Really depends on what is considered nice about MacOS. Just had a new on-boarding with someone who really liked their Mac keybindings and it seems getting those dialed in is nicer (easier? better?) on KDE. I’d also generally gravitate towards Gnome for Mac users though.

As a piece of advice for OP: Accept the use of keybindings over the touchpad. Mac has done a great job and I have not seen a Linux laptop/distro combination that nails it. Search for the pain-points after switching and ask about it (kindly) on a community like this.

FreeCAD’s Arch/BIM workbench

Draw in 2D to create 3D walls. Position windows, doors and others in 3D. Some features like the roof or stairs have their own modules.

You can always fall back to one of the other many workbenches should you need something not part of a typical home (weird stairs, a detailed cupboard, …).

I could not find documentation easily in the past but it likely exists. For a video introduction the FCBLounge channel (YouTube) provides great visual tutorials.

I’ve documented part of our home in this to ideate remodeling. It can be used for pipework but I did not try that yet.

I did not touch Windows during or after my CS degree. No clue what people are on about needing Windows. It was a challenge on my first job where they preferred us to use VMs instead (I did not and it became the norm because it is better).

Graduated in Europe. We had a bunch going through the same. Campus computers were running Linux too. You need someone to champion it in the year and others will join.

Framework makes it their point but also charges for it. Some big make laptops also allow to upgrade parts.

But lets not forget Linux specific laptops. They generally allow upgrading ram and storage. Slimbook even sold me a newer (but also new) keyboard when mine gave up after 5 years or so. Most parts seem to be available still.

Some brands to look for in this group are Tuxedo, bto, slimbook, starbook. Clevo might work too.

You could provide a (separate) email address for that and hope spam detection is good enough. You can use <a href="mailto:me@example.com?subject=Direct mail message from PAGE">mail me</a> to have them open their mail client. It is wise to provide the address visually too and you might ask them to include something in the subject so you can filter out mailing list spam easily.

mu4e with Emacs

It’s great because:

• process a big bulk of emails quickly
• renders emails in a consistent format, lowering mental overhead
• can link to individual emails in my notes
• many mail providers through the same interface
• custom views crossing many (or some) mailboxes and providers
• emails available offline
• tracking pixels and the likes don’t work
• can search/filter through many mails quickly

It’s bad because:

• requires Emacs, high learning curve
• first setup was cumbersome for Gmail
• rendering emails as text loses some information (rarely a problem, can view the email as html)
• no backlink from email thread to my notes yet (should be ok to write)
• I use another interface on mobile
• I send emails as plain text which is weirdly rendered in some clients (mostly fine, emitting html possible)

jank is a general-purpose programming language which embraces the interactive, value-oriented nature of Clojure as well as the desire for native compilation and minimal runtimes. jank is strongly compatible with Clojure and considers itself a dialect of Clojure.

Looks like they wanted Clojure to have a smaller runtime.

We have a few Tuxedo computers and some other Linux brands at our company and are generally happy about them. Cheaper devices have a less than perfect keyboard (though I liked the one on the slimbook) a worse camera and microphone (though some are very ok).

I’m very happy with these Linux devices. The few makes for which we needed parts also supplied them but sending the device their way for repair took longer than we’d have wanted.

The post title says “ever” rather than “2025”. It’s cool for 2025 and we may get some interesting others, but many here will have ran it on something slower at some point.

Congrats on the 10 year anniversary!

Some employers don’t care. After 10 years you’ve likely shown to provide value without being horrible towards others. We still try to do something but being small sometimes things fall through the cracks.

Given you’re on Lemmy, you likely wouldn’t appreciate an Alexa device or Chromecast.

What would you have appreciated? What are the sort of gifts are not overly specific but would still be suitable?

We run Taiga and it seems to work fine.

If you want to link to external sources in a structured way and you don’t mind tweaking the looks, SolidOS (ot another SOLID app) has a task list/tracker.

I keep my personal tasks in org-mode or org-roam.

I own this. It is horrible. If the specs were real it would be great, but the specs are not real. It is a 3k black and white monitor with a fixed color filter over it. That means you need 3x3 pixels to resemble a color.

I consider it a scam from Dasung.

Boox on the other hand made a sane black and white display. Much better. I own a Max 2 Pro. Sadly they fail to understand that when you report a display as 20px smaller than it really is over an HDMI port and then rescale the image of the computer display on that, that it becomes really uncrisp. Their suggestion is to use the display with 200% scaling (so you don’t notice as much I suppose).

Epaper is really promising and nice. However both of these companies should either get some real competition or lawsuits.

We have linux-magazine delivered to the office.

The articles are easy to read, I can’t remember having to look up background knowledge but I’ve been using Linux for decades now. The articles generally teach you something practical. I don’t read all of it but what I read I often like. Just lacks depth from time to time.

Most people don’t visit the office often I think, but it’s there. I tend to take some home and bring them back.

Depends on the use.

The screen protector serves as a blue light filter too, it’s cheaper than a display, and fairly thin. That’s a straightforward addition for my use but if you don’t have issues with your phone dropping then you could certainly do without.

I very much dislike cases and loved the PH-1 for stating that a phone should be solid enough without a case (sadly it did not survive a 50cm drop on a floor so it did not hold up in practice). If you don’t have much issues with your phone dropping then not having a case makes it so much nicer.

I take more risk holding my phone than I should which means it falls more than average. The price I have to pay is a screen protector and cover. Replacing the display should be easy, but it’d also be wasteful.

I had to replace parts on my FP5. It fell on very bad asphalt at speed whilst cycling in a foreign country. The glass on the camera modules scattered. Display protector broke and the case got some good damage. I was instantly calmed realising it is a FairPhone and knowing I could order replacement parts.

Repairs were trivial and it feels good to have created just a tiny amount of e-waste instead of a large amount. The black aluminium case has some war wounds (scratches) reminding me of the trip.

noisetorch does an ok job for video conferences and works on your speaker (easier on you) and on your microphone (easier on them). We often use it to limit keyboard noise during meetings.

I have not had many issues in the past 15 or more years myself running Linux exclusively aside from a shorter Macbook period. Perhaps I have just been lucky.

We sported (in guessed cronological order of first buy): Dell, HP, Lenovo, Slimbook, Tuxedo, Starlabs, BTO all running Linux at our company. We have not had big issues with any except for keyboard on a Dell, Tuxedo, Slimbook and cooling on a Lenovo. Since I chose the Slimbook many have followed on the path of smaller suppliers and I think we rarely buy from the big makes now.

I have been very happy with slimbook. I came from a macbook (bad idea) with the bad butterfly keyboard and the slimbook was a big upgrade on that front. It’s still not the greatest keyboard for some but I do like it. I have been wanting to buy a new one but whenever something broke or was insufficient I could either upgrade (2 x nvmeSSD slots and RAM can be replaced) or they still supplied spare parts when I sent them an email (keyboard replacement after 4 years). I wanted a framework but Slimbook has offered me spare parts as needed for longerbtham could buy a framework and the slimbook still works well. Plus it’s less expensive. Replacement of the keyboard was not toolless requiring glue to be heated but I did manage to quickly do it with a sleepy head at night. I’d buy their new 13" if this one would be out of service. I’d buy one now but it feels such a waste.

Things I did not like 6 years ago: webcam and microphone of lesser quality, display nice and matte with good color rendition but lower resolution than I’d prefer, no USBC charging on USBC port. Display and USBC are resolved on the new models, no clue about webcam and microphone.

When the battery gets fully discharged it degrades much faster.

I’d be searching for what’s draining the battery and in the meantime I’d add a battery disconnect switch for these periods.

Agree. They’ll surely to pay the cost and they have a proven track record on handling any potential lock in.

The Docker runtime is probably ok as it is a tool instead of a community. The registry has a community aspect and is where we’ll likely see exploitation of vendor lock in. Luckily Docker was grounded well and you can set up your own registry.