I've been a Mac user for over ten years, drawn to the platform due to the combination of OS X and solid hardware. Since the disappointing MacBook Pro announcem

I've been a Mac user for over ten years, drawn to the platform due to the combination of OS X and solid hardware. Since the disappointing MacBook Pro announcement, I've been preparing to transition myself back to the world of Windows and *nix. I bought myself a refurbished ThinkPad T430 to get myself used to Windows 10 and modern Linux desktop environments, as well as the software running on them. I'm trying to wean myself off OS X and the Mac ecosystem. If it turns out that I'll be able to transition to either Windows or Linux/BSD without too much pain, then sometime next year I plan to buy something like a ThinkPad P50, which has options for Xeon processors and 64 GB RAM. Apple sadly makes nothing like this. I love OS X and I still believe it's the best desktop OS out there, but I'm very disappointed in Apple's direction, and this experience has made me realized the dangers of being locked to a specific hardware platform: if Apple doesn't make the hardware you want, then there are no alternatives if you want to stay on OS X legally. It was a fun ride while Apple made the hardware I wanted. But Apple started changing direction from powerful, expandable, upgradeable Macs to non-upgradeable, disposable computers for those whose computational needs aren't very intensive. I considered jumping ship back in 2013, but due to the controversies of Windows 8, GNOME 3, and KDE 4 at the time, I held my nose and bought a MacBook Air despite its non-upgradeability. This time I plan to jump ship. I learned my lesson regarding relying on closed platforms for my computing needs; you're at the mercy of the provider of the platform. For this reason alone I'm interested in returning to Windows and Linux/BSD, although I wish they one day will have the same level of polish as OS X.