From macOS to Linux via a (non-existent) FrameWork

I guess as a full time web development nerd this was almost inevitable, but I’ve made a definitive switch from Mac to Linux in the last year.

I’ve never been fully invested in the Apple ecosystem - never owned an iPhone as I never quite saw the appeal nor the justification for the expense so have always stuck with Android handsets since the great Nokia changeover days. However I’m a long time Mac user ever since my time as a record producer and Logic wrangler. Back then it was almost a given that you worked with Macs if you were in the creative industries, and when I later moved into development full time, it seemed only logical to stick with what I knew.

Windows was always an unstable bug and virus ridden dumpster fire, and Linux seemed a bit of a niche endeavour as a personal machine and daily driver, even if it was already the dominant force as far as internet servers were concerned. Macs are unix based so architecturally not too dissimilar to Linux, which means they are straight forward to use as a web development machine. And they had decent hardware with stylish product design to boot - they definitely hit the sweet spot.

Fast forward to 2024, and the picture has evolved. Windows itself is still weird as anything, and a user-hostile hellscape of advertising and AI slop. However on the positive side, WSL means you can relatively easily run Linux distributions natively for all your development needs. Apple’s product design doesn’t have the cachet and uniqueness it once did, and their OS and software offering seems to have become progressively worse - macOS no longer “just works”, X-code is bloated garbage, Safari has taken on Internet Explorer’s mantle as the browser that devs love to hate, by resolutely and obstinately lagging behind the rest. On the hardware front, the new M series chips are impressive but the gradual disappearance of repairability and upgradability is a bitter pill to swallow. Not that Apple are the only culprits here to be fair, but long gone are the days when I could take my beige mac desktop in to get a cpu upgrade.

And what about Linux?

Well here’s my story - I’d pretty much driven my trusty intel macbook pro into the ground and so I started to look at upgrading to one of the new M series Macbooks. But I’d also had my eye on the FrameWork laptops for a while - I really liked the idea of being able to swap out components like lego, of upgrading memory whenever I felt like it or easily replacing the battery without invalidating any stupid warranty. The Framework 16inch had just come out so it looked like there actually would be a decent screen size too, which made it worth investigating for me.

If I was going to move to the FrameWork though, there was no way I was going to also shift over to Windows, and even though I’d had years of experience provisioning and ssh’ing into headless Linux boxes, I still didn’t really know whether a Linux install would cut it for me as a daily driver and desktop environment. The last time I’d tried it out was Kubuntu back in something like 2006. It was ok, but a bit clunky compared to my contemporary windows and mac boxes to say the least.

So before committing to buying either the FrameWork or the M series Macbook, I thought I should probably take Linux desktop for a spin to see how I got on with it. At that time my wife was in the process of replacing her somewhat underpowered old Matebook D15, so I inherited it and decided to try out a fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04.

Six months later, and it’s absolutely become my daily driver - my two Macs now sit idle, I rarely even access them. My workflow has been completely transformed by ditching VS Code for Neovim and Tmux, and Gnome for Sway WM, making me feel way more productive. I’ve drunk the customisation and configuration kool-aid - if something doesn’t exist, I can usually find some low level library and glue things together by scripting it. There is definitely a slight learning curve but there are so many awesome resources online if you don’t know what you’re doing - I particularly recommend Typecraft’s Youtube channel - Chris Power is great at demystifying a lot of these topics.

I still haven’t bought that FrameWork although it’s now most definitely on the purchase list. The thing is that scrappy old underpowered Matebook has actually held up remarkably well, so I’m not in any great hurry.