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Comment by vouaobrasil | Hacker News Reader

I am going to have to disagre with that....like the other poster said, a couple hours is a lot.

I also tried to avoid maintenance a lot with XFCE, but part of the problem is that I could never get it to look exactly like I wanted. There were always some minor GUI bugs that irked me to no end. Add to that, there were some weird inconsistencies because for a long time there were both GTK2 and GTK3 programs running at the same time and they didn't look quite normal.

Then there was the problem of those new-style GTK interfaces with just the hamburger menu, and not all programs were like that. I tried to fix that too somehow by moving to other Window managers but there was always some weird problem.....arrgg I LOVE linux, but (I hate to say it) MacOS just looks nicer with less fiddling.

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I appreciate this conversation a lot, but I’m more on the side of the GP than yours, I think:

> I also tried to avoid maintenance a lot with XFCE, but part of the problem is that I could never get it to look exactly like I wanted. There were always some minor GUI bugs that irked me to no end. Add to that, there were some weird inconsistencies because for a long time there were both GTK2 and GTK3 programs running at the same time and they didn't look quite normal

I take the point, but part of my maturation with “full time” Linux systems - personal desktop, laptop and work machine (Linux VM) to different degrees - was

(1) tinkering less,

(2) getting orders of magnitude more efficient when I did want to edit my OS or core programs, and

(3) buying an M1: while being amazed at many aspects of M1, and admitting I never got proficient with MacOS, I went back to Linux and i3 because I had just as many frustrations with MacOS as any graphical bugs I get in Linux

(4) the comfort of familiarly with my Linux configuration, rather better or worse

Now I’m comfortable with any configuration time I spend these days. It’s not much, and easily justifiable as some combination of work, hobby, and learning. I no longer think of it as serious work, which has been very good for me not wasting hours for stuff I didn’t really didn’t need to care about.

I certainly see your point. There are still things about Linux that are so much better than on MacOS. For example: window shading, easier to start programming on, built-in package manager, not creating ._ files on external drives, not having the terminal restricted to certain directories, not having the mouse touchpad have a delay for click n' drag.

In fact, I'd probably still be on Linux if it weren't for the fact that I shifted from programming to content creation and certain apps like Davinci Resolve and some photography apps work better on MacOS, and it's impossible to get M1 performance (especially in a laptop) with Linux at the price of an M1 laptop.

A couple hours is a lot per month.

Speaking as someone with a hefty dose of ADHD and anxiety, I can only dream of wasting a mere two hours per month. It blows me away to think of two hours being a major distraction for anyone. Count yourselves lucky!

Some of us have families.

Myself included.

That's a worst case. The vast majority of the time I don't touch anything. I was just trying to point out that once you have a stable config that works out for you, there is no need to constantly change it.

> a couple hours is a lot

That's a worst case. Most of the time I don't touch anything.

> the problem is that I could never get it to look exactly like I wanted. There were always some minor GUI bugs that irked me to no end. Add to that, there were some weird inconsistencies because for a long time there were both GTK2 and GTK3 programs running at the same time and they didn't look quite normal.

I think that is the big issue with environments that allow for endless customization. People look for perfection, and when you have too much free time it's tempting.

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