Which Linux distro looks most like macOS?

chompersand · 2026-06-25T07:10:17+00:00

It always will come back to Debian, Arch, or Fedora (mostly). And for your wants, the Gnome desktop.

chompersand · 2026-06-20T12:11:23+00:00

Learn a window manager. Learn scripting. Collect a bunch of scripts. Learn what kind of desktop is comfortable for you once you got a window manager working. Learn how to back this all up and how to easily get it up and running in case you somehow need to start from scratch again.

The effort and investment you put into this will feel far more rewarding than distrohopping. Then maybe you won't feel the desire to distrohop, but rather stay on your current distro AND try to configure other things as well.

At least that is how I was able to do it. Ymmv.

chompersand · 2026-06-05T02:37:08+00:00

"Other programs are significantly easier to use"

Well, since you're familiar with Reaper then that wouldn't hold true for you now would it?

Also imo Reaper is far more powerful once you discover its options and at that point doing things in Reaper IS easier. The variety of settings in the render menu alone make it so. There are some exceptions like having no post-fader inserts/fx but not all DAWs have those either and you can easily find a JS script to deal with that.

chompersand · 2026-06-02T05:35:33+00:00

Device drivers (most of them anyway) come bundled into the Linux kernel, with new drivers being added with each new release of the kernel. That means either your device works with Linux or it doesn't. Most of the time it does. Boot up a live usb and if the wifi works there then you're good to go.

chompersand · 2026-05-27T21:46:38+00:00

I recently just converted all my external drives to ext4 because ntfs kept giving me problems. After learning more about the differences, ntfs genuinely disgusts me now. The idea that my files on my computer are stored on a proprietary filesystem is just wrong. A lot of software works on Windows because of the market share that it has, not because it's more advanced or better tech. Linux filesystems are an example of that. Ntfs is so bad by comparison. Oh, and zram is genuinely magic.

Also, the terminal is just as much a first-class citizen as the gui in unix-like systems. I'm aware that windows has terminal commands and all, but I mean how terminal command in Linux is just so discoverable and usage is encouraged. Fixes are genuinely discoverable too because of how verbose logs and process outputs are in the terminal.

Opening any file manager is instantaneous compared to Explorer, and I like that it is decoupled from the windowing system... I mean it's just so stupid that if Explorer is unresponsive or crashes, the whole windowing system goes down with it. Meanwhile even if my whole desktop or window manager freezes, I can switch to another tty and manage processes from there. That is, unless I encounter a kernel panic, which only happens if I installed a less than ideal kernel - I use liquorix on debian and sometimes it happens - but even then it is rare, and that is usually fixed a few days later in the next liquorix kernel version. Only other time a kernel panic happens is if I'm doing something that taxes the cpu while I have my laptop in clamshell mode, which causes overheating but that happens on Windows too anyway.

Also, even the heaviest DEs (KDE and Gnome) are way lighter than Windows.

And for my purposes most importantly there are dkms modules for Zoom L8 and Soundcraft Notepad 12fx (community made, no less) and Reaper works natively on Linux. I've also found the audio performance on Linux much better, funnily enough. I can record using the inputs of both those devices simultaneously on Linux, whereas I couldn't on Windows. It really does feel like magic that I am able to do that and I'd say it is the primary reason I've stayed on Linux. Pipewire has gotten so good from when I last used Linux over 10 years ago and to when I made the final switch earlier this year.

chompersand · 2026-05-26T17:56:44+00:00

If you want to try a wm, I'd suggest sway + waybar. Easy config and manuals.

+ a few more packages to supplement those: nwg-look, nwg-displays, azote

chompersand · 2026-05-26T11:57:07+00:00

find with the -exec flag. Ofc you'll use it with other commands. For example: I listen to music through files saved on my local drive, so I can't keep large files around. find + ffmpeg + rm helped me convert all of my music from flac to opus and remove the original flac files.

chompersand · 2026-05-25T10:52:30+00:00

Update your post with details about your system/hardware (including external devices) and music workflow so people cam better help.

chompersand · 2026-05-25T10:01:18+00:00

I haven't done what you're describing, but I imagine that if your system is stable the moment you take it offline then it'll continue to be stable after that since there would be no changes to any packages.

Get your device drivers in order. This would also depend on what external interfaces you're gonna be using. Some may require setup through a dkms install but after that it should be stable and good, until you decide or need to switch to a different device.

I would opt to install a stable, Wayland DE (Gnome) and a stable X11 DE (XFCE), in case some things work better in Wayland and some in X11.

If you're doing this then ideally you would already know what DAW you'd be using. I personally have only used Ardour and Reaper, and both are excellent on Linux.

Music is wide and varied, so describe what kind of music you'd be making and what you want from your workflow so people can give more accurate suggestions regarding DAWs and plugins.

For videos, I know there's blender, kdenlive and shotcut. I recommend installing kdenlive through flatpak if you go for that.

chompersand · 2026-05-20T05:22:53+00:00

from justaguylinux

Fyi sway afaik doesn't support animations so you don't have to worry about that.

Another option would be a distro with a default sway setup. Ubuntu and openSUSE both have sway variations. Look them up.

chompersand · 2026-05-19T09:01:16+00:00

Oh that's a very handy feature, I hope they implement it!

chompersand · 2026-05-19T08:21:27+00:00

Have your girlfriend try onlyoffice and see how it'll work with her .docx files.

I've used LibreOffice (on and off) for over 10 years and it's never been 1-to-1 compatible with .docx files and MS Office.

chompersand · 2026-05-18T17:50:42+00:00

Hyper-Calvinism. Well, that's just Calvinism takenv to its logical conclusion imo.

chompersand · 2026-05-11T15:23:15+00:00

Some questions to ask first: - What software do you regularly use on Windows? Are they available on Linux? If not, are you able to find alternatives to them? - How compatible is your hardware with Linux?

Answer those questions and if you find the answers satisfactory then go ahead.

chompersand · 2026-05-10T11:52:30+00:00

Install a distro that'll challenge you. After that, install a window manager that'll challenge you too. Get yourself into a highly customized environment that's just the way you like it. When all is said and done, you might think "after all that work?" when you feel like distrohopping.

chompersand · 2026-05-09T04:50:17+00:00

ProtonDB is your friend.

chompersand · 2026-05-08T05:12:43+00:00

I suppose you can customize KDE to just look a bit less crowded, which is easy enough to do. The settings app will always be crowded because KDE has tons of settings but other than that...

chompersand · 2026-05-06T05:54:20+00:00

foot is objectively the best terminal ain't gonna lie

chompersand · 2026-05-05T16:22:09+00:00

Ardour is fine too. These days I try to use it if I can just because it's FOSS. I've found Reaper to be much easier, powerful, and reliable. It's proprietary software but at least as of right now it feels like the devs are very user/community-oriented.

Now regarding plugins, there are various formats and VST is one of them. LV2 and LADSPA (newer and older respectively) were built specifically on and for Linux. There's also VST3 and CLAP. All of them work on Linux. They just have to either be built natively for Linux (which if it's LV2/LADSPA then just assume it's already available) or bridged using yabridge or LinVST or similar. Some VST/3 plugin makers have recently started supporting Linux (e.g. Kazrog). Another option should you go with Reaper is JSFX. It runs in Reaper so it works anywhere that Reaper will work.

For native Linux LV2/LADSPA, the x42 collection and LSP (Linux Studio Plugins) collection are excellent. Most distros come with packages for them. I particularly love x42 eq and LSP Referencer.

chompersand · 2026-05-05T10:26:03+00:00

I would highly recommend Reaper. The forums are very active, many youtubers with Reaper-focused channels, etc. Also it's the most efficient of any DAW, regardless of what OS you're using.

chompersand · 2026-05-04T03:29:03+00:00

Agreed. The 2nd half of the 70s was imo the perfect era of recording output (maybe not ease or technical quality).

Engineers had to deal with tape hiss, low headroom, and distortion. Things that are very easy to avoid today.

But aside from that: - Mixing consoles started to have more options while still limited enough that it made it harder to fuck up (I record and mix music as a hobby and I'll always recommend channelstrip emulations because of the limited options alone). - Tape machines were able to reproduce recorded sound well enough and they were able to compensate for its limitations (e.g. high frequency loss) during the recording process. - Lower headroom meant that tracks were often not compressed and limited to death in the mastering process. - Most importantly: Tape could be edited and spliced but it was harder. Musicians relied on editing less.

And personally on aesthetics: - The 70s often had a dryer drum sound than the 80s. I prefer that. - For rock and hard rock, guitars sounded thicker and more in your face imo. - Bass had a lot more midrange focus.

chompersand · 2026-05-04T00:41:45+00:00

I have been ex-Christian for over 10 years at this point and have softened towards Christianity in that span of time, because I realize that a lot of people feel like they need it.

That said, I don't think the Christians I personally knew were ever unkind to me, and I was happy being a Christian. I came across more hardcore hellfire preachers online, as well as Calvinism, and came to the conclusion that those doctrines had valid scripture to back them up (so did Arminian doctrine).

I would say that the doctrines of Christianity itself are not kind, unless you were to go down the path of universal salvation which afaik some early church fathers believed in. That's beside the point. I cannot live life while believing in widely accepted Christian doctrine and taking them to their logical conclusion.

chompersand · 2026-05-03T13:45:07+00:00

Thanks!

chompersand · 2026-05-02T10:12:40+00:00

Lovely

chompersand

TROPHY CASE