Ask HN: Do you feel more productive on a Mac than on other OS?

Yes I am a more productive. But this may be not the fault of other systems. I'm productive because I use the OS for work for 4 years now. If I had chosen Ubuntu I may be very productive with this OS instead.

I would really like to work with a Linux distro but the problem is that I'm already kind of "locked" into the Apple universe. I bought a lot of software for my Mac and I would have to buy all stuff again if I change the OS.

Sadly I have to say that I wish I never bought my Mac. I had so many hardware problems with it and IMO the OS is not very stable too. In comparison: my Windows PC is running for 4 years straight without ANY hardware problem or crashing OS.

For development rails/laravel things just work on a mac.

On windows I always got sucked down a rabbit hole with something not working as expected. After an hour or so of research I would find out it's a windows bug/issue try the work around for another hour and it still would not be resolved.

If you are a developer the time you save moving from windows to mac will more than pay for your mac hardware costs moving forward.

The only regret I have moving to windows to mac is not doing it sooner.

Switch now.

The macbook air is more than enough power for most developers btw.

Yes, but I suspect a major part of that is the availability of tools and configuration I have on a Mac (for my everyday job and personal projects) are just too time consuming now for me to replicate elsewhere.

For example, I wanted to use Middleman on a project and though I could develop it on Windows. I can use SourceTree for Git and my choice of IDE, but installing Ruby on Windows is painful and the command prompt is horrible. At least the Creative Cloud license can be used on both, so that was non-issue.

Next I tried Ubuntu. I could install Ruby without an issue, the IDE was still supported... but there isn't anything close to a useful Git GUI like Tower or SourceTree. Creative Cloud was a miss to.

Its an interesting lesson. Developers who create good applications lock you into an ecosystem.

Yes, partly because I have very critical actions available with hot-corners, awesome apps like Snappy/DragonDrop/BTT and such (which I have concluded have nothing come close on windows (after googling)). So that's mainly setup-wise.

Another part is the scriptability. I might have just not been that "into" doing those things before - or they are just not as available. Last time I used Windows was probably 5 years ago.

Right now I do because the proprietary Linux drivers for my Dell laptop broke somehow and so I'm using my MacBook until I get the energy to fix that bullshit.

But the only thing I do on my Mac is toggle between full screen Chrome and full screen terminal running mosh to a Linux VPS, so I don't really feel like I'm on a Mac.

For me it is Linux > Mac > Potato > Windows.

I am used to the shell and couldnt be productive without that. Next to that fact that a lot of software i use daily does not even exist for the latter. Mac is nice, but a little to restricted and i dont particularly like its look and WM.

You will be most productive on whatever OS you use the most. The longer you use it the more accustomed you become to the different hotkeys, menu layouts and commands. Pretty much any OS you use will be customized over time to suit your needs best.

Yes, absolutely when comparing with Windows. The productivity difference to Linux wouldn't be as pronounced though I suppose because much of that productivity gains for me stems from the availability of a proper command line and a UNIX toolset.

Yes, but only because of Unix shell.

When Windows will have native Ubuntu shell I think I would be more productive on Windows since VS is most productive IDE I've encountered.