Ask HN: Why macOS?

It&#x27;s probably still the best complete system - hardware + software that&#x27;s fundamentally unix under the hood, but the user-space tools seem bad compared to what you get on any modern GNU&#x2F;Linux system.<p>I&#x27;m mostly using Ubuntu on laptops, but there are small annoyances usually, things don&#x27;t work as well out of the box given the variety of hardware out there.

Apple laptops have remarkable hardware durability and performance for portable computing, largely ahead of everyone else. MacOS comes with the system.<p>Yet, when you replace MacOS on those well-engineered laptops, trackpad sensitivity and battery life suffers.<p>You can technically run other systems, but better to simply run MacOS.

I want a readily available Unix-like terminal, good battery life, slim laptops, and to never have to deal with hardware compatibility or fighting with config files for the OS.<p>There’s a parallel universe where chromebooks had a more functional stock local terminal, or Windows did WSL much earlier, where I’d be using one of those options.

I have been using Linux for over 25 years and love it but I no longer use it as my main OS. I still choose Linux for any type of server but I use macOS for development. I also use Linux for tinkering and trying new things. I know this will sound cliche, but I use macOS for development because not only is it a powerful Unix environment, “it just works” and if I am being paid based on what I produce, I want to use the tool that helps me to be the most productive.

Fashion. The tech industry is in the main not really an engineering industry, but rather a fashion one. That’s why it’s always about the hot new language rather than improving the tried and true. That’s why folks use macOS rather than Linux, and why we use Linux rather than Plan 9, and why Plan 9 was not succeeded by something even better (to be honest, I wonder if maybe we should all be using Multics?).

My daily experience with the nightmare that is iOS is what prompted me to ask. It&#x27;s definitely unrelated to software development on a desktop. But if I had a nickel for every time something about iOS pissed me off(which is usually completely immutable by the way), I&#x27;d probably just buy Apple. There&#x27;s just so many aspects of iOS that imply seemingly lazy development. Like the god-awful Shortcuts app, which is like, the only grain of rice they offer to more technical users(and ive seen apps in an alpha state that are more stable). And the requirement to have a developer account to submit feedback or report a bug is bewildering. I asked because i don&#x27;t know much about OS X, and it&#x27;s hard for me to imagine that Apples software design choices are not also present on their desktop OS.

Use what works best for your needs.<p>At $WORK we have moved to Windows 11 with WSL2 and it has been largely pain free.<p>WSL2 handles our Linux needs and development environment to include containers.<p>VS Code is our primary IDE and works well for WSL2 and containers.<p>IT is happy because they like admining Windows and don&#x27;t have as much trouble with lab hardware drivers.<p>Developers are happy because they have Linux and VS Code.<p>Management is happy because it costs less than Macs.<p>Your needs and preferences may be different.<p>That is fine. Use what works best for you.

&gt; I would assume developers would be the first ones to use a much more customizable system like some DIY linux distro or something<p>Developers prefer to customize the tools&#x2F;applications that they use (i.e IDE, terminal, editors etc) not necessarily the OS itself. Other reason being that the requirement of IT teams to manage the systems as easily as possible. There are many easy to use MDM solutions for macOS.

I enjoy using macOS because it’s got a good ui around unix user space tools, Microsoft Word, mobile development, and good virtual machines on Intel.

My employer-provided laptop is a choice of either a Macbook or a cheap-ass piece of Dell crap. Guess which one I choose?<p>My home system is Linux.

&gt; <i>I would assume developers would be the first ones to use a much more customizable system like some DIY linux distro or something. Is there something im missing here?</i><p>Some people want that. I just want a machine that <i>mostly</i> works <i>most</i> of the time, where I don&#x27;t have to spend too much fighting it. And OS X is that.<p>Windows is flat out not an option for me; I&#x27;m pretty sure that they don&#x27;t show advertisements in the start menu or task bar anymore, and that their weird mix of touch-screen OS and desktop OS is only slightly worse than the OS X approach - but I&#x27;m not willing to put in the time to find out.

Never had a need to use Linux instead. I can run containers to test out software that will be deployed. It mostly works out of the box and I’m used to the OS.

Because adhd, much less stuff to worry about