34 minutes ago, alexcolka said:

the Mac Studio M5 can be around the corner.

I love my MacOS and my Apple hardware (small and cute), but when it comes to performance … it’s slower than a snail (relatively speaking).  

Mac M3 Ultra (there currently is no M4 Ultra) gets stomped on by a Win11 PC:

Suggest you go the Linux route rather than MacOS.

1 hour ago, SayAgain said:

I love my MacOS and my Apple hardware (small and cute), but when it comes to performance … it’s slower than a snail (relatively speaking).  

Mac M3 Ultra (there currently is no M4 Ultra) gets stomped on by a Win11 PC:

Suggest you go the Linux route rather than MacOS.

Great video, and yes that is my only concern regarding performance. But let's see if this possible next (if any) Mac Studio M5, I hope Max, can be my decisive turning point.

20 hours ago, Mike_CFII_MEL said:

With the inclusion of multi-core the performance difference between Windows and Linux isn't as great as it once was, if you're just moving to Linux now, you missed out on the large benefit that's now gone with multi-core.

The multi-core benefits are also very much present on Linux. I've measured a 5 to 7% uplift with 12.4 over 12.3 in the JFK benchmark scenario and around 15% at the PDX on my (CPU-limited) main system. The gap may have shrunk a bit, but it is still present.

 

7 hours ago, jcomm said:

Moving to Linux has a problem for me, tied to the fact that at work it's the most used OS, and I have to deal with all flavours of Linux every week, and I really hate it I confess....

I'd hate Linux, too, if I had to use a 20 year old distro that must not be updated at all costs because of reasons or one running GNOME or one with an awful package manager.

 

5 hours ago, alexcolka said:

That is my long term decision: to migrate just to one and only OS, to make my main machine just MacOS, yeah I know, I should break my bank account for that and use only one sim: less is more, some may say and I agree, anyway to each their own. And if you see, how much would you spend in a 5090 or 5080, high end processor not to mention RAM and the other needed stuff? Thousands! how much cost a Mac Studio M4 max 64gb 1tb with all the cores you can choose? less! and is just a little box! not the big and heavy toaster I have hahaha! And wait a few months... the Mac Studio M5 can be around the corner.

You get much more rendering performance from a $3000 desktop PC or laptop that you ever could from an equally priced Mac. For a mini-PC or a laptop exclusively making use of an integrated GPU for efficiency reasons, I'd go for a Ryzen AI Max, which can keep pace with lower middle class GPUs and is cheaper than its Apple equivalent.

4 hours ago, Bjoern said:

The multi-core benefits are also very much present on Linux. I've measured a 5 to 7% uplift with 12.4 over 12.3 in the JFK benchmark scenario and around 15% at the PDX on my (CPU-limited) main system. The gap may have shrunk a bit, but it is still present.

This is true, no question... but if one can now get smooth performance with quality equipment and the bottleneck now falls back onto the graphics card there's no need to move to another op system.

Cinnamon desktop with plank for desktop. Just swapped the 3070 for a 5080 (not had chance to xplane it yet)

Macbook air for mobile and any non Linux stuff.

Quest 3S for gaming and XP VR.

Probably finally getting the PS5 and PSVR in Feb 

Absolutely perfect setup imho, first time ever I'm not desperate for better.

 

Edited January 16Jan 16 by mSparks

On 12/29/2025 at 12:32 AM, jcomm said:

I believe some users also opt for Linux or MacOS to auto-restrict their access to other simulation platforms 🙂

That way they have to stick to X-Plane  🤪

I did the opposite.

Used to be Mac-only (career in advertising/graphics/publishing).

Found out about DCS World, got a smokin' deal on a decent Windows gaming laptop, and then found out about MilViz on Prepar3D, and it was game over for MacOS at home (well, for flight sim, anyway 😉 ).

Edited January 16Jan 16 by UrgentSiesta

18 hours ago, Mike_CFII_MEL said:

This is true, no question... but if one can now get smooth performance with quality equipment and the bottleneck now falls back onto the graphics card there's no need to move to another op system.

Well yes, anybody can use whatever OS they want to. Although a MS DOS or command line fetish is nowadays better satisfied with a very bare Linux distro (hardware compatibility!).

Change of OS - Then an overdue hangar cleanup. Had tried and kept variety of aircraft models - freeware and payware. Decided to clean out anything that did not work as expected or was basically deficient - failed to follow through variety of developers. So weeded out quite a bunch of junk so whats on the list is what works 100%. Losses mostly unfinished XP12 and XP11 holdouts with mods of sorts, not going to single anyone out way it is - good intentions run over by other things.  Scenery not a great collector so couple of minor removals otherwise mostly default. Lot of so called tools. I am finding that you can do more and more with the ground handling window - it is starting to run quite a few handy ground stuff. There is more and more handy inbuilt controls or submenus - like the map function that now displays weather radar. ATC still not a fan of - just a pain do not bother with ATC at all. 

Off course there is the other side - removing aircraft that you never fly for fun or curiosity - there not fun or well hardly sparklers. 

So another benefit from a change of OS - clean up time!

Edited January 17Jan 17 by coastaldriver

19 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Change of OS - Then an overdue hangar cleanup. Had tried and kept variety of aircraft models - freeware and payware. Decided to clean out anything that did not work as expected or was basically deficient - failed to follow through variety of developers. So weeded out quite a bunch of junk so whats on the list is what works 100%. Losses mostly unfinished XP12 and XP11 holdouts with mods of sorts, not going to single anyone out way it is - good intentions run over by other things.  Scenery not a great collector so couple of minor removals otherwise mostly default. Lot of so called tools. I am finding that you can do more and more with the ground handling window - it is starting to run quite a few handy ground stuff. There is more and more handy inbuilt controls or submenus - like the map function that now displays weather radar. ATC still not a fan of - just a pain do not bother with ATC at all. 

Off course there is the other side - removing aircraft that you never fly for fun or curiosity - there not fun or well hardly sparklers. 

So another benefit from a change of OS - clean up time!

And not even having to bother about other sims... they wouldn't work there 🙂  

No more waste of time ....

Yes your persist with some models - hoping for a patch or update or to address a glaring issue or problem - that never comes. Makes you wonder given the level of work and effort to get them out and basically working   - I guess the scripting and under the hood programming or texture enhancement is where for some it just gets to hard. The XP11 stuff is the worst basically I regard its a legacy and will always be a problem because it is not XP12 compatible. Had a few of those worked sort of ok but by the time we get to 12.4 beta 2 - they just don't work. Some stuff was very nice indeed like Starving Pilots' Metroliner - but not an XP12 model and now abandoned by its developer. The incomplete or half done XP12 models are probably worse - you hope for some little patches but after an intial release, you give a go (My classic of this type is a beautifully done freeware Beechcraft - except no fuel controls of any sort and electrics that are at best dodgy!} Another is passenger aircraft with no doors working, the developer just did not bother with them for some reason.  

I've been using Linux (OpenSUSE) for about 30 years. However, I have Windows 11 in a dual-boot configuration for X-Plane. What prevented me from switching to Linux was TrackIR. Now I've found linuxtrack, or rather, the fork LinuxTrack-X-IR by fwfa.

https://gitlab.com/fwfa123/linuxtrackx-ir

I wanted to compile it. But OpenSUSE Leap 16 didn't have everything I needed to do that. So I switched to Kubuntu. With Kubuntu, I was able to compile linuxtrack-x-ir with support for TrackIR and X-Plane. If I can now get X-Organizer running with Wine, then the final switch to Linux will happen.

4 hours ago, odi11 said:

 If I can now get X-Organizer running with Wine, then the final switch to Linux will happen.

I have found a Linux based program that does what XOrganiser did for XP12 using MS WIN. It used python. So far got it extracted but still working on the python scripting business - not so easy. Think I am either missing some lib packages or do not have it where it should be - looks promising based on screen shots. Let folk know if it works out. 

Hi, if you mean the Python script Organizer.py, it works for me. However, the result isn't great. For example, the Simheaven scenery is sorted behind orthos. The libraries are scattered everywhere. Some VFR scenery is sorted with the airports. The only good thing is that it's alphabetically sorted. I'll test it again; maybe it was something I was doing wrong.

On 1/20/2026 at 1:39 AM, coastaldriver said:

I have found a Linux based program that does what XOrganiser did for XP12 using MS WIN. It used python. So far got it extracted but still working on the python scripting business - not so easy. Think I am either missing some lib packages or do not have it where it should be - looks promising based on screen shots. Let folk know if it works out. 

Thisalternative with a more modern UI looks promising: https://forums.x-plane.org/forums/topic/342202-x-addon-oxide-new-release-time-for-people-to-see-how-it-works-for-them-beta/

2 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Thisalternative with a more modern UI looks promising: https://forums.x-plane.org/forums/topic/342202-x-addon-oxide-new-release-time-for-people-to-see-how-it-works-for-them-beta/

Thanks for the heads up on this. Got rid of the Python one - failed to do what it should. Installed this and had a look. I would say OXIDE is very impressive and best of all a Linux program- bonus I can forget about WINE etc now. Although I will need to work through functionality process - that is if the scenery needs reordering. It found everything I had in the Scenery Folder and correctly identified them. Same with other parts of XPlane - so its functionality is basically the same as XOrganiser for Windows was. Need to find some help info or a manual for it.