this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 6 months ago (21 children)

Somehow all these OSS projects that start with only a Mac client seem so suspicious to me...

I wonder if they will enforce a login to use the software?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (15 children)

It's open source, and they already said they were Mac only because they used Metal for rendering. It's not suspicious for devs to use what they're most familiar with.

[–] KindaABigDyl 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

because they used Metal for rendering

That in itself is a suspicious choice tbh

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

What's suspicious about it...?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

No idea, especially since MacOS has limited OpenGL support and no Vulkan support, Metal is basically the only graphics API on Mac

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Yeah, even Asahi has better OpenGL support than real macOS. They make damn sure you have to use Metal to get the most out of it, just like eventually you get caught up in DirectX on Windows whether you want it or not. You can use Vulkan and OpenGL, but the OS really wants to work with Metal/DirectX buffers in the end.

I appreciate that the devs care enough to make it really good from the start, because that sets the benchmark. Now the Linux version has to have a similar enough polish to it.

In comparison, Atom and VSCode both worked fine on Linux just about day one thanks to Electron, but it was also widely disliked for the poor performance. It's a part of what Zed competes on, performance compared to VSCode.

[–] KindaABigDyl 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The other guy mentioned:

they already said they were Mac only because they used Metal for rendering

And you say:

Metal is basically the only graphics API on Mac

So they're on Mac bc they need Metal, but they picked Metal bc they're on a Mac? It's circular and friggin weird man

Not to mention there are cross-platform wrappers that will pick from all three depending on system - some that are very prolific among Rust devs (Zed is coded in Rust) like wgpu, for instance. They could've used wgpu and supported all 3 from the get-go and it would be easier than doing Metal anyway!

And so picking just Mac and/or Metal first is suspicious.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I don't see where your problem comes from. It's really simple: they wanted to target Mac, likely because that's their preferred platform. So obviously they use the best fitting APIs for that purpose. Why would they develop a Linux or Windows application, if what they want is Mac? Nothing suspicious about that.

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