[routelastresort]

The good thing that can come of this would be the resurgence of the Linux desktop. Apple just crossed the line for me (<32GB, no SSD upgrade, messing with the keyboard). I'll miss the almost perfect trackpad, but there's no way I'll support these choices.

[notalaser]

Historically, the side effect this tends to have is that a lot of programmers flock to a new platform but bring the way they use and write programs with them. Fifteen years ago we ended up with CORBA- and Window Registry-like components bolted on top of Linux desktops. On the other hand, seeing how nowadays the Linux "community" is mostly a bunch of big cloud, automotive and IoT/vaporware companies, this could be the closest the Linux desktop has to salvation.

So far, the attempts to bring elements of the OS X experience to the Linux desktop have been very... cargo cult, in the absence of a more forgiving word. Fetishizing design choices and simplicity has made it very unpleasant to deal with a modern Linux system. Many users of tiling-wm-and-terminal-only desktops don't do so "just" because it's the most efficient option, they do it because the alternatives are horrifyingly bad.

[meddlepal]

I wasn't aware the Linux desktop needed salvation. Maybe it needs salvation for non-technical end users but it's good to excellent for end-users whose primary use involve actually using Linux for what it's good at which is basically being a fully open OS and IDE for software and other engineers.

[pythonaut_16]

I've read about i3 several times over the past few years but finally checked it out a few weeks ago, and it fits exactly what I've been looking for in a Linux desktop for so long.

All I've ever wanted from Ubuntu/Gnome/KDE/XFCE (at least while developing) was the ability to launch programs easily from the keyboard, to tile windows in various configurations, and to manage virtual desktops.

i3 makes all of this easy with an incredibly simple and logical set of keyboard shortcuts. To anyone thinking about trying out i3, the learning curve isn't as bad as it seems, especially if you use a distro like Manjaro-i3 that can take care of some of the harder parts for you.

[vlunkr]

It's funny how much I think about the trackpad when I consider leaving apple. Seems like a a stupid reason when you tell non-apple users, but seriously, everything else feels so primitive in comparison.

[dajohnson89]

Resurgence? When was it ever popular? Iirc, market share right now is under 5%.

I say this as pretty much a lifelong Linux desktop user. I've been waiting and hoping for it to take off, but.....

[rbanffy]

Macs took over some of the developer space that Linux laptops used to be in. As a usable Unix environment with excellent hardware, it's a solid investment.

[timattrn]

Me too. I wanted to move to a quad core. I was ready to get the new 15" but 16gb? My son has a hand-me-down 2010 MacBook Pro with 16gb. Anyway now I have a P50 quad core, with a 95whr battery, 7w idle power consumption, expandable to 3 HDD, two of which are as fast as the Mac, and a keyboard which is ridiculously good. It runs xubuntu. And I got change after selling my 18month old 13" MacBook pro. reality distortion bubble has been popped a bit.

[raverbashing]

The Linux desktop seems to be getting ever more dragged in crap like Unity, systemd, and broken ideas on top of broken ideas

Though you can replace those components, the time being wasted there makes the Touchbar and other Apple crap seem the worse of two evils

[robert_foss]

I can't say there is any usability difference between systemd and upstart on my Ubuntu 16.10 machine.

Which brokenness are you referring to?

[rtpg]

Even the XPS 13 (supposed to be built for Linux support) seems to have a lot of basic hardware/software problems.

I was looking for an excuse to get one recently but found enough testimony of breakage to not make the switch.

[gradstudent]

I tried to buy one of these recently. Dell won't sell them in my country. I looked Too bad I can't buy it with Linux (or nothing!) pre-installed.

[AsyncAwait]

XPS's trackpad is pretty good, not MacBook good, but almost there.