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The majority of this article seems to be the standard " OS X is Great!" talking points. In my opinion, the real reason that developers switch to OS X is so tha

The majority of this article seems to be the standard " OS X is Great!" talking points. In my opinion, the real reason that developers switch to OS X is so that they can develop software for apple products (or in the case of web development, develop websites that are OS X friendly).

Retric 17y ago
IMO, The real reason "most" developers switched to mac has more to do with hosting websites on Linux/UNIX than anything else. A true UNIX command prompt is a powerful tool for dealing with large numbers of other UNIX computers and computer files. SSH + vi and suddenly your not just using your system but any computer your connecting to. The classic windows advantage of all those legacy systems stopped being relevant when many developers went back to notepad to update whatever new language they happened to be using today. PS: The article mentioned Terminal, but it forgot a lot of the other out of the box UNIX tools like SSH / diff.
- boryas 17y ago
  On the topic of ssh/dealing with other computers, doesn't PuTTY do that pretty well on windows? Though I may be misunderstanding the advantage you're pointing out.
  - weaksauce 17y ago
    Putty is just a ssh client. Terminal is a shell that has access to ssh so you can access your own files or redirect ports easily through a remote ssh session(you can do this with putty but you must go through some hoops, ie. loopback device and setting up some ports in the putty config), etc.... I love the tabbed terminals that terminal provides. I can ssh into a work computer and have my local shell in another tab. Very seamless.
    - rbanffy 17y ago
      That why I install Cygwin on every Windows box I touch.
dkarl 17y ago
None of the "advantages" sounded so hot to me except the desktop effects, which I haven't bothered to enable in Ubuntu anyway. I use a Mac regularly, and the interface hasn't stopped irritating me. I hate the stoplight window controls, and I hate using Command instead of Control. I love Apple's hardware design, but the software feels... obtuse. And apathetic. Like it has a hard time paying attention to me and doesn't feel like being helpful anyway. (I bought my Mac for four reasons: to try iPhone development, to run Adobe Lightroom, because I love my iPhone, and because I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.) I'm positively drooling for Apple to release a tablet PC, though. Gimme gimme gimme please.... The multitouch stuff on the iMacs looks extremely cool, and you just know Apple will nail the tablet.
- axod 17y ago
  There is absolutely no proven market for a 'tablet PC'. None whatsoever. Despite them being available for years in various forms.
  - dkarl 17y ago
    Because they're all terrible. They're all just small laptops with touch-sensitive screens and a few touch-screen software features. I've been itching for a tablet PC since at least 2003, but I've never bought one because I want one that doesn't suck. (Wait, I did buy a Nokia n800... sigh.) Apple's tablet won't suck, because Apple will 1) put a lot of work into creating a UI that works well with the form factor, and 2) have the guts to cut hardware features if that's what it takes to create a decent product. Funny, I sound like an Apple fanboy, even though I came here to express my irritation with OSX. Right now, if somebody gave me an iMac, my first impulse would be to install Linux on it, but you just have to look at the non-Apple phones released since the iPhone launched to see that Apple is on a completely different plane when it comes to smaller devices. I can't wait to see what they do with tablets, though perhaps it would hurt their prestige to release a novel product for a small market... they wouldn't be able to keep the hype within reasonable bounds, and expectations wouldn't be met.
    - axod 17y ago
axod 17y ago
Not at all. I think a lot would rather concentrate on building stuff, than trying to get their wifi to work in linux, or managing the latest updates that have broken gcc for some reason. For most, I think OS X is linux but without the maintenance.
- jrockway 17y ago
  Not true, Apple breaks core features in minor security releases all the time. Most recently, they broke the system Perl. I don't use OS X for anything important anymore (only for watching videos on my TV), but back when I did use a Mac for work, things randomly broke for no reason all the time. (That doesn't even include the nightmare that is ports / fink / whatever, required to get modern versions of UNIX programs.) I use Debian unstable now, and it is a lot more reliable than OS X, for me anyway. Also, the whole getting wifi to work thing is mostly solved now. All the wireless cards are Intel, and Intel pours a lot of money into making them work really well with Linux. So you pop in your Ubuntu or Moblin CD, install, and right click the little icon, just like on any other OS. Basically, OS X sucks, Linux sucks, and Windows sucks. So there is no real reason to get super-excited about any of them -- they are all basically the same, with Linux marginally better in a few cases.
  - axod 17y ago
    >> "Apple breaks core features in minor security releases all the time." I've used OS X for 2 1/2 years now, and can't remember anything breaking :/ Before that I used linux on the desktop for maybe 8 years, and things broke every week. (Redhat, mandrake, gentoo, ubuntu)
    - jrockway 17y ago
      (Redhat, mandrake, gentoo, ubuntu) Well there's your problem :) Try Debian stable, and let me know if it ever breaks. (Debian unstable definitely does break, but not very often, and it's usually easy to fix. It works for me.)
      - 17y ago
rbanffy 17y ago
And those "OSX is great" talking points annoyed me a lot. http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/five-reasons-why-this-developer-wont-switch-to-mac http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/five-reasons-why-thi...

Retric 17y ago

IMO, The real reason "most" developers switched to mac has more to do with hosting websites on Linux/UNIX than anything else. A true UNIX command prompt is a powerful tool for dealing with large numbers of other UNIX computers and computer files. SSH + vi and suddenly your not just using your system but any computer your connecting to. The classic windows advantage of all those legacy systems stopped being relevant when many developers went back to notepad to update whatever new language they happened to be using today. PS: The article mentioned Terminal, but it forgot a lot of the other out of the box UNIX tools like SSH / diff.

boryas 17y ago
On the topic of ssh/dealing with other computers, doesn't PuTTY do that pretty well on windows? Though I may be misunderstanding the advantage you're pointing out.
- weaksauce 17y ago
  Putty is just a ssh client. Terminal is a shell that has access to ssh so you can access your own files or redirect ports easily through a remote ssh session(you can do this with putty but you must go through some hoops, ie. loopback device and setting up some ports in the putty config), etc.... I love the tabbed terminals that terminal provides. I can ssh into a work computer and have my local shell in another tab. Very seamless.
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    That why I install Cygwin on every Windows box I touch.

dkarl 17y ago

None of the "advantages" sounded so hot to me except the desktop effects, which I haven't bothered to enable in Ubuntu anyway. I use a Mac regularly, and the interface hasn't stopped irritating me. I hate the stoplight window controls, and I hate using Command instead of Control. I love Apple's hardware design, but the software feels... obtuse. And apathetic. Like it has a hard time paying attention to me and doesn't feel like being helpful anyway. (I bought my Mac for four reasons: to try iPhone development, to run Adobe Lightroom, because I love my iPhone, and because I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.) I'm positively drooling for Apple to release a tablet PC, though. Gimme gimme gimme please.... The multitouch stuff on the iMacs looks extremely cool, and you just know Apple will nail the tablet.

axod 17y ago
There is absolutely no proven market for a 'tablet PC'. None whatsoever. Despite them being available for years in various forms.
- dkarl 17y ago
  Because they're all terrible. They're all just small laptops with touch-sensitive screens and a few touch-screen software features. I've been itching for a tablet PC since at least 2003, but I've never bought one because I want one that doesn't suck. (Wait, I did buy a Nokia n800... sigh.) Apple's tablet won't suck, because Apple will 1) put a lot of work into creating a UI that works well with the form factor, and 2) have the guts to cut hardware features if that's what it takes to create a decent product. Funny, I sound like an Apple fanboy, even though I came here to express my irritation with OSX. Right now, if somebody gave me an iMac, my first impulse would be to install Linux on it, but you just have to look at the non-Apple phones released since the iPhone launched to see that Apple is on a completely different plane when it comes to smaller devices. I can't wait to see what they do with tablets, though perhaps it would hurt their prestige to release a novel product for a small market... they wouldn't be able to keep the hype within reasonable bounds, and expectations wouldn't be met.
  - axod 17y ago

axod 17y ago

Not at all. I think a lot would rather concentrate on building stuff, than trying to get their wifi to work in linux, or managing the latest updates that have broken gcc for some reason. For most, I think OS X is linux but without the maintenance.

jrockway 17y ago
Not true, Apple breaks core features in minor security releases all the time. Most recently, they broke the system Perl. I don't use OS X for anything important anymore (only for watching videos on my TV), but back when I did use a Mac for work, things randomly broke for no reason all the time. (That doesn't even include the nightmare that is ports / fink / whatever, required to get modern versions of UNIX programs.) I use Debian unstable now, and it is a lot more reliable than OS X, for me anyway. Also, the whole getting wifi to work thing is mostly solved now. All the wireless cards are Intel, and Intel pours a lot of money into making them work really well with Linux. So you pop in your Ubuntu or Moblin CD, install, and right click the little icon, just like on any other OS. Basically, OS X sucks, Linux sucks, and Windows sucks. So there is no real reason to get super-excited about any of them -- they are all basically the same, with Linux marginally better in a few cases.
- axod 17y ago
  >> "Apple breaks core features in minor security releases all the time." I've used OS X for 2 1/2 years now, and can't remember anything breaking :/ Before that I used linux on the desktop for maybe 8 years, and things broke every week. (Redhat, mandrake, gentoo, ubuntu)
  - jrockway 17y ago
    (Redhat, mandrake, gentoo, ubuntu) Well there's your problem :) Try Debian stable, and let me know if it ever breaks. (Debian unstable definitely does break, but not very often, and it's usually easy to fix. It works for me.)
    - 17y ago

rbanffy 17y ago

And those "OSX is great" talking points annoyed me a lot. http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/five-reasons-why-this-developer-wont-switch-to-mac http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/blog_en/five-reasons-why-thi...