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This blew me away a bit. Is MacOS this popular in the Web frontend crowd? I always felt that the price/quality ratio was way off with MacOS, compared to a good

by dmos62 7y ago

This blew me away a bit. Is MacOS this popular in the Web frontend crowd? I always felt that the price/quality ratio was way off with MacOS, compared to a good regular laptop. By good I mean top 10% ranked by price/quality. Even if it wasn't, Apple's general hostility towards consumers is infuriating. Right-to-repair is a banal example.

porker 7y ago
> Is MacOS this popular in the Web frontend crowd? Yes, and seemingly in the web backend crowd too (Ruby, PHP, Python but not as much AFAICT). If you go to a web conference and don't pull out a Mac, you do get comments and/or questions (depending if you're running Windows or Linux). At Python conferences I've seen fewer Macs and more of the good old ThinkPads running Linux. My feeling is that community has a more "Computer sciencey" taste in laptops, because they're not all web programmers.
- isatty 7y ago
  > My feeling is that community has a more "Computer sciencey" taste in laptops, because they're not all web programmers. Or maybe just because they _can_ be bothered to spend a few days setting up their laptop just right and actively maintain it. I'm a fairly advanced user but I can't be bothered to do so on a laptop and would rather have a Mac to carry around and GNU/Linux on my desktop.
paulintrognon 7y ago
Yes it is indeed very popular. All of my friends in IT switched to MacOS over the last few years, and I see more and more devs using Apple devices in web agencies. Because it looks good, it looks more pro.
rimliu 7y ago
Last seven years, all the companies I worked at had the majority/all devs using Macs. That's not only frontend, but backend (Java/Scala/PHP) and Android devs. And this was not in the US.
dutchCourage 7y ago
It's popular indeed. It gives you a well rounded OS with a Unix terminal. I think MacOS is more consistent than Windows or Linux with a better attention to details (though I haven't used Linux for almost a decade so things might have changed a bit) which make it more pleasant to use. Also, the previous generation of Macbook Pros was just really good, sturdy hardware. Hopefully the new update will fix the flaws of the new design. Lastly, a lot of people get laptops from their company, and companies don't mind a one time extra cost of a few hundred dollars. I'm currently writing this from a Dell laptop, and I have to say, while the hardware has caught up with the Macbooks in terms of build quality, I still miss MacOS.
tonetheman 7y ago
I think it is popular but it is an expensive laptop. I have started using a Chromebook with 8G of memory and like it much more ... but I am probably in the minority. :(
- tluyben2 7y ago
  While I agree, a lot of people (including me) don't have a choice; I simply need mac os x for ios apps. I tried everything, like having a remote mac desktop etc; it works ok, but it's really not for long bouts of work. Everything else I can do on a chromebook (or whatever laptop/hardware).
daveFNbuck 7y ago
We're talking about the primary tool used by highly paid professionals. A few thousand dollars just isn't that much, especially when your employer is paying for it. Once you're price-insensitive, the quality looks good for macs, keyboard issues notwithstanding.
jasonlaster11 7y ago
Firefox Replay supports MacOS while we're validating the feature. When it comes time to plan for releasing replay we'll work on cross-platform support. Unfortunately, Replay hooks into low-level OS system calls to do the recording, which makes it non-trivial to support other platforms.
jamil7 7y ago
Yes, and for backend and mobile too since you can build for android and iOS.
jonnycomputer 7y ago
I like Mac OS, and get really frustrated when doing development on Windows machines. All the toolsets that are available on Linux are also available on Mac, which is a huge convenience when switching environments (e.g. from a mac terminal session to a linux one). Mac OS gui is pretty slick (e.g. its file-rename is pretty slick), and for their laptops, their trackpad is best in class, still; but I get pretty irritated at (1) the cost of Mac products (2) the constant OS churn which makes my old applications no longer work and which inevitably slow older machines to a crawl. What has prevented me, among other things, from just going fully Linux, is the ability to install certain common consumer products with minimal hassle.

by dmos62 7y ago

porker 7y ago

> Is MacOS this popular in the Web frontend crowd? Yes, and seemingly in the web backend crowd too (Ruby, PHP, Python but not as much AFAICT). If you go to a web conference and don't pull out a Mac, you do get comments and/or questions (depending if you're running Windows or Linux). At Python conferences I've seen fewer Macs and more of the good old ThinkPads running Linux. My feeling is that community has a more "Computer sciencey" taste in laptops, because they're not all web programmers.

isatty 7y ago
> My feeling is that community has a more "Computer sciencey" taste in laptops, because they're not all web programmers. Or maybe just because they _can_ be bothered to spend a few days setting up their laptop just right and actively maintain it. I'm a fairly advanced user but I can't be bothered to do so on a laptop and would rather have a Mac to carry around and GNU/Linux on my desktop.

paulintrognon 7y ago

Yes it is indeed very popular. All of my friends in IT switched to MacOS over the last few years, and I see more and more devs using Apple devices in web agencies. Because it looks good, it looks more pro.

rimliu 7y ago

Last seven years, all the companies I worked at had the majority/all devs using Macs. That's not only frontend, but backend (Java/Scala/PHP) and Android devs. And this was not in the US.

dutchCourage 7y ago

It's popular indeed. It gives you a well rounded OS with a Unix terminal. I think MacOS is more consistent than Windows or Linux with a better attention to details (though I haven't used Linux for almost a decade so things might have changed a bit) which make it more pleasant to use. Also, the previous generation of Macbook Pros was just really good, sturdy hardware. Hopefully the new update will fix the flaws of the new design. Lastly, a lot of people get laptops from their company, and companies don't mind a one time extra cost of a few hundred dollars. I'm currently writing this from a Dell laptop, and I have to say, while the hardware has caught up with the Macbooks in terms of build quality, I still miss MacOS.

tonetheman 7y ago

I think it is popular but it is an expensive laptop. I have started using a Chromebook with 8G of memory and like it much more ... but I am probably in the minority. :(

tluyben2 7y ago
While I agree, a lot of people (including me) don't have a choice; I simply need mac os x for ios apps. I tried everything, like having a remote mac desktop etc; it works ok, but it's really not for long bouts of work. Everything else I can do on a chromebook (or whatever laptop/hardware).

daveFNbuck 7y ago

We're talking about the primary tool used by highly paid professionals. A few thousand dollars just isn't that much, especially when your employer is paying for it. Once you're price-insensitive, the quality looks good for macs, keyboard issues notwithstanding.

jasonlaster11 7y ago

Firefox Replay supports MacOS while we're validating the feature. When it comes time to plan for releasing replay we'll work on cross-platform support. Unfortunately, Replay hooks into low-level OS system calls to do the recording, which makes it non-trivial to support other platforms.

jamil7 7y ago

Yes, and for backend and mobile too since you can build for android and iOS.

jonnycomputer 7y ago

I like Mac OS, and get really frustrated when doing development on Windows machines. All the toolsets that are available on Linux are also available on Mac, which is a huge convenience when switching environments (e.g. from a mac terminal session to a linux one). Mac OS gui is pretty slick (e.g. its file-rename is pretty slick), and for their laptops, their trackpad is best in class, still; but I get pretty irritated at (1) the cost of Mac products (2) the constant OS churn which makes my old applications no longer work and which inevitably slow older machines to a crawl. What has prevented me, among other things, from just going fully Linux, is the ability to install certain common consumer products with minimal hassle.