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Last year I switched to Linux after 12 years of Mac, and to Android after using iOS since the first iPhone. Quite a few of my peers have done the same already,

Last year I switched to Linux after 12 years of Mac, and to Android after using iOS since the first iPhone. Quite a few of my peers have done the same already, and a lot of them are looking at their options and refusing to upgrade their Apple hardware.

overcast 10y ago
I'm proud of you, but I've played with Linux on the desktop for the last nineteen years, in various flavors. It's just never going to compete with the MacOS experience. It will never have the nice applications, the polished interface, the tight integration with my iphone/ipad. Great server OS, poor desktop.
- sjtgraham 10y ago
  The "MacOS experience" has been in steady decline since Snow Leopard, while Linux on the desktop has come a long way and continues to get better. I'm using elementaryOS, which despite it missing a few things (in fairness it's currently v0.4), I find is a workable macOS replacement. Apple should bring back Scott Forstall as CEO, leaving Cook to do what he does best, i.e. supply chain management.
  - overcast 10y ago
    You didn't answer anything I asked, other than anecdotally saying A is better than B, just because.
    - reitanqild 10y ago
      You didn't answer anything I asked, Did you ask anything? I read over the thread and only saw statements. other than anecdotally saying A is better than B, just because. This could have been a reply to your posts actually.
      - overcast 10y ago
        Was a thread further down. HN doesn't make it very easy to keep track of threaded convos.
- JadeNB 10y ago
  > I'm proud of you, but I've played with Linux on the desktop for the last nineteen years, in various flavors. It's just never going to compete with the MacOS experience. It will never have the nice applications, the polished interface, the tight integration with my iphone/ipad. Great server OS, poor desktop. sjtgraham (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13383982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13383982) and several of his or her peers find that it does have what they need, while obviously you don't. I doubt that there's an objective, correct answer to "does Linux compete with macOS?", but, if there is, I also doubt that we're going to find it by this sort of anecdote-slinging.
  - overcast 10y ago
    The choice of applications, xcode, ios device integration, and polished interface, is not anecdotal. Those are facts. I don't get those moving to Linux.
    - Nadya 10y ago
      You'll need to expand on "choice of applications" because most things are UNIX or UNIX-like compatible and nearly everything I use on Linux is Linux/Mac compatible. If anything, Windows is lacking and using things like Cygwin isn't good enough for many things. xCode is walled garden specific. If you're developing for Apple products it might make sense to use Apple products that will be designed to make developing for Apple products easier. I don't see how this is a "plus" to any developer who isn't developing for Apple products. There are plenty of devs who don't work on code related to Apple products at all! Similarly, iOS integration is moot. What if they use Android? Don't need awesome iOS integration if you don't wall yourself off into Apple's garden. I like polishing my own interface because I absolutely detest the design of Mac. That's a flavor and is not "factually" better. Many of the design decisions from Apple make me scratch my head in confusion.
      - overcast 10y ago
        Unibox, Capture One, XCode, Contacts/Calendar syncing to iphone/ipad, iMessage syncing. Theses are required applications. That's awesome you enjoy that, but I'm not one to waste my time polishing, and modifying the OS I'm using. That's just insane to me. One little side mention, the font rendering on Mac is so much more enjoyable to look at, that it impacts me immensely. Especially when dealing with web sites. Looking at them on Windows or Linux is horrific.
- reitanqild 10y ago
  Linux on the desktop for the last nineteen years, in various flavors. It's just never going to compete with the MacOS experience. I used Mac as a software dev for three years and went from enthusiastic to "never again". Macs aren't for everyone and while I move back and forth between Linux and Windows I still defend Mac users, even wish there where more of them to really stokke the fire under Microsofts desktop division : ) What I can totally live without though is the "Mac is objectively best" attitude. It is NOT. At least not for everyone. So: can we please stop? I'll defend you paying for your tools and you guys stop acting like our operating systems of choice aren't as good as yours? Please?
  - eeeeeeeeeeeee 10y ago
    You're replying on a post about how "we" are all moving away from Apple, so you have to remember that context. A lot of these replies are challenging that premise, especially when the author of that article provides no evidence of their headline. I've seen no evidence or numbers of this mass exodus from mac->linux that people claim except a few loud/popular blog posts by individuals who have done it. That distorts what is actually happening. I actually agree with a lot of what is said in the article, but I dispute how many people are actually moving to Linux. I looked into moving to Linux this past month because I needed a new machine, but went with a 2016 MBP instead. I really wanted to go Linux, I love Linux, but I just don't think it's there yet if you want a portable. There needs to be better collaboration between a hardware manufacturer and the distribution, which is really what MacOS continues to excel at. And for all the hate the new MBP received on this website, I like just about everything about it. I have a lot of gripes with MacOS and where Apple has been taking it, but I still think it's a better experience than Linux on a laptop. Yes, that is a personal opinion, but this is coming from someone that has been waiting and waiting to switch to Linux if the right machine came along. Still waiting. I do not want to be fidgeting with drivers whatsoever. I need it to just work, so I can get to work.
    - baldfat 10y ago
      > I've seen no evidence or numbers of this mass exodus from mac->linux that people claim It's all around you but people are failing to see it right now. Apple is pushing the common denominator off of laptops and desktops and onto Tablets and Phones. There is a 33% drop since just start of 2016. "According to web analytics vendor Net Applications, Apple’s desktop and notebook operating system—formerly OS X, now macOS—powered just 6.1 percent of all personal computers last month, down from 7 percent a year ago and a peak of 9.6 percent as recently as April 2016" http://www.infoworld.com/article/3155128/macs/macs-share-falls-to-five-year-low.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/3155128/macs/macs-share-fal... Just look at these numbers Linux has continued to climb while Apple's MacOS OSX numbers get smaller and smaller. https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share... I would say the ONLY thing that keeps 50% of the people is building iOS requiers MacOS OS X equipment. It certainly isn't the Apple Experience.
- rocky1138 10y ago
  It's so crazy how everyone's personal preference is different. My experience is the exact opposite. Give me KDE over MacOS any day.

overcast 10y ago

I'm proud of you, but I've played with Linux on the desktop for the last nineteen years, in various flavors. It's just never going to compete with the MacOS experience. It will never have the nice applications, the polished interface, the tight integration with my iphone/ipad. Great server OS, poor desktop.

sjtgraham 10y ago
The "MacOS experience" has been in steady decline since Snow Leopard, while Linux on the desktop has come a long way and continues to get better. I'm using elementaryOS, which despite it missing a few things (in fairness it's currently v0.4), I find is a workable macOS replacement. Apple should bring back Scott Forstall as CEO, leaving Cook to do what he does best, i.e. supply chain management.
- overcast 10y ago
  You didn't answer anything I asked, other than anecdotally saying A is better than B, just because.
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    You didn't answer anything I asked, Did you ask anything? I read over the thread and only saw statements. other than anecdotally saying A is better than B, just because. This could have been a reply to your posts actually.
    - overcast 10y ago
      Was a thread further down. HN doesn't make it very easy to keep track of threaded convos.
JadeNB 10y ago
> I'm proud of you, but I've played with Linux on the desktop for the last nineteen years, in various flavors. It's just never going to compete with the MacOS experience. It will never have the nice applications, the polished interface, the tight integration with my iphone/ipad. Great server OS, poor desktop. sjtgraham (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13383982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13383982) and several of his or her peers find that it does have what they need, while obviously you don't. I doubt that there's an objective, correct answer to "does Linux compete with macOS?", but, if there is, I also doubt that we're going to find it by this sort of anecdote-slinging.
- overcast 10y ago
  The choice of applications, xcode, ios device integration, and polished interface, is not anecdotal. Those are facts. I don't get those moving to Linux.
  - Nadya 10y ago
    You'll need to expand on "choice of applications" because most things are UNIX or UNIX-like compatible and nearly everything I use on Linux is Linux/Mac compatible. If anything, Windows is lacking and using things like Cygwin isn't good enough for many things. xCode is walled garden specific. If you're developing for Apple products it might make sense to use Apple products that will be designed to make developing for Apple products easier. I don't see how this is a "plus" to any developer who isn't developing for Apple products. There are plenty of devs who don't work on code related to Apple products at all! Similarly, iOS integration is moot. What if they use Android? Don't need awesome iOS integration if you don't wall yourself off into Apple's garden. I like polishing my own interface because I absolutely detest the design of Mac. That's a flavor and is not "factually" better. Many of the design decisions from Apple make me scratch my head in confusion.
    - overcast 10y ago
      Unibox, Capture One, XCode, Contacts/Calendar syncing to iphone/ipad, iMessage syncing. Theses are required applications. That's awesome you enjoy that, but I'm not one to waste my time polishing, and modifying the OS I'm using. That's just insane to me. One little side mention, the font rendering on Mac is so much more enjoyable to look at, that it impacts me immensely. Especially when dealing with web sites. Looking at them on Windows or Linux is horrific.
reitanqild 10y ago
Linux on the desktop for the last nineteen years, in various flavors. It's just never going to compete with the MacOS experience. I used Mac as a software dev for three years and went from enthusiastic to "never again". Macs aren't for everyone and while I move back and forth between Linux and Windows I still defend Mac users, even wish there where more of them to really stokke the fire under Microsofts desktop division : ) What I can totally live without though is the "Mac is objectively best" attitude. It is NOT. At least not for everyone. So: can we please stop? I'll defend you paying for your tools and you guys stop acting like our operating systems of choice aren't as good as yours? Please?
- eeeeeeeeeeeee 10y ago
  You're replying on a post about how "we" are all moving away from Apple, so you have to remember that context. A lot of these replies are challenging that premise, especially when the author of that article provides no evidence of their headline. I've seen no evidence or numbers of this mass exodus from mac->linux that people claim except a few loud/popular blog posts by individuals who have done it. That distorts what is actually happening. I actually agree with a lot of what is said in the article, but I dispute how many people are actually moving to Linux. I looked into moving to Linux this past month because I needed a new machine, but went with a 2016 MBP instead. I really wanted to go Linux, I love Linux, but I just don't think it's there yet if you want a portable. There needs to be better collaboration between a hardware manufacturer and the distribution, which is really what MacOS continues to excel at. And for all the hate the new MBP received on this website, I like just about everything about it. I have a lot of gripes with MacOS and where Apple has been taking it, but I still think it's a better experience than Linux on a laptop. Yes, that is a personal opinion, but this is coming from someone that has been waiting and waiting to switch to Linux if the right machine came along. Still waiting. I do not want to be fidgeting with drivers whatsoever. I need it to just work, so I can get to work.
  - baldfat 10y ago
    > I've seen no evidence or numbers of this mass exodus from mac->linux that people claim It's all around you but people are failing to see it right now. Apple is pushing the common denominator off of laptops and desktops and onto Tablets and Phones. There is a 33% drop since just start of 2016. "According to web analytics vendor Net Applications, Apple’s desktop and notebook operating system—formerly OS X, now macOS—powered just 6.1 percent of all personal computers last month, down from 7 percent a year ago and a peak of 9.6 percent as recently as April 2016" http://www.infoworld.com/article/3155128/macs/macs-share-falls-to-five-year-low.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/3155128/macs/macs-share-fal... Just look at these numbers Linux has continued to climb while Apple's MacOS OSX numbers get smaller and smaller. https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share... I would say the ONLY thing that keeps 50% of the people is building iOS requiers MacOS OS X equipment. It certainly isn't the Apple Experience.
rocky1138 10y ago
It's so crazy how everyone's personal preference is different. My experience is the exact opposite. Give me KDE over MacOS any day.