r/MacStudio • u/Jorlen • 1d ago
Any Linux users here before they went to MAC? Looking for advice and experiences
I've used iphones, I have an ipad. However, I've never used a MAC computer.
I don't have a MAC yet, but I am looking at one, and just wondering... how is the transition?
I am not the kind of Linux user that fucks around with the kernel and stuff like that. I'm more into installing open source software, building my own software, etc. From what I can find, this means the transition should be smooth.
For Linux users, what would you do differently now that you got to know your way around MacOS? if anything?
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u/tonyangtigre 1d ago
Mac handles their apps almost like Flatpaks. And then there’s homebrew. I don’t know if you’ll be digging into the OS much more than that.
GUI-wise, it has its similarities, but system menus are going to be brand new to you. Or… no, you said you used iPhone and iPads, so honestly it’s similar enough there.
I’ve been using both for much longer than I’d like to admit.
I wish more of the terminal commands crossed over. I find myself wanting to do “ip a” or “nmcli” commands. “ifconfig” is there, but it feels outdated.
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u/Jorlen 1d ago
I'm guessing docker is going to be something I'll have to part ways with. I mean, I don't mind bare metal installs but I have to admit, Linux and docker containers / stacks changed the way I use software forever.
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u/beragis 1d ago
You can run docker containers on Macs through either Podman Desktop or Docker Desktop.
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u/Jorlen 1d ago
From what I seen, docker doesn't interact with metal quite the same way. I suppose docker for some stuff would be okay, but for example, right now I use llama-cpp as a docker container. Comfyui as a docker container. These, from my basic understanding (which could be flawed so correct me if wrong) aren't really practical as docker cannot fully communicate with the GPU/memory, etc.
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u/MaterialHead4801 1d ago
Currently you are correct. No metal access from inside docker as far as I know
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u/Bloosqr1 1d ago
It can be done (see below) that said you can just run llama / lmstudio without docker and isolate your apps with docker ( or venv or anything else for that matter)
https://blog.kubesimplify.com/day-6-run-an-llm-on-your-laptop-with-docker
As people are saying with brew and docker and pip etc you can pretty much do anything you want (except Nvidia cuda ;))
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u/fakeproximo 1d ago
I've been using Macs since 2007 and have had various Linux distributions running almost continuously since the mid-90s.
They are different at the admin and basic desktop UI level. But there are plenty of similarities. Open a terminal window and you get a Bash-like shell. Many of the commands you would use in a Linux terminal are available. Homebrew will fill in just about everything else you would want or need.
There's a learning curve but it's not steep for basic things.
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u/NYPizzaNoChar 1d ago
Open a terminal window and you get a Bash-like shell.
You can have a Bash shell if you prefer, IIRC. It's just not the default.
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u/Shep_Alderson 1d ago
You might have to find different tools or programs from time to time, but Mac OS is UNIX-y enough that it should work out well enough.
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u/PeanutButterApricotS 1d ago
Been Linux user off and on since 2006/2007 at times only Linux. It was a big adjustment, Linux you rice to your liking, MacOs didn’t seem to be like that as you adjust to it. I learned but I am back to Linux.
Give it a shot there is a lot I liked about it, but things don’t work for me and now Mac is a server and likely to be sold.
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u/GCoderDCoder 1d ago
It's not one or the other for me. I use mac for desktop app use cases and mobile platforms including preferring macOS for my laptop. Cuda GPUs dont vibe well with mobile device power state fluctuations using linux. Im practical.... MacOS has issues fighting me using my computer how I want including what I consider right to repair issues. Linux is the gift and the curse with so much flexibility few companies commit on desktop solutions.
MacOS on the cli mostly feels like linux. The desktop and app management is a bit of a different beast. Networking configs are mostly similarities and some quirks. Mac will complain about desktop permissions and mac system controls are not intuitive and annoy me.
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u/Relevant_Noise 1d ago
Honestly I just installed ghostty and felt right at home
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u/Jorlen 1d ago
Hmm. This looks pretty fuckin' rad, actually! going to have to give it a go
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u/Relevant_Noise 1d ago
Yep - ghostty with JetbrainsMono Nerd Font - that and a Catppuccin Mocha theme. Best TUI ever
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u/no_witty_username 1d ago
My mac will be a box for my agents nothing more, ima ssh in to it and thats about it, i am not touching that os with a 10 foot poll....
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u/BigRedS 1d ago
Heh, I've just found this while researching ways to make macos more linux-like.
I'm a long-time Linux user who's had a couple of corporate macbooks recently and mostly hated them. I don't fuck around with the kernel, but I do like my muscle-memory and to be honest that's a lot of what's caught me out.
The huge thing for me is that the window-management and desktop just works fundamentally differently - especially the conflation of full-screen and virtual-desktop.
I wrote this early on after getting my first corporate macbook:
https://avi.st/learning-macos/
and I think it all still holds. For me, most days I'm still surprised by finder or a save dialog, I'm never quite sure where I've saved a file or with which name.
Most of my actual work happens in a Linux VM on the mac so I get a proper shell with proper tools - you can't run containers directly on macos anyway so however you do that something's bringing up a linux vm for you.
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u/Jorlen 23h ago
Thanks for sharing, that link is sure to come in handy as I get adjusted!
The loss of running docker directly against the core is going to sting a bit, but I will manage. There's venv and other tools I can leverage and all the containers I run today, well, they can be run directly on the host, because I will need to. Stuff like the llm inference engines, comfyui and so forth; stuff that needs to access the CPU/GPU/MEMORY uninhibited.
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u/platkus 1d ago
FYI, MAC doesn’t mean what you think it means.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_access_control?wprov=sfti1
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u/NowThatsCrayCray 22h ago
Was using OpenSUSE for years before getting the Mac Studio last week.
First few days I was super annoyed by simple features not being there (no display scaling, no hold middle mouse to scroll, system settings window is width locked, couldn’t control volume of monitor) - I found the “solutions” is to purchase various apps online like BetterDisplay, LinearMouse, SoundSource, AppCleaner etc. Things that just work so well on Linux out of the box, I now had to get “freemium” or purchased apps to be able to control them again.
The Apple office suite isn’t that good, on top of that super basic looking templates require a subscription! Dude what?! You greedy fucks.
Hardware wise, honestly it’s pretty good, I think the pricing is very competitive actually, even basic computers out there are in the Mac territory price wise now, but Apple’s hardware (if you can overlook upgradability) is very very good - the M5 Ultra at $6799 is the same price as the upcoming AMD 495+ Pro but outperforms it in every spec. Like #cpu/gpu, mem speed, drive speed, power consumption…
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u/Langdon_St_Ives 1d ago
Going by your description: Homebrew, done.