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When I started high school–20 years ago next month–there were about ten of us out of 500 students in the school who had Macs. We somehow all got to know each o

When I started high school–20 years ago next month–there were about ten of us out of 500 students in the school who had Macs. We somehow all got to know each other and shared software and support for the frequent file compatibility issues we all had when working on homework assignments in a Windows XP dominated world. It was kind of a fun community, if also a bit of a support group. It’s been interesting to watch things shift in the time since, the switch from PowerPC to Intel in the late 2000s seemed to be a sea change moment where suddenly more people were using Macs. I guess the ability to use Windows in a pinch made it a safer choice, and not having a CPU architecture barrier and an OS barrier made it easier to make software for both systems. Obviously we’re in very different times but I’m interested to see how the M1 transition plays out over the next few years. I’ve been surprised so far at how slow it has been for a lot of developer tooling to make the jump–I’ve dead ended at an open Github issue many times trying to help coworkers on M1 get something running locally. I guess I’m a glutton for compatibility issues, as nowadays everyone I know uses a Mac but I’m running Linux.

ricardobayes 4y ago
Yes, it's tough to believe it's only 15%. In USA and Western Europe Macs became the de facto general purpose computers.
- Mikeb85 4y ago
  There's a ton of legacy Windows systems and Windows systems in non-tech offices. Plus schools, universities, etc...
  - haunter 4y ago
    And you know millions people who loves playing games and build their own computer to use the CPU they want, the RAM they want, the GPU they want etc. Macs are nice to some extent but incredibly locked down for my taste both on hardware and software level. Have to use it at work but I'd never ever buy one on my own.
- Macha 4y ago
  I think you're living in a software developer bubble if you believe that. In Ireland, the only Mac owners I know are other software developers. Everyone else uses the €500 windows laptops that were on sale however many years ago their last one broke.
  - dmitriid 4y ago
    I've seen tons of business people on them. Though admittedly at tech companies
  - fold3 4y ago
    mac and apple devices are like 90% of the laptops for people in the art field from what i've seen. And I live in western Europe.
- q-big 4y ago
  > In USA and Western Europe Macs became the de facto general purpose computers. For Western Europe: surely not in Germany.
- ohgodplsno 4y ago
  * In your personal bubble * Which is made of software engineers and tech companies * Which are all very wealthy relative to the rest of the population * Which most likely have it paid for by their company. 15% feels like an overstatement if anything.
- flohofwoe 4y ago
  > ...and Western Europe... Lol what? Macs are still pretty much non-existant in Europe except in some 'hipster hotspots' like Berlin (typing this on a Mac and far away from Berlin, but still...) E.g. for a reality check, click on the 'OS Version' line in the table at the bottom to unfold and see detailed OS stats, among gamers macOS sits at 2.45% across all Steam regions (at least it's growing though): https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...
  - Macha 4y ago
    Using steam gamers to assess Mac market share is unrepresentative in the opposite direction to surveying SF tech workers, given Apple has not bothered to support high end games such as those which steam sells for many years at a time. I think with the steam deck, we'll see Linux overtake Mac OS in the steam charts in the next year. I don't think Linux will then be as popular as Macs in the world at large.
    - haunter 4y ago
      They could just go the console way. Apple TV sooner or later get an M CPU and it has a great performance. On the other hand the games are missing, I have Apple Arcade but... it's nothing like compared to PS Plus or GamePass at all
  - ricardobayes 4y ago
    Since you sent a link, I send you another one: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-kingdom https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-kingdo... In the UK, macOS + iOS combined overtook Windows (even by a little, but still).
    - stkdump 4y ago
      According to your link, Windows has 3 times the market share of OS X. In Germany it is closer to 4 times.
- lapcat 4y ago
  Mobile global market share is Android 72% iOS 27%, but in the United States it's Android 43% iOS 57%. According to statcounter, Mac has ~25% market share in the US. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-st...
- rowanG077 4y ago
  I still see way more windows laptops. In fact I have never even seen an M* based Mac. 15% seem a bit high to me.
- Dma54rhs 4y ago
  People in Europe don't have, or won't spend, thousands for laptops. I think you live in some strange bubble or don't live in Europe.
- r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
  No. I work on a start upy science park where every fifth car is a tesla, the cafe roasts it's own beans in "Bertha " and the barista is 6'4", dresses like a lumberjack, has a magnificent beard, and insists that they are non binary because they once painted their nails. Even there, in the most wanky of environments imaginable, only about half of the laptop wielders in the work pods / shared spaces / flow rooms (shudder) are using a Mac.
- yucky 4y ago
  Well roughly 0% of gamers use Macs, and there are a lot of gamers. So that's a huge chunk. Also, most of the devs I know are Linux users on PC hardware. Creatives all tend to be Mac (of course) while general business users tend be split more evenly. So yeah 15% seems right.
seydor 4y ago
are you in the USA ?
- kyriakos 4y ago
  Exactly this. Apple computers are more popular in US than anywhere else, in most other countries they are prevalent in certain industries only.
  - ultrarunner 4y ago
    Previously, they were more prevalent in certain industries in the US as well. That's not as true anymore. I wonder if wider adoption would lag with distance.
    - kyriakos 4y ago
      Depends, by that time it's possible Microsoft will get its shit together and release a Windows 12 without the unwanted stuff or Linux will get popular enough to fill in the gap.
jen20 4y ago
Any tooling in particular? The only thing I’ve run into is CockroachDB, who seem uniformly uninterested in ARM binaries for anything including Linux.
- Moto7451 4y ago
  Docker was a pain for a bit. Companies I’ve worked for/consulted for are stuck on old Terraform versions that lack ARM builds through tfenv. Providers that are downloaded are similarly affected. Tfenv won’t run its native ARM build and install the Intel arch when it’s the only one available. I think tooling issues like that are more prevalent than things like language interpreters and libraries you link against.
  - jen20 4y ago
    Interesting - it wouldn’t be too hard to make tfenv build from source if necessary for anything post Terraform 0.5 (the very early days are likely not fully reproducible without some serious effort!)

ricardobayes 4y ago

Yes, it's tough to believe it's only 15%. In USA and Western Europe Macs became the de facto general purpose computers.

Mikeb85 4y ago
There's a ton of legacy Windows systems and Windows systems in non-tech offices. Plus schools, universities, etc...
- haunter 4y ago
  And you know millions people who loves playing games and build their own computer to use the CPU they want, the RAM they want, the GPU they want etc. Macs are nice to some extent but incredibly locked down for my taste both on hardware and software level. Have to use it at work but I'd never ever buy one on my own.
Macha 4y ago
I think you're living in a software developer bubble if you believe that. In Ireland, the only Mac owners I know are other software developers. Everyone else uses the €500 windows laptops that were on sale however many years ago their last one broke.
- dmitriid 4y ago
  I've seen tons of business people on them. Though admittedly at tech companies
- fold3 4y ago
  mac and apple devices are like 90% of the laptops for people in the art field from what i've seen. And I live in western Europe.
q-big 4y ago
> In USA and Western Europe Macs became the de facto general purpose computers. For Western Europe: surely not in Germany.
ohgodplsno 4y ago
* In your personal bubble * Which is made of software engineers and tech companies * Which are all very wealthy relative to the rest of the population * Which most likely have it paid for by their company. 15% feels like an overstatement if anything.
flohofwoe 4y ago
> ...and Western Europe... Lol what? Macs are still pretty much non-existant in Europe except in some 'hipster hotspots' like Berlin (typing this on a Mac and far away from Berlin, but still...) E.g. for a reality check, click on the 'OS Version' line in the table at the bottom to unfold and see detailed OS stats, among gamers macOS sits at 2.45% across all Steam regions (at least it's growing though): https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...
- Macha 4y ago
  Using steam gamers to assess Mac market share is unrepresentative in the opposite direction to surveying SF tech workers, given Apple has not bothered to support high end games such as those which steam sells for many years at a time. I think with the steam deck, we'll see Linux overtake Mac OS in the steam charts in the next year. I don't think Linux will then be as popular as Macs in the world at large.
  - haunter 4y ago
    They could just go the console way. Apple TV sooner or later get an M CPU and it has a great performance. On the other hand the games are missing, I have Apple Arcade but... it's nothing like compared to PS Plus or GamePass at all
- ricardobayes 4y ago
  Since you sent a link, I send you another one: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-kingdom https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-kingdo... In the UK, macOS + iOS combined overtook Windows (even by a little, but still).
  - stkdump 4y ago
    According to your link, Windows has 3 times the market share of OS X. In Germany it is closer to 4 times.
lapcat 4y ago
Mobile global market share is Android 72% iOS 27%, but in the United States it's Android 43% iOS 57%. According to statcounter, Mac has ~25% market share in the US. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-st...
rowanG077 4y ago
I still see way more windows laptops. In fact I have never even seen an M* based Mac. 15% seem a bit high to me.
Dma54rhs 4y ago
People in Europe don't have, or won't spend, thousands for laptops. I think you live in some strange bubble or don't live in Europe.
r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
No. I work on a start upy science park where every fifth car is a tesla, the cafe roasts it's own beans in "Bertha " and the barista is 6'4", dresses like a lumberjack, has a magnificent beard, and insists that they are non binary because they once painted their nails. Even there, in the most wanky of environments imaginable, only about half of the laptop wielders in the work pods / shared spaces / flow rooms (shudder) are using a Mac.
yucky 4y ago
Well roughly 0% of gamers use Macs, and there are a lot of gamers. So that's a huge chunk. Also, most of the devs I know are Linux users on PC hardware. Creatives all tend to be Mac (of course) while general business users tend be split more evenly. So yeah 15% seems right.

seydor 4y ago

are you in the USA ?

kyriakos 4y ago
Exactly this. Apple computers are more popular in US than anywhere else, in most other countries they are prevalent in certain industries only.
- ultrarunner 4y ago
  Previously, they were more prevalent in certain industries in the US as well. That's not as true anymore. I wonder if wider adoption would lag with distance.
  - kyriakos 4y ago
    Depends, by that time it's possible Microsoft will get its shit together and release a Windows 12 without the unwanted stuff or Linux will get popular enough to fill in the gap.

jen20 4y ago

Any tooling in particular? The only thing I’ve run into is CockroachDB, who seem uniformly uninterested in ARM binaries for anything including Linux.

Moto7451 4y ago
Docker was a pain for a bit. Companies I’ve worked for/consulted for are stuck on old Terraform versions that lack ARM builds through tfenv. Providers that are downloaded are similarly affected. Tfenv won’t run its native ARM build and install the Intel arch when it’s the only one available. I think tooling issues like that are more prevalent than things like language interpreters and libraries you link against.
- jen20 4y ago
  Interesting - it wouldn’t be too hard to make tfenv build from source if necessary for anything post Terraform 0.5 (the very early days are likely not fully reproducible without some serious effort!)