Dreaming of a world where normal PCs could have an OS on the quality level of MacOS with the software ecosystem but Linux is just too fragmented that you can't build anything coherent or reliable on an interface level in the way MacOS is.
This isn't saying Linux is bad, its great at what it does and being modular but how can something like MacOS spell check where it works on any text field coherently across any app work in a modular world like that.
Windows just feels like bad decisions made decades ago hold it back, it can't even open a folder of 20 thumbnails without choking, MacOS can handle 10,000 like a knife through butter. Can't even find a file opened yesterday when you search for it in the start menu by exact name, MacOS manages in a fraction of a second. Maybe the right team could rewrite all the things causing this jank but you'd essentially have to replace so much of the company that caused it anyway that it doesn't seem feasible.
Still use all 3 for different tasks but MacOS is the only one that feels like an operating system should feel in 2024.
Not nearly enough engineers care about MacOS at the same emotional level as Linux. People who use Mac usually don't care much about internal architecture but their actual experience while Linux users who are also developers are extremely vocal of every single component inside Linux
I have made multiple attempts to switch to Linux, spending days each time trying to customize it and get it how I wanted. And never did it ever approach the productivity and polish of macOS.
Certainly I have issues with Apple, but it's a simple cost/benefit calculation. Right now the benefits of macOS vastly outweigh the downsides for me.
Unless Apple's problems increase to the point of being unbearable (very likely to happen at some point) or the quality of desktop Linux increases significantly (unlikely to ever happen), I just can't justify switching. And I expect many, many other people are in the same boat.
My computer is a tool. Idealistic notions about free software are nice, but they don't mean anything if that software is worse than a nonfree alternative. Free software needs to be _better_ to win, and I just don't see that ever happening in the consumer OS space.
the amount of engineering hours wasted making macos usable for backend dev work and then wasted again from inefficiency due to that failure is staggering.
linux is great. macos is great. windows is great too. for their intended purposes.
Linux is great for development work and casual web browsing, but imo it doesn't feel polished enough for most people's personal stuff.
> Itunes, Mail, etc, none of the software shipping with MacOS is actually any good. I
It's better than the open source stuff on Linux. While it has gotten much better over the years, it's still not good enough for normal people like my parents or my sisters who are not techies. That's just reality for now at least. It's pointless as to whether or not you agree with it.
I spent an actual month fixing the container story on MacOS where I work, as the first employee with an M1 (eventually wrote a facade for colima). Over the following 6 months I kept a tracker of time lost to MacOS nonsense in an effort to convince my employer to allow us to use Linux. I have objective data showing that MacOS wastes huge amounts of time.
MacOS is an objectively incompetent development OS, if you only count what is possible with what Apple provides. Even if you do consider 3rd party (brew, nixpkgs, colima) it remains a complete fucking mess. Even Windows supports native [Windows] containers. Linux containers in WSL were flawless last I used them (a few years back). And this isn't a critique of colima, that it is a tireless and thankless project that does what it can to pave over the utter incompetence of Apple. I have since been allowed to use Linux, as the sole person trusted to self-serve IT. I see people in Slack struggling with something new in MacOS weekly.
If you expect Linux to be like macOS, you can only be disappointed.
It is a different operating system with completely different trade-offs. People are trying to improve usability on Linux (and things have changed substantially for the better since I first used Linux in 2006), but generally, the OS and software will hold your hand less than macOS. Actually, even Windows probably holds your hand less, macOS is clearly an outlier here.
People who like using Linux generally put up with the occasional nuisance or the necessity to sometimes dig a bit deeper when there's a problem for the increased flexibility and independence.
On the flip side, Linux is infinitely more useful to me than Windows. My desktop’s motherboard’s onboard graphics card failed but I have an external graphics card. Windows is unable to boot because of the failed onboard card. Ubuntu worked absolutely fine. I had to modify 1-2 lines in a configuration to prevent Ubuntu from loading the onboard graphics at all, otherwise it would start off funky.
And MacOS is just too slow. There’s far too many animations and it’s extremely difficult to multitask in a useful way.
It’s like Apple has basically been creating MacOS features based on 2 criteria’s. Either so they look good in a demo, or they’re a replica of an iOS app.
For me, I'd like an OS that Just Works with what I do with it; Linux has never been it. Linux desktop has always been a compromise - it KINDA works.
Professionally, I've used all three major operating system branches. Windows was a hack when it came to things like terminal support. Linux needed me to hack into config files pretty quickly just to make it work, and it's lacking the UI polish that the other operating systems have. Mac combines the best of both worlds.
Privately I've always used Windows, simply because all games work on there at the intended performance. It's not in the way.
Mac is a BSD. OpenBSD exists. FreeBSD exists. NetBSD exists.
Because there are at least four BSDs, Mac therefore isn't good.
Do you see how ridiculous applying that logic to any operating system is?
Linux isn't a disaster. It's a kernel. There are Linux distributions with great user interfaces and great UX, developed by people who are great at it. There are also distributions that aren't.
Also... I don't really want Linux on the Desktop to beat macOS/Windows. Because at that point it will be just like macOS/Windows, and I am not on Linux for that.
I often see complaints that Linux on the Desktop is not enough like macOS/Windows, and I never understand: why use Linux then? I want Linux because of what it is now, not because I want a free macOS/Windows.
I've been using macOS for the most part of the last decade. I also use Windows, but only for gaming.
For me the BIG problem with macOS is actually the hardware. When Apple gets it right it's awesome, but this hasn't been the case for the last 5 or so years (with some exceptions).
The fact that there is no competition for macOS hardware ends up in very surreal situations such as overpriced broken products or design decisions that make absolutely no sense.
If I had to buy a new laptop now I'm not sure I'd buy an Apple product.
The question is, what is the alternative. Note that the article doesn't really say. Is it Windows? No, thank you very much. No matter how much macOS degrades, it's still way above Windows. Is it Linux? Linux is a time sink to get all the things working (if at all) that just work out of the box on the Mac, and it also is quite ugly. I cannot see being ready to bite into the very sour apple that is Linux anytime soon.
You really start appreciating macOS when you go and install Linux on laptop and use it for a month. I had a same issue, I was in Apple camp for 10 years (as of this year). And I was like things suck now, Snow Leopard days yada yada yada... And then I installed Arch. Oh god... I mean, the worst thing is I can use Linux only as pure text/terminal UI. Although Gnome looks more polished than ever, whole UI/UX thing on Linux just can't be compared to macOS and Cocoa.
What I didn't like with OPs post is that Apple isn't making machine specifically for you, nor for developers. Why their machines had so much success since Jobs return was that they were making machines that were equally loved by music/video/content creators, developers, mothers/fathers/grandparents, students etc etc... If you aren't satisfied with your dev. environment go spin up a VM, rent a server or just get other machine that will fulfill your needs.
Where this post gets right is keyboards. Reliability has been number one aspect that Apple created as part of their brand's identity. I won't buy new machine until they do something about those crappy keyboards. And I would like to see them move from Intel. I would like to see how Apple do their own in-house development on CPU, or go with AMD.
It's unfortunate that some of what made MacOS great for developers is now being phased out in favor of features that are lifted out of iOS. Apple has made developer-hostile moves over the years that seem out of line with it's old 'think different' ethos. I hope Apple takes this customer segment seriously and reverses course here, but I'm not super hopeful.
The real problem is that there isn't a reasonable alternative. Windows is out of the question for me due to not being a POSIX-based OS. WSL isn't integrated deeply enough and is still a pain in the ass to use coming from MacOS. I experimented with using a mostly stock Xubuntu setup for a bit and also found the user experience to be really subpar. Call me old, but I have no interest in dealing with the amount of configuration and tweaking necessary to be productive in a Linux environment.
Ultimately, I'm just going to stick it out with MacOS.
As a Linux and Windows user I feel like a slave whenever I use a Mac.
Apple just doesn't let you do what you want, the way you want to do it. Any limitations that Linux has are purely technical, while Apple clearly limits users for profit. If you happen to be able to accept the limitations, great for you - I'd still feel dirty supporting a company that's clearly working towards a future where you have to pay them to put your own programs on your own devices.
Windows I just use for entertainment now but even for that set of functionality - I couldn't stand having to deal with a finicky Mac. My Mac Pro 2012 (which I bought used) won't even work with certain mice, keyboards or displays.
This isn't saying Linux is bad, its great at what it does and being modular but how can something like MacOS spell check where it works on any text field coherently across any app work in a modular world like that.
Windows just feels like bad decisions made decades ago hold it back, it can't even open a folder of 20 thumbnails without choking, MacOS can handle 10,000 like a knife through butter. Can't even find a file opened yesterday when you search for it in the start menu by exact name, MacOS manages in a fraction of a second. Maybe the right team could rewrite all the things causing this jank but you'd essentially have to replace so much of the company that caused it anyway that it doesn't seem feasible.
Still use all 3 for different tasks but MacOS is the only one that feels like an operating system should feel in 2024.
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