Mac and Linux

In a startling turn (or April Fool's joke), The Tao of Mac is switching to Linux. I must say, though, I've been very heavily considering the same thing.

I use OS X like Linux most of the time anyway, I use fink heavily, no longer use many of the built-in tools (python and vim being prime examples) in favor of using more updated versions.

The switch won't gain me the things that Rui is hoping to get, I still work on a wide enough variety of platforms that I can't just rsync my pains away, but I've got enough portability tweaks worked into my environment right now that I won't be losing anything either. Also, I don't use any of the apps he complains about though I will miss Quicksilver until I can get LaunchBox to leave it in the dust.

The things I look forward to (see, something nice about something):

• X/GNOME's hackability: I can get proper information about what is open, where the windows are, make windows open in certain positions,
• Development Attention: While OS X gets plenty of love, there are vast sections of projects that just never really give any attention to making things work on OS X.
• Beagle: I see a lot of promise in Beagle, I never liked Spotlight but Beagle has the right feel, plus I expect to get to hack on it.
• Mono: Yeah, it runs on OS X but see "Development Attention" above. It may just be because Miguel sold me on it during his presentations at OSCON last year, but for some reason I am really interested in hacking on things written in various languages that run on the Mono VM.
• Expected Behavior: I'm just used to Linux, I know what I expect something to do and I spend a lot of time on OS X tweaking it until it acts like Linux. I love the idea of not having to worry about line endings, the backspace key and stuff like that.

The only thing that is currently creating considerable worries in my mind is hardware support and power management. I have a Powerbook, it's my only computer and hasn't traditionally had the best supported Linux drivers and I really like being able to close my laptop and put it in my bag without worrying about whether or not it will suspend properly.

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