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I've been using macOS for quite some time and I have the same feeling. I think it is a great system in general for your "average Joe" but for development and po

I've been using macOS for quite some time and I have the same feeling. I think it is a great system in general for your "average Joe" but for development and power user stuff it is inferior to Linux. Don't even get me started on Docker and how it works on it.

five82 4y ago
The Mac OS X of around 15 years ago had an elegant simplicity to it that I really appreciated. Everything just seemed to work well. That seems to have been lost. New and often unwanted features just add to the complexity. A lot of first party applications seem subpar. And iCloud often seems more like a nuisance than a feature. I still like Apple hardware but I’m looking forward to trying Asahi Linux soon.
- dev_daftly 4y ago
  15 years ago I thought I would never buy a non-mac laptop, now I hate using the one I'm forced to for work.
Dalewyn 4y ago
I'm a Windows wizard first and foremost, but I have to give credit where credit is due. MacOS is very clear about what it will and won't do. So long as you subscribe to the One Apple Way(tm) and adhere to what MacOS will do, you're golden; and a common man's use case almost never goes beyond what MacOS will do. Combine that with a consistent design language and I, sincerely, would recommend a Macbook Air of some description to most people. MacOS Just Works(tm). Windows and Linux are for the tinkerers, for the masses MacOS is the best option out there.
- philistine 4y ago
  It's possible that a thing is simply inferior to another. Not everything has a place in the world. The amount of tinkering and preferences available on macOS is staggering, and makes Windows an also ran. Remember that Microsoft straight-up removed the ability to have the taskbar on the sides of the display. It's just gone. Microsoft can be commended for its software back compat, but its UI has deprecated so many uses through the years that Apple has diligently kept, hidden to varying degrees. To this day, if you want, you can run Finder with no chrome, as a strictly spatial file navigator. There is a vibrant, reactive, and profitable market for third-party software to change the capabilities of the OS. Windows has a market too, but it is far from what the mac community manages to make. macOS is still a tinkerer's dream to a greater extent than Windows.
kitsunesoba 4y ago
I would say that Linux is better only for a particular type of power user/dev. In my case, as a computer user of 27 years who’s been writing code in some capacity for around 20 years, macOS is preferable because its stock config is the closest to how I want things to work. It takes very little config prodding to get to my productive “happy place”. With Linux on the other hand, reaching that same “happy place” feels like a Sisyphean task… no matter how lunch time I spend on tinkering it still isn’t “right” and that further detracts from productivity because it’s distracting. I don’t think I could make Linux my primary OS without developing my own DE, which rather than Sisyphean is Herculean.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Unless you're shipping an iOS/MacOS app though, getting to that "happy place" is usually the same number of tweaks away. At most places I've worked, the Linux build environment is just the one we use for production, and the MacOS one is ported to Darwin so devs can work on it. Like the parent said too, if you're working in a Docker environment it becomes almost a no-brainer. MacOS has it's uses and you can argue for it in places like design and video editing. For development though, MacOS feels increasingly less-relevant as time goes on. It's not a bad thing, but the majority of Mac devs I've met in the past half-decade do their work over SSH or in a VM.
  - kitsunesoba 4y ago
    For Docker purposes I’d rather keep a headless Linux box around that I remote into with a Mac than have to try to live with the Linux desktop as my daily driver.

five82 4y ago

The Mac OS X of around 15 years ago had an elegant simplicity to it that I really appreciated. Everything just seemed to work well. That seems to have been lost. New and often unwanted features just add to the complexity. A lot of first party applications seem subpar. And iCloud often seems more like a nuisance than a feature. I still like Apple hardware but I’m looking forward to trying Asahi Linux soon.

dev_daftly 4y ago
15 years ago I thought I would never buy a non-mac laptop, now I hate using the one I'm forced to for work.

Dalewyn 4y ago

I'm a Windows wizard first and foremost, but I have to give credit where credit is due. MacOS is very clear about what it will and won't do. So long as you subscribe to the One Apple Way(tm) and adhere to what MacOS will do, you're golden; and a common man's use case almost never goes beyond what MacOS will do. Combine that with a consistent design language and I, sincerely, would recommend a Macbook Air of some description to most people. MacOS Just Works(tm). Windows and Linux are for the tinkerers, for the masses MacOS is the best option out there.

philistine 4y ago
It's possible that a thing is simply inferior to another. Not everything has a place in the world. The amount of tinkering and preferences available on macOS is staggering, and makes Windows an also ran. Remember that Microsoft straight-up removed the ability to have the taskbar on the sides of the display. It's just gone. Microsoft can be commended for its software back compat, but its UI has deprecated so many uses through the years that Apple has diligently kept, hidden to varying degrees. To this day, if you want, you can run Finder with no chrome, as a strictly spatial file navigator. There is a vibrant, reactive, and profitable market for third-party software to change the capabilities of the OS. Windows has a market too, but it is far from what the mac community manages to make. macOS is still a tinkerer's dream to a greater extent than Windows.

kitsunesoba 4y ago

I would say that Linux is better only for a particular type of power user/dev. In my case, as a computer user of 27 years who’s been writing code in some capacity for around 20 years, macOS is preferable because its stock config is the closest to how I want things to work. It takes very little config prodding to get to my productive “happy place”. With Linux on the other hand, reaching that same “happy place” feels like a Sisyphean task… no matter how lunch time I spend on tinkering it still isn’t “right” and that further detracts from productivity because it’s distracting. I don’t think I could make Linux my primary OS without developing my own DE, which rather than Sisyphean is Herculean.

smoldesu 4y ago
Unless you're shipping an iOS/MacOS app though, getting to that "happy place" is usually the same number of tweaks away. At most places I've worked, the Linux build environment is just the one we use for production, and the MacOS one is ported to Darwin so devs can work on it. Like the parent said too, if you're working in a Docker environment it becomes almost a no-brainer. MacOS has it's uses and you can argue for it in places like design and video editing. For development though, MacOS feels increasingly less-relevant as time goes on. It's not a bad thing, but the majority of Mac devs I've met in the past half-decade do their work over SSH or in a VM.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  For Docker purposes I’d rather keep a headless Linux box around that I remote into with a Mac than have to try to live with the Linux desktop as my daily driver.