Hey, folks,
My laptop broke the other day, and I need a replacement asap. But here's the rub: I despise windows. I've been a full time fedora user on my main device for a decade now, and I run Ubuntu on my desktop that I rarely touch because it's ooooold. I am not a techy person. At all. I'm an idiot, actually. I use Linux because it's cheaper, it keeps my aging hardware alive longer, and because politically I align pretty well with the idea of FOSS. And because I absolutely hate windows. I don't even like KDE, because it reminds me of windows. Cinnamon? Too much like windows! Lol. I love my workflow in gnome, I love that it's shiny and pretty and looks nice. And for the most part, I'm a browser based user. I rarely have cause to do much outside of the browser, except for sail the seas for some audiobooks. Even my papers for school are written in Google docs.
But also, on my desktop or a secondary device, I don't mind having to fiddle with things and get them working, I enjoy it. It makes me feel like I have actual tech skills when I absolutely do not. But on the device I use for school I just want something that works and I never have to think about. I feel like a traitor to the cause even considering it, but I think I want to get a used m1 air. I've never used a Mac before, though. I used an iPhone once, for about 10-15 minutes, and I hated it. But, like, of course I did. It was completely different, and incapable of doing the thing I wanted it to do.
How painful is the Linux to Mac transition? If I'm using an android phone, an Ubuntu desktop, and a MacBook, how awful is everything going to be to switch between devices? Am I going to regret this purchase, or, worse yet, become an apple fan boy and abandon my glorious FOSS devices forever?
Please assist
macOS with Linux for my gaming PCs here:
macOS is a more mature ecosystem if you’re an iPhone user, but the KDE Connect ecosystem runs much better with an Android phone.
Your main point about Linux support lasting longer than macOS is quite founded, but nowadays macOS support for new devices is 5+years. Recently, nvidia dropped support for their 10 year old pascale GPUs, so Linux won’t run on your devices forever, either. I think you’re safe to say Linux has longer support, but should you really be keeping hardware >5 years? That’s up to you, but I look to replace my PC about every 10, but now that I’m in a better place financially, I can see a 5 or 3 year cycle for me in the future, which macOS does support.
macOS has certain software that keep me on it like bettertouchtool, PastePal, Alfred, etc. but if you’re not using something tied to macOS, you’re not missing anything.
Framework’s 13 pro is the only Linux laptop that is in the same battery life camp as the ARM laptops, but you should hold out for the eventual 16 pro since the chip in the 13 lacks performance metrics of the M5 pro/max.