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I don't know if I can accept the prognostication of someone who thinks that in 2003 "any self-respecting developer was carrying a MacBook, preferably the one th

by dkhenry 13y ago

I don't know if I can accept the prognostication of someone who thinks that in 2003 "any self-respecting developer was carrying a MacBook, preferably the one the size of a small aircraft carrier". My preferred development environment has been Linux running on a _desktop_ since I started programming. Why would I move to the much less capable OSX or to a neutered version of Linux, when I can just install fedora or ubuntu and have a much more capable ( and in my opinion better ) workstation ?

__--__ 13y ago
Because not everybody wants to spend days or weeks figuring out why their video or wireless drivers aren't working. They want to get to work. Until OS X 10.7, it was a beautiful version of linux that just worked. "Less capable", ok, maybe, but I don't see it. My entire work environment (zsh+bash scripts+vim) seamlessly copies back and forth between linux and OS X. Most linux utilities are available via homebrew. Those that aren't I compile from source. It's just like any other linux distribution on that front. It's not perfect, but I get up and running a lot faster on OS X than on any linux distribution. I'm on Fedora 19 now and in many way I have the same issues with linux I've had since I first installed Red Hat 7 in 2000. The lack of progress on certain fronts in the linux world is staggering.
- stcredzero 13y ago
  Snow Leopard was just beautiful! It's been downhill from a developer standpoint since.
- dkhenry 13y ago
  I still don't understand the concept that Linux doesn't just work. I have built multiple desktops and used at least three labtops since 2005 all of which have run Linux and I have _never_ had a hardware issue that wasn't caused by me messing with things. More so then windows and OSX everything has always just worked on Linux. I have had issues with windows needing drivers and OSX not letting me actually use my hardware ( try setting the resolution on a retina macbook ) but the _only_ issue I ever had with Linux was that I needed a special kernel to get my Chromebook pixel to have a working touchscreen.
  - __--__ 13y ago
    You've never run an NVidia graphics card or had a broadcom wireless card? What about discrete graphics? My current peccadillo is the nouveau driver crashes my laptop if I try to put it to sleep. My wireless card also disconnects intermittently and has difficulties coming back from sleep. These are three major areas for a laptop that have never quite worked right out of the box: graphics, wireless and power management. I don't want to spend days (weeks!) fixing this stuff and never quite getting 100% there, yet that's exactly what I'm doing right now. Since 10.7, OS X has become insufferable to use, so I switched back to Fedora. I'm not trying to say OS X is perfect nor that linux is crap. But categorizing linux as "just works" and OS X as "less capable" are provably false. There's also a real vacuum right now for a developer OS that's powerful, easy to use and graphically beautiful. OS X used to fit that bill, but doesn't anymore. Linux never will.
bryanlarsen 13y ago
It was 2003 when I switched from Linux to OSX. Back then Apple was very much the underdog, and OSX was seen by many as a no-hassle, pretty Unix, with laptops that just worked. Back then Linux was very problematic on laptops. The developer migration to OS X started well before the introduction of Intel based Macs, although that really accelerated the trends. In subsequent years Apple started pulling their OSX developers to work on iOS, started moving in the direction of locking down, and started changing in developer mindshare from "underdog" to "bully".
presty 13y ago
> I don't know if I can accept the prognostication of someone who thinks that in 2003 "any self-respecting developer was carrying a MacBook, preferably the one the size of a small aircraft carrier" I know I can't, simply because the Macbook did not exist in 2003. The Macbook was only introduced in 2006. In 2003, it was called iBook. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember "developers" being the lion share of those buying iBooks back in 2003-05.

by dkhenry 13y ago

__--__ 13y ago

Because not everybody wants to spend days or weeks figuring out why their video or wireless drivers aren't working. They want to get to work. Until OS X 10.7, it was a beautiful version of linux that just worked. "Less capable", ok, maybe, but I don't see it. My entire work environment (zsh+bash scripts+vim) seamlessly copies back and forth between linux and OS X. Most linux utilities are available via homebrew. Those that aren't I compile from source. It's just like any other linux distribution on that front. It's not perfect, but I get up and running a lot faster on OS X than on any linux distribution. I'm on Fedora 19 now and in many way I have the same issues with linux I've had since I first installed Red Hat 7 in 2000. The lack of progress on certain fronts in the linux world is staggering.

stcredzero 13y ago
Snow Leopard was just beautiful! It's been downhill from a developer standpoint since.
dkhenry 13y ago
I still don't understand the concept that Linux doesn't just work. I have built multiple desktops and used at least three labtops since 2005 all of which have run Linux and I have _never_ had a hardware issue that wasn't caused by me messing with things. More so then windows and OSX everything has always just worked on Linux. I have had issues with windows needing drivers and OSX not letting me actually use my hardware ( try setting the resolution on a retina macbook ) but the _only_ issue I ever had with Linux was that I needed a special kernel to get my Chromebook pixel to have a working touchscreen.
- __--__ 13y ago
  You've never run an NVidia graphics card or had a broadcom wireless card? What about discrete graphics? My current peccadillo is the nouveau driver crashes my laptop if I try to put it to sleep. My wireless card also disconnects intermittently and has difficulties coming back from sleep. These are three major areas for a laptop that have never quite worked right out of the box: graphics, wireless and power management. I don't want to spend days (weeks!) fixing this stuff and never quite getting 100% there, yet that's exactly what I'm doing right now. Since 10.7, OS X has become insufferable to use, so I switched back to Fedora. I'm not trying to say OS X is perfect nor that linux is crap. But categorizing linux as "just works" and OS X as "less capable" are provably false. There's also a real vacuum right now for a developer OS that's powerful, easy to use and graphically beautiful. OS X used to fit that bill, but doesn't anymore. Linux never will.

bryanlarsen 13y ago

It was 2003 when I switched from Linux to OSX. Back then Apple was very much the underdog, and OSX was seen by many as a no-hassle, pretty Unix, with laptops that just worked. Back then Linux was very problematic on laptops. The developer migration to OS X started well before the introduction of Intel based Macs, although that really accelerated the trends. In subsequent years Apple started pulling their OSX developers to work on iOS, started moving in the direction of locking down, and started changing in developer mindshare from "underdog" to "bully".

presty 13y ago

> I don't know if I can accept the prognostication of someone who thinks that in 2003 "any self-respecting developer was carrying a MacBook, preferably the one the size of a small aircraft carrier" I know I can't, simply because the Macbook did not exist in 2003. The Macbook was only introduced in 2006. In 2003, it was called iBook. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember "developers" being the lion share of those buying iBooks back in 2003-05.