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Ask HN: What's the one software stopping you from switching over to a Mac?

8 pointsby b0ner_t0nerover 9 years ago
For me, it's Shapeshifter Clipboard Manager and it pretty much copies anything. Hold down Ctrl + V and select what to paste from your list of copied items. AFAIK, there's nothing close to this for OSX. If there were programs like Shapeshifter for Mac, I would switch in a heartbeat. Non-Mac users, what's the one software stopping you from the switch?

23 comments

Someone1234over 9 years ago
No software, just cost overall.<p>The cheapest way to buy into Mac is a Mini, but even the &quot;top&quot; $999 one has no SSD, only 8GB of RAM, and a older i5. Compare that with a $500 PC, you can get a legitimately high end developer machine including [basic] monitors and the whole works for that.<p>Then you need to buy Parallels at $99&#x2F;year and a bunch of Mac&#x2F;Apple specific accessories which add up fast. This is particularly important since Bootcamp is garbage, Parallels is the only good way to run Windows or Linux side by side (which in our multi-device world is important).<p>I could likely even afford to spend $1K on a Mac. I just don&#x27;t feel like if I did so I&#x27;d wind up with a good developer machine that will last me three or four years. Seems like $2400 is about the minimum buy-in.
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BorisMelnikover 9 years ago
Not about software at all for me, its about flexibility, experience and ability to customize OS. Even Linux that lacks a lot of software (mainly Photoshop) makes up in so many different ways. I&#x27;m amazed that Mac has become the OS of choice for software developers. I do get that it is POSIX based, but for me Macs have always been for non-savvy users.
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angdisover 9 years ago
It really isn&#x27;t about the software. Software isn&#x27;t what keeps people from using macs. You can boot windows on a MAC with bootcamp and it runs as a very nice PC with no limitations that I am aware of.<p>The real reason is COST. Macs are more expensive for any given spec. It is that simple.<p>Says, me, the visual studio user that has an iMac.
pasbesoinover 9 years ago
Speaking of clipboard managers, since significantly leaving Windows, I&#x27;ve rather missed the Ditto clipboard manager.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ditto-cp.sourceforge.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ditto-cp.sourceforge.net&#x2F;</a><p>That said, probably the biggest Mac barrier for me is that I cannot stand the large palm rests, including and especially with (but not only because of) their sharp front edges.<p>I&#x27;m also not especially fond of glossy displays.<p>Software-wise, I bump up against some instances where Apple exerts its control to stifling effect: 1) Yanking the rug out from under FinalCut users having some... &quot;legacy&quot; requirements; 2) 30% because we can, milking the &quot;walled garden&quot; for maximum effect; etc. On the other hand, someone needed to fire the first bullet into Flash and some of the other Adobe corporate BS.<p>And to &quot;go Retina&quot;. And to advance AES deployment into the ARM hardware environment.<p>But, these days, my concerns software-wise run towards &quot;open&quot; -- full stack -- ain&#x27;t gonna be &#x2F; can&#x27;t be taken away (content as well as functionality), and real usability as opposed to what appears to be an increasingly self-serving cadre of &quot;graphic design&quot;.
bluejellybeanover 9 years ago
OSX stops me. I try and follow the vegan diet of the software world by mostly using FOSS. This can be hard to do for some software (games, photo editing) but for the desktop, GNU&#x2F;Linux handles my needs quite well.<p>Assuming Apple went FOSS tomorrow, cost is the other large factor.
mailslutover 9 years ago
OSX<p>(jokes)
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tedmistonover 9 years ago
I wouldn&#x27;t leave OS X because of the high standard for app quality and UI that isn&#x27;t there (consistently) in the Linux&#x2F;OSS world. Even cross-platform GUI frameworks like Qt feel like lipstick on a pig next to a native Mac app.
hacknatover 9 years ago
Macports is terrible, bash is always out of date, gdb no longer comes with, I&#x27;ve gotten seg faults on OSX that I&#x27;ve never been able to reproduce on Linux or BSD, virtualization is harder. There are weird things like really low per process file descriptor limits. If you&#x27;re a web dev, fine. If you&#x27;re a software engineer it is an unacceptably cumbersome and outdated experience.<p>In my experience developing I&#x27;ve always found it easier to resolve dependencies on Linux than OSX.<p>The software that&#x27;s stopping me is the OS itself.
andymoeover 9 years ago
Flycut [1] pretty much works just as you describe including the keyboard shortcut (shift+cmd+v is the equivalent on the mac). It&#x27;s installed on every single Mac at my office and works really well. Now go buy yourself a shiny new mac <i>today</i> and report back... for science!<p>[1]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;TermiT&#x2F;Flycut" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;TermiT&#x2F;Flycut</a><p>(It&#x27;s MIT licensed and also in the app store... there is a link to the app store version on the github page)
swahover 9 years ago
I&#x27;m actually planning on selling my Mac and having a Windows box for gaming&#x2F;browsing and a Linux box (or VM&#x2F;VPS) for development.<p>Can&#x27;t reconfigure my brain, I use Windows at work.
achowover 9 years ago
May be relevant or provide a different perspective.<p>I want to desperately switch to Windows and Surface (Pro or Book). What is stopping me is unavailability of Sketch (a UX Design app) on Windows.
ilakshover 9 years ago
I stopped using Windows years ago. Right now I have a Chromebook from Walmart that cost $150. I also put Debian on it with crouton. Blender works fine. The shell works great and I do my work in vim over ssh. WebGL games work. Youtube works.<p>Works great, does what I need it to, isn&#x27;t a ripoff.<p>Also, I don&#x27;t think anyone should use PCs or Macs because I am against fascism and elitism.
kstenerudover 9 years ago
Apple&#x27;s filesystem layer, and Apple&#x27;s SMB implementation.<p>If not for those, I could deal with the other warts.
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wrboyceover 9 years ago
I use Alfred.app&#x27;s clipboard manager, I think it meets the use case you describe.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.alfredapp.com&#x2F;help&#x2F;features&#x2F;clipboard&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.alfredapp.com&#x2F;help&#x2F;features&#x2F;clipboard&#x2F;</a>
mjmsmithover 9 years ago
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pasteapp.me" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pasteapp.me</a> ?
aexaeyover 9 years ago
(Lack of) native X11 support. I want to compile Awesome [1] and use that as my window manager.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Awesome_WM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Awesome_WM</a>
J_Darnleyover 9 years ago
It is Winamp that keeps me on Windows. (Not that I would ever switch to a mac anyway.)
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irremediableover 9 years ago
I&#x27;m lucky enough that my lab bought me a Macbook, overcoming my main objection -- cost.<p>I still wouldn&#x27;t use one as my home PC, though, because I like to play the occasional videogame.
jhildingsover 9 years ago
At least they could implement a way to switch or at least configure the window manager, withe everything from behaviour to look and feel.
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tmalyover 9 years ago
nothing, I made the switch in July. I was originally planning on using a VM to run linux, but homebrew had everything I needed. I use iTerm2 which is great, and I love the resolution and font on the terminal. It is worlds better than what I stair at on my redhat machine at the office.
ArkyBeagleover 9 years ago
The very fact that Apple does not allow running OSX in a VM pretty much ends the matter for me.
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polar8over 9 years ago
SolidWorks and Altium
newdaynewuserover 9 years ago
PHPEd
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