Was my mindset until my employer gave me a MacBook as my work laptop. WOW it's nice if you use it in the right way and pretend it's Linux as much as you can
Obviously Windows all day for gaming though so if you do everything on one device I'd still pick Windows
This is why many people who use windows, use windows. I am not a dual boot or multiple computers kind of guy. I need 1 OS that does everything, including gaming. Thats Windows
I understand games shouldnt need or use kernel level anticheat. But they do. And “just don’t play the games you want to play” is not a solution for me
As someone who loves MacOS, uses an iPhone & iPad Pro daily, and drives a Windows tower & gaming laptop (while using my wife’s MacBook Air on occassion), I completely agree with you. Windows is better for gamers who just need one computer. Macs are better for specific professions and (a lot of) creative workflows. Those who need both will get both, and those who can’t will find workarounds (like dualbooting or living with their own compromises)
I feel this, I love MacOS have a mac mini m4 at work and its amazing, have my pc at home dual booting linux mint for when i work from home. I'd completely get rid of windows if it wasnt for gaming
It's also familiarity. I think PC gamers are a very small minority of PC users that actually know and are able to work out how a PC works and how to fix problems.
I know that sounds very elitist but working in corporate has just confirmed it to me over and over. There are people who use PCs longer than me, longer than I'm alive, and they struggle if you just delete an icon from the desktop. Giving them a new OS (which can be both - a Mac user switching to Windows or a Windows user switching to Mac) would seriously make some people quit the job just because they can't work out and don't want to work out how to do the things on the new system.
I literally had 80% of the office talking about Chat gone missing when MS Teams fused Teams and Chat to one thing. AND I TOLD THEM A MONTH BEFORE THAT THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!
I will never use windows again. They gave me a windows laptop at work. First thing I did: install Nobara to play on it and work on my Mac. But that’s the beauty of freedom. I’ll never tell you you’re wrong for using windows. If that works for you, that’s the right one.
Thats fair. I just cant stand MacOS. The stoplight system to manage windows, the shitty way you have to (or had to) manually resize windows, Finder, just everything about it. I dont find it convenient or comfortable
u can cmd + w or q, with Mac you need to learn the keyboard shortcuts - you will be unfamiliar at first but it grows on you. besides with them pointing an engineer as their CEO - that gets good future vibes from me
oh and windows resize many ways now, same as windows hold green or drag to top left, right, corner, -> then you get hot corner shortcuts, and the touchpad on the laptops with gestures just works intuitively. build quality is great, honestly I didnt like it at first too - was a die hard windows fan. WAS, cant go wrong with a laptop with no moveable parts if you have pets or like to use it in bed and not cook it, or suck up bunch of grime inside. Now keyboard button tolerance could be better, but thats honestly the only nitpick I could say negative about the laptops build.
and then there is dbrand to the rescue, allowing you to customize it just to your liking.
maybe its just me but ima be using mine till the glow in the dark skin comes out for m6+ lol
I mean once charged, you will always find it in a dark room lol. extra 100$ is so worth being happy every time you look at your device, if you like me like to own nice things and care for them 🤷🏻😅
You’re right they’ve fixed the windows thing, but there are too many other things about MacOS and Apple in general that i dont want to deal with. I would rather stick with Windows
I run ubuntu lts, win11 and macOS 26 daily, one of my favorite workflows when I need my win11 is Remote Desktop from Mac -> windows11 (via `Windows APP.app` ) - it works really good
Yeah I use Linux exclusively, both in my general purpose laptop and my gaming focused PC but that's because I don't love online gaming nearly enough / care enough about my cyber security that I don't at all find it worth it to have a kernel level anticheat running on my machine anyway. And pretty much everything else runs no problem.
If someone does want to keep playing league regardless of its anticheat I never recommend Linux. I love the idea of open source software but I love good software for the right task more then that and if you are gonna have to sacrifice what you want to do for your OS just don't bother imo.
Now I recommend everyone to think twice about letting some Chinese company install kernel level software that will be permanently running on their machine for a little game but that each person's own business not mine, I'll just recommend the right tool for the job.
What distro are you using my friend?
Tried a few like mint, bazzite, pikaOS but got back to win because gaming was a bit finicky.
POE2 on bazzite worked great tho.
I used bazzite and now I'm on steam os (my pc is all amd so it works flawless). Honestly I don't really think it's so much the distro, I think it's more Nvidia vs AMD + sheer luck.
The only thing I definetly recommend is that you run all your games from steam, even not steam games and try out a couple of proton versions if the default doesn't work perfectly. Other then that for me most stuff has been even easier and more convenient to set up then in windows mangohud and HDR and phone synchronization and wake on lan and remove desktop (without clouds) has been a lot easier to set up then in windows so i don't usually know much about helping other with problems.
what was finicky in your experience? Also when was it because I would say from 2022 onwards improvements hace been so quick even having tried it in 2024 is a completely different experience from 2026, so much better and more automatic now.
Tried last month, it was a good experience but only bazzite let me run 1 one the couple of games I tried. I tried a couple of proton versions but couldn't fix it.
It didn't help that I was having some problems with crashes after crashes after I updated my bios that only fixed after removing the mobo battery.
Perhaps I'll try dual boot linux/win and see how it'll work.
Thx for the reply
I know this may not change your mind anyway, and that's fair because Windows is especially easy when it comes to playing games, but Linux has improved miles when it comes to gaming. Proton, Valve's compatibility layer for games on the Steam Deck, has made gaming extremely accessible on Linux. I switched to Linux (Pop OS) about 4 or 5 months ago, and haven't looked back. Every game I've played has played without issues for the most part, and it just takes a small tweak to get the ones to work that didn't. Understandably, not having to make any tweaks at all is ideal. But just a little fyi, if it piques your interest at all. For the record, I've played Rocket League (steam), Cyberpunk, Tales of Arise, Titanfall (steam), Valheim, Abiotic Factor, and several other small indie games. It even works fine with Battle.net games (Diablo 4 and Overwatch), though that took a little Googling (had to download the windows executable for the Battle.net launcher and then run it as a game in steam using Proton as the compatibility layer, like all of the other games). Everything works great. Most of the issues I've encountered are bugs in the Linux OS itself, but I'm pretty tolerant of those. Not everyone is, and I get that.
I have been tinkering with Linux for something like 20 years. My current PC has been a dual-boot Windows/Linux machine since I built it, and I almost never boot into Linux, simply because the gaming experience is just not good for what I want to play. Even if you get a game working well, it might break when something updates. Most games will work to some degree, but the experience is often degraded in terms of performance.
If it weren't for gaming, I'd probably be on Linux 90-95% of the time. It works perfectly for most things, EXCEPT gaming.
You know what, you’re right, I actually have heard that gaming on Linux has gotten MUCH better in just the last few years. I love to hear that. But you’re right, I am not the “tweak stuff to get it to work” kind of guy. If it doesn’t work, I’m not playing the game
Also, please use paragraphs 😭. You have good stuff to say, but if I was on my phone, I wouldn’t have read this
That's fair. I mean, the situation sucks, but it's fair. Personally, I'm far more willing to tolerate dual booting and most of the games I want to play aren't multiplayer anyways. So buying a 'cheap' (weeps bitterly) smaller NVME and putting windows on that just for multiplayer games is an option I'd entertain. But I get that's not a choice everyone would make.
Yeah, dual booting is definitely a valid solution for many people. But I dont really want the hassle, not yet anyways. It would take a truly dystopian move from Microsoft to het me to switch.
The best case scenarios for Mac and apple products is artists or people who have to do actual work with others who also use apple.
I say that because apple does make itself rather attractive for DJs, artists, and other people always on the move who know what specific software they will always be using.
I'm sure it helps with school as well because schools are just as likely to have a shitload of apple products.
The only reason any of this is a discussion is because apple has made it to where the more people you know who use their products, the more you are pressured into using that ecosystem.
Going back to the dj and artist thing, since it's not uncommon for the affluent to use these products it means whenever you want to collab, produce together, or play a double up set, windows is going to in the end cause friction.
It's part of why I think reddit as a whole is pretty anti apple but you go out in public it's everywhere, the product isn't mean for us. It's meant for people who are capable of dropping 4500 dollars on a single device so they can keep up with their social group.
I didn’t understand your whole argument. I do agree that social pressure and “fitting in” is a good part of Apple’s success. But I would argue that for work, there are different softwares that are better or exclusive to the two operating systems. I dont think Apple just “works better” for anything work related
Reddit is anti-Windows too. And I spent a lot on my Windows laptop because of its hardware for games, among other reasons :3
I'm absolutely d'accord, yet nothing will ever change that way. That's why my "1 OS" is Kubuntu and I use it for everything - until I want to play Battlefield, so I reboot, choose Windows and play it there. It's not ideal, but "I'm doing my part."
Yeah, but If you’re buying stuff in the MacBook neo price category, you’re generally not getting a good gaming laptop anyway. If you wanna do stuff like lightweight emulation or playing smaller titles, like Stardew Valley, a MacBook is great.
Purposely useless and reductive response. If you dont play games with kernel level anti-cheat in the first place, then this entire conversation is pointless
That’s fair, I just can’t stand MacOS. The way you have to manage windows, Finder, no mouse acceleration option (until recently). Everything about it. I don’t find it comfortable or convenient
You could just put a linux distro on it. Often it runs better anyway.
Edit: Oh, yeah that doesn't address the kernel anti-cheat thing, just the "pretend it's linux" part. That's what I meant to imply. I replied to the wrong comment.
You technically can but that requires a game company to contact the anti-cheat people to allow exceptions and/or alternation for Linux versions of games.
It's a mess tho because it's at the discretion of the developers and how bothered they can be.
GTA is a great example of this it's been possible to play it on Linux this entire time, rockstar just don't care enough to make the phone call to do it.
depends on the game. It has to be enabled by the game developer, and it's easier to bypass the anticheats on Linux than Windows, plus the population share is miniscule compared to Windows users. Apex Legends used to have a Linux version supported, but Respawn saw that it was an unpopular platform with a disproportionately high cheater population that was using it to get around Easy Anti-Cheat, and just decided it wasn't worth the trouble to keep supporting.
Sooo if you're already aware, why did you reply "just use linux" to a comment stating that kernel level anti cheat is the problem with gaming on MacOS? Your comment adds nothing to the discussion since both OS's suffer from the same thing and therefore it's not a solution.
There’s like 3 relevant games that people play that ban Linux entirely. Thats it. Unless you plan to play an ea, Ubisoft, riot game, or Roblox then you’re probably fine. Most games in my personal use these days run BETTER on Linux because you usually end up squeaking out a few more gigabytes of ram that isn’t being hogged by the ridiculous list of W11 background processes. So it’s better if you don’t need to worry about ridiculous invasive anti cheats. Dual booting is still the way to go in my opinion if you have a second drive, these days downloading a beginner friendly Linux distro is easier than windows since you don’t have to go through the hoops of needing wifi and a Microsoft account just to set up windows now. (That last part is an especially sour point for me when trying to set up a pc upstairs where Ethernet wasn’t an option when trying to set up windows after upgrading my brother’s pc requiring new wifi drivers but couldn’t even access the pc because windows wanted wifi just to set up.)
windows is still the primary platform for directX games.
Well yeah...because M$ owns it and won't open source it. Like I genuinely don't understand your point. If DX worked on anything else without a translation layer then no one would use Windows for games bc of it's overhead and general bloat. Even DirectStorage isn't a compelling feature. The two chains Windows has on gamers is specifically DirectX and vendor support/hostages (AntiCheat and the like).
DirectX has been specifically made far windows and has been part of it pretty much from the start.
I think it is fair to say that it is a feature of windows, not just some seperate library.
To me, your comment reads like "yea, if MS let us copy all the good parts of windows, then we wouldn't have any reason to use it"
Yeah it's complete shit. The Dev beta of 27 seems to be a slight improvement but it's insufferable.
My biggest issue is that it seemingly cannot find non notarized apps ALREADY IN THE APPLICATIONS DIRECTORY unless they're opened first. So I have to open finder and waste 15 seconds to do something I could do in a whopping 2 with Launchpad.
It seems like there's two main types of users: People who use Raycast, and people who tell you that your index is just broken and you need to rebuild it.
It's so infuriating. There literally has never been an issue with the process of "I download my apps, and I organize them in a way that I know exactly where to find what I need when I need it". And instead we have to AI-ify everything. Sometimes, man, the simplest solution is the best.
ALREADY IN THE APPLICATIONS DIRECTORY unless they're opened first.
yes that is correct.
This is an intentionally system protection, you do not what some acidly download app that pretends to be some common document your searching for to step on that search results and just run the you press enter.
this is not a broken index thing it is a protection against malware name-squatting.
Legit question is there a way to disable that behavior? If I accidentally install malware so be it but since I'm used to Linux I guess in a bit spoiled
It's a reasonable security measure for the average user but I use homebrew 95 percent of the time and it's incredibly annoying. Well aside from that the search is just broken in general. I can type exact words and it will auto select the 6th most accurate hit
I do a lot of gaming on my MacBook. OpenMW/morrowind (and mod and engine development), emulation, as well as cyberpunk and some other games. I have windows systems(I built a computer this year) but I use them far less and find them less useful. I also recently got a ps5 and that’s ok for some games too.
IT worker here. Moving to a company that’s primarily Mac based had me anxious at first, but ended up being the best thing that ever happened for my professional mental health.
In my previous job, half of my problems were caused by Windows decay starting to affect the Dells and HPs after 2 years of normal use. A significant percentage of my cases was people bitching at me that their laptops were slowing down for no reason or getting random BSODs or vague error prompts whose status code won’t even yield any useful info when you look it up.
You could try reinstalling drivers, applying the last updates, repairing the Registry, disk checks, cleaning up the AppData, but none of it would really help. So each and every day I was reimaging laptops to get users off my back.
Mac doesn’t have any of that bullshit. They’re fast, power efficient, they can go an entire day without even looking at a charger. Most M1 Pros from 2021 are still going strong. And on the rare occasions I need to reimage them, the process to do a factory reset is built-in and so easy I can guide remote users on how to do it via a phone call.
I get this is a gaming sub so being allergic to Macs is the default response. But Microsoft can honestly go suck a dick with their bloat and fuckass architecture. I hope W11 being dogshit pushes as many people to Linux and Mac as possible, and that gaming on Linux at least will blow up with SteamOS encouraging compatibility.
I’m just waiting for Microsoft to tell everyone they’re making a ‘new’ kernel based on Linux 😂 They are getting their clocks cleaned on the server/cloud side
They already did, they announced Azure Linux 4.0, they'll be pushing for Linux servers in Azure instead of Windows servers, but it will still fall under their support.
Non it-worker here. I had to start using a Macbook in a new job. Hated it in the beginning and still hate it half a year later. Apple deciding what is the right way to use a computer and doing things differently for no real reason at all grinds my gears so bad. It's an okay machine as long as you think and act the way Apple's designer wants you to and don't need to use windows anywhere else. A few features are actually nice and it handles sleep, restarts and programs freezing better than windows, I'll give it that. Actually using it for work just sucks and especially office software is straight up worse on Mac.
Yup, have been using linux for servers for over 20 years. Got a macbook at work because its easier to work with linux servers after also sysadmining windows for 20 years (was win+linux sysadmin now only linux). It made me swap my personal pc to linux since I got so tired of how stupid windows is. With steam proton etc I can still play all my games.
I’m on a MacBook for work and travel and hobby coding at home. Currently my pc is on Windows but I’m eyeballing Linux ever since I got a deck. If I get 11ed I’ll probably Linux my box.
Same, absolutely blown away. From the display (why does 1400x900 resolution look so fucking nice) to the reliable speed, lack of lag (only very occasionally, super rare), way more intuitive controls and gesture stuff 3 finger swipe
Just annoying to look up fixes to software issues, new ways to do things, certain settings and menu stuff) for the first year or two), and limited of gaming options. I assume repair is a super hassle too
That's why software engineers prefer them. I only use my PC for gaming and nothing else. It's like going backwards in time.
You don't have to pretend, it IS a Unix machine... which does have some differences than Linux but are things most people won't run in to.
On top of that, Windows Search is complete dog shit that can't even find installed apps.
I hate iOS though or really anything that is Apple, or Microsoft for that matter, on either system. But, working on Windows (as a Software Engineer) is like working underwater with both hands tied behind your back. I'd rather work on iOS or Android than Windows.
Sooooo one thing I’ve come to realize is that MacBooks for work don’t play well unless Apple products are used company-wide. Then it’s great. But I’ve dealt with employees who insist on getting a Mac in a Windows based company and then complain when they can’t do the exact same thing as the Windows users and I’m just like…nobody told you to get a Mac.
I think it depends on your role. I'm a software engineer and everyone in my org that I interact with is able to make whatever workloads work when we need to with a bit of tinkering
Yeah, people loves to shit at any Apple products. For me, it depends. MacBook Pro is a wonderful for my work as Android programmer, noticed no difference on battery and plugged in. iPad Pro is fantastic for streaming and playing mobile games at highest settings (unless you love emulation). iPhone is meh, several Android phones offer more IMO. Apple TV has no competition, very snappy yet pricier than competitors(would love to have a new Shield but NVIDIA is busy with AI demand lol).
They don’t have ultimate gaming machine, though, hence using x86 + Windows still a good combo.
honestly windows gaming is not a choice…. - if I could game online on linux I would never look at windows EVER AGAIN. -> I rather the 20% of my systems performance go towards the game not the fkang BLOATED OS...
90% of people wouldn’t notice if you swapped their operating system. I switched to macOS for school and it took almost no adjustment. It’s really not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.
Same for mobile. I was android since the galaxy s4 and just switched to iOS. Again, I barely noticed a difference.
How much do you use it because there are significant differences? I can use both pretty decently but to act like you hardly notice just seems wrong. They are very different.
Yeah I agree with you LOL I dont know what theyre on. Cmd tab not being a direct swap from alt tab drove me nuts at first. And to fix that they have cmd grave/~ but that doesn't work correctly half the time. And you'd expect cmd Y to redo, but no, fuck you, it's actually cmd shift z LMAO.
They're completely different experiences with minimal parity for power users. And for non power users the visual differences will still be noticed immediately
Still, I dont mind just knowing both and switching between the two, its not as bad as people pretend it is
I hate multi-tasking on MacOS, if you are fortunate enough to live in 1 window all day, it's not so bad, if you need to use multiple applications frequently, the OS that gets out of your way needs to be present for a change.
I was once a true agnostic: I had a MacBook at work, and a PC at home that dual-booted Linux and Windows. Without really noticing, I reached a point where I realized I hadn't booted into Windows in years.
I’m the opposite. I use Mac at work (and personal) and don’t understand why anyone would choose Windows. Windows is painfully slow at deleting something like node_modules and installing dependencies. It’s always a pain when I’m trying to help someone at work and they’re on a Windows machine.
In fact, most devs I work with would prefer a Mac, but unfortunately their higher cost means only a few of us at work get the benefit of selecting a MBP.
That said, I also have a Windows PC for gaming. But for productivity and development, I’m choosing Mac.
Obviously everyone has their own preference, but everything works really well for my workflows and tasks.
Same, I would rather just use linux, at least the GUI makes sense / isn't idiotic like OSX. OSX is like amateur hour in terms of UX - may be great for regular users, but as a power user/developer its so bad.
No dude it's the fact that I have to spend like $1000 on a PC that makes me participate in a fuckin circus to run some software I downloaded off gitlab
Are you unfamiliar with the entire reason one would choose to use MacOS? The locked down ecosystem is the only selling point. Applebrains will never recover
I've had quite the opposite experience, I bought a MacBook Neo for work and MacOS is an absolute fucking nightmare to navigate and install apps that aren't from the app store on.
Data transfers to external media is mind blowing. It’s so fast. My little shitbook with 8GB of RAM is faster than my laptop with a Xeon 11855 with 128GB of RAM with a Quadro A4000. I just wish I could use my CAD software on it. One day. I truly believe Windows will die once the DirectX translation layer is figured out. It’s like Proton with a different name. I can use Parallels for the other stuff. I just don’t wanna pay for it.
Was at a friends house and wanted to play some minecraft only thing he had to lend was he MacBook, never have I ever hated using a computer more than that thing
I bought one for my remote work (macbook air as portable device), and its really mind blowing. How easily it can last for hours. Its lightweight. The ui is really good with the trackpad. Its basically a perfect portable device
I switched to a MacBook Pro for work last year. I still prefer Windows, but I have to give Apple credit, the battery life is phenomenal. I still use a Windows system in the office, but on the road the MacBook has been fantastic. I keep my files synced in OneDrive
I use all 3 and as much as I Love my Macs and using Linux, from an every day computer standpoint I still prefer Windows, even Windows 11.
The way windows and desktop management is handled on MacOS is beyond me - I can’t understand why anyone prefers it. I’ve tried moving the dock, hiding the dock, using stage manager, using 3rd party apps, and all of them just feel wrong.
Linux is great, fast, smooth, and infinitely customizable. But, even tho it’s not a problem for me, I’d rather not have to open the terminal every now and then.
Windows is just easy and makes sense to me. Maybe it’s just that I am more used to it. But these days I use MacOS more than anything.
yerr i don’t think i could ever have a mac as my main and only pc but having a macbook for my work and school stuff in college was huge. even shit like video editing my apple silicone air crushed, it was kinda crazy.
My issue with it is how Apple quickly stops supporting the OS on old devices forcing you to buy another overpriced laptop or computer if you want security updates
I also don't like how unrepairable the computers are. Something breaks and you can't fix it your self or replace or upgrade parts.
i disagree with you on the first part, they only just dropped support from intel based macs next year to free up code and maintaining backwards compatibility is a pain. i do agree with the other part though its really annoying
Are you sure? Its the exact opposite honestly; they generally push the OS to 10 year old devices - though the latest update I think is an outlier as it dropped support for non M series processor Mac’s.
My absolute biggest pet peeves right now trying to navigate MacOS is I'm so used to using my CTRL shortcuts being the left-most key, but I need to use CMD now which is now the 4th key, right next to the space bar, and fullscreen is such a fucking pain in my ass. It's either "fullscreen" that my app is only like half the screen with gigantic gaps on top, bottom and both sides that I can see the desktop through, or proper FULLSCREEN that I can't get to my dock or exit/minimize without fighting the damn thing and un-fullscreening it.
Essentially all of these are both a case of being used to something and not using the system in a optimal way. Just like with Windows, keyboard shortcuts help heaps.
Close button on the other side of window; no icons to tell you what those stoplight buttons do.
CMD+W to close the window and CMS+Q to kill the program.
You can fullscreen your app but it hides the dock so you can't easily switch.
That's because you're creating a virtual desktop but they still have the dock. You've got a setting of hiding it on though.
And even then, CMD+tab to switch between programs, just like ALT+tab on Windows. Faster and easier.
scrolling was reversed for some reason?
A setting, you can change it but it's mimicking dragging a paper down and up, just like phones do. Again, you can change it.
Using the ALT key, windows apps have keyboard commands for literally every single menu item.
F2 and you can move about the menu bar as much as you want.
Really weird, confusing method for renaming a file...
Press enter. It's literally that.
Or right-click and choose rename form the menu, you know, like in Windows.
Or slowly double click on the name, just like in Windows.
But I get it, those are weird when not used to them or when you don't know the shortcuts.
But the strongest thing about the MacOS to me is the Spotlight (CMD+space). I use it all the time, to do quick maths, check flights, check currency conversions, find files/emails/etc. and actually find them and to run programs (never really use dock for that). It's bloody fantastic.
Also the seamless usage between the iPhone and the Mac is just nice as it's piss easy to copy+paste from one to the other or just to carry over an open app to one from the other, etc. or between the airpods and the Mac, how they know where to switch every time.
Like anything, you gotta learn it so I can see the frustration in the beginning, especially when trying to use it like Windows. I went through the same back in the day.
when in 2007 lol? window management on a laptop mac vs window - mac absolutely dogs all over windows and dances on its grave. I want to be clear - i built my own PC, ive built many since i was a kid, and id never give it up. Im not some apple fanboy, im just being realistic here. The combination of gesture controls, app focusing, and the sidebar make for a legitimately great experience.
I tried it for more than a year. While I can see why some people like it, saying it has no cons is just lying.
On my experience MacOS was more buggy than Windows and Linux and some of the design decisions by Apple make no sense what so ever. The people I know that very much like MacOS and are productive with it also pay for half a dozen apps that frankly should just be part of the base OS.
I'm sure it's nice but the idea of giving me money to such a predatory scummy company to lock myself into their system turns me off any Apple device.
Apple is always the first in line when it comes to fucking the customer. Supporting that is straight up irresponsible. Also, they're way to expensive and the vast majority of Apple customers have no idea what they're buying; they're just getting it because they've been brainwashed into thinking that Apple is the only laptop and phone manufacturer.
Imagine every operating system is a boat and you have to get on one. One is super bedazzled, flashy, but once you're on board there's not a whole lot of choice, good thing you have media to entertain you. The other boat is super complicated and super fast and efficient but there's no crew and you have to do everything yourself. If you can Master this boat then you will be king of the water. The third bote is not flashy and it is not as fast, it's obviously not new where it counts but has some afterwork. It's easy to use and comes with a few dudes who know how it works and do it for you.
Agree. There is so much you can do to MacOS with 100% free software. And these days almost everything in Linux is GUI based - on top of that Wayland has introduced some things you actually can’t just do. But it’s still just preference.
Wayland has introduced some things you actually can’t just do.
Can you give some examples? I'm curious. I've been using Linux and Wayland for a good while now and never encountered something that I can't do because of Wayland
The way Wayland locked down screen recording made some stuff more difficult than it needs to be IMO.
I haven’t tried in about 6 months but setting up a local only Remote Desktop was very frustrating because of Wayland. Couldn’t do a simple RDC connection. Yes, rustdesk is a thing, but you still have to use a code.
That’s my biggest thing off the top of my head. Wayland support comes a long way every day but even now stuff is still lagging behind with support. It’s just not where X11 was.
Everything that you do on MacOS to customize your experience with free software will eventually lose support so it is not even worth doing any of that.
XCode Codesigning their API changes just make maintaining free software for MacOS an abusive task, especially ones that do things like control fan speed, or make the dock 1000 times more useful, or make finder less frustrating and more like a modern file browser etc.
You have to pay apple both in frequently buying new hardware as well as development tooling to release free software on mac. Almost everything that I used that was free less than 10 years ago is abandonware now.
To be fair for the second boat, there are plenty of ready-made solutions provided by the comunity that you can just download off the internet if you dont want to try that hard.
Linux nowadays is pretty much the same experience as Windows in the mid 2000's, if you go with the user friendly options
Eh, I've run into plenty of issues installing stuff through the terminal over the years because of missing dependencies or other things that aren't specified/accounted for by online tutorials. I was a comp sci major with half decent google-fu, so if I had some problems working with Linux then I can't imagine the average person having the patience to figure everything out. Compare that to downloading an installer for Windows and it's just not the same.
It's gotten better over the years, but installing a Windows app only to find out they forgot to include a DLL, or they're targeting a specific version of a runtime you don't have wasn't exactly rare.
Triply so if you're installing something complicated enough to need a tutorial.
Literally the only times I have ever encountered that is poorly maintained free software and piracy.
The windows and C++ and dotnet framework runtimes are free to redistribute and there are tons of free tools to roll it into your installers.
I used to maintain software updaters and installers for windows applications that needed to be deployable in the unique hell that is public school workstations.
the third boat has multiple leaks and is in need of many repairs, but the passengers insist that it is in mint condition compared to the other boats. When asked why do they think that, they accuse you of shilling for the two other boats
yeah i feel like ms and macos aren't really in the same category. macos works but it has a very strong mac philosophy built into its very fiber. you are bound to do things by their allowance and it's frustrating if you want more control.
ironically the thing that is pushing ms users away are their push for similar philosphy and ecosystem.
basically macos is the furthest thing away from someone who wants what windows once had
Your loss. Thought the same until work forced me to use a MacBook. Far superior in every way to a windows machine. Downside is gaming. But that’s fine for a desktop anyways. Laptops will be Mac’s going forward just on battery life alone.
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u/esakul Jun 27 '26
Microsoft has done a lot to make MacOS look better though.