alt Hacker NewsI wish the mac users would switch to a real OS, linux, so that software companies would release linux versions of stuff first.
Codex, Claude Desktop, etc etc all starting out as "macOS exclusive" feels so silly when they're targeting programmers. Linux is the only OS a programmer can actually patch and contribute to, and yet somehow we've got a huge number of developers who don't care about having a good package manager, don't care about being able to modify their kernel, don't care about their freedom to access and edit the code of the software they rely on to work...
It's depressing how much of the software industry is just people on macbooks using homebrew to install a newer version of bash and paying $5 for "magnet" to snap windows to the corners since their OS holds them in a prison where they can't simply build themselves a tiling window manager in a weekend.
The OS is core to your tools and workflows, and using macOS cedes your right to understand, edit, and improve your OS and workflows to a company that is actively hostile to open source, and more and more hostile to users (with a significant increase in ads and overly priced paid services over the years).
Anyway, yeah, homebrew sucks. At least nix works on macOS now so there's an okay package manager there, but frankly support for macOS has been a huge drag of resources on the nix ecosystem, and I wish macOS would die off in the programming ecosystem so nix could ditch it.
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The problem is that right now I have to choose the lesser of 2 evils. I hate what W11 has become. I only use it for games at the moment and the only reason is that some games Apex/BF6 do not run under proton because of their anticheat.
And I also hate what modern Macos is heading towards. I'm still ignoring/canceling the update on both my devices for the new "glass" interface.
And a thinkpad running Linux is just not doing it for me. I want my power efficient mac hardware.
Truth be told I just want to have my mbp running Linux. But right now it's not yet where it needs to be and I am most certainly not smart enough to help build it :(
It's Apple, not the users, that need to make that switch in the first instance. I'd love to use Linux again but I'm not leaving Apple hardware for it, or accepting poor software support for recent hardware.
MacPorts has existed since 2002 and was invented by Jordan Hubbard, who created the original FreeBSD ports system and was also employed on Apple's UNIX team.
I'd say support for linux has improved an incredible amount compared to 5-10 years ago. I'm often pleasantly surprised when ever a linux version of something is available because I'm used to not expecting that haha.
The package management story on Linux is hideously bad. The next generation replacements are all over the place (do I use snaps? Flatpak?). No one is going to learn Nix if it means you need to become a programmer just to install something.
The graphics story on Linux also sucks. I recently tried to convert my Windows gaming machine to Linux (because I hate W11 with a burning passion). It does work, but it’s incredibly painful. Wayland, fractional scaling, 120+ Hz, HDR. It’s getting better thanks to all the work Valve etc are putting in, but it’s still a janky messy patchwork.
MacOS just works. It works reliably. Installing things is easy. Playing games is easy. I’m able to customize and configure enough for my needs. I love it and I hope it sticks around because there is no way in hell I would move my work machines over to Linux full time.
Tell me which OS you’re using that allows you to code your own viable tiling manager in a weekend?
Is it really a sin to pay for software to augment your OS? Like programmers make their living selling that and it’s horrible?