Why is the Mac the developers platform of choice?

[Mesai]

They are trying with RISK processors from ARM but Apple have such a head start with their Apple silicon and because they control both hardware and software, they can better fit the OS around the hardware and vice versa.

Well also the fact that Windows is iterating on decade old code and features, while trying to keep everything backwards compatible. They also seem more focused on having the user be the product than providing a decent OS. Apple do have the benefit of a more narrow hardware support profile.

I also dislike OSX but Linux lacks broader software support (you can get 90% of the way there) and Windows has a slightly better user experience but is inferior as a laptop OS.

 

[OspreyO]

Well, I know what I’ll be nominating for dumbest statement of the year for 2025.


They are trying with RISK processors from ARM but Apple have such a head start with their Apple silicon and because they control both hardware and software, they can better fit the OS around the hardware and vice versa.

X86 and X64 based CPUs are less efficient than RISK processors by their very design.

I love Apple silicon and I’m going to buy a Mac Book Pro M5 as a treat if I can make my current job stick but I don’t like OSX that much and find I have to turn off the animations to make it somewhat less annoying.

That being said, I don’t much like the way Windows 11 is going and the fact that I have to debloat it, block in OS adverts, block telemetry, block AI and change registry settings after every major update equally as annoying.

The fact that Chris Titus has a tool to automate the debloat of Windows says a lot.

The M5 CPU is stunningly fast for many tasks and the MacBook Pro M5 has 17 hours of battery life which for work is amazing and a great combination of features.

No, it can’t outperform a laptop with a dedicated high power Nvidia GPU but I don’t want or need one of those.

My biggest issue with Windows is the push to the cloud. But then Apple did this years ago. Though resetting a password on Apple takes a ridiculous amount of time.

Can't outperform something with a dedicated GPU is a significant difference. As is battery life. Or noise. Or software compatibility. Windows is going to be reluctant to lose that backward compatibility by switching to ARM because it's one of it's primary advantages. Its been here before with RISC Alpha. Windows on ARM still kinda of a beta for me.

Apple can switch platform because it has a captive market. But it's creates a lot of pain in its wake. Especially with MacPro users. That said with Win11 Microsoft is cutting off a lot of older hardware.

 

[OspreyO]

Well also the fact that Windows is iterating on decade old code and features, while trying to keep everything backwards compatible. They also seem more focused on having the user be the product than providing a decent OS. Apple do have the benefit of a more narrow hardware support profile.

I also dislike OSX but Linux lacks broader software support (you can get 90% of the way there) and Windows has a slightly better user experience but is inferior as a laptop OS.

Windows 8 with the tiles and touch screens was an attempt to facilitate that mobile tablet like market. Lots of Windows Laptops or hybrid tablets have touch screens. Never needed a touch screen on a laptop personally. Hence I never really like the tiles. It was superb on Windows Phone though.

We've a load of media slices and nucs running TVs and AV gear in our meeting/media rooms at work. All running Windows and MS Teams. Giant touch white boards etc. All touch screen.

 

[Mesai]

Windows 8 with the tiles and touch screens was an attempt to facilitate that mobile tablet like market. Lots of Windows Laptops or hybrid tablets have touch screens. Never needed a touch screen on a laptop personally. Hence I never really like the tiles. It was superb on Windows Phone though.

We've a load of media slices and nucs running TVs and AV gear in our meeting/media rooms at work. All running Windows and MS Teams. Giant touch white boards etc. All touch screen.

My comment was less about the UI, although Windows touch experience doesn't seem great; that being said, it's not like MacOS offers an equivalent so you'd need an iPad.

Windows has far better window management so it works well on a laptop from that perspective, but power state management is absolute garbage compared to MacOS. Sleep is more of a suggestion - always fun to hear the fans spinning while it's in your laptop bag because it decided to wake up. With a MacBook, I can close the lid, leave it for a week and barely lose any charge, open it and resume what I was doing.

 

[JollyJamma]

Well also the fact that Windows is iterating on decade old code and features, while trying to keep everything backwards compatible. They also seem more focused on having the user be the product than providing a decent OS. Apple do have the benefit of a more narrow hardware support profile.

I also dislike OSX but Linux lacks broader software support (you can get 90% of the way there) and Windows has a slightly better user experience but is inferior as a laptop OS.

I love Linux but I will break it.

If I leave it alone and just do basic tasks like email, internet browsing and the odd game emulation, it’s great.

Asking it to do advanced stuff is a bit much.

 

[OspreyO]

The windows settings are garbage. You used to be able to put it in hibernation easily. Now it's all sleep and it has a constant drain. That said I have the same issue with my MacBook. Its has longer battery life though. But I might not use it for a few weeks and battery is always drained when I haven't used it in a while.

MacBook Air M2 Battery Drain Problem Whil… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[kar]

Part of the reason mac is the developers choice is down to the fact it's basically unix under the hood. For the longest time linux desktop use was too brittle, had too little hardware and application support and windows lacked a way to easily run unix based tools the mac could run.

Linux desktop has gotten incrementally better over the years and with wsl, windows offers a good enough unix environment but in terms of cohesiveness mac os still is a better platform. That is even before we get to the hardware side of things where - the late intel macbook pros aside, apple has been overwhelmingly superior to anything wintel/wamd based.

Things are evolving now windows is getting worse and worse, linux is getting better and better, and arm based 'pc' alternatives to mac hardware are getting better. But even now, a macbook pro running mac os 15 (ta-slow is another story) is the best balance of performance, stability and application support you can get.

If you job involves getting stuff done the mbp/apple platform is still the best.

 

[OspreyO]

Which Unix tools can Apple Silicon run that Unix on a PC can't.

 

[kar]

None, architecturally, but until recently you couldn’t run most unix tools and software in windows but could on Mac. Obviously Linux or bsd would working a PC but the desktop environment and application compatibility was rubbish. The key point was if you wanted a stable desktop platform, robust app and hardware support AND be able to run most unix tools OS X was the superior choice.

 

[OspreyO]

None, architecturally, but until recently you couldn’t run most unix tools and software in windows but could on Mac. Obviously Linux or bsd would working a PC but the desktop environment and application compatibility was rubbish. The key point was if you wanted a stable desktop platform, robust app and hardware support AND be able to run most unix tools OS X was the superior choice.

So you're saying Linux or Unix running on the platform its been on for 40yrs is not robust or compatible.
That its only stable and robust on Silicon Macs, and the wasn't robust on PowerPC or Intel Macs.
I'd guess most people don't use Unix tools on Windows, because there's Windows tools to do the same thing.

 

[kar]

I'm referring to the desktop environment not the unix utils and toolchain. Most certainly windows (post windows 2000 and pre-vista) and mac os both, have been more stable desktop and productivity environments than linux, at least up until the last couple years.

Speaking from personal experience, I ran linux as my primary desktop environment from the mid 90s (redhat 5.2 and afterstap!) to 2009, simply put linux didn't have the stability or compatibility you got from win2k or osx. I lived with it because i preferred the development environment and spent most of the time in a terminal anyway and didn't need productivity or adobe software. I also being younger had more time to babysit / curate my desktop experience.

Eventually I got tired/too busy to keep tinkering / nursing my OS and switched to osx because the development toolchain, particularly with macports was nearly as good as linux (I was on debian sarge I think at the end) and the OS looked and performed good and the hardware choices were light years better.

Sure there are plenty of unix toolchain analogs on windows minGW not least, but it's always been a heavy compromise until WSL. And frankly even that isn't full fat.

As i said the picture is changing rapidly now, windows seems like it's circling the drain, certainly as a desktop operating system, Mac OS Tahoe is a dumpster fire and up until two weeks ago I was all set to go back to linux for my primary development platform but somewhat impulsively (OK had my intel i9 mac nearly catch fire) went out on a m4 with Sequoia, but I suspect this will be my last mac and no plans to upgrade to tah-slow.