued) OpenSolaris system. While it is less optimized than OpenBSD, it is highly reliable as well (Solaris, after all, is known for its use in business environments) and - unlike desktop versions of OpenSolaris, like Tribblix and OpenIndiana - it was designed to run on servers. I use it for fun, it replaced one earlier server, I use it exclusively for file and calendar hosting ("cloud").

On my laptops:

• Windows 11. I started using Windows in 1996 and I can work with it. No reason to switch.
• macOS. A MacBook is rather good for working from anywhere, so that's exactly what I do. Also, it is rather good for testing my cross-platform software on a BSD-like system.
• I also have some NetBSD laptop (which does not boot currently) and a 9front Raspberry Pi (should have been a NAS for backups, but then I got myself an actual NAS) on my shelf. Not sure what to do with them yet.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

The only reasonable suggestion I can give is virtualization. Either Windows natively and Ubuntu in Virtualbox, or the other way around. Or both VMs on MacOS running on Intel no system is perfect, you're right.

[beace]

May I suggest running the Adobe stuff in a virtual machine or something? I do agree that there is no perfect OS that everyone will agree on, but surely there are ones you gravitate towards. In your case, I would say it is Linux-based operating systems, at least for your work-related needs.

 

But then again, saying that an operating system is not ideal because there are vendors who have been in the market for PC software for, I don't know, an eternity and a half, and still have not shipped native Linux solutions for absolutely no apparent reason other (possibly) being skeptical and/or lazy about the endeavor. I realize there are valid reasons for this that I fail to recognize, probably, but still.

 

I don't want to suggest trying different software that will actually work on Liinux, because I think you have already tried something like that. So, unless you can settle for the VM that will allow you to run your non-Linux software in a way that leaves you satisfied, I guess you should go with something that tick the most boxes rather than something that tick every single one of them. Windows with WSL is, perhaps, the one.

 

And as a little speculation, maybe there is some sort of way for you to run both systems at the same time, maybe with different PCs, and have them share some storage that is secure enough for you to store work-related data on, but I guess going with Windows + WSL is way less of a hassle!

[D-reaper]

On 11/18/2021 at 8:15 PM, Ericarthurc said:

Am I just being super petty here? What OS do you all use and why? And have any of you found a better way then this? I even configured a gpu-passthrough windows vm on ubuntu with looking glass.. the tech is just not even close to being daily driven with a good experience... :C 

Well, I am fine with Linux because I was using open source software on Windows long before. Perks of being a poor kid. I didn't have money to buy all that expensive software. And I wasn't about to crack it; wasn't worth it when all I just wanted to do was just use my tablet and paint. I tried a trial of Adobe Photoshop and it just felt 'heavy' to me. So I chose Gimp. Now for my digital art pieces, I have used Krita (and Gimp for certain effects). It's all I've needed. And with office suites like WPS Office, OnlyOffice or Softmaker Free Office that all run on Linux, MS Office is just another office suite to me. So there's no skin off my back there either.

 

For my certain needs in Windows, GPU pass through works perfectly. I just use it for a couple of games trainers. Otherwise, I'd just play the games on Linux. That's all. But since I have played those games so much. I really have no need for Windows. That's mainly because I was never tied to Adobe or some other mission critical application that didn't work natively on Linux.

 

So for me, Linux has been perfect for the most part as my daily driver; especially when it comes to a Pihole/VPN server and a media server.

 

But question, why is GPU passthrough not close to be daily driven with a good experience? Did you set it up with the right amount of resources? What are you after? Are just looking to daily drive Windows on Linux? So then why use Linux at all? What is your reasoning for using Linux? And what is your reasoning for being stuck with Adobe and Affinity products? Are you just used to them? Or, does any company you work for require that you use them?

 

As for Mac OS, ask yourself, do you really need it for anything substantial? Because from what I saw, you really don't. Another idea is to stop using Apple devices. That also might eliminate your need to even consider using anything Apple related again. For this reason, I'm glad I never owned an Apple device in my life (never even touched iTunes). Too expensive and too locked down; to me that is both cons. Doing away with not using Apple products, will just narrow things down for you to just Windows and Linux then.

 

After that, it will be a matter of deciding what to do next. Will you drop the Adobe/Affinity products in favor of something different that runs on Linux? Or, will you drop Linux altogether and just stay on Windows? Another option is that you manage to make GPU pass through work smoothly for you that you can use both Linux and Windows interchangeably.

[Sandro Linux]

Maybe use a Windows VM with Ubuntu as the main OS or dual boot