Hacker News Reader

Comment by jimmaswell | Hacker News Reader

It sounded ludicrous to me but apparently it's true that a lot of developers use Apple laptops. I don't get it, I've used an Apple computer for a week at a time a few times and it was thoroughly less convenient and more frustrating than on Windows, not even including having no Visual Studio and such.

View on HN

It's a lot about what you are used to. Most developers are creating websites or backends that run in unix-like environments and since OS X is a unix, it's a lot easier to transition or share between your workstation and production systems.

But the same problem is between Linux and Mac. So many times did my bash scripts break on the ancient userland that comes with Mac OS.

I do all my development in a Linux VM, and it's definitely a wide decision, seeing how many hours my colleagues waste setting up Postgres or Docker or even just Golang on their Macs. (Before you ask, I cannot boot into Linux directly because company policy.)

I wouldn't know how to develop on either, Linux is so much more geared towards developers than Macs or windows computers.

Even so, a Mac is closer to Linux than windows is, it's a full unix under the hood after all.

Having the same environment on my workstation as on my servers always appealed to me (since my SGI days, when I would develop stuff on an indy and deploy on a challenge, basically a headless indy).

But I can't imagine using OS/X as a server environment and windows seems just wrong as a server.

So that leaves me with Linux, but I don't mind and I like the whole concept of open-source software.

MacOS can be used like Linux for all but a tiling window manager (or changing DE/WM at all).

https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst is a godsend.

I knew my comment would attract at least one reply like this. It just really isn't even close though - and it isn't the fault of Amethyst (or others) - it just can't plug into macOS at a low enough level to get an experience comparable to i3wm.

> I've used an Apple computer for a week at a time a few times and it was thoroughly less convenient and more frustrating than on Windows

Well, that's the issue. If you're used to a certain way things work, one week is not enough time to get used to another workflow. Even when you switch from google docs to microsoft office, or vice versa, you'll be very frustrated and confused for a lot longer than a week.

I think it has to do with what you are used to.

I have the same exact reaction to you when using windows. When I try to use a program on my high res display I can barely read the text, when I zoom in and increase the text size the entire program is distorted. The terminal is a backwards windows shell that is useless for any development. There is no ssh installed by default, swiping the trackpad is horrible and generally battery does not last longer than 3 hours.

Also I have to pay for things I never wanted such as touch screens that only encourage people to comes and put finger prints on my display.

With apple I can install homebrew and via the terminal just install whichever packages I need for development with sane defaults. I have no had to mess with environment variables once, something I painfully remember from windows.

I would hate my life if I had to develop on windows honestly

Msys2 on Windows is just like having a Linux shell, even has a decently sized pacman repository.

The unix base matters a great deal. It's not about fayboyism, it's about consistency.

Many well-off tech companies automatically buy you a MBP when you join - and you'd have to proactively ask for something else to prevent this. I got used to my first Macbook like this - and have continued due to construction quality and ease of keeping my whole computing setup running easily anywhere in the world... But their continued insistence on slowly morphing their laptops into what you'd find in a future like Pixar's WALL-E makes me think they're on their way out of the business of enabling pioneers.

A laptop is a tool. As a developer I want to be confident in my tools. If you can work on a Mac, you can work on any Mac: the keyboard is identical, the environment is more or less standard. You invest into learning to develop on Macs only once. Compare that to HP's and Dells: similarly to the Android ecosystem there are just too many variables.

Part of it is practical, it is easier to virtualize other OS's on OSX than the other way around, but also don't underestimate the 'status symbol' of 'look, my employer spends money on me'.

It's also the best platform for mobile app development as it natively supports both iOS and Android dev.

How is it easier to run VirtualBox on OSX than Windows?

It's easier to run a Windows guest vm on an OSX host, than to run an OSX host on a Windows or linux host, because of licensing, so if you need a mix of platforms, having OSX be the host is the path of least resistance.

Symlinks in shared folders

This is possible on a Windows host in a hackish sort of way, though I imagine it's more seamless on a OSX host, being Unix.

Macs trackpad is miles ahead of competition, pretty much any Windows laptop I tried the trackpad sucked.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com