[2] Y Combinator is (we hope) visited mostly by hackers. The proportions of OSes are: Windows 66.4%, Macintosh 18.8%, Linux 11.4%, and FreeBSD 1.5%. The Mac number is a big change from what it would have been five years ago.
I'm interested to know what the proportions of OSes are today.
Well, I would have answered Linux on that poll, because I use it as my primary work environment. But I almost exclusively use Windows for web browsing. Maybe I'm atypical though.
I just spent the weekend at a hack day (http://leedshack.com) in the UK, with over 100 hackers. I barely saw any windows machines, almost everyone had a Mac.
I've noticed that the percentage of Macs in the same group is higher at events than it is online or inside companies.
One could speculate about the reasons, but I do know that seeing hackers I respect with pretty shiny Apple laptops is what triggered me to buy my first Mac back in 2002.
I've had essentially zero issues with Windows. I do 99% of my development in Linux (access my devbox through VNC). For desktop use, I have absolutely no problems. I work very fast zooming around with keyboard shortcuts. I don't get viruses or bloatware. Everything is calm and familiar.
Every time I get my hands on a Mac, even to simply Google something, I immediately hit issues. Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?), I can't right click, I can't win+d to the desktop. I'm sure all of these things are possible, but I'm fumbling around like my grandpa when I taught him to email.
At this point, I'm pretty sure it can't all be brand hype (my thoughts a few years ago). I'd really like to know what the incentive is for throwing away years of muscle memory, familiarity, and tweaking ability.
Step One: Come up with some lame excuse for why you probably need a Mac. You know, Testing. Gotta make sure it looks right on Safari and all that. Maybe we'll be doing an iOS version at some point.
Step Two: Convince yourself that you'll install Windows 7 on it to see if you can maybe use it as your dev box. It'll just be a windows machine on cooler hardware.
Step Three: Go to Apple.com and configure the most pimped-out Macbook Air they'll let you specify. Hey, it's only Two Grand. That's less than your last laptop cost. And look at it! It's half an inch thick.
Step Four: Actually buy it. Get it home, take it out of the box, pick it up (between your thumb and forefinger it's so freaking light), and play with it.
(optional by this point)
Step Five: Install Windows 7 and Parallels. It really does work as well as they say. It'll be the fastest windows box you've ever run. Oh, and if you're doing VS.NET web dev, specify a big partition because it won't let you run in debug mode if your project files are sitting on the main partition.
... And that's it. Now you have a Mac. It's actually a pretty cool little machine.
yeah its actually pretty slow compared to my vaio Z on Windows... and the energy saving drivers on Windows are poor at best on Macs. (by design, heh)
I am amused by the number of people who actually run Windows in // or vmware or vbox on their Mac cause they need apps that don't exist on Macs, or just have crappy support.
Likewise for Linux apps which they run on OSX that way because the so great OSX underlaying unix makes it too complicated to port a couple of CLI apps (not even mentioning the GUI apps - UI toolkits for OSX all look horrible)
Running OSX is actually just to be part of the hype.
I bought a Mac two years ago for iPhone dev (which I ended up not doing), and in my opinion you don't have to switch to a Mac if you are already a Linux user. I still prefer Linux.
The only problem is buying any other notebooks that are good. It is very difficult to find notebooks with acceptable design and specs.
I have to say I am not a Mac power user. I am too lazy to learn gestures (and hence don't want to update to Lion, either). I never use the F3 to show the desktop because I keep forgetting the key (Linux and Windows have clickable icons in the taskbar, much better for me).
May I suggest you look into "Hot Corners", which is built into OS X and allows you to specify certain actions when moving the mouse to the very corner of the screen.
I heavily use the gestures, but I still find these rather handy
My setup is;
Top Left: Show Desktop
Top Right: Expose (on Lion, Mission Control)
Bottom Left: Blank Screen (without sleeping)
Bottom Right: Screensaver
Hot corners seem like a terrible idea, simply because they're far too easy to acquire (by Fitts' Law). I don't want Expose or whatever to show up every single time I move my mouse to the top right corner, which is often accidentally.
I've had this setup for years now, and never accidentally done this.
Don't forget on a Mac you're much less often moving your mouse to the top right corner (window closing is on the top left of a window.
The further most icons are always the Apple on the left, and Spotlight on the right. Both of which I rarely open by hand. If I'm using Spotlight it's always by keyboard command Cmd-Space (though often I use Alfred instead).
And at least on a Laptop I rarely need to shutdown the Mac, which is all I'd use the Apple menu for. Though again, anything I'd go to that menu for I use Alfred for instead.
May be worth turning it on and see how you get on with it?
As for leaving windows, just leave. It doesn't matter where. There's a pain to using windows you just get used to, it's just more of a subtle irritation that comes from using a system where the creators didn't want to make something particularly good. It's literally painful for me to use windows now that I don't do it very often anymore. There are just so many little things that hurt that I just can't do it. I start yelling at the screen about random UI choices rather quickly.
The Mac is honestly more pleasurable to use. Copy/Paste are Apple-C, Apple-V, and the other keyboard shortcuts are honestly more sensible than on windows. Not perfect -- there is no such thing as a perfect mapping, but very good. You can tell that someone on the UI side (or rather, many someones) actually cares about the little things that make the system easy to use.
With all that said, why not use a linux box? On major platforms (e.g. lenovo), they're reasonably well behaved on laptops, and really, it's more than good enough (in my book, windows is playing catch-up with ubuntu in usability now) for daily use.
(for the record: Ubuntu desktop at work, Mac work & home laptops, solaris desktop at home (long story))
after almost 2 years of using os x i only knew that now... always wondered how you could start an app from the keyboard. i never bothered to ask since i'm mostly in iterm and tmux sessions. thanks :)
I switched to mac from windows a couple of months ago. I guess I am still waiting for the magic to happen.
OS X is fine. There are the initial annoyances which I was expecting, like the different hotkeys. Fine, I got over most of those pretty quickly. But there are things that still annoy me. For instance, there seems to be only one hotkey that opens the application menu. On Windows I am used to pressing the alt-key and then the given underlined letter of the menu that I want to open. I have a lot of "secondary" hotkeys memorized this way. In Photoshop for instance, "alt+i, p" is "crop" -- there is no (default) hotkey for crop and now I have to use the mouse.
Not using Lion yet so I couldn't say if the fullscreen mode is going to cure my longing for maximize but the point of that green plus-thing on every window is completely beyond me. The reason I maximize windows is because I want to focus on a single thing, not because I want to see a bit more of content.
I prefer Explorer to Finder. I'm sure this will get better but again it feels like Finder was made for the mouse more than the keyboard, compared to Explorer (mac-gurus, how can I see and copy the path that I am currently browsing?).
I also prefer the behavior of alt-tab in Windows of switching between windows rather than apps. The fact that two documents happen to be opened by the same executable seems arbitrary to me and it annoys me that I have to first switch to the app I want and then to the window I want.
There is, I think, a noticeable difference in the way processes and threads are prioritized. I am sure OSX is better at this but it mostly just feels different to me. Processes seem less able to take down the entire system but on the other hand, music playing apps will sometimes lag which seems to never happen on Windows.
All that said, I am still happy. I love the hardware. The air has enough performance for me (even running two simultaneous win7 vm's with visual studio) and I get happy every time I double check my bag to make sure I remembered my laptop because it's so light. And there are definitely upsides to OSX such as Spotlight which feels like your own personal google (with everything including calculator and dictionary) whereas on Windows it feels like all search gets me is the indexer eating up all my cpu.
Why? If what you got is working for you, why should you switch? Why should anyone want to "sell" you on Macs?
I immediately hit issues. Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?),
I can't right click, I can't win+d to the desktop.
I'm not quite sure what to make of your somewhat ridiculous list of issues, but that's really secondary to the main concern: people have different tastes, different usage styles and different expectations. If the Mac isn't for you, it's not for you period. Facts don't matter, preferences do. What's the point in evangelizing another platform when you're happy with your current one?
It's hard to understand where all this aggression around operating systems comes from. We're all extremely lucky because we get to choose freely from a great set of systems. You can pick any one of them that relates to you the most and then you can go out and be productive with it. Why is there any need to evangelize, criticize, sell, pressure, or judge other people based on their platform choice?
I simply don't get why people feel it's necessary to make statements like "XYZ sucks so much, I don't understand how to do the simplest things with it, can someone please sell me on this stupid XYZ?"
Then don’t switch. It doesn’t seem like the right choice for you. And that’s that.
I never again want to use Windows but I won’t be caught dead recommending OS X to anyone. It’s just stressful. (I’m suddenly personally responsible for any and all failures of the OS and hardware or I feel that way at any rate.)
I am sorry to say so, but as a constant switcher: all problems you describe are problems that are as easily solved on a Mac as on Windows. Yes, it is CTRL vs. APPLE and there is a Button for accessing the desktop (its on a different key for some machines. For mine, its F3). It won't sell you on a mac, but: it takes me roughly 5 Minutes to get it right again after switching and it took me about half a day to get it right. Its a problem of constant use and memory.
I also wouldn't recommend one solution over the other. I prefer APPLE (or COMMAND) as a command key more, but I'm sure thats because its positioned more favorably on the mac keyboard.
Four finger swipe upwards if you are on a macbook or have a magic trackpad. Cmd-F3 otherwise.
Bottom line, if you're used to driving a car, getting around on a motorcycle is going to take some investment of effort and willingness to learn. I got to my mac from windows via a year or two of linux. I'm happy using all three. Happiest on mac.
That is pretty much like complaining why your new car has no built-in right of way.
Sure, keyboard shortcuts are different. But you kind of knew that beforehand, right? Seriously, if that is your biggest complaint, how did you ever get used to Linux?
> Every time I get my hands on a Mac, even to simply Google something, I immediately hit issues.
You seem to hit issues because you want to hit them.
> Paste is crazy squiggly hash v (or maybe apple v?)
The key is called "command". Does "Command V" not make more sense than "Control V"? And free up the Control key for more interesting stuff?
> I can't right click
You can, unless it's a 4+ years old machine it's just a preference (if you're using a trackpad). Any 2+ buttons mouse will natively "right click". Even on older machine, Ctrl+click will open a contextual menu.
> I can't win+d to the desktop
"Show Desktop" is natively bound to Command-F3 on modern macs, on older ones it was on F11. It may also be bound to an active corner.
> So, go ahead, someone sell me on Macs.
Don't know if that will sell you. For me it was a combination of several things:
* Unix environment with an actually useable terminal. By default. Even in 10.3/10.4 (and Terminal has come a long way since then). cmd.exe never "felt" right, I never found a windows shell worth using (even Putty is a pain), and if you're going to remote log into a nix machine anyway why not use one in the first place?
Spotlight works much, much better than Windows Search, and dedicated launcher applications (QS, Alfred, QSB, Butler, etc...) take that a step further
* 99% of the time, managing applications is Simply Easier. No fudging around with installer or painfully browsing to your Program Files folder (and wondering if the soft is 32 or 64b and in which program files you should put it and if you should create a shortcut so the bloody windows search can find it and...). Instead, open your archive (zip or dmg), drop the .app bundle in the Applications directory (via the dock or your finder sidebar) and launch it whenever. You can even launch it right there, nothing to do, no time wasted.
* A thriving indie community with loads of good software at fair price. I did buy licenses one Windows, but not many, and I did not find much which made me go "damn I have to give these guys some dough back for their work", even after I stopped being a poor student.
* Package managers. Whichever your pick is between Macports, Fink and Homebrew having one is invaluable.
* The machine is generally useable as is. Even if you don't download anything it can be used, you have a good PDF & image viewer (Preview is fairly amazing), lots of serviceable software, and it does not "feel" as clunky as windows long did.
Only negative I've found is that Finder is not as good as the Windows Explorer. Though with Windows 7, they've become significantly closer in that search has become shit in 7's explorer.
Essentially, OSX is a full unix with a bearable interface, softed by people who care.
Now if you don't do any dev on your box, it might lose some of its appeal.
Good points. Though it seems like you and the other repliers are selling him based purely on downsides of Windows. A modern Linux such as Ubuntu has more or less all of the things you've mentioned, and as a biased Gentoo Linux user I'd argue in many cases Linux does it better. ( http://www.thingsfittogether.com/2011/08/start-developing-fo... ) So it seems like you're arguing "Mac is a better environment to use VNC for your Linux than Windows is." Unless you want to convince him he also should switch to Mac for development? I'm actually curious how much the GP does on his Linux box besides development. Personally I only use Windows for games and the occasional x-to-exe conversion. (Oh and Flex development at work with Adobe's Flash Builder.)
Until you want to go mobile. Linux on a laptop is still a hit-or-miss experience w.r.t fully functioning power management, wifi without workarounds, and integrated/discrete graphics cards. I know there are perfectly working laptops available out there, but it's still a hassle to track down, find reviews, verify compatibility as stated, then actually install linux since almost nothing ships preinstalled. Then you might want to run QT/GTK/Wx/Tk stuff all side by side on the same machine and that lacks cohesiveness and makes a linux desktop feel very hacked together.
You get the features of Linux with the ability to run commercial content creation apps like Flash, Photoshop and Cubase. It's very win-win for someone who does a lot of different kinds of work. And since all the shortcuts use Command, the Control key gives you free Emacs keybindings in every text field.
I was only able to give up on Mac OS X when I decided to give up on Adobe software thanks to Adobe's abysmal customer service. Now that I don't need to be able to run Photoshop, I just use Linux.
What about Home and End keys? I used a Mac for 6 months, but really really really missed the Home and End keys to go to the beginning and end of lines... Terminal is hell without them...
Don't have the iMac anymore, but what made matters worse was that I switched Control and Command to make more of my shortcuts work. Command+C or Command+V isn't a very natural finger movement on the Mac keyboard I had. Ctrl+V fits much better and matched up many more (Windows) keyboard shortcuts.
But it made shortcut listings more confusing, because that would become Ctrl+← and Ctrl+→ (which I'm pretty sure I tried in Terminal but would always skip to the end of the command line, not the end of the screen line). The only keyboard shortcut that hurt after switching command and ctrl was in chrome. Chrome's History is Ctrl+H on windows, but Command-Y on mac, due to Command+H hiding the current window. That got me every time.
Thanks. A lot of people are telling me how to do the keyboard shortcuts in Mac. Well, I realize you can do them, I realize I'll have a small learning curve. My point was: that's a saved cost if I don't switch, so what's the ROI for taking that time? I'm not trying to start a holy war or point out how "ridiculous" macs are to use. I'm simply stating I have to go grok mac, I see a lot of other people have, and wonder if I should.
I'll say, cmd.exe is complete shit and almost enough. The OSX terminal has essentially been the only thing I've seen in the past that makes me want to switch and maybe one day that will do it.
Also, I guess the compatibility mode and admin mode constant switching around is a bit of a PITA. So, that's probably a good reason as well.
Maybe it will come down to apps though. So far, I'm quite happy with Win desktop apps, but I guess I can get most in OSX anyway.
Speed and reliability. Take open source. You could manually find, download, untar, configure, make, install and track dependencies. A good package manager lets you do that in one command e.g.:
$ brew install package_name
OSX includes a package manager for proprietary packages blessed by Apple. It's fast and reliable but its curators forbid most open source and proprietary packages. It's called App Store.
Ignoring the problem of software availability, the App Store also lacks a fast command line interface. I can kick off a homebrew package install process and return to whatever I was doing faster than the App Store.app launches.
If you're coming from a linux environment, you're probably used to having Apt or Yum available. OSX has no built in package manager so you've either got go out and find compiled binaries somewhere or install from source, both of which are tedious and searching the web for it is time consuming vs. the `brew install wget` commands that you can probably guess and it'll take care of installation in the background while you do something else.
No, Yum isn't available or compatible, it's coupled to Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS linux distributions like Apt is coupled to Debian/Ubuntu/Mint distributions.
Homebrew/MacPorts/Fink are nearly the same thing, they just don't come installed by default on OSX.
i'm sorry, but the least expensive 27" iMac is $1700, a comparable monitor would be the Dell Ultrasharp u2711 which is about $850. So while the iMac isnt that bad of a deal, "not much more than the cost of a comparable monitor" is just false.
If what you want from a Mac is for it to work exactly like Windows, down to the last keyboard shortcut: stick with Windows. You seem perfect for each other.
* Command-F3/the Exposé function button to reveal the desktop (on Apple keyboards, or you can change it; just search for Exposé in System Preferences).
* Enable right click in System Preferences > Mouse or Trackpad.
It just takes a little getting used to. But in the end all that really matters is what makes you most productive. All this elitism is stupid.
I'm a Unix person. My desktops still run Linux, and my laptops use to run Linux, too. I switched to Mac laptops simply because they are now good Unix boxes that actually work well on laptops.
Linux on laptops was inevitably painful in one way or another, and with a small price premium, I get the best of both worlds with Mac laptops now.
For me it's about all the little things. There are so many little frustrating things on Windows that you don't even notice because you're just used to them and you don't even realize that life is possible without them.
It seems to me that a main overarching idea behind the design of OS X is "let's not overcomplicate things" and this really makes your life simpler, not just as a user, but also as a developer.
Easy. Keep Windows. It works - and well in fact.
It's technologically well advanced. No matter what they want you to believe, the latest 10.7 OSX implemented features Windows had for 3 to 20 years. 20! And it's still missing some.
There no need to switch. It's not because everyone would start jumping off the cliff that you need to be convinced to do the same, right?
Same story.
It was cool 10 years ago, but not today. Apple is turning into what M$ was back then: a control and patronize the users company. The main difference to Microsoft is, that Mac OS is a really good operating system.
I use Macs since 1995. Nowadays I hesitate to recommend a switch, although Mac OS is certainly better than Linux and, in my opinion, also Windows.
Apples notebook hardware was also superior for a long time. But today, look at Sony, Samsung, Lenovo. Not bad at all what you see there. And they still include optical drives :o).
I switched from a Dell laptop to a PowerBook G4 in 2005 as I was going off to college. I remember very clearly the initial confusion I had dealing with the radically different file setup ("What, you mean I have to distribute my Jar files in 6 different directories? Windows just has the one!") and Unix interface. I laugh now, but the documentation was actually pretty terrible back then, and I couldn't initially figure out where to store files that I was dealing with. (This was back in the day when Apple distributed its own behind-the-times JDK and wouldn't support anything else.)
I was so upset the first week I owned my PowerBook that I actually wrote Steve Jobs saying "Why would you ever separate Java externals into so many different directories? Where's the documentation for this Terminal.app program? You're going to lose my business if I find more shenanigans like this in your OS."
I got an e-mail back that week from Apple saying "You'll learn to love it, we promise." I was skeptical, but I quickly realized that there's a sanity to Apple's FHS (and Unix's moreso). I also grew to love scripting on the G4 far too much to be able to return the computer as I'd threatened to.
Now, I can't imagine ever going back to the "Windows Way", or anything close to it. I still have that G4, and it runs (Arch Linux) like a charm.
The one thing I haven't grown fonder with Apple's popularity is that customer service now feels cold. In 2005, it was a legitimate pleasure to talk with an Apple rep on the phone. Several of them were happy to explain the internals of the OS to me my first time through, as they were thrilled to have any Windows convert they could get.
Now, things are different, and I don't get the warm, fuzzy feeling I did 6 years ago.
I'm totally out of phase with other hackers. Apple user: 1985-2003. Windows/Linux user: 2003-2011. I just recently (2011) got a MacBook Pro to work on my first ruby project.
I was one of those hackers that stuck with Apple through the 90s. In 1996 I learned how to install netBSD on my mac and in 1997 I installed MkLinux (an Apple sponsored project). I was incredibly excited when Apple announced that it was going to integrate this new (to me) exciting world into the next generation of their operating system. In 2001 I finally got my first machine that was powerful enough to run OSX. But I was a little disappointed. There was no native software, my OS 9 software barely worked and the thing kept breaking. When two power cords broke, the screen broke and the disk drive crashed, I traded for a ThinkPad.
Did this quote make anyone else think of the iPhone a bit?
"In the fall of 1983, the professor in one of my college CS classes got up and announced, like a prophet, that there would soon be a computer with half a MIPS of processing power that would fit under an airline seat and cost so little that we could save enough to buy one from a summer job. The whole room gasped. And when the Mac appeared, it was even better than we'd hoped. It was small and powerful and cheap, as promised. But it was also something we'd never considered a computer could be: fabulously well designed."
I have always used Macs and good lord, the days of Mac OS X being out but the processors not being Intel were truly some of the most embarrassing years for Apple computing.
I remember owning (and loving - for some reason) an iBook G3 that was basically unusable for a few months whilst I awaited more RAM for it. I think this was when their laptops had 64Mb RAM but Mac OS X really needed 512Mb. And remember when Mac OS X had OS 9 built into it? Ugh.
It's crazy to think how dominant Apple is now, compared to those days, and the even more pathetic days before that.
I cannot even think of a reason why any consumer wouldn't now go out and purchase a Mac or iPad for their next computer.
Your comment about 'I remember owning (and loving - for some reason)'... is amazing. This to me is the power of Mac. I have both windows and PC and do most of my work on pc. But the number of people talk about the LOVE of mac, but then when you talk to them about it, have no idea that they don't know how to do simple things.
Like all Love, it seems mac love is often irrational.
One important thing that might be important for a lot of people to ditch their PCs in favour of an iPad is a decent Office app (Word and Excel mainly). It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough.
Does anyone here know and use a good iPad Office app, that I can recommend to people? The store reviews of the top apps don't seem too encouraging.
iWork. The iWork apps on the iPad are excellent, and would cover way more than most users would ever need. I'm still in college and have to send in Word formatted documents, but I've written several essays, fully formatted, in Word format from Pages on iPad. It's excellent. The other iOS Office apps are rather lacking, but Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are easily some of the best office apps I've ever touched. Sure, there are more features in Word, and there are more features in the Mac version of Pages. But the iPad edition is more than plenty for most uses. It honestly blew me away when I first tried it after struggling with QuickOffice on an iPod touch.
There are many valid reasons. For one, Apple computers are overpriced. The Air is a good deal and the MacBooks themselves aren't too overpriced, but the actual Mac computers are extraordinarily overpriced. They also offer hardware beyond what most users need. A lesser quality computer can browse the web just as well and can do it for a thousand fewer dollars. Price is just one minor point though.
Windows still has dominant market share and, as such, is still supported far better by developers. More programs come out for windows than for mac by a long shot. The consumers are also familiar with windows which further increases the chance of them not buying a mac.
Anyways, the point of this comment is to refute your last statement. I'll first say that "purchase a .. iPad for their next computer." is completely ridiculous. A tablet cannot fill the needs of a user yet. I'll focus on why many consumers would not want to purchase a Mac.
1. Software support. A large amount of software is available only for windows.
1b. Video games
2. .Net developer/other developer. Many software developers will work on windows because that's their target platform due to the market share.
3. Familiarity. That's a big one. People are familiar with windows and so they stick with it.
4. Price. Because pcs are sold by various venders there are many pricepoints. Apple doesn't allow that.
5. Business relying on legacy software for windows.
Do I really need to name more? "I cannot even think of a reason" .. You really couldn't think of any of the above reasons or one of the several more? Macs are great and all, but they aren't the answer to everything. They still have many issues. Apple's tight grip leads to higher quality but higher prices, reduced variety, and reduced content. For now, a windows machine can do almost anything an apple computer can do at less cost. The consumer also has far more choices. A mac can only do a portion of what a pc could do; if the user installs linux than the mac has almost no features left that the pc is incapable of. Perhaps you'll harp on hardware quality, but it's perfectly possible to get machines of similar or better quality to any mac aside from the macbook air.
"I'll first say that "purchase a .. iPad for their next computer." is completely ridiculous. A tablet cannot fill the needs of a user yet"
You'd be surprised by how many people just use a computer to check their email and browse the web, all of which can be handled on an iPad simply and beautifully. My Wife and Mother have both stopped using computers altogether, iPad is all they need.
This. The percentage of laptop users out there who actually seem to "need" a laptop is a lot smaller than we might think it is. Maybe even a minority of all laptop users.
Pretty much everyone I know who isn't a hacker, gamer, or Excel jock can get by with just an iPad for the sum total of their computing needs (web, Facebook, email, Angry Birds).
If you have Pages for iOS, an iPad stand, and an Apple wireless keyboard, you can actually get by pretty well using the iPad for word processing, assuming you sit at a desk to write.
I think you put two arguments in one, one valid, one not so. I don't think apples are "overpriced" today. They are at the upper part of the price range because they want to be there, but they are competitive. I except accessories from the list, RAM for example is a rip-off in the official store.
Its the "beyond what most users need" thats the important part. A prime example for MacBook (Pros) are Batteries: they come with good, high-capacity batteries that are expensive at any manufacturer. If I buy the strong-battery option at Dell, it gets expensive quick as well. If I buy the best screen option, the same. The problem with Apple is: they don't allow you to settle for the "second best". You can only buy the best option that they will sell you in a machine class, only rarely a second one.
At thats my main reasons for not suggesting a Mac to everyone. I know a lot of people that want a notebook, but they don't hours of battery life and are on a budget. With a cheaper battery, they could easily save a hundred+ Euros. Why should they waste it on a machine that does not allow them to do so? Macs are just not the machines for people on a budget anymore.
Why is that? Just swimming against the current, or do you have particular problems with them? Have you been making other positive recommendations instead?
> Why do hackers like Macs that much? Wouldn't it be better to use cross-platform tools?
I think a lot of us like OS X because we get a Unix build environment with a fairly slick GUI and good third-party app support.
Being able to use the same OS for day-to-day tasks (Word docs, Photoshop/Lightroom, etc) and for development is nice, and despite some inconsistencies, the quality of third-party applications is pretty high (i.e. Transmit, TextMate/MacVim, Pixelmator, Adium, etc).
Battery life, when it comes to portables, is also a bonus; most Macs have better battery life and less weight than a similarly specced Dell/HP/Lenovo machine (anecdotal, but I think I'm in the ballpark here).
This is exactly what I say when I explain why I like using a mac. Also the touchpad is amazing. For most of my day-to-day tasks its better than a mouse. I would have never imagined that this was possible.
You use the command key to issue commands and raw keys to type. So: command-delete means it's fast and easy to delete a file without the worry of accidentally losing a file when your cat jumps on the keyboard.
No. This is what good software design is. The designer chose this path, offering you the option to change this is what makes software bloated and unmaintainable.
I think everyone has stockholm syndrome with regard to OS GUIs. Windows and OSX are both pretty awful when it comes to consistent and logical design cues.
Mac support is known to be one of the worst. Linux and Windows are also sane OSs. And there are a lot of high-end machines on the market. So I disagree with you.
All Apple owners I ever met were showing off. For them it's status to have a Mac. They think that when they have a Mac they belong to the group. Or they think they need to have a Mac because they are designers/hackers.
This feeling of belonging to a group knocks out the rest of the market.
I'm not saying Apples are crap. But to me they are not better than lets say a nice Lenovo Thinkpad installed with Ubuntu. In the end of the day it's just a tool to get the job done.
(Why do all iPhone owners put there phone on the table while having a meeting? Just turn the thing off and put it in your wallet!)
Apple support frequently leads the industry by a wide margin in consumer surveys. Apple Care is expensive, but it's fantastic when you need it - I've never had a less than 5 star experience.
"Readers awarded AppleCare a score of 86 points, dwarfing the competition; Lenovo/IBM came in second place with just 61 points."
I don't understand the question. How is using a PC more "cross-platform"? If anything, Mac users are a big driving force behind cross-platform initiatives.
You cannot legally run OS X on anything other than Apple hardware. This gets really annoying when you want to set up a headless browser testing cluster because you can't virtualize any of the Mac OS's you might be targeting.
Well, you can set up some headless mac minis and run a variety of virtualized OS X instances on them.
I personally don't see the advantage of using other hardware, Apple hardware is a better value to me. (I value reliability over lower initial price, and I don't find generic PC components to be cheaper for the same thing, nor to have adequate reliability. )
That's pretty much what I've done when I needed to, don't get me wrong, I like Apple laptops and will be replacing my recently stolen Macbook Pro as soon as my budget allows; but being unable to launch an OS X vm is an inconvenience at times, and a completely unnecessary limitation.
Should also mention that the Mac visualizer them so damn slow.
Cause yeah Ive a 2011 high end mac. And Vmware, parallels or vbox, they're all slower than on Windows and Linux
Figures.
I'm virtualizing OSX on PCs, I don't care that Apple put a virtual limitation saying "you've no right to do that! its our software!".
It's just as broken as software patents. I pay for it, I use it as a please. Sue me.
Funny than when it comes from Apple its ok and good reason to buy a Mac tho. Imagine if Microsoft did that? Really, just imagine it one second and how bad you'd hate them.
I'm interested to know what the proportions of OSes are today.