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Comment by salamandersauce | Hacker News Reader

Eh. I've ended up with the opposite conclusion, at least for my purposes. Running Word is neat, but having to spend half a day figuring out what Apple did to C++ headers after an Xcode update so R will compile packages again is not fun. Unfortunately I can't really install Linux on the damn thing because of the hardware.

Also mailspring is a pretty good Linux email client with conversation view...

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I agree. The author makes it clear that using "business" tools like MSOffice and writing a lot of nicely formatted emails is important to him. Wouldn't have switched to Linux if that was the case for me. I'm writing < 10 emails per day - Evolution + WebDav/CardDav is good enough for me.

I'm also on a 2018 Xps with Ubuntu 20.04 and everything just works.

To me, the clear advantage is how installing all kind of obscure R/Python packages is usually a smooth experience, whereas a working Mac version frequently doesn't even exist or requires struggling with obscure errors, especially after MacOs upgrades (e.g. https://mobile.twitter.com/mcmc_stan/status/1186923309662953...)

Seconding the Mailspring recommendation, but be aware that it requires a Mailspring ID. There’s some progress, though, with a telemetry-free fork[1] (that’s the version I’m using right now) and plans to make the ID optional in the official client [2].

[1]: https://github.com/notpushkin/Mailspring-Libre

[2]: https://community.getmailspring.com/t/mailspring-without-mai...

Oh and one day Xcode will suddenly stop updating. Why? Because I lost my credit card yesterday and blocked it, so now App Store will not update a free app. Whaa?

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