Linux Is a Lemon On the Retina MacBook Pro

An anonymous reader writes "It turns out that Linux doesn't work too well on the Apple Retina MacBook Pro. Among the problems are needing special boot parameters to simply boot the Linux kernel, graphics drivers not working, no hybrid graphics support, WiFi requiring special firmware, Thunderbolt troubles, GNOME/Unity/KDE not being optimized for retina displays, and other snafus, including 20% greater power consumption with Linux over OS X. According to Michael Larabel, it will likely not be until early next year when most of the problems are ironed out for a clean 'out of the box' Linux experience on the Retina MacBook Pro."

Comments

Not just the retina macbook pro

[Anonymous Coward]

But also all devices made by Samsung, LG, and HT....

Re:Hardly newsworthy

[V!NCENT]

Well the KDE part is true, because it doesn't need to be optimized (svg, muthafuckas).

And the fact that it doesn't work, is the result of Linux' greatness. How is that? Well it's:
-Make it work;
-Make it work well;
-Optimize.

That's why Linux works so well. In contrast with bleeding edge consumer crap (yes, you can put the pun right here), which tries to do all three at the same time, resulting in some nasty and unmainteable crap. Now insert Apple here, and you know why they constantly have to rewrite their software. So if you run OSx86 on non-Apple hardware, you can observe the insuficient as shit quality of the good.

Don't let perfection get in the way of good enough, so the saying goes. Now wonder why there are fences throughout Apple products, everywhere. I mean the synchronization fences in the software form of the word.

So you get you Macbook out of your backpack and show everyone how fast it is, but it isn't; the smoothness consumes ALL compute power, so that shit in the background completely stalls. But that can be fixed with insanely huge batteries, which makes you think that the Macbook is oh so power efficient, but in reality it takes ages to charge and is draining a horrible amount of power.

Then people bitch at Vista, and say that Windows 7 is an improvement, but they don't realise that in reality, Vista consumes less power, makes everything that you do go faster (hello optimal multitasking).

Apple sucks. It fits the category of people who suck at computers too, which is the entire population normal, which is why Apple is so succesful, and their marketing so easy.

In reality Microsoft makes more worthy products, because they own the market, and Linux is of a higher quality.

But I'm sure that high dense pixel panel is more awesome than having a high contrast display like Nokia's ClearBlack, which is actually readable outside in the sun. But hey; "OMG RETINA 1337 xXx uLtr4H4x0rzzzz"

Please don't make me cry...

Re:Proof at last!

[hairyfeet]

Here is some advice...get off XP dude, its twelve fricking years old now. Frankly I haven't needed a driver disc for Win 7 for the built in hardware in...well I honestly can't think of a time I've ever needed it, the Win 7 drivers just work. Now for funky third party wifi add on cards and the like? Sure you'll need it but WU usually has the drivers so you can just use that instead.

Now lets compare this to Linux: Where is the "find drivers" button? Or right its called "Google your damned ass off" and you had BETTER know the exact make/rev/model of driver you need and pray to a statue of RMS someone has one. Even if they DO have one you better have enough skillz to be able to tweak that sucker, because it'll no doubt be written for make f, rev g, firmware h and you'll have make F, rev I, firmware j and the picky bastard just won't work.

Linux does have its selling points, if you can't afford the $40 for Windows? Its free. If you are a programmer? You can automate the entire OS with scripts, but drivers? NOT A SELLING POINT in Linux and in fact I'd say since pulse and the DE messes drivers are worse than ever. I'm sure anybody who has read my previous thoughts on the subject know whom I blame (Linus Torvalds and his ego) but in the end you can that version of Win Vista or 7 RTM, have all the drivers load OOTB, upgrade it through all the service packs and patches and what happens? THE DRIVERS ALL WORK.

This is one thing that has always hamstringed Linux, too much kernel fucking and low level fiddling make drivers a fucking unstable mess. Things that work in foo, broken horribly in foo+1 and may not get fixed until Foo+4, driver hunts, CLI fixes, its just not a nice experience. This is why I refuse to carry Linux in my shop and if anyone asked for it I'd point them out a nice Android tablet, at least the drivers work there.

as for TFA? I'm sure they'll have it fixed....by the time the units are no longer sold. this has always been SOP in Linux land, by the time the drivers are worth a crap the thing that needed the drivers is no longer in the retail channel...yay, thanks.