I'm confused. From his success list:<p><i>I basically went back 5 or 10 years and replaced every "modern" technology solution. I pay now way more than I did with iCloud, but I am back in control. I am more productive.</i><p><i>- Listening to Music takes 3 clicks and just a few seconds
Wired headphones never run out of battery and have superior audio quality</i><p><i>- I can take real photos wiht high quality instead of relying on ever newer iPhone models for thousands of dollars which will always have lesser quality than a mirrorless camera for the same price</i><p><i>- I have fun again discovering bands and artists on Bandcamp instead of mind numbing listening to Apple Music playlists</i><p><i>- Coding via neovim on a terminal and just being on my keyboard navigating not only tmux and co, but also my OS is way more productive and faster</i><p>Which of these can I not do on a Mac?
I’m actually joining the Apple ecosystem from Android/Windows for similar reasons. In particular, I wanted to use Logic instead of paying huge sums for new versions of Ableton; I wanted to use Pixelmator Pro instead of paying for Adobe subscription (although Affinity Photo is also available on windows); I wanted to use Time Machine instead of Google Drive; I especially wanted my passwords stored on my computer instead of locked behind my Google account at passwords.google.com (I was locked out of my Google account for a week once and it was temporarily life-ruining); and finally, I was so tired of trying to keep up with endless UI changes in Windows and Android. I’m not saying these were good reasons, but they were my reasons. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure I guess.
I found this bit very interesting<p>> I realised that my life while using Apple products is
> controlled by Product Managers/Owners who want to get a
> raise, rather than by technology people who share the same
> passion as me<p>Mainly because I feel exactly the opposite. I don’t find Windows, Linux or x86 technologically exiting anymore.Apple makes (IMO of course) the most technologically exciting CPUs, their GPUs are a breath of fresh air, I love their approach to UI, APIs and OS security.
One of the biggest opportunities in technology right now is to re-run the Next/Apple playbook and create a new hardware/software technology company focused on developers. Good quality hardware married with a great OS / window manager. Most of the software we use to create software are electron apps, a thin layer of native code to run a bunch of javascript. The main notable exception is XCode, but the ecosystem of non-ios/apple developers is far larger. Wish someone would do this. I'd pre-order tomorrow.
I want to leave the apple ecosystem as well, and appreciate this post, but there’s an inherent limitation to “just switched” posts like this. To wit: they don’t capture the cost and benefit <i>over time.</i> Switching to Arch & rsync takes “just a month,” but then you upgrade something and drivers break, you have an issue on your remote machine you’re syncing to and have to debug it, your backups stop working and you urgently need to address the issue, etc etc. Either one of these can be showstopping issues. That said, Macs screw up on updates as well at times.<p>The general point is that “just switched” narratives like this paint an incomplete picture because one big benefit of, say, iCloud photos is that I pay a monthly fee then I never have to think about it. Not so rsync.
> The demise of Aperture, iPhoto, good keyboards and the introduction of the touch bar were just a few signs that product owners were in charge who rather wanted a raise by trying something "new" instead of technical owners who wanted to help creative people getting work done.<p>This is exactly how I feel.<p>Way too much software is being developed in the Resume Driven Development these days.<p>Touch Bar is a prime example of this. It solves a nonexisting problem in an imperfect way. It's a mere copycat from Optimus Keyboard, except that in Optimus each individual key was still a physical key.<p>The same goes for the vast majority of the web 2.0 front end frameworks, which reduce user experience, but add to the resume of people who implement all of that nonsense. The new versions of Slashdot and Reddit are prime examples — slower, less usable and accessible, but, hey, all the newest frameworks and buzzwords!
It is odd when you agree with half an article.<p>I think that anything to do with music and transferring files to your iPad or iPhone is an utter mess on the Mac. The entire iTunes project was an utter mess and breaking that up and fixing it is going to take a long time.<p>I was also taken back by some of the new restrictions on the Application directory with Big Sur but it appears that they aren't as bad as I initially thought and mostly seem to apply to apps that the OS installs.<p>I think it is great that the author outgrew his machine. They started out as a new developer and now they have brought their skills up to the point that they require a new OS to allow them to maximise their potential. That is an awesome story.<p>Apple has had to ride a fine line between being a lifestyle device and a computer and I think that there are times when they totally mess it up and lock out things they don't need to. Other times they seem to get it right.<p>Like a lot of people here I really wish Apple would stop trying to organize my music but I also realise that a large number of people younger than me don't even own music any more.<p>The number of use cases for these devices is huge and it is natural that the hardware can't be everything to everyone. It used to be the case but so many more people use computers and use them for a wide variety of things that those days are far behind us.
I switched from a MacBook Pro to a Linux desktop a couple years ago - not for philosophical reasons, but just because I felt like at the time the performance per dollar spent was much better if I built my own machine with an AMD CPU. Switching was really no big deal - there are plenty of good alternatives out there to Apple apps, and Apple also has browser-based versions of a lot of their iCloud apps if you need to access files or Photos from a Linux PC. And I have continued to use other Apple devices in my home without any real issues.<p>Now with the success Apple has had with the M1 chips, and how they seem to be fixing their keyboard issues, I would definitely consider buying a MacBook Pro if the new models look compelling.<p>I guess my point here is that being fully committed to the "Apple Ecosystem" isn’t as big a deal as some people make it out to be. You don’t have to be all-in or all-out on Apple. It’s something to consider when making a purchasing decision, but at the end of the day you should just buy the thing that works best for your needs and budget, regardless of who makes it.
I always look at blog posts like this and I always end up a bit disappointed when people go completely in the other direction with i3 and the like. What if I want customization <i>and</i> pretty animations with sane defaults? Surely there has to be some middle ground between "here's your empty screen and a keyboard shortcut to open the terminal, good luck" and "this minor release will redesign the entire interface and break all your custom themes and scripts, good luck" when it comes to open source desktops?<p>Still, I'm glad people are getting out of closed ecosystems.
The article is light on criticism about Apple. Usually what happens to these people is they go out all guns blazing, spend a lot of time, figure how to do stuff the hard way, feel temporarily in control and then face death by a thousand cuts or decreased productivity. It is the case with 90% of the users. For most people, computer is a means to an end, which Apple understands spectacularly well. It gives you 5-star hotel like experience with its products. Is everything perfect? No. Does it make mistakes? Yes. There is no progress without mistakes, unless you allow many many years for ideation. Apple strikes this balance spectacularly well, they are mostly at the forefront of tech, meanwhile giving users a fantastic experience. It is Ritz Carlton of computers, you stay there, do your business, expect mostly everything to work like a well oiled machine, and you go home without sweat after finishing your work. To write 3 or 4 subjective opinions about Apple and dismissing it tells more about the author than Apple IMO.
Some things never change. Talk about switching OSes and the entire comment thread becomes about dancing around calling people wrong about their aesthetic UX preferences<p>I think if anything, this post illustrates that no matter how many people you pay to do it, there's no "objectively better" workflow for everyone, and preferences will always be individual<p>When I try to convince people to use *nix OSes or FOSS tools generally, my one and only argument is the value of having control, or, perhaps more saliently, not being controlled by the company that makes your tools. If that doesn't persuade you, then just use whatever you like best. Your preferences are your own, and no amount of supposed expertise or practiced snobbishness can make your preferences override mine, or vice versa.
I respect this but the X1 Carbon's keyboard is bad, and so is its trackpad. Until something like this[0] project takes off, this is just a non-starter for me. Windows at least has OK trackpad support, and now with WSL and whatnot, the surface pro laptops are maybe a feasible option, but Windows ironically has the absolute worst window management of the 3.<p>And of course Apple is still a moving target. I'm not going back to a x86 toaster of a laptop with 5 hrs of battery life, when i can have one which stays cool for 11. Signs point to them ditching the touchbar too.<p>[0] <a href="https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-macbook-pro-may-2020-update/" rel="nofollow">https://bill.harding.blog/2020/04/26/linux-touchpad-like-a-m...</a><p>[1] Disclosures / context:<p>- I have an X1 carbon for work<p>- I vastly prefer my M1 Macbook Pro<p>- I miss i3wm, i used to run it on laptop and desktop in college, on Arch.
I toy with the idea every once in awhile. I own a M1 Mac and I actually hate it for various reasons. I've been a mac fanboi (I'm probably an even bigger Linux fanboi) for many years as I feel like I gave me so many of the things I love about Linux/BSD... and it's flat out beautiful. But as many have stated. Over the years, it's ceased to match my workflow. I've always kept plenty of Linux machines around me, so for the past few years, I've been full time on Linux. I do miss getting my text messages on my laptop. I do miss transferring music with ease - but I have to be honest. Using iTunes/Music to transfer music to my iPhone has actually been pretty painful the past few years. When I try to drag and drop, for some odd reason, it just says, "nope".<p>My issue is, the alternatives are just not as high quality. I looked at ditching my iPhone 12 for a Pixel 4 or a Samsung, and maybe getting the Samsung watch (which I hear can do blood pressure now?). But I've read so many bad reviews. Sadly, one of the biggest things that keeps me on Apple right now is iMessage. We have plenty of Apple products in the household, so I'd never ditch them totally.
I used Linux from 93 until around 2000, and while i'm aware that the state of the Linux Desktop is completely different today, and as a stand alone product may even compete with Windows/MacOS, the Apple ecosystem is something that is not yet beaten on Linux. People may think it is, but that's mostly because they were never "all in" on the Apple ecosystem.<p>Copy / Paste across devices, handoff of documents, synchronization of files that actually works and won't get stuck for weeks updating a file.<p>As for iCloud, one thing that Google/Microsoft/etc don't get is family sharing. We share a 2TB iCloud plan across the family, and while the plan is tied to my credit card, the data is not "mine". If i die tomorrow my credit card dies with me, and presumably so does my iCloud subscription, but all my family needs to do is start paying for another plan, and their data "magically" transfers from my icloud subscription to theirs.<p>The Apple ecosystem is not without flaws though. Personally i would love for TimeMachine (or 3rd party tools) to be able to backup iCloud storage without having to synchronize data locally first. I keep a Mac Mini for the purpose, which also acts as a content cache for iCloud storage, meaning most file access from our house is done at "LAN speed", but i would love to simply click a setting on my macbook and it would "magically" include that content in the backup.
I'm half into the ecosystem, I don't own an iPhone but I've had various MacBooks over the years.<p>Latest one is the M1 air and it's almost perfect. It never gets hot, it never gets noisy, performance is superb, battery life amazing.<p>Really hoping a similar ARM based linux machine comes out that can beat it, but for the time being I'd find it difficult to switch away from my Air!
This article could have sparked sympathy in me since I am gradually and slowly making my way to a full Linux dev workflow on a laptop with 2TB NVMe SSD, 32GB and a pretty good CPU (Ryzen 5500U) but... the kinda sorta ideological language the author used in the article is really unfortunate.<p>(And believe me, it's a huge cognitive dissonance to convince yourself out of using the iMac Pro as much as you can...)<p>Look, if it doesn't work for you anymore, alright. Move to Linux. Most of us the devs will eventually move to it anyway I think, since Apple just doesn't care about dev ergonomics -- especially with scanning each binary you run; try working under Linux for a week and you'll say to yourself "gosh, computers can be FAST!" -- but truthfully, many employers don't care about our ergonomics as well and they are OK with the lost productivity of waiting for tools to just... run, you know.<p>I agree Apple Music is a train wreck though, that's a fact.<p>In any case, I wish people learned to just make two small lists with pros and cons and be done with it. Using language like the quote in the start:<p>> <i>I realised that my life while using Apple products is controlled by Product Managers/Owners who want to get a raise, rather than by technology people who share the same passion as me. And I wanted to change that.</i><p>...is true to an extent but it gives you exactly zero things that are <i>actually and visibly wrong</i>. (Obviously this is an exaggeration, e.g. they mention subscription model vs. paying for stuff once which is valid, but my overall point is about things that are technical, not business-level.)<p>So, good for him I suppose but the article could have been written in a much more compelling and factual manner.
> Around 10 years ago, during my studies, almost all of my CS colleagues had Windows laptops. A few installed Linux on it, but literally no one had a MacBook.<p>I recall CS grad school 10 years ago as being a sea of Macbooks…
Very personal opinion here: Apple innovated as hell, pure lab of goodness and years and years ahead of any other OS. Sad reality is that they are now a 100 billion mega megacorp, user is second in the money dance. I don’t see them as innovative, freedom (not as in free beer) means a lot and they don’t contribute to it at all, if anything even more closed ecossystem - long gone the days of OpenDarwin. Most people I know switched back to Windows for better drivers support. UX is still second to none in Apple, but at what cost? In the end, you want to press a button to turn on the system and get things done. I think there’s more than just Apple nowadays - but unique strengths in different contexts for sure
Arch is not something for people that want to just use their devices. It's something for people who love to tinker.<p>Updates break something so often that I wonder if it somehow is sponsored by other OS developers to make them look good.
I get where the OP is coming from. A bit more than a year ago, I also made the move to Linux (Arch/Sway). Granted, it was a challenge to set everything up, especially when you are used to everything "working" from the get-go.<p>But I see the value now. I also think that Arch/Sway/Wayland is stable enough to be usable for serious work. In fact, I don't think I can get back to macOS anytime soon. Every time I use Windows/mac I feel that the operating system is getting on the way.<p>But there is a small price to pay: Custom configuration. My setup consists of Sway, Vivaldi, Skype, and Alacritty (tmux). I have three screens (and found Linux to be more stable in supporting that than macOS); two are terminals/tmux and one is the browser. I have a small program launcher (dmenu) and a custom clipboard logger. That's all there is to my setup. Everything else is noise. Once you get used to that, you can't go back.<p>I also have Skype, OpenSnitch, Eaton Power management, Docker (with a Bitcoin node and bunch of other ), around 90-100 open tabs in Vivaldi, encrypted hard-drive, automatic backups to a NAS/mounted volumes, and multiple tmux sessions open. I only restart my PC for updates, and it has been constantly running for close to a year now. I don't remember ever coming to bug that requires a restart. I had some issues with browsers before, but I can kill them and start again. The environment is so lag-free that it's ridiculous. I switch tabs, programs, terminals, sessions, etc... with a 0 human-noticeable lag. That's impossible to achieve in macOS or Windows. (at least in Windows with the same machine).
> I realised that my life while using Apple products is controlled by Product Managers/Owners who want to get a raise, rather than by technology people who share the same passion as me. And I wanted to change that.<p>There is some truth to Apple's engineering being directed by product managers who want raises - which (given that Apple is a large company) would generally require directing it toward Apple's bottom line and promoting Apple's goods and services.<p>At the same time there are a number of smart people at Apple, in both product management and engineering, who work there in order to advance good design, ease of use, reliability, privacy, and the development of computing technology that benefits and empowers its users - and not just the company that sells it.<p>Moreover, pretty much everyone at Apple knows that you don't create transformative products by bean counting and risk aversion.<p>But if you want something built by and for a community of technical enthusiasts, hobbyists, researchers, and hackers/tinkerers, open source software and disaggregated systems may be a superior ecosystem for you, and that's a good thing because a vibrant enthusiast and free/open software and hardware community provides many benefits to the world.
Can't we all just get along !? :)<p>FWIW, I've used iPhones for 11 years, I've had a bunch of iPads for media use on-the-go and kids, and I even have a macbook pro that my employer provided (a very nice $3,000 monitor riser)<p>But most of my home machines are Windows 10. I've lived in the MS ecosystem since the DOS 3 era and that's where I feel most at home. Using macOS is a frustrating experience for me, it feels like a toy environment (though I'm sure some folks feel the same about Windows if they've grown up in the mac world).<p>That said, I've been toying with Linux every now and then; I've got a couple of Raspberry Pis in the house that I self-manage (for things like pi-hole, nas, vpn tunnel, etc.), I've been using WSL2 and Docker on my PCs and even have an older laptop running Arch that I sometimes poke at. I regret not getting more serious into Linux before; it's difficult to switch now, but I don't like where MS is taking Windows (funneling everyone into their Bing / ADs with Edge being pushed aggressively and search / news being shoved more and more deeply into the OS) so I'll have to <i>begrudgingly</i> leave my place of comfort in search of lost freedom.
"I basically went back 5 or 10 years and replaced every "modern" technology solution. I pay now way more than I did with iCloud, but I am back in control. I am more productive."<p>But how are you are more productive?<p>In what ways did the revised toolset improve productive output?<p>What are you producing and how do these tools compare to each other?<p>To me, the 'more productive' argument is a bit of strawman.<p>Totally cool to change toolsets and all though :-)
I'm the weird dude that uses a Mac and a Pixel phone. I'm a dev so I wanted the flexibility of being able to code for my phone without spending $99 a year. That's why I switched from iPhone to Android half a dozen years ago. It turns out that I just write web apps for my phone anyway. So, I'm thinking about switching back to iPhone. Maybe I just need a change every few years.
I went through this process a few years ago when Apple removed the iPhone headphone jack and I'll probably never go back.<p>The thing that cemented that for me recently was how Apple now insists on notarization for all applications, even command line applications. My current company uses old versions of lots of open source applications, and MacOS constantly freaks out about them.<p>Time to move to Linux full time.
> doesn't do video editing<p>> doesn't do photoshop<p>> doesn't create music<p>> doesn't use specialized domain specific software such as CAD etc<p>> doesn't play modern games<p>> doesn‘t need to interact with people using ms office files<p>ok sure, you can entirely rely on linux if you want to code in the terminal, play some mp3s and store some jpgs.<p>but the presented use cases exclude vast groups of people
I love macOS and Linux. Even Windows is acceptable, especially now with WSL. IMO, if it runs emacs, who cares what the OS is?<p>When it comes to hardware, Apple is a few years ahead, however. Battery life and screen technology are quality-of-life factors, especially for people who often work away from home and without an external monitor.<p>That, and the accessories. Going from AirPods Pro to wired headphones would be a major inconvenience as I have an active lifestyle -- even my linux box supports bluetooth headphones, and it's nice to be able to get up from the computer without taking them off.
How come we always see articles like this about Apple and not Google? Why do nerds seem to have a hate boner against Apple but not the advertising company that is trying to invade every aspect of your private life and sell your info to the highest bidder?<p>The android users at my day job are extremely vocal about hating Apple, yet the people using Apple devices mostly mind their own business.<p>Perhaps it's an ego thing? Like maybe they can't afford Apple devices for their whole family so they buy Android and hate on Apple instead.
I use a mac because mac os X is much more stable, doesnt have a registry, has a *nix shell, doesnt seem to accumulate random stuff over time that slows the computer down to a crawl, and time machine is amazing. I have used it multiple times to immediately get up and running (once after my mac was stolen, once when I upgraded, once when my mac lcd died when I dropped it).<p>Im still using a 2015 macbook pro because I want my hdmi port and usb ports. I have a backup in case this one dies. Over time the computer has not slowed down at all.<p>I use android because the iphone system does weird things that I cant be bothered to figure out. For example we have icloud turned off everywhere, but icloud still manages to fill up and send messages. The iphone periodically requires authentication with a device I dont have on me (e.g. an ios device that I dont have in my possession). Text messages still get echoed to multiple devices meaning my kids and wife see each others' texts.<p>It is also still missing features that I need. The dialer still cant use T9. The calendar cant change the default snooze for 2 minutes before an event. It also wont keep reminding you if you dont kill the snooze.<p>My home desktop uses windows because it runs blue iris which manages my security cameras.
I think the only good thing about the Apple ecosystem is making money off it. Much easier to make a living selling apps on the app store than the play store.
I use Linux for all my server environments, but it just cannot compare to MacOS for Desktop use. The app ecosystem is severely lacking.<p>Linux doesn't even have a decent modern email app. The best option there is Thunderbird, which is quite good but not really on-par with the offerings on Mac. Apps like Sparrow, Mimestream, Spark etc have no Linux equivalent. Mimestream is my choice due to its deep Gmail integration.<p>And this is just email.
I've tried to switch to Linux multiple times. Something is always broken.<p>Primary example is hidpi support. My laptop has a 1440p screen and I use a 1080p external one. And then sometimes I disconnect it and go into a meeting room or something to work without an external display.<p>I set 200% scaling for laptop screen when I'm at the desk and 150% when I'm out and about.<p>Simple usecase, but I've never managed to make it work properly and consistently. It's been like that for the last 3 years. I just keep coming back to Windows where it works perfectly.<p>Wayland keeps getting better, but some important apps don't support it yet. For example there IS a build of VSCode that works on Wayland, but it freezes up if you move the window between displays with scaling on.<p>And then there is KDE wayland session, that still loves to crash if you pull out the second screen DP cable "wrong".<p>Linux is not there yet, and honestly, I'm not sure if it will ever be. It might me destined to forever play catch-up with the "big-tech" OSes.<p>On top of that, how do you even beat the level of vertical integration that Apple has with M1 chips and MacOS?
So I moved from the Linux world to the Apple world about 5 years ago when my work computer became a Mac Mini.<p>My phone has been an iPhone since 3GS.<p>Just looking at the apps I use on my mac, the only "Apple" apps are Messages (along with a bunch of others like Zoom and LINE and Telegram and Skype and Whatsapp for different groups/work) and Photos.<p>I use Office 365 for Mac and OneDrive because it has a free 1TB as part of the sub.<p>I was backing up using Time Machine to an SMB box running Ubuntu, but Time Machine with APFS over SMB is painfully slow and unreliable. I went and bought Arq and it replaced my back up needs. If/When I need to bring up a new machine, I'll use Apple's stuff to do that.<p>I've also got the following:<p>* Macports: Has all of the OSS/CLI tools, libraries etc. Better than homebrew because it doesn't do stupid tricks with /usr/local and root privileges and works with the Apple frameworks cleanly<p>* Office 365: Needed for work purposes, I use OneDrive with Arq as a remote backup location.<p>* Firefox: Never seen the need to use any other browser<p>* Thunderbird: Happy enough as a mail client, use fastmail as my mail server.<p>* iTerm2: Awesome terminal that integrates with tmux and other stuff<p>MacOS free utilities I use:<p>* Karabiner-Elements: Allows me to map my EU ISO WASD keyboard<p>* Rectangle: Gives me keyboard window placement/sizing<p>* Stats: Menu bar widgets for CPU/Network etc<p>Along the way I've bought various MacOS utilities:<p>* Pathfinder: Replacement for Finder that has more features<p>* Bartender: Keeps my menu bar clean of unnecessary widgets unless they are doing something "interesting"<p>* Dash: Awesome documentation tool
As a Linux user for the past 20 years or so I agree 100%.<p>The first few years it was actually some work - compiled my own custom kernels, installed a lot of extra software I needed from source.
But over the years that became less and less necessary. Kernels just work, all software I need is already packaged.<p>These days I just install Fedora (in my case, I assume Arch, Ubuntu, etc would have the same results) on my Desktops/Laptops and it just works.<p>Now, for work I still happily use a MacBook, but that Laptop is not mine anyway; I am aware and do not mind that my employer and Apple control it for me.<p>Similarly my private phone is an unlocked Pixel and my workphone is an iPhone.
We could all use posts like this:<p>Leaving the <i>Insert Big Tech</i> ecosystem behind<p>The deal is that capital is very cheap for <i>Insert Big Tech</i> and the cost of customer acquisition is so easy. So at some point, the economies of scale and subsequent monetization can only be reversed by intentionally moving to smaller providers or making informed choices on supporting other businesses.<p>IMO - This is not a convenience factor for most people, but for those willing to embrace it, it will open up your way - and compensate many software companies very well.
I am quite sympathetic to the author’s viewpoint and have quite a few behaviors that are similar. I share files to my friends from my own server at home via aft.<p>But I don’t know if I fully buy the argument here. Mac OS is a scriptable environment and nothing even requires you to have an iCloud account or use all the Apple ecosystem stuff on a MacBook. My work laptop is a MacBook and I still use only open source stuff on it, which I script for greater productivity, and it feels very efficient.
Seems like largely an improvement... except the choice to get an old Android phone as a replacement for the iPhone. From a security standpoint, there's really no alternative to the iPhone. I <i>loathe</i> the Apple "ecosystem" and stay on the fringes of it as much as possible, not really investing in any Apple-specific apps or services, but until there's someone else in the market that isn't Google, there's really no other choice.
This person uses a Fuji digital camera, but they don't mention what software they intend to use for photo editing. I shoot with the same camera and do a lot of hobby photography; one of the things that keeps me from seriously considering Linux for personal use is the lack of Lightroom/Capture 1 for editing photos. Are any of the Linux apps (Darktable, etc) reasonably intuitive/comparable in terms of features now?
Most of these bullet points could still be done on a Mac.<p>You don't need special permission, or a hacked computer, to do the things the non-apple way.<p>I moved to Linux 7 years ago from MacOS (and windows before that). As I get older, my patience wanes for dealing with the, half-baked house-of-cards teetering on collapse, Linux ecosystem. I just want something that works better, and took a different direction than the modern versions of Windows or MacOS.
I use linux+i3 at work, but personally have a mac. The main thing stopping me from ditching the mac is how convenient it is to swap files/photos between the iphone and mac, whether it’s through icloud or airdrop. Perhaps a nice solution exists for transferring files between iphone and linux, but I haven’t found one.
The point about Bandcamp is frankly baffling. I love the website and I’ve spent too much money there on vinyls, but their library is not a replacement for a streaming service. Not even close.<p>I’ve seen very few releases on Bandcamp that weren’t already present in Apple Music/Spotify/Tidal etc.
> I can take real photos with high quality instead of relying on ever newer iPhone models<p>The author could’ve done this even within the Apple ecosystem. The vast majority of photographers use iPhones too, but manage their DSLR/mirrorless photos with iPhoto too.
I share some of the author's viewpoints and am similarly disheartened by some of the decisions Apple has made over the last several years.<p>That said, there's a trope displayed in this post that's getting especially old to me on HN, and that's the: "POs/PMs ruin everything (or are useless), and all they care about is getting a raise or promotion.. not the technology (or the users, or the product)."<p>I find the tribalism baked into this oft-repeated viewpoint super annoying. And I believe the author, and others parroting these ideas.. are projecting a viewpoint all over the place without much substance.<p>And I think it's actually harmful to organizations and teams working effectively together. So maybe we should look a little deeper and leave the engineers-are-better-than-everyone-else bigotry out of it.
i'm leaving the apple ecosystem too but it's because:<p>- development on linux is superior. docker works faster. the number of packages available on linux. for devops tooling cli, linux is still first class citizen, bit higher than macos.<p>- tiling windows manager is hella better than those available on macos (yabai, amethyst, etc..)<p>- the hardware is cheaper, and even more powerful (for the same price).<p>-
My problem with macOS is that I bought a mac expecting free OS updates. However since my macbook is my desktop killer, I have multiple external monitors connected with USBC to HDMI adapters. Everything I have seen since Big Sur indicates external monitors are iffy in big sur. I'm sorry, I'm not wrecking my environment because apple hasnt seen fit to fix external monitors in over a year.
Good. To each to their own. Maybe your use case is different from others and the OS you moved from somehow got in your way.<p>In my case; time wasted is money lost and with no money made means affordability becomes a problem.<p>The best OS platform ecosystem I use is the one that not only saves time, but also saves me spending money whilst continuing to make me the most money.
This resonates deeply with what I see and feel about Apple.<p>If you check my posts here I started being vocal about my personal Apple problems, before this I happily browsed here on HN (2008) and did not express my thoughts, mainly because here I have learned so much and witnessed startups becoming well established businesses. But something clicked after Mac Pro was released, a computer delayed for so long, that to solve my business problems I had to build several Hackintoshes.<p>I hoped that this time Apple will be focused on professional audience, without any tricks but no. Wheels and 1000 buck monitor stands? WTF. And the pricing. OMG.
Clearly this was a message: You wanted professional computer, you will pay the premium to stay in the Ecosystem.<p>Fast forward to 2021. CSAM on the macOS, but trust us we will make it better?<p>No way Apple. No f-ng way. This is my property, my data is my property. I don't care what shenanigans your lawyers are buried in the EULA, and what is "publicly responsible thing". You create user technology. Users have full responsibility how they will use it by law.
Can you imagine your kitchen knife to check what meat you trying to cut with it?<p>Because this will be the logical "tech" direction. Let's check you washing machines for illegal content. What about your Apple Car?<p>What about your iOS security? Pegasus/NSO, what about big bounties for security researchers, richest company of the world did not have enough to invest in effective Red Teams? GTFO.<p>So this was the "final straw" for me. Now my company runs ARCH on old Apple hardware and all the money that I have saved to participate in Apple's Arm transition will go towards solutions with maximum professional control and privacy.<p>Instead of Mac Pro I plan to have this thing: <a href="https://bit.ly/3zxlkBS" rel="nofollow">https://bit.ly/3zxlkBS</a>.<p>Instead of buying Apple's iSpy devices I will run old Pixel with Graphene OS or dumb flip phone.<p>There are a lot of tech savvy pros that don't care. I know. They have not lived in Apple land and still thinking that "easy way" is the right way.<p>That the ecosystem gives more than it takes away. That may be if they participate in this monopoly they will find a small or big business success. Apple has you, by the balls. UX from hell painted with good intentions and lack of responsibility.<p>I on other hand will never run my data on something that is not FOSS. And will invest my money in adequate hardware solutions.<p>And when time comes to give some "consumer" advice I will be honest to my customers and friends. A small contribution, previously reserved for Apple hardware and software. Not anymore.:)
If you ever wanted to know if being in the Apple ecosystem is sometimes like being part of a religion, just watch at how far people will go to tell you they have left the ecosystem...
The iOS ecosystem has always been crap. I love the device and how the UI keeps becoming more android like, but iCloud stinks. Google by far as a better cloud platform for a standard user. But for a business Sharepoint/Onedrive has always been the way to go.<p>I personally never had a problem with Macbooks, and surprised he just didn't work in a VM. I do 90% of my daily work in a VM on my Macbook, either running Arch or Debian. Everything just works. But I can not stand with apple's choice of moving to ARM for a power user.<p>My Next Machine will run windows as the base OS. I'll test out their Linux for Windows Subsystem, but most likely just boot up the same VMware VM's i've been using for a long time. Between Snapshots and backups to both my onsite server and my Personal Sharepoint, I never have an issue.<p>Spotify for music though, it just works and easy to push music around my home.