
Ask HN: Move to Mac OS or Stick with Windows? - martin_a
Hey!<p>My boss offered me a hardware upgrade and I am thinking about switching from my Lenovo notebook to a Mac Book Pro.<p>As I am working in a media company, I know MBPs quite well from my colleagues, but I´ve never owned or used one because I´m kind of a &quot;Windows child&quot;. Nevertheless I like the design and I know that those things are rock-solid working devices.<p>I am working in a project leader&#x2F;developer position so I need the Adobe Creative Cloud, standard office applications, but also a small web development stack. Mostly git, Notepad++, MySQL Workbench, things like that (not really stuck to those tools, just using them right now).<p>I think I might be better off for the whole web development thing by using Mac OS, because of the underlying CLI and its unix roots and because quite a few nice apps might be exclusivly available for OS X.<p>On the other hand I´m worried about switching from Windows (which I know for about 15 years now) to a new operating system which I had the last &quot;real&quot; contact with in 2009 during my apprenticeship. Will I get around Mac OS or will I struggle with everyday tasks?<p>Did anyone of you make the switch? Would it make sense? Any questions you want to ask me or I should ask myself?<p>Edit #1: I told my boss I am concerned about leaving Windows because there might be some software I could be missing. He said he is running Parallels on his MBP for our ERP&#x2F;CRM tool and it just works fine. So nothing to worry about?
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mee_too
Switching OS is not an easy task. I'd say go for an MBP only if you have a lot
of passion to play with OS X.

If you don't like the Apple OS, you have the option to use an MBP as a native
Windows laptop.

IMHO in the last few years HP, Lenovo and especially Dell have caught up and
overtaken Apple laptops. I'd recommend you buy a Dell with high resolution
screen (from Full HD to 4k), upgradable components - RAM, PCIe disk, WiFi
module, LTE module, and extended battery. For the price of MBP you'll get more
memory, more disk and the option to upgrade down the line.

The Bash/Ubuntu/Windows Subsystem for Linux has pretty good Unix CLI on Win
10.

In the end both Win and Mac suck, go for Linux or BSD :)

~~~
martin_a
I´m open to learn anything new, so Mac OS is just another step of learning
something.

Nevertheless I will have a look into the Dell options, I heard they are
building great laptops, too.

(Pure Linux/BSD is the next step, once Adobe has ported its CC to Linux...
;-D)

~~~
akulbe
You're probably going to be waiting a looooong time for that last piece. :)

~~~
martin_a
Never give up! ;-D

------
lhorie
Some things you'll probably find annoying: macbook shortcut keys kinda suck
(in windows they're pretty much always ctrl+something, in mac, some are
ctrl+something, some are command+something, some are option+something, some
are fn+something, and combos w/ 2 or 3 modifier keys are fairly common.
Learning those shortcuts is a pain in the ass too because you have to mentally
translate the cryptic icons you find in menus into actual words, as opposed to
just reading the words as you would in windows).

I have yet to find a good drop-in replacement for notepad++ for mac. Atom is
ok, but it lags noticeably, if you're used to n++ snappiness. Other editors
I've tried in the past had similar issues.

Finder is significantly underpowered compared to explorer. For example, you
can't cut and paste, or setup default file associations with the same level of
ease as windows. Also, navigability kinda sucks. Tabbing between windows of a
same app (e.g. multiple finder windows, or going from a chrome window to
chrome incognito window) is impossible via any modifier+tab combo.

~~~
stephenr
Wat

macOS keyboard shortcuts have always been better - more consistent by default
and fully configurable for apps with a native menu bar.

Finder.app has had support for "move to here" after a copy since 2011

Cmd-tab cycles apps, Cmd-Tilde cycles windows of the app. Why are you so stuck
on it being the tab key?

~~~
lhorie
It's annoying (to me) because of muscle memory. Maybe it's "better" for you if
you're already used to the way mac does things, but the OP mentioned 15 years
on windows, and this is my opinion on the transition experience, coming from
the same place.

> macOS keyboard shortcuts have always been better - more consistent by
> default

In windows, cut+paste is _always_ ctrl+x > ctrl+v. In mac chrome/atom, it is
command+x > command+v, but in finder it's not. In explorer and in apps, select
via up/down > enter opens things, in finder it enters rename mode. In windows,
app-level tabbing is ctrl+tab, in mac sometimes it's alt+`, sometimes
ctrl+tab. In windows, show desktop is a one-handed shortcut, in a MBP it's not
(fn+f11). In windows virtually everything is right-clickable. In launchpad,
for example, right click doesn't do anything, and some icons can't be removed
via the hold > jiggle flow. In mac chrome, command+shift+n is incognito mode,
but command+ _option_ +i opens console. command+shift+i of course opens mail.
etc etc etc

~~~
stephenr
> in finder it's not

The finder doesn't have cut. It has "move" as an alternative to "paste".

App level window switching is always command-~ (tilde). Any app doing
otherwise is non standard.

Macs have had a show-desktop keyboard button for years.

Virtually everything is righ clickable in macos. You've picked one case where
it isn't.

macs have multiple modifier keys, that's a fact. For most technical users I'd
say that's a positive. There's only so many combinations you can make with one
modifier key.

~~~
lhorie
> Macs have had a show-desktop keyboard button for years.

My MBP definitely doesn't have one :(

> macs have multiple modifier keys, that's a fact. For most technical users
> I'd say that's a positive. There's only so many combinations you can make
> with one modifier key.

True. Personally, I feel like windows has put more thought into it, since the
vast majority of commonly used shortcuts are ctrl+something there (and some
are even easier, being simply f1-f12), which makes them very easy to memorize
them.

I get the rationale for things in macs if I stop and think about it (like the
move vs paste thing), but that's the thing, I _need_ to stop and think about
it, because it's not ingrained in muscle memory :(

------
akulbe
I just made the switch from macOS back to Windows. (after being a Mac user for
~14 years.)

If you're a power user, stick with Windows. My general feeling is that Apple
prioritizes thin and light over what is important to most power users.

If you don't care, broaden your horizons.

The argument about dev'ing from UNIX environment is almost moot with Windows
Subsystem for Linux now. It's not fully-baked, but 99% of the pain I _thought_
would be there from doing a UNIX -> Windows workflow switch, it's just _not
there_.

~~~
martin_a
Hm, I think I read about someone going back to Windows from Mac because of
that. It was quite popular here on HN, were you the guy?

I will have a look at the Linux Subsystem anyways. Can´t be wrong to check
that.

~~~
akulbe
Maybe? It's been a popular discussion lately, across multiple posts.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13751510](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13751510)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726186](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726186)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13673925](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13673925)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13695894](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13695894)

