Why is the Mac the developers platform of choice?

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

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When I say developer I mean content creators, developers and professional video and photo editing etc....

I'm a DevOps and have been using a windows laptop with a Ubuntu VM for years but it causes me a plethora of issues so work have switched me to a M4 Mac Book Pro.

Its looks nice etc... but why is Mac the developers/content creators platform of choice?

Why is windows not able to replicate?
 
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Maybe run Windows as VM on an Ubuntu Laptop.

Windows is software not hardware. Mac is hardware the software is MacOS.

The technical reasons why Apple was dominant in certain creative industries is long gone. You can get most of the software on either platform. But the habit of creative industries using Macs remains. Ironically most of my creative work/jobs have used PCs though I've used Macs from time to time. I think people just find something they like or get familiar with and stick with it.
 
Content creation is an interesting one. I have it on fairly good authority that socials favour content uploaded from iPhones.

I'm a professional video editor and animator by trade. My 5800X 3080 Windows PC got replaced with an M1 Pro Max as I needed something portable, which has been utterly rock solid since I got it, and I barely use the Windows machine now unless I've got a heavy render to leave.
 
Mainly because Apple laptops are leagues ahead of any Windows offerings, the hardware is just better all round for the money.

The media engines on the M4 are amazing (for handling video files). I edit 6k/4k multi stream on my M4 Mac Air no problems.
 
For the 'DevOps' side of things - hisortically enviornments were more accepting of Mac's than Linux/Unix machines, and having native unix tooling was superior to the Windows tooling. This is less of an issue now with the native Linux capabilities built into Windows via WSL, but now Apple make sleek, nice looking hardware which is super optimised and MacOS has had shall we say less hiccups in the last few years than Windows.

I love Mac hardware, don't think you can beat it. Not as in love with the OS, and would give anything for proper native *nix on there. But I use Mac for work and much of the time at home for DevOps, Infra, Code, Gaming etc and it works really well for everything I do. Windows supports so many different hardware parts, specs etc - MacOS is so optimised to support only Apple hardware. That's the brilliance.
 
Software development-wise, the inherent Linux-ness (yes, I know it's more like BSD) of OS X meant that the wealth of free Linux-based tools were easily available. About 15 years ago, most tech start-ups were either cash-strapped or keen to use similar tools to the big players at the time (Facebook, Google etc. - mainly PHP and Ruby, as I recall), and these were generally easier to work with on Linux-based systems. Apple offered off-the-shelf computers which could work with these tools, and I think now the trend has basically continued.

Certainly the larger companies I worked with often used Windows machines, but a lot of new devs coming into them around 2010 onwards were starting to be more familiar with Macs. I did work with one start-up which was Windows-based, but that was mainly due to its very enterprisey origins. By about 2015, lots of dev teams I encountered were using Macs even in large multinationals where the 'normal' office workers predominantly used Windows.

Nowadays, I don't think that the gap is particularly big, but I personally still find it pretty difficult to develop on Windows because I have grown so used to the Linux CLI and its more-or-less guaranteed 'base' of useful tools. I suppose if I was extremely familiar with Powershell it might be different, but honestly, I've never met any developer who has been particularly hot on it :p I think it's more aimed at sys admins.
 
Historically, on a lot of tech stacks it just works, whereas on windows you have to jump through hoops and find workarounds and workarounds to get it to work. That’s wasted time and effort that they could otherwise use productively.

Lots of developers have only ever coded on macOS so they don’t want to change their workflow, and windows offers pretty much nothing that could even be remotely interesting.
 
Throrik said:
Chances are it's a work laptop, and OS is mandated, and in fact the laptop will be centrally managed. WSL is a 'better' choice although it's still a level of virtualisation.
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Ah, locked out from the BIOS etc. I'd forgotten about that. Those naughty admins! :cry:
 
I'm a .net developer and have to use a Windows machine because my work lives in the Windows ecosystem unfortunately.

I much prefer using Macs, and in the old days of Intel Macbooks I had an Intel one running Windows in a VM using Parallels which was lovely, but ultimately too resource intensive and ultimately suboptimal.

The laptop ground to a halt and I had to go windows which has been flawless and functional for years since.

If .NET ever went fully to a point where I could support all of my .NET apps without using Windows, I'd move over.
 
Unix-based OS, which means you get a lot of the Linux niceness without the headache of using Linux as a desktop (at the company level). Obviously varies from individual to individual but there's unfortunately a lot of software that just isn't on Linux.

Windows is garbage for many reasons but at least you have WSL now. That being said, I prefer some of the Windows use experience to MacOS - MacOS feels like it was made for a child who can only use 1 window at a time.

Apple also wins on hardware if you ignore cost. Laptop experience is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, and to think that even the original M1 is a better machine that some of the latest Windows laptops. If I could get a MacBook equivalent with Windows/Linux, I'd probably switch.

I wish Microsoft would release a modern version of Windows without all the compromises of supporting legacy systems. They should just do their own "Linux".
 
Owning a Mac is a bit like being gay. Nobody really cares, but the Mac owner will be sure to tell you. ;)

mid_gen said:
Mainly because Apple laptops are leagues ahead of any Windows offerings, the hardware is just better all round for the money.
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Mesai said:
Apple also wins on hardware if you ignore cost. Laptop experience is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, and to think that even the original M1 is a better machine that some of the latest Windows laptops. If I could get a MacBook equivalent with Windows/Linux, I'd probably switch.
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I thought it was the other way around generally. You traditionally paid a premium for Apple hardware and for the equivalent cost, you could buy a much superior Windows laptop. I know things changed though with the M'X' chips didn't it? I read good things about them but generally switch off because I'll never work with Macs. I think the focus in recent times has generally been on battery longevity and efficiency in the laptop space which I think they excel at as well?

In any case I don't know why in the corporate world organisations would subject themselves to having to support both Windows and MacOS.
 
jaybee said:
I thought it was the other way around generally. You traditionally paid a premium for Apple hardware and for the equivalent cost, you could buy a much superior Windows laptop. I know things changed though with the M'X' chips didn't it? I read good things about them but generally switch off because I'll never work with Macs. I think the focus in recent times has generally been on battery longevity and efficiency in the laptop space which I think they excel at as well?
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No, not any more. Apple laptops are better value than Windows options these days. The Mac Air in particular hits a sweet spot of performance, battery life, finish, screen, and general quality, that no Windows manufacturer gets close to for the same money. You need to spend serious wedge on a Windows laptop to get something that still won't be as good as an M4 Mac Air.
jaybee said:
In any case I don't know why in the corporate world organisations would subject themselves to having to support both Windows and MacOS.
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For general computing, if I was running an IT department now I for damn sure would be giving everyone Mac Airs, instead of the sort of tripe from the likes of HP/Dell that gets foisted on people most of the time :P
 
jaybee said:
I thought it was the other way around generally. You traditionally paid a premium for Apple hardware and for the equivalent cost, you could buy a much superior Windows laptop. I know things changed though with the M'X' chips didn't it? I read good things about them but generally switch off because I'll never work with Macs. I think the focus in recent times has generally been on battery longevity and efficiency in the laptop space which I think they excel at as well?

In any case I don't know why in the corporate world organisations would subject themselves to having to support both Windows and MacOS.
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Pre-ARM I'm sure that was the case because it was standard consumer hardware in a compromised package (favoured form over cooling). The gap has closed slightly but the current MacBooks are still better on average.

Windows still can't get sleep right.
 
mid_gen said:
No, not any more. Apple laptops are better value than Windows options these days. The Mac Air in particular hits a sweet spot of performance, battery life, finish, screen, and general quality, that no Windows manufacturer gets close to for the same money. You need to spend serious wedge on a Windows laptop to get something that still won't be as good as an M4 Mac Air.

For general computing, if I was running an IT department now I for damn sure would be giving everyone Mac Airs, instead of the sort of tripe from the likes of HP/Dell that gets foisted on people most of the time :P
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Is that not more at the top end of things though? Business laptops tend to be mid spec, robust affairs. Typically Dell, HP. I've had HP and Dell and can't knock either of them. They've been fine. I don't think the vast majority of people are out of hardware power in their day to day business uses these days. 99.9% could even get by with less power.
 
jaybee said:
Is that not more at the top end of things though? Business laptops tend to be mid spec, robust affairs. Typically Dell, HP. I've had HP and Dell and can't knock either of them. They've been fine. I don't think the vast majority of people are out of hardware power in their day to day business uses these days. 99.9% could even get by with less power.
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I can only assume anyone thinking mid-spec Dell/HP business laptops are 'fine' has never used an Apple silicon Mac Air. It's just in a difference league.
 
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