Maybe decades ago, but not now.
Yeah, Mac stuff is white or silver now. They stopped doing the colourful stuff 20-odd years ago.
Mac osx has unix command prompts built in and the ability to containerize out of the gate. Windows requires WSL and a bunch of other shit to achieve a substantially worse effect.
The out of the box containerization is still pretty new though — it’s like a month old
Exactly. Modern Windows is like Tesla - shiny exterior built on top of garbage cobbled together with paperclips and duct tape. No visible knobs, no easy to access features, everything hidden behind layers of needless menus and abstraction with the express goal to extract maximum value from their ‘customers’.
I’m not an Apple fanboy by any means but I feel like the two ecosystems are much closer now than they were 10-15 years ago.
Kids use Chromebooks everywhere I’ve seen the past 5+ years.
Not even decades ago. ResEdit was one way we hacked old Macs back in the day.
It’s an older meme sir but it doesn’t check out anymore.
Inaccurate.
If you’re a Linux user why wouldn’t you unlock MacOS’ potential by using the command line? MacOS is UNIX based, so you have access to its guts, just as you would any other UNIX based system.
Exactly. MacOS is the best of both worlds; it’s my absolute favorite distro of BSD.
It’s not just UNIX based; it is a certified UNIX OS:
https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/Hence the “based”
Because I’m not going to willingly give my creative efforts over to a corporation that will hold it hostage and only allow me to work so long as I’m using only their products.
I mean, yeah, screw using Logic but most major DAWs run on macOS as well as Windows. Up until Linux pulls its finger out its arse on audio it’s pawbably going to stay a macOS dominated industry.
My DAC has been fully supported by pipewire for like 2 years now. Bitwig Studio works flawlessly up to my 192kHz.
Haven’t had to touch audio stuff in Linux since pipewire released. It’s a drop-in replacement for all the other apis.And audio “works” on Windows too. But both platforms historically have poor audio stacks.
Audio interfaces still face so many issues on Linux. Part of that might be down to drivers, and that’s on the manufacturers, but often there’s just excessive latency and stuttering.
I fixed all of that by following the suggestions on the Arch wiki page for Professional Audio, but I realize that not everyone knows about that.
Do those suggestions apply to other distros or only Arch?
They’re pretty distro-agnostic, you might have to translate some packages to whatever distro you’re using, but that’s just a quick search. The article in question
Do note that this requires some amount of fiddling, if that’s not your thing there are some distros that are already configured for audio production, such as AV Linux or Ubuntu Studio.
Until waves plugins run well on linux it will never be a mainstream audio os.
Not a problem with Linux. Pipewire works great and offers everything you need from an audio backend, there are great DAWs like Bitwig and Reaper and a good collection of compatible plugins as well. The main problem is hardware, which isn’t the fault of Linux but hardware manufacturers.
It’s easy to make that claim, but this has happened to me without even using ASIO, so it’s using the common standard audio interface mode.
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"Homebrew, plus some VMs, and you get the best of all platforms in one computer.
This used to be particularly awesome when macOS was intel based, as now running an intel based machine image on apple’s ARM architecture is awkward by comparison, but hopefully that will resolve somewhat soon.
Apple silicon is sick. I’m salivating for a Linux distro dedicated to Apple M chips.
You mean Asahi?
I believe that’s the name of the project. It’s early days and I can’t wait until it is properly developed.
but hopefully that will resolve somewhat soon
By converting everyone to ARM !!!
That is just dumb. Most devs in tech I know default to Macs as their dev boxes. Macs are also the defacto workhorse for music, video production.
If you want to say that Macs don’t make for good servers, I’ll give you that, but saying they aren’t tools is just ignorant.
There used to be a mac server thing.
Guess I’ve been using a toy to administer Linux servers for the past 20 years. 🤷♂️
It’s technically possible to administer Linux servers with a Nintendo DS.
…Not sure where I was going with that, except to say that you can, in fact, do just that with an actual toy.
You could do it with any Turing-complete machine. But calling something that is actively and widely used to do technical work a toy is kind of ridiculous.
You’re not wrong there.
What’s considered real use in your opinion?
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@the_q linux/bsd/win10 with wsl? Of course, OSX is still useful like remote client and like dev machine for Apple devices, but not for everything else
OK first, way to telegraph your crusty age: it hasn’t been OSX for YEARS. macOS 10 was a long running release but we are on macOS 15 now, soon to be 16, though the name convention is switching to years instead of sequential version. If you have a machine still running OSX, yes by all means put ZorinOS or LMDE on it.
Second, I translated your comment as “I don’t know how to use it so it sux”.
Well that’s just objectively wrong.
You sound out of touch.
I approve. I don’t care if it’s unix based. MacOS is infantilism manifest.
“Right. You’re in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People’s Front.”
Splitters…
This is some boomer level “hurr hurr” bullshit that is just patently not true. Keep giving Microsoft credit it doesn’t deserve.
Right? Windows is like a Tesla. One of those wankpanzers that cut off your fingers, brick in the car wash and immolate their drivers.
The trashing of the Apple machines is undeserved, but the Windows one is relatively accurate.
Windows is the thing that everybody uses, like a car. But, it should be a modern car where the car manufacturer requires you to pay a yearly subscription to unlock basic features that shipped with the car. It’s a car that you can’t fix yourself, and have to take to an authorized service station where they pay a fee to get access to the tools that allow them to diagnose the car.
I don’t know what the Mac one should be. A modern Mac is really powerful. It’s a Unix machine with a clean and polished UI. But, it’s true that it shields the average user from the complexity if they don’t want to dig deeper. Maybe it’s a modern Bugatti. A luxurious vehicle that has obscene power under the hood.
I’d reverse Windows and Mac. Mac is sleek, smooth, pleasant, well integrated, solid, stable, and has a good shell. They have great machines with great specs and are well built. They also take some learning to become efficient with.
Windows on the other hand, is cheap, buggy, ugly, unstable, comes pre-packaged with flashy junk, breaks easily, any child can use it and then break it.
I completely agree. As a software developer I preferred when I had a Mac whereas our company uses Windows and Microsoft for everything and it just meh.
Mac was so easy to do everything from the terminal or the search bar.
Plus I like how they have the Homebrew packaging system to install pretty much anything you need.
Windows has something similar with chocolatey but it’s just not as complete. It’s not *nix apps either.
Flip Windows and macOS and I think the meme works again.
I think there is an argument to be made here. About window shitty, inconsistent, obscure ui. That you constantly have to Google to figure out where are your settings. unlike macOs much more streamline UI
Windows needs to be big brother watching at all times while forcing ads down your throat.
Apple just needs a very high price tag.
Even that needs a disclaimer. I was ordering some SFF PCs for my org last week and was kind of shocked how much the Lenovo and Dell PCs in that form factor were… out of curiosity I specc’d a Mac Mini with the same RAM and storage and they came in a little cheaper with a better processor. Only caveat is the lack of USB A ports, but dongles are super cheap anyway. If my users wouldn’t need training to use them I would definitely have considered (maybe even preferred from a device management perspective) the Mac Mini.
Factor in an energy cost savings as part of the TCO. A M4 Mini will save considerable energy over any comparable machine.
Managing Mac’s compared to PCs is such a dream it’s soooooo easy
For the love of Pete, not this again.
Many flavors of Linux are more simple and user friendly than Windows or Mac.
Mac is unix-based and very similar to Linux in many ways.
Windows is like that car that Homer Simpson designed.
This is Mac
And this is Windows
The truth:
I’m gonna say windows is more like a cybertruck truck. Full of bloat, spyware, and half the features are not like to slice a finger off than do what it’s supposed to- and definitely not bullet proof.
I’ll take any excuse that I can get to dump this story somewhere. A relative of mine has bought an iMac. She created some videos with it. After some time has passed, the Mac’s native Apple media player (I forgot the name) refused to play the videos she has created with the Apple iMac software. But it conveniently pointed her to a 20 € “upgrade” that she could buy to make it work again. She asked me for help, I installed MPV instead. Worked like a charm. On an unrelated note, that thing is glued together, and the storage is soldered on, likewise is the ram.
“Apple’s design is so simple!”. Why do people put up with this trash?
Edit: I forgot to mention all of the videos were in Apple’s own .mov format.
I decided to switch to mac a couple of years ago. I have been extremely unhappy with the results. I have a good mechanical keyboard which is built for both PC and Mac (it has Mac-specific keys), but nope, compability sucks and keybindings are messed up across a lot of the keys, making it basically a guessing game each time I need a paranthesis. I usually work within a Linux VDI. Within the VDI, keybindings are further messed up, making it hard to find the correct keys, even on the integrated laptop keyboard. I have a usb-c connected screen/docking station which only connects properly about 75% of the time. I have a stream deck which randomly refuses to connect, making me have to unplug and replug every now and then. I regularly want to connect to multiple display, which often turns put to be unsupported and basically impossible.
To me, it just seems like compability for mac is completely terrible. A lot of the issues could be solved by throwing more money at apple - by getting an apple keyboard or apple screen or subscription software - but for stubborn people like me, apple is not getting a dime for these kind of issues. None of these issues existed before I got the mac.
I am leaving the apple ecosystem for good when my company allows me to get a new machine.
Yeah, Macs are great if all your other stuff is Apple and all your subscriptions are Apple and all your cloud is Apple and you buy a new $2k unrepairable computer and go along with whatever huge changes Apple brings.
And they are actually quite user friendly… until something doesn’t work, or you want to reach out of its approved purview.
They are also dev friendly too, but the hurdle for that is high enough that one might consider Linux at that point.
But on your point, say what you will about Windows and all the UI garbage and bloat MS adds, but underneath, it is utterly stagnant, lol.
They are also dev friendly too,
Not saying you’re wrong because I don’t use it, but from the outside, they appear actively hostile toward developers.
You have to “unlock” them with a lot of tweaks. And to be clear, I’m just saying they’re better than Windows. Ugh, trying to compile anything on Windows…
Hardware wise, they’re far better for local code assistants, too, with the exception of a few exotic AMD laptops just now coming out.
As much as I hate MacOS I love their interface aesthetic.
And it’s an official Unix system, which seems to bother some Linux users.
POSIX compliance jealousy? 🤪
Anyone can become an official unix system if they would pay up. Random rhel rebuilts were ‘official unix system’ at one point or another.
If you access the guts of a Mac through CLI tools, I have some questions. Is it legal from the Apple point of view? Will it void your warranty?
There are a couple of safeguards, but by and large you can. And
terminalis a pre-installed Apple app, of course it’s Apple “approved.”And a lot of those safe guards (like the System Integrity Protection) can be turned off, if that’s what you like. The terminal together with the homebrew package manager make macOS a really good place to be, if you can’t get rid of some software that won’t run on Linux (like the Adobe suite).
No, using a Mac won’t void the warranty. It’s not a secured platform in the way iOS or a game console is.
I’d still never buy it, but it’s good to know.
MacBooks are legitimately just superior laptops, especially now that apple silicon is well supported. I don’t like iPhones or their desktops, but the laptops are pretty much unmatched in terms of portability, features, battery life etc
I am an unabashed Linux stan but I use a macbook to ssh into my Linux boxes because there is no Linux laptop which is half as good.
That’s why I use Pop!_OS as my daily driver distro.
Pop!_OS gang rise UP!!
Reporting for duty!
Same. Clean, modern, responsive.
Most importantly: decluttered.
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Lol, call me back when they support bsd jails. Or a five button mouse. Or a decent amount of RAM. Or a package manager. Or more than 2 ports. Or an SDCard slot
My 2022 macbook pro has a charging port, four USB-C ports (one of which can be used for charging as well), an HDMI port, a minijack port, and an SD card slot.
I use homebrew for package management, and have yet to be dissatisfied with that.
This machine also happens to have 32 GB of RAM.
I don’t know about mouse-support, but I mostly use my keyboard for everything, and have yet to miss having more than two buttons and a scroll wheel on my mouse. With my previous (2012) macbook however, I used a five-button mouse sometimes.
Really don’t know where you get your info on macs, but you it seems you missed the phone when you were called back sometime around 2010.
Brew is shit. I’ve had to use it, and wouldn’t chose to ever again. 32gig of RAM? For professional work? What is this, 2009? 4 ports is good, and good to hear about the sd-card finally. And you’re supporting the mac mouse? With the charging port on the bottom?
You may think it fine. But for the money I think Macs are vastly inferior to a decent thinkpad, dell, or even HP
What are you smoking that 32gb of RAM is 09? 32gb is more than enough for most users in 2025, hell 16gb is still quite enough for most use cases.
Most mac users I’ve known either use the touchpad or MX Master, very few use the magic mouse. And build quality is much better than the equivalent plastic garbage from HP or Dell.
If you need more than 32 GB of RAM, I’m pretty sure you’re no longer looking for a laptop. I mean sure, you can get up to 128 GB on a macbook, but if you need that kind of volume you’re doing professional work on something that is specifically extremely RAM-intensive.
I didn’t support the apple-mouse, in fact I don’t like it at all, primarily because I don’t like the feel of it. Personally, I use a completely ordinary, cheap mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel.
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I’m not sure this is necessary, my five button mouse worked just fine on the mbp my work forced me to use in 2020. The only issue was pointer speed is wonky, and the scroll wheel is intentionally stupid.
But the buttons work like Linux uses them, not like windows uses them. Which is fine, but I can see how the uninitiated would have a problem with that.
I have always hated Apple the company… the products are way too overpriced and nerfd but Ok overall
As an engineer, I would rather develop on Mac than any other OS. I have shit to do and need to work in a POSIX compliant OS without bloat, while also not worrying about my OS install getting borked arbitrarily because I looked at it wrong.
Weird, I’ve been forced to use a Mac for work, never liked it. I prefer Debian or other non-rolling-release distros with long term support, and haven’t had a Linux install get messed up in many years (since I used Arch, and something went wrong with my proprietary Nvidia drivers after an update).
As another engineer, I won’t touch another Mac until it allows me to upgrade memory and disk without buying a whole other unit.
Never had to upgrade memory or disk in the lifespan of the machine. What really makes a difference though is 20 hours of battery life. You can run around the office without worrying about staying plugged in.
Also, AMD is also going towards the SoC approach.its only a matter of time before you can’t upgrade memory on PCs too.
I enjoyed using a MBP for a few years, mostly for the trackpad. I eventually grew too annoyed with the desktop crashes and iCloud bloat though. I built a new Linux workstation last year, and it just feels like home 🐧.
