

Ask HN: Developer world Mac obsessed?  - dmn

Is there any specific reason that much of the vocal developer's world __seems__ to be made up of MacAholics?<p>Or is it that Mac developers are more vocal about their OS beliefs?<p>I'm honestly wondering if theres something magic that I'm not seeing (considering the fact that my 650$ laptop is more powerful than a 1700$ macbook pro...)<p>For reference I mainly use Linux dual booted with Win7.
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kowen
I can't speak for anyone other than myself, naturally, but I was a very vocal
Linux user until I got my first macbook and didn't have to google X-server
error messages every time I did an upgrade. Getting various flavors of linux
working was always exciting... and challenging and sometimes extremely
frustrating. I think I _never_ got the video card working properly on my last
laptop.

So what I like about the Mac is OS X and all the handy *nix based tools that
are still available to me, all packaged in a nice and slick package where
stuff just works.

~~~
dmn
Point well taken, I will admit a lot of been looking at it through my _cheap
college lifestyle_ goggles.

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caleboller
Like kowen said, it's still a (STABLE) *nix OS, but with a beautiful,
functional UI.

RE: "Or is it that Mac developers are more vocal about their OS beliefs?" The
question you should be asking is what makes Mac developers so vocal about
their OS beliefs? I think the answer you'll find is that they are so pleased
with their Mac they feel compelled to share.

There's also a handful of fantastic development tools unique to OS X, two of
my favorites being TextMate (RoR editor of choice by many), and Coda. There's
also obviously been large growth in Objective-C developers since the release
of the iPhone, again something (unless you count mono) unique to OS X.

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rodyancy
Apple makes the best hardware. I'm not talking about ram, processor speed,
power, blah, blah, blah. I'm talking about the best integrated package,
between design, specs, and OS. Apple also makes some of the best software.

Developers make software that they want to run on all hardware, especially the
best hardware. They appreciate software when it works, and is designed well.
Some developers value design more than others. Those, developers understand
and appreciate the value in Macs.

