Wilder7977 (u/Wilder7977)

Wilder7977 commented on From M1 MacBook to Arch Linux: A month-long experiment that became permanenent ssp.sh/blog/macbook-to-ar... · Posted by u/articsputnik

samrolken · a day ago

I might consider something like this, but I can connect four monitors to my MacBook Pro. How easy is it to find a Linux-friendly laptop which can also do this?

Wilder7977 · a day ago

How? Finding a Mac docking station that works with 2 monitors is already a lottery. 70% of people in my company, me included, ended up plugging the HDMI directly into the mac (and a DP into the docking station), while the same docking station worked flawlessly with 2 monitors on Linux. I haven't tried four monitors, but I have to say that multiple monitors handling is something so far I would list under the downsides on Mac.

Wilder7977 commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

troupo · 8 days ago

> keybindings that are app specific and that are _not_ exposed in the keyboard configuration menu

Isn't it the same issue across all operating systems then?

> You really assumed I haven't searched - and figured out - how to change keyboard shortcuts?

You wouldn't believe how many times I've ran into people who said something and it turns out they didn't do something that would fix their issues :)

Wilder7977 · 7 days ago

> Isn't it the same issue across all operating systems then?

Sort-of but not in my experience at least. In Linux there is a tendency of using /etc or .config files, where it's quite trivial to catch/modify anything.

> they didn't do something that would fix their issues

Oh well, I can't say I _fixed_ my issue. My mac usage compared to my linux+i3 usage still feels like bronze age tech, but definitely I salvaged what I could :)

Wilder7977 commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

troupo · 10 days ago

> I found the keybinding situation to be a complete mess.

As in: most shortcts work the same across all apps?

> It's also incredibly hard to track down and change certain keybindings, many apps don't have any text configuration to easily modify and require you to go through their GUIs

Any action exposed in menus is handled on OS level in keyboard configuration: https://techtoro.io/blog/how-to-change-keyboard-shortcuts-on...

Wilder7977 · 8 days ago

No, I mean keybindings that are app specific and that are _not_ exposed in the keyboard configuration menu. Case in point, iterm2. Tons of useless keybindings that you have no easy way to see and disable. Let alone the fact that the app immediately crashes every time I try to modify one.

You really assumed I haven't searched - and figured out - how to change keyboard shortcuts?

Wilder7977 commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

savolai · 9 days ago

Yes. Devs tend to want to scratch their own itch, instead of the itch of 90% of the population.

I’m a developer (fullstack, conceptual modeling, db, architecture, c++/qt, php, python, cs degree) who is trained in UX too and using windows and linux is painful because I never get to enjoy the customization part due the poor nature of default UX ie results of bikeshedding everywhere.

It is just too much work to get to basic ok defaults, to have any energy left to think about what I might want to customize.

The system forcing users to customize is just as much use of power as not being able to.

Of course the ideal is progressive disclosure i.e easy things easy (good defaults) and hard things possible (a configuration dialog).

(I’ve written a brief intro to progressive disclosure here: https://savolai.net/ux/ui-design-balancing-user-needs-with-p... )

But the line has to be drawn somewhere, as apple has. Being able to bikeshed and customize anything can easily become a multiplier of complexity and maintenance cost. It’s not any less opinionated than wanting to keep things reasonably simple.

For some it’s a reasonable tradeoff, for others not. For me the value of apple consistency and aesthetics far outweigh the costs. Sure, there is a learning curve and change resistance I had to go through coming from win/linux, but I wouldn’t say macos has any significant barriers to what I can do. Quite the contrary with M class cpus.

Iphones are another story, but eventually the tradeoffs outweigh android ux illogical nature and inconsistency there too.

Wilder7977 · 9 days ago

I respect the personal opinion, but I personally find unbearable the number of times Apple devs demonstrate to think to know better how I should use my machines. Having sane defaults and customizing basic things (like not using a docking bar, or moving icons on the window on the other side) is something that I don't think requires any maintenance, or at least nothing that a trillion dollar company can't afford.

> For me the value of apple consistency and aesthetics far outweigh the costs.

For me this has ~0 value. I use a device multiple hours every day, muscle memory that makes sense for me is 100x more important that an abstract consistency for things that do not make sense for me. I know that different people have different priorities, though. To make a similar example, I use routinely two keyboards, a TKL and a split 58-keys keyboard. I use 2 layouts (one en-US and my native language). I have absolutely no trouble switching from one to another, and from one layout to another, it requires no effort or concentration, it's all muscle memory and context awareness. The same is with devices or programs for me. Consistency is for what _I_ decide is important to stay consistent, otherwise it doesn't have an absolute abstract value.

> It is just too much work to get to basic ok defaults, to have any energy left to think about what I might want to customize.

I have used Linux for about 10 years before I became even aware of all the things I could do with it. For everything I had to do from high-school to university I never touched more than the basics (Ubuntu and Mint, at the time). I think the defaults were totally OK, and nothing _needed_ to be customized. When I started working I started having additional requirements and the flexibility allowed me to customize and make more efficient the aspects of my workflow I considered important. All of this to say, while this is my experience, I can't relate at all with what you are saying.

> Iphones are another story, but eventually the tradeoffs outweigh android ux illogical nature and inconsistency there too.

I can't comment much on this. I find iOS UX to be completely a mess, full of hidden interactions (on this topic, see https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/july-august-2025/s...), but I use my only iPhone minimally just for my work phone, so I concede this is a matter of habit (as it's probably the opposite - given 90 yo tech illiterate people can use Android phones).

Wilder7977 commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

trinix912 · 10 days ago

I think he meant devs of 3rd party software, not devs of the OS.

Wilder7977 · 9 days ago

From the perspective of a user, what's the difference?

Wilder7977 commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

savolai · 10 days ago

With all kindness: Compared to mac/ios, android and linux and windows ux is death by thousand papercuts. (I’m not saying apple is perfect either, and maybe we have landed in a digital experience world that is broken for nearly everyone anyway, but I digress. :)

I am already cognitively burdened. I do not need developers telling me at what point the cumulative inconsistencies become a biggie. Copy-paste is a common action and each inconsistency I need to learn is away from my core tasks and ability to focus on those is already scarce as f.

Devs do not get to decide how central a terminal is to my workflow, and whether that terminal app deserves to have the right to tell me that it’s now a special butterfly I need to accommodate my cognition for.

But I guess Linux desktop has chosen its path of being only for tinkerers who are prepared to adopt an entire culture of quirks instead of users focusing on what’s important for them in their own lives.

I’m disappointed this still does not fix the core issue of this being broken for everyone by default.

Wilder7977 · 10 days ago

> Devs do not get to decide

In my experience Apple devs are the _most_ opionated in terms of telling users how they should use their machine. The UI controls are super touchpad-centric, and it's crazy that a community-driven project like i3 is light years ahead to macOS "wm" features (not to talk about the native UI management). Also they decide for you where the icons to close the windows are, you want to change them? Nope, sorry, you are doing it wrong and can't move them. Your keyboard? Also wrong, you should buy an apple one, otherwise your modifiers are all messed up. You don't use the application docking bar? Well, you are doing it wrong, you can reduce it, but can't remove it, it's always going to be there at the bottom.

There are countless of instances in which the only way to do something is the Apple way, so much so that everyone who switched from Linux to Mac I have spoken with essentially concluded that either you bend to how Apple decided things should be done, or you will be constantly fighting your own machine.

I appreciate that this means that if you start with Apple and get used to their way, you have no cognitive burden on how to do something, but when you use your machine every day, you want to decide how things work to reduce your cognitive load (I.e., this is more intuitive for me this way), and Apple really doesn't like that.

Wilder7977 commented on Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux mark.stosberg.com/univers... · Posted by u/uncircle

koiueo · 10 days ago

The universality of copy/paste is overrated. It's literally just adding shift in terminal emulators, no biggie.

A bigger UX problem (on Linux) imo is the multitude of clipboards, we have x11, vim... Those can be synchronized or not, they manifest different behaviors...

And btw while apple is often offered as some golden standard for key bindings, I think the situation there is much (MUCH) worse: apps often intercept and handle common combinations on their own, with unclear precedence, which leads to non-deterministic behavior and a complete mess if you want to override any standard combination.

Wilder7977 · 10 days ago

> And btw while apple is often offered as some golden standard for key bindings, I think the situation there is much (MUCH) worse: apps often intercept and handle common combinations on their own, with unclear precedence, which leads to non-deterministic behavior and a complete mess if you want to override any standard combination.

Thank you. That is absolutely the case. As someone who had to switch to Mac for work, I found the keybinding situation to be a complete mess. It's also incredibly hard to track down and change certain keybindings, many apps don't have any text configuration to easily modify and require you to go through their GUIs which require you to know what you are looking for (e.g., which app).

Wilder7977 commented on GitHub is no longer independent at Microsoft after CEO resignation theverge.com/news/757461/... · Posted by u/Handy-Man

martin-t · 13 days ago

I've heard this story so many times.

1) A company starts by serving a real customer need, is driven by the people doing real (engineers, designers, mechanics, etc.). 2) The company gets large. The hierarchy gets deeper, decisions are made by people removed from the actual work. 3) The company either a) drives away all the people who actually enjoy quality work and stagnates/devolves b) or is bought by a large corporation, decapitated and absorbed.

How come people will vehemently defend democracy as the only just system of governance at the nation state level but are perfectly OK with dictatorship at the company level?

Worker cooperatives exist and should be the default choice any time people get together to work towards a common goal.

Wilder7977 · 13 days ago

I completely agree with you.

The best answer I can give myself to your (perhaps rhetorical) question is twofold: - tech companies, for whatever reason, seem to need millions and millions of funding upfront to get started. Despite a tech company not needing essentially any asset (besides a few workstations and internet connections?). The VC era inherently created a huge distortion so that it's virtually impossible to start something without selling your soul to those who want you to be exactly like the others. You will be laughed out of the door from banks if you try to get some credit. Since the tech economy has been essentially a proxy for financial speculation, building a sustainable business that doesn't aim solely to IPO and "growth" is an idea that won't get any money to anybody. All of this to say, if workers today want to fund a co-op, as I want to, they need to wait until they have enough money saved to bootstrap it themselves. - until now, and for maybe a while longer, the job market for tech workers has been fairly comfortable, with perks and high wages. Things are clearly changing, as the streak of layoffs post-2021 shows. For a sector with low unionization and with the extreme pressure from companies to reduce workers power, I think in the next 5-10 years tech jobs will become closer and closer to other regular office jobs. Once that will be the case, the incentive to do effectively a bullshit job in a big(ger) org - which many of us do, building products that are useless when not harmful, with no social value - will not be there anymore, and I want to hope more people will choose alternative paths like co-ops and to develop products with different goals.

Wilder7977 commented on How I code with AI on a budget/free wuu73.org/blog/aiguide1.h... · Posted by u/indigodaddy

can16358p · 15 days ago

Many folks, especially if they are into getting things free, don't really care much about privacy narrative.

So yes, it is free.

Wilder7977 · 15 days ago

This is not only a privacy concern (in fact, that might be a tiny part since the code might end up public anyway?). There is an element of disclosure of personal data, there are ownership issues in case that code was not - in fact - going to be public and more.

In any case, not caring about the cost (at a specific time) doesn't make the cost disappear.

Wilder7977 commented on Our European search index goes live blog.ecosia.org/launching... · Posted by u/maelito

perihelions · 15 days ago

I disagree. It seems clearly better, as a user, to use an uncensored, un-backdoored service based in a foreign country, then a censored/corrupted service controlled by their own country's government. The former meets the user's requirements, today; the "democracy can fix it!" one is an unrealized promise of the future.

If, concrete example, e.g. Kagi doesn't censor or harvest data from or otherwise maltreat its users in any way, then what tangible benefit is it, to the European user, to avoid American-based Kagi, for so-called "sovereignty" reasons? What do they actually need, which is missing, that their democratic government can fix? For this question I'm not counting "other users are using it in a way I don't like"—I'm asking about the user themselves asking on their own behalf.

Wilder7977 · 15 days ago

Kagi user here, but one could argue that there is no such thing as un-backdoored service when the US government can knock at Google's door (kagi uses GCP) and ask the data, with little to no accountability or due process.

So I agree with you, but the premises are quite restrictive.