
Why I Quit OS X – Geoff Wozniak - jpace121
http://wozniak.ca/why-i-quit-os-x
======
brianstorms
I haven't quit it, but the problems, annoyances, surprises, seeming
ineptitude, and creeping iOSification of OS X that the author describes sure
do resonate.

Every new major release of OS X is a day or week spent disabling things,
shutting down Spotlight again, trying to restore things back to the way they
were instead of the way some Designer with a capital D thinks they should be,
for no other reason than, "Beauty."

I just dread the idea of moving to Linux again. I don't want to tinker that
much. But I am worried sick that OS X is dying, in the sense that it's
becoming a platform to deliver people to Apple's (and partners') cloud
services and sharing services and that's it. Screw all of that.

One major shot across the bow was the loss of "Save As..." and the change to
"Duplicate". WTF, Apple? I now have to do 10 extra steps just to Save As.

It feels like Apple is abandoning its longtime users, the master users, the
users who've climbed the pyramid, who've achieved a lot of game levels. It's
just going after that huge base of newbies and midlevel people who don't
notice or complain about all the changes that really, truly are not
improvements. They're just changes. That's the problem in a nutshell: OS X
changes because there's new management that wants to put its stamp on things,
regardless of whether it improves the productivity of the user or not.

~~~
sillysaurus3
Why do people update OS X? Just curious. If it works how you like, why update
it? Security flaws are probably the main reason, but isn't there a way to get
those without acquiescing to an OS redesign?

~~~
PhasmaFelis
The reason--the _only_ reason--I'm seriously considering upgrading from 10.6
is that new programs increasingly don't support it anymore. I download a
simple little helper app and it says "The program requires OS X 10.8 or
higher."

My best guess is that programmers build with the latest libraries, and the
latest libraries require the latest OS version. If the dev is running on the
latest version, it never crosses his mind to do otherwise.

~~~
Kadin
I did the same thing recently, and I've hated it since. 10.7 removed Rosetta,
broke "Save As", and annoyified the Save dialog.

But there were just too many pieces of software that wouldn't run, and
unpatched security holes didn't seem like a good idea either.

To add insult to injury, Apple doesn't allow you to virtualize non-server
versions of 10.6. You can, thankfully, hack VMWare Workstation and keep
running your previous machine's image that way, but it's shitty that you have
to jump through those hoops. It seems geared specifically towards keeping
people from continuing to use their old apps.

------
ggreer
It's important to notice that he's switching to a desktop running linux.
Running linux on laptops is still a gamble. Sometimes things work great.
Sometimes you spend months trying to fix basic stuff like screen
brightness[1][2] on hardware certified by Ubuntu.[3]

I think there's a market for a linux distro that targets a limited set of
premium hardware. I'd gladly pay money for an OS that worked out of the box on
any MacBook or Surface Pro made in the past two years.

Edit: Many people are replying with brands that work for them. I'm glad
they've been lucky enough to avoid problems, but I am making a different
point. On Macs, OS X is practically guaranteed to work out of the box. Wifi,
bluetooth, trackpad, screen brightness, power management, hardware graphics
acceleration, resume from suspend/hibernate, etc Just Works™. On Apple's
hardware, users never have to worry about kernel flags or special drivers. The
same is not true for any combination of laptop brand and linux distro. I truly
wish it were otherwise.

1\. [http://fujii.github.io/2014/03/02/thinkpad-
edge-e145-backlig...](http://fujii.github.io/2014/03/02/thinkpad-
edge-e145-backlight-brightness-issue/)

2\. [https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-
installer/+b...](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fglrx-
installer/+bug/1318314)

3\.
[http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201309-14195/](http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201309-14195/)

~~~
TD-Linux
I've had incredibly good luck for the last several years with Linux on a
laptop. You just have to be a bit careful. Here's what I've found:

\- Backlight bugs are usually related to ACPI tables in the BIOS. Doing a BIOS
upgrade will often fix them. This is especially true on the Thinkpad line
where Lenovo explicitly supports Linux in its BIOS.

\- Be careful with switchable graphics. While they have gotten a lot better,
especially with open source drivers, they are still a pain (even on Windows).
Choose a laptop with an Intel, or AMD APU. Or, barring that, make sure all of
the scanouts are connected to the Intel card, like in my Thinkpad W540. The
new Macbook Pro Retina 15" is exactly what you want to avoid - it forces all
inputs to be connected to the discrete card when you boot Linux.

\- Make sure you have a good wifi card. Intel or Atheros is the best.

\- Do a bit of research before buying, like on the arch wiki.

\- If you buy a bleeding edge laptop chipset, expect to need to use a bleeding
edge distro for complete support.

~~~
d23
For most people, eyes will start glazing around the second paragraph or so,
which doesn't bode well for your "you _just_ have to" argument.

~~~
fixedd
How about this: just by a system with all Intel chipsets and you'll probably
be fine.

~~~
TD-Linux
Yes I agree, this is the short version of my advise. What I wrote above was
for the HN audience.

------
rubyn00bie
I want to quit OS X but can't until I get (as almost everyone else in the
world has said):

1.) Laptop hardware/construction that rivals Apples. I hate plastic. I hate
it.

2.) A usable trackpad. Apple has by far the most usable trackpad and it works
well. Windows/Linux laptops force me to bring a mouse because the
trackpads/drivers are essentially crap by comparison.

3.) Hassle-free wireless and graphics card drivers. Linux I'm staring you in
the eye poking you in the kidney. This isn't always a crapshoot, but boy howdy
can it be.

4.) An supported upgrade path. Too many "PC" manufacturers put their hardware
out to pasture the day it's released. No updates. No support.

Windows is largely unusable for me for development work[1]. Babun or cygwin
make things better but I hate having this fucked off environments disconnected
from the core of the operating system. It's like working/developing in a
vagrant box without wanting to...

Linux is damn close but without a good hardware vendor it's a no go. I could
buy a Mac and install Linux on it, but what's the point? Might as well just
use OS X... and here we are.

[1] I want to emphasize the "for me" part. I'm not trying to say you can't
enjoy it, or that it's across the board "shitty" by any means. I gladly
recognize for some folks-- it's wonderful.

~~~
sandGorgon
Thinkpad - the only other laptop that gets as much respect and fanaticism as
Macbooks. Out-of-the-box compatibility with most linux flavors. Very eminently
upgradable and maintainable (we cannot, in all seriousness, even begin to
compare the maintainability of Thinkpads to Macbook)

Oh and the Thinkpad keyboard kicks the Macbook's butt.

~~~
GoofballJones
The very first thing he said was "he hates plastic".

And keyboard preference is just that, preference. I personally like my Macbook
Pro's keyboard to my Thinkpad's. Weird how opinions work. But maybe this guy
would actually like the Thinkpad's keyboard...he should go try one out. Do
Best Buy's carry them? Are Best Buy's still around?

~~~
rubyn00bie
The commenter above is correct in that I don't like plastic as the primary
reason why a Thinkpad is out... Perhaps if they produced an aluminum unit I'd
give it a shot.

I really want to emphasize I'm talking about my preference. I don't want to
anyway say that the Thinkpad isn't great for some folks.

With that said...

I personally just don't like Thinkpad keyboards at all.

A MacBook Pro (MBP) keyboard for me is much nicer to type on, but it's also
completely inferior to a mechanical keyboard (again, for me).

I've looked (online) at some from HP (envy?) and they seemed alright but were
often underpowered for my tastes. I really like that I can get a high power i7
in a MBP. Cheap? No. Fast? Yes. I'm okay with paying that premium.

I haven't tried the Lenovo Thinkpads; so, I am admittedly behind the times.

One change to MBPs that I loathe is not being able to upgrade my ram or SSD.
I'd be fine if it was a weird format/connector/size, as a result of the form
factor, but having them soldered on is a step too far.

I also very much miss my matte screen. Matte "stickers" (?) suck and just look
shitty.

~~~
sandGorgon
The thinkpad X-series are made of carbon fiber[1] and you get the legendary
keyboard. The Thinkpad keyboards are IMHO the next best alternative to
mechanical keyboards.

[1]
[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca...](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/)

~~~
deong
The current X-series keyboards are probably better described as "infamous"
than "legendary". Not that they're necessarily bad, but no one who would ever
use the phrase "legendary Thinkpad keyboard" was happy to see them go with yet
another crappy chiclet Macbook clone.

~~~
xfs
Have any of the critics you refer to here actually used the current keyboards?
For over several months? If that is even the case, they are probably those who
prefer form over function, because the current keyboards are objectively no
worse than the classical one and even better on certain aspects. The current
keyboards have similar tactile feedback measured, even bigger touch space,
better design for maintenance, and greater endurance against grease and dirt.

------
CrazedGeek
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, as Yosemite has been the best OS X release
since Snow Leopard for me. Runs brilliantly, added a lot of nice features
(Continuity and nicer widgets than Dashboard), looks better than Mavericks
(and much better than Lion or ML).

Then again, I use a MacBook Air, which doesn't usually seem to be the Mac of
choice for people on here, so... _shrug_

~~~
MCRed
You're not taking crazy pills. The difference is you're not a Linux hacker
that switched because it was hip and who never bothered to put 1/10th of the
effort into understanding OS X, and now is complaining because it's not linux
and switching back (which is now hip since google declared Apple evil for
innovating)

This is just another in the weekly 5 minutes of hate on Apple that Hipster
News loves to perpetuate.

~~~
yourad_io
> Linux hacker that switched because it was hip and who never bothered to put
> 1/10th of the effort into understanding OS X

Put two minutes into understanding this[1] and then come back and tell me I'm
a hipster douchebag because I needed my damned second screen.

[1] OSX lion 10.7 full screen apps disables second monitor.
[https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3204004](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3204004)
(and hundreds, if not thousands, of duplicate threads for 10.7 and 10.8)

~~~
kybernetyk
The solution is simple: Don't use the full screen mode unless you have an 11"
MacBook Air and need even the topmost 20px of screen estate.

~~~
yourad_io
I used full-screen in leu of a Maximize shortcut. As you well know, "Zoom"
doesn't quite work as Maximize does in Windows.

So, the solution is actually: Just move and resize your windows with the
mouse, like normal people.

~~~
vosper
Or use one of the many apps that give you all sorts of window controls
(including a nice maximize shortcut) like SizeUp (no connection, but happy
user).

EDIT: Grammar

------
jwise0
I've been considering this for a while -- especially after the Yosemite
upgrade, in which my machine has been randomly hanging [0], and in which my
machine gets noticeably slower (cmd-tab takes a quarter to a half a second to
actually finish switching and repainting windows) over the course of a few
days of uptime. OS X software quality is very clearly not a priority at Apple,
which is a shame, because this machine is still the best hardware I've ever
had the pleasure of using. I don't know what my next machine will be, but if
things go at the current pace, I imagine it won't be running OS X.

My previous Linux machine was a Sony VAIO SZ, running Ubuntu 8.04; it did
basically everything that I needed, and my only complaint that I'd have if
downgrading to it today would be the reduction in battery life. Is there a
great set of laptop hardware to run Linux on these days? What do people use
when they just want a candy-reduced window system?

[0] MacBook Pro Retina 15", Mid 2012; periodically, usually while I am
scrolling through a web page, the machine becomes unresponsive (sound stops,
cursor stops), and a minute or two later, the machine powers off. Sometimes it
reboots on its own; afterwards, there's no kernel panic log. As far as I can
tell, something goes wrong, and after a few minutes, the SMC's watchdog timer
gives up, and shoots the machine in the head.

~~~
owenwil
A fresh install will likely fix many of your problems. But it sounds to me
like your machine needs a warranty repair.

~~~
yourad_io
"Just format it"? Really?

~~~
vosper
He'd have to format it for Linux, so it seems like he may as well try the OSX
re-install first.

But, as the grandparent said, this sounds more like a hardware issue,

~~~
yourad_io
If it was a hardware issue, that's one thing, but:

I despise the "fresh install"/"just format it" response to problems - it shows
that nobody really knows wtf is going on and/or can't help you, but maybe
starting from a clean slate will make it not broken? (Until it happens again
and you need to clean-slate it, naturally). Wreaks of Windows ME-level quality
in both software and software support.

The "format it for Linux anyway" argument seems a litte fallacious to me.
You'd have to format it to put any other OS on it, sure. The point is to get
to a state (OS/whatever) where you don't have to resort to random "nuke
blasting" methods to fix something.

If formatting once for Linux means I never have to nuke it from space again to
fix an issue, then yeah, I'll take it.

------
revscat
I don't get this.

I currently own three Macs: an early-2013 MBP (personal), a mid-2014 MBP
(work), and a 2010 Mac Mini. All three are running Yosemite and all three work
as flawlessly as can be expected. Which is to say: I have not experienced a
single one of the issues that OP has described here.

> The iOS-like GUI and "features" such as Launchpad didn't resonate with me.

Then don't use it Launchpad. I'm pretty sure I have never used Launchpad,
except maybe once to see what it was, and it has neither gotten in my way nor
caused any issues. I have to admit that I'm puzzled why so many people are so
vocal in their complaints about it. If you don't like it remove it from the
Dock and forget about it.

> I spent a lot of time going through the System Preferences, figuring out
> what I had to turn off in order to get my sanity back.

He links here to a Wikipedia page about Notification Center, the implication
being that it's a pain. Any device is going to have default settings you don't
personally care for. That's why they are preferences.

> Messages in 10.10 is a complete shitshow. It's a stunning regression. I gave
> up on it shortly after Yosemite was installed. The content was frequently
> out-of-order, mislabeled as new, and the conversation usually unparsable.

I have not experienced this even _once_ , let alone so frequently as to make
Messages unusable.

> There are lots of other little things that irk me: mds being a hog,
> distnoted being a hog, lack of virtualization, other system services
> mysteriously firing up, bogging the system down.

I ran into the distnoted issue on Mavericks, but it turned out to be a bug in
emacs[1]. Once that fixed both disnoted and the cmd-tab problem were fixed.
Other than that, thought, neither mds nor any other process has caused me any
issues, ever.

> It doesn't help that the Macbook Pro I have is one of those lemons that
> overheats easily, thus kicking the fans into "rocket taking off" mode.

Oh. So there is defective hardware in the equation, but he's blaming the
operating system. Ok then.

[1]
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gnu.emacs.bug/s47kTT...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gnu.emacs.bug/s47kTTrcL4Q)

------
brandonmenc
I did this once. Biggest waste of time, ever.

Went from NetBSD to OS X in 2002, then to Linux in 2008, then back to OS X in
2011.

I spend almost all of my time in cross-platform apps, but the little
inconveniences of Linux on a laptop just weren't worth the trouble back in
2011, and I'd be surprised if anything has changed since then.

OS X at its ugliest and least stable wipes the floor with Linux at its best,
imo.

~~~
vacri
At my last workplace, the OSX laptops were all 2-3+ years old... and were all
incredibly slow. I was always surprised that people could get any work done on
them. One woman had an OSX laptop that would boot up with the entire 4GB of
memory in use, with no applications or agents loaded except maybe spotify. All
the shiny UI in the world doesn't make you more productive when you have to
wait for a mouse click to register.

The linux machines were whiteboxes of the same age, and while there was a curl
or two in setting them up, were still just as speedy and usable when aged as
they were when new.

~~~
hisyam
I have a Macbook Pro with 4GB RAM & normal HDD and I don't recommend upgrading
past Mountain Lion, since Mavericks uses at least 3GB after booting up. I'm
guessing Apple engineers are provided with Mac Pro with blazing speeds so they
don't understand the pain of using the latest OSX with 4GB RAM & normal HDD.

As for Spotify, it consumes a lot of memory. You'd better off with iTunes.

------
overgard
Apple has been doing a really bad job at UX for the last few years.
(Disclaimer: I say this as a person where I'm currently surrounded by two
iMac's, a macbook pro, and an iphone, so I'm not exactly a hater).

The weird thing is I don't even know what they're going for.

There are two trends I've seen:

1) Be more like iOS (for example, the dumb reverse scroll (wait sorry,
"natural" scroll") and removing things like UI elements reacting to hovering.)
I have no idea what's even clickable anymore. That's idiotic. I get
consistency, but you shouldn't kick one platform in the knees to replicate the
shortcomings of another. OK so touch screens don't have hover. Still, I'd like
to have that back on the desktop. It'd be nice to know what's actually
clickable.

2) Being more "social". Like now all my OSX devices want to be connected to my
phone, and tell me about every goddamn text message. And if I try to ignore
this, I get berated by annoying login screens. "Cancel". Hey maybe you want to
see that screen again! NO! fuck off! I have no interest in iCloud, stop asking
me five times to log in. Apple seems hell bent into annoying you into signing
up for a lot of privacy degrading services.

Not only that, but they just choose bizarre fucking defaults. Like, if I sync
my iPhone, it will pop up iPhoto automatically with all my recent photos.
Jesus christ. On the plus side, I'm boring, so there's nothing really there,
but who the hell thought that was a good idea?!? Does apple have any idea what
people actually use cell phone cameras for? Sure there are tame uses, but all
the same, I mean jesus christ. That's the dumbest default I've seen, and
turning it off is basically impossible.

~~~
stouset
Sorry, but switching the scroll direction was completely justified. It takes
literally five minutes to adjust to, and unifies the scrolling direction
between touchscreen and non-touchscreen devices.

It's not like, in lieu of this reason, there's some massively compelling
argument to prefer one way or the other. If not for touch screens, the
direction would be completely arbitrary. It didn't end up that way, so they've
changed it now.

There are plenty of reasons to complain about OS X. This isn't one of them.

~~~
overgard
Why would I ever need it "unified"? Mouse interaction and touch interaction
are night and day, I'm in entirely different mental modes when I use either of
those devices. What is confusing is when suddenly, up is down. That's legit
confusing.

Admittedly I use an actual mouse with actual buttons. I tossed the "magic"
mouse into a drawer after a week because it was annoying. Cute, but a pain
when you're trying to get actual work done.

~~~
stouset
Apple prepares their moves well in advance, like a positional chess player.
Can you really not see a future in which, for example, there's a display on a
MBP trackpad?

And it's not "suddenly". You toggle a checkbox. For about five minutes, you
get scrolling backwards. Your brain adapts, and then you _move on with your
life_. Seriously, this is a total non-issue, regardless of whatever "different
mental mode" nonsense you toss out. You are literally griping about a five
minute period of confusion, and I'm guessing have spent _years_ avoiding it.

~~~
overgard
Well, I spent about 2 minutes figuring out how to turn it off, so close
enough? I mean, I did move on with my life. I scroll up and things move up. I
pointed it out because I thought it was dumb, not because I have some sort of
obsession with it.

You seem to be making an attempt to paint me as a luddite afraid of the
future, but that's really not accurate. I just like my scroll wheel to not
move in the wrong direction because "tablets ermahgerd!" I thought it was
stupid to break well established behavior in an attempt to "unify" with a
device that runs an entirely different operating system on hardware with
entirely different input mechanisms.

I don't really care if Tim Cook is playing chess nine moves ahead or
something. I just want the damned thing to not get in my way.

------
jonhohle
While I haven't switched to another OS, Yosemite has been the worst release of
OS X that I've used (I've been an OS X user since Jaguar).

The general rule is to wait until at least 10.x.1 (or later), but even now,
there are still bugs that indicate that there is little to no structure
release or QA process at Apple, and it's likely that few teams have gotten the
religion of testing.

    
    
        * In 10.0.0, systems on Exchange in our office would 
          freeze after anywhere from 5-60 minutes. Only a hard 
          reboot would make them responsive.
        * smart mailboxes no longer live update for me. I just 
          have to trut that the messages I've deleted or moved 
          will be gone when I manually reload the mailbox.
        * replying to calendar events in Mail no longer provides 
          any indication that some action has been performed. 
          (Maybe this is related to the smart mailbox issue 
          above).
        * Calendar will just stop drawing every once in a while 
          requiring a restart.
        * Calendar frequently barfs on event updates and requires 
          reverting to the server version for any hope of 
          reconciling the changes.
        * Safari frequently consumes all memory and all CPU for 
          lighter workloads than I used to run (because I know it 
          will go out of control at somepoint).
        * The background of the login screen frequently has 
          graphical glitches which are likely caused by 
          overwriting areas of graphic or texture memory (this 
          seems to happen on Intel or dedicated graphics cards)
        * iPhoto forced a database update, crashed in the middle 
          of the migration, and corrupted a decade old library.  
          This happened immediately after time machine told me 
          that it needed to start a new a backup and deleted my 
          most recent good backup.
    

With all of the pulled releases of iOS and Safari lately,I really hope someone
at Apple is mandating some soul searching and release process changes. I'm not
happy to act as Apple's QA department.

Edit: formatting

~~~
yourad_io
Single data point (me):

The pains of switching were greatly exaggerated in my head.

First you get a good base: Ubuntu / Debian / Fedora (?), etc.

You may have to spend a few hours sorting out drivers. I personally haven't
had to do so for ages.

Then you ditch Unity (or $default) and try out a few window managers until you
find what you like.

Then you "fix it" by customising away your annoyances and tailor it to your
workflow.

I'm too tired to re-write this to sound less preachy - so downvotes are
welcome - but I was a diehard OSX (up to 10.6) user until I put my toe in the
Linux pool. I was expecting it to be freezing and "braced for impact", but
actually, it was quite warm and inviting.

Exception: If _need_ OS X apps, your path may be met with more friction. If
there's a Windows equivalent to the OS X app, give Wine a try (Windows
Emulator) - I keep hearing about how it gives people grief, but as far as I've
seen, even my (distinctly non-technical) mother has installed and used small
Windows applications without a glitch (or even realising that she is running
Windows applications on her Mint). I think I read about some Mac-wine kind of
thing, but not sure how mature it is - Google will help you.

To borrow a slogan: Just do it. You may be as surprised as I was.

~~~
jonhohle
I migrated from desktop Linux to OS X and use FreeBSD and Linux on my other
computers. OS X does more right (for me) than any other commercial or open
source Unix or Unix-like system, but that doesn't mean its perfect, and its
growing further from being perfect as time goes on.

------
ZoF
I feel like whenever I click on a Geoff Wozniak link it's because the domain
is 'wozniak'.

e.g. - I think it's Woz.

~~~
mitchell209
That's the main reason I clicked the link, honestly. "Woz quitting OS X? I
wonder what he has to say about it."

------
lordbusiness
Truth be told, I'm feeling the same urges. The golden age of my Mac was years
ago. I switched to Macs in 2002, and had the most amazing computing period of
my life between then and approximately 2011. Since then the random reboots of
both the uncontrolled variety and controlled (though forced through needing to
kick a random weird glitch) variety have increased to the point that I no
longer consider my computer to be stable.

Frankly, it feels like Windows in the 1990s. No, I don't have rose tinted
spectacles of nostalgia on, something is broken in the way Apple produce OS X
now, and I just can't with good conscience recommend a Mac anymore. At least
weekly I experience random lockups, reboots, temporary freezes, full freezes
that require cold cycle, etc.

Yes, my computer passes all diagnostics. No, Apple haven't found anything
wrong. Yes, I'm incredibly technical and have decades of experience. Yes, I
have fully re-installed and re-formatted and been through no end of measures
to correct a phantom problem. No I'm not imagining things.

OS X just sucks compared to what it was a few years ago.

I'm not quite ready to abandon the platform, simply because I haven't done the
home work to find another hardware supplier to run some other OS on.

Does anyone have any pointers or suggestions regarding laptops of comparable
build quality and design as a MacBook Pro? This physical device and form
factor is the thing keeping me in the Apple world. Otherwise, I'm ready to
jump ship.

To those on here with plenty of access to people who could shake things up,
perhaps with a league of hardware engineers and industrial designers, and a
healthy dose of funding, mark my words, there is room in this industry for a
shakeup right now. I'll bet dollars to donuts I'm not the only one awaiting a
viable alternative.

~~~
mattkrea
The librem 15 is what I'm going to as a free software laptop to replace my air

~~~
greghendershott
Although I'm not a fan of the left-offset main keyboard and trackpad (I'd
prefer leaving out the numeric keypad section), it looks really nice
otherwise.

~~~
thrill
Indeed. I corresponded with the CEO about offering a non-offset keyboard and
centered trackpad and he declined to consider it. I used an offset Dell for a
couple of years and never could learn to love it.

------
jmgtan
After experiencing the awesomeness that is Continuity and Handoff, I wouldn't
give up OSX for Windows/Linux. I do agree with some of his points about
instability especially for .0 releases, better wait after a few patches before
upgrading.

I do disagree about Yosemite's installation time, coincidentally I just
updated my wife's 2011 MBA last night and it took around 40 mins. The funny
thing is once Yosemite was installed everything works as expected, the only
setup that I needed to do was relogin her Apple account.

Using Linux as your desktop entails doing a lot more setup and configuration,
and it's very tedious to constantly searching for solutions to functionality
that should've worked right out of the box.

~~~
dkulchenko
> I do disagree about Yosemite's installation time, coincidentally I just
> updated my wife's 2011 MBA last night and it took around 40 mins.

He's referring to the infamous bug for Homebrew users or just anyone with a
lot of files in /usr/local on which the OS X install chokes hard, copying each
file individually, taking many hours to complete the install.

~~~
verisimilidude
Yup. I have a huge LaTeX installation on my Mac. Took over a day to update to
Yosemite.

------
tach4n
I'm convinced there is a real productivity loss due to OSX's limited
notifications system.

On OSX you get a tiny little bubble in the upper right from your chat program
and if you miss it, too bad. I've seen people resorting to shouting or tapping
on shoulders because of this. Trying to do something as simple as change the
font size was difficult or impossible.

On linux I get nice big notifications. If I miss or choose to ignore them, my
WM highlights windows that need my attention and they stay that way till I get
to it.

There are fixes no doubt, but this lack of "customizability" permeates OSX and
seems to be getting worse.

~~~
citruspi
> There are fixes no doubt, but this lack of "customizability"

System Preferences -> Notifications -> [Application] -> Style -> 'Alert'

Under that it says

> Banners automatically appear in the upper-right corner and go away
> automatically. Alerts stay on screen until dismissed.

~~~
tach4n
How about font size? How long they stay? Etc?

There is a very limited number of things to change in there is what I am
saying.

------
GigabyteCoin
Why choose any one operating system at all?

It's pretty tough to a buy a run of the mill laptop (as I do every few years)
without Windows pre-installed.

I have been triple booting Windows, Ubuntu, and Arch linux all from the same
laptop for the past few years now and loving it.

Windows is great when I need stuff to "just work". For example, when I want to
quickly plug my laptop into the hdmi cable to watch a movie in better quality
on my TV. Or if I need to quickly print out something on a random printer the
plug and play features built into windows are amazing.

I spend most of my time using Arch Linux, with Ubuntu being my fallback if I
really run into trouble (Arch can be... finicky. But I wouldn't use anything
else.) with what I am trying to do with linux.

I would probably have OS X on there too if it came for free with my laptop
purchase to be honest.

With an SSD Hard Drive any operating system you desire is only a reboot and 15
seconds away. So why choose?

------
jqm
Admittedly I've never used OS X and have been a Linux user for years (so I may
have picked up some things along the way that seem like second nature now),
but I've not had any troubles that so many talk about. i3 and KDE do
everything I need wonderfully.

How much better are Firefox and Thunderbird on OS X? And media players and
terminals? Because other than a calculator or an occasional spreadsheet, those
are about the only native applications I ever use.

I am a thrifty guy, so almost never buy new laptops but used Thinkpads that
are a few years old... this might explain why I don't usually have any driver
problems.

I just can't figure out, for what I do, how OS X would be any better? Maybe
one of these years I'll get off my wallet and find out what all the fuss is
about. Or maybe not.

~~~
ridiculous_fish
The OS X terminals, both the built-in Terminal.app and iTerm 2, are better
than what I have found in Linux so far.

Both do automatic text wrapping and reflow it on window resize, which is hard
to find on Linux terminals. Also, neither relies on the control key for menu
item key equivalents. Copy is Command-C, SIGINT is Control-C.

On Linux, Control-C is copy everywhere except in terminal windows; there
Control-C is SIGINT and Control-Shift-C is copy. I often type the wrong one,
and either fail to copy text, or worse, abort a long-running process by
accident.

When you use Linux, do you use key equivalents in the terminal (copy, paste,
etc.)? How do you handle the inconsistencies with other apps?

~~~
yourad_io
> Both do automatic text wrapping and reflow it on window resize, which is
> hard to find on Linux terminals. Also, neither relies on the control key for
> menu item key equivalents. Copy is Command-C, SIGINT is Control-C.

I actually hadn't noticed this as I usually run things inside of screen, but
it seems that there are options[1].

> When you use Linux, do you use key equivalents in the terminal (copy, paste,
> etc.)? How do you handle the inconsistencies with other apps?

I'll give you that one. This bugged me at first (usually doing Ctrl+Shift+C in
Chromium, I've never done Ctrl+C in a terminal inadvertently) so I made an
extension that calls me an idiot when I Ctrl+Shift+C in Chromium. That cured
it fast.

What I like about Linux is that I haven't found something that can't be done -
for example, if this bothered you sufficiently, you could remap Super-c to be
copy universally - this[2] seems like it would work. The terminal would
possibly need its own override.

[1] [http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/24793/looking-
for-x-...](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/24793/looking-for-x-
terminal-with-correct-window-resize-handling)

[2] [http://askubuntu.com/questions/10008/how-to-make-keyboard-
wo...](http://askubuntu.com/questions/10008/how-to-make-keyboard-work-like-
osx-system-wide)

------
jseliger
_The pangs of dislike started to show up in 10.7 (Lion). The iOS-like GUI and
"features" such as Launchpad didn't resonate with me. As things progressed, I
became increasingly annoyed with the environment._

I've never seriously used Linux, but my recent "upgrade" experiences have not
been good: [http://jakeseliger.com/2015/01/01/5k-retina-imac-and-mac-
os-...](http://jakeseliger.com/2015/01/01/5k-retina-imac-and-mac-os-x-
yosemite-thoughts/) . Finder crashes; FCP X crashes; a user account crashes;
permissions problems; migration problems. Snow Leopard rarely if ever crashed.

~~~
w1ntermute
> I've never seriously used Linux

You mean "OS X"?

~~~
sounds
No, he's disclaiming his anecdote by admitting up front he isn't like the
article's author who will now switch to Linux. He's just an OS X user who has
the same complaints (but, apparently, no recourse)

------
vandeaq
I dual booted for years, and finally made the switch to Linux full time just
over two years ago.

Configuring a fresh Linux install takes a bit of effort, but that effort is
_adding things I want_ to make it just the way I like, rather than removing
unnecessary cruft to get it more or less how I like. That's a key difference
for me.

------
fubarred
10.10 upgrade was a full reinstall PITA. But the tweaks, hackarounds
(EasySIMBL, pqrs.org, etc.) and firewalls (icefloor and hands off) makes the
pretty thing fairly usable.

Nit picks:

\- iBooks uses up 100% of CPU randomly by pegging storeacountd, even without
internet access.

\- Mail.app is slow to start and hangs if using email rules to send
notifications.

\- Not all apps support a dark toolbar.

\- There should be more UI LNF's themes that are pluggable.

The cost of Linux though it dependency hell on both Fedora- and Debian-based
systems that aren't developed as a whole like FreeBSD or OSX, where library
dependencies break things. Sure you can get ZFS going and basically compile
most anything on a Linux box without having to wait for the web developers
that don't understand UNIX philosophy to maintain a technical dilettante's
popular package system. But really, you should be developing in isolated
containers as similar to production as possible using something like Docker
and Xen|KVM.

Also, the Linux kernel has bazillions of syscalls that change with the wind
compared to *BSD and XNU (under a few hundred).

If I had to choose another OS, it would likely be PC-BSD. If that didn't work,
the BATNA would be Mint. Failing that: arch.

------
kevindication
My primary professional OS progression went something like:

Slackware -> Debian -> Ubuntu -> OS X.

As with the author, I'm pretty sure I'm done with OS X. If I want to go back
to Linux, what is the best path? Mint? Back to Ubuntu? Something new?

~~~
stormbrew
I was a big fan of Mint for a while, but baseline Ubuntu gives you so much
flexibility to just choose a DE (or lack thereof), including Cinnamon if you
want, that I don't see the point in using the altbuntus anymore. Just install
the DE you want and switch it in the login screen.

You might be sacrificing running the bleeding edge of that particular
environment, but instead you get kept more up to date on basically everything
else (not that the others lag that much, but you're probably waiting a little
longer for the next point release at the very least).

~~~
carlivar
Yes, I completely agree. Ubuntu is fantastic at auto-detecting your hardware
and making everything Just Work (by Linux standards - your mileage may vary).
So take advantage of that base but use whatever window manager you want.
Easily selectable in the login screen.

------
devin
Tiger was the most stable release I've ever used.

I haven't upgraded to 10.10 yet. It just seems like a lot of useless pain. I
have no need for any of the "features" they've added.

To be fair to OSX, when you do an "upgrade" in modern "user friendly" linux
distros (Ubuntu, for example), you would be smart not to click the "upgrade me
to the next release" button. It's usually worse than the experience on OSX in
my experience by a large margin.

I agree with the poster on almost everything he said, but I still don't know
if the pain is enough for me to justify switching back to linux. The amount of
time spent configuring things is just wasted time. I lost the drive to spend
countless hours tinkering years ago.

"Turning things off" in OS X usually is a preference pane option. Every now
and then you have to do something a bit more elaborate to get the behavior you
desire. I'd argue that on Linux, the time spent turning the things you want on
and off is far more time consuming.

------
shurcooL
I've noticed a pattern. If you're unhappy with the "default out of box
experience" of an OS/distribution and you need to apply an increasing amount
of tweaks/hacks to get it to be the way you like, you will be unhappy and
eventually switch away.

How "pleasant to use" the default experience is, and "number of steps needed
to be done" after a fresh OS install are a very important metric to me. If see
that metric going up, I will switch to something where that metric is lower. I
care more about this metric than the end result usability (including personal
tweaks).

Tweaks and adjustments are fine in the short term, but in the long term, if
you're unhappy with the design decisions and the direction the OS developers
are making, there's no winning.

I'm more happy to make small sacrifices and adjust myself to to like the
default experience so that this metric can be lower, and I can enjoy using the
OS more. But that's me.

------
Igglyboo
Just an FYI to everyone else who saw the domain name and clicked through, this
is _not_ by Steve Wozniak, it is by someone unrelated named Geoff Wozniak.
Good article however.

------
tunesmith
I'm getting more interested in dipping my toes back into linux laptops, partly
for privacy and control reasons, and partly because I'm finding it more
difficult to develop on OS X as I am more frequently using micro services and
docker and virtualization. I haven't picked a platform yet though because I
would like to see how "free" (libre) I can get for privacy/control reasons,
and it's time-consuming to make the right choice - I see a couple Trisquel-
related options including a 2006 Gluglug thinkpad (but it appears to be
perpetually out of stock), and a "novena"
([https://www.crowdsupply.com/kosagi/novena-open-
laptop](https://www.crowdsupply.com/kosagi/novena-open-laptop)) but it looks
like that will still have some non-free stuff in it.

~~~
guylhem
That thinkpad is my main computer. You have full control over it - brings back
the pleasure to do things.

Now that I'm mostly done with my hacks (check
[http://en.blog.guylhem.net/post/106153399669/how-to-
recreate...](http://en.blog.guylhem.net/post/106153399669/how-to-recreate-
the-x60-coreboot-fast-distribution)), I have a spare one to sell. It's the
tablet version, with a wacom digitizer (works with xournal)

$ systemd-analyze Startup finished in 763ms (kernel) + 579ms (userspace) =
1.343s

Email me if you are interested.

------
LeoPanthera
I've been using OS X since 10.2, though I keep a Windows box around for games.
I also feel that OS X has become less stable and performant in recent years,
and every now and then I spin up a Linux distro on a spare hard disk just to
try it out.

These experiments rarely last very long, and almost always end because the
video/graphics support is just so terrible. I have yet to find a reliable way
to play videos without horrible screen tearing.

But I don't know what alternative there is. Windows' experiments with Metro
was a disaster. PC-BSD has some really nice features (I love ZFS and use it on
my fileserver) but has the same issues with hardware support, especially
graphics hardware support.

I fear for the future.

~~~
yuhong
I wonder if you have tried the Win10 preview.

~~~
taspeotis
Windows 8 wasn't all that bad. Relative to Windows 7 it was just two steps
forward and two steps back. For all the Metro haters: the core workflow to
launch applications (winkey + number keys or winkey + search + enter) is still
the same as Windows 7.

Windows 8.1 improved things a bit by identifying some scenarios where Metro
was unnecessary and keeping it out of the way. So relative to Windows 7 it's
now two steps forward and one step back.

I've used the Windows 10 preview and early signs suggest that it's going to be
two steps forward from Windows 7.

~~~
vacri
If the core workflow was actually the same, then businesses wouldn't have been
so loathe to upgrade to it. From what I've witnessed, few people launch their
primary applications through text search - they prefer shortcut icons, whether
they be in the menu, taskbar, or desktop.

~~~
nathanaldensr
This isn't necessarily true. Like so many things, perception is reality.
People oftentimes do things out of fear--in this case, fear that their old
workflow isn't the same--rather than rational conclusion.

------
jackmaney
I came into the OS X game very late, starting at 10.8 (which was at a start up
last summer). It took some adjusting, but in the end, it beats the hell out of
Windows for a coding environment.

One thing that I loathed, though, was Messages. I find myself unable to make
it work. Contacts? Nope, can't find 'em. Oh, wait there's one--nope, it's
gone. Oh, wait, it's there again. Oh, did you send a message? Nope, it didn't
get through. Sent another one? That one got through, but not the reply.

OS X is fine, but Messages is horribly, horribly broken. I could write better
software, and I am a self-taught programmer.

~~~
citruspi
Have you taken the time to check if it's properly configured or tried
contacting Apple Support?

For what it's worth, I've had a couple friends who had issues with Messages
and it was primarily iCloud related.

Aside from a few initial issues when running the beta's, I haven't had an
issue with Messages for the last four or five months.

------
PhasmaFelis
One thing that stands out for me:

> _I 've gone back to a desktop system running Linux (for now) and while I
> consider it markedly inferior to OS X in terms of usability, it feels like a
> personal computer again._

I like that Woz recognizes that usability (interface design, etc.) is (a) not
the _most_ important thing, but (b) it _is_ still important. The idea that
usability is the only thing that matters are the reason why people are moving
away from OS X; the idea that usability is just useless bells and whistles is
why Linux has never gained a major desktop foothold. There needs to be a
balance.

------
nathanvanfleet
All extremely valid points. I don't really see the upgrades to OSX as very
useful and have made things strangely unstable (since it seems that even the
basic OS gets broken on each release). I think OSX is still the best OS to use
though even if it doesn't look like it's headed in a good direction (I also do
xCode dev sooo...). I wonder if some of the tools to turn off these new
features could significantly improve the experience, though you'd still need
to wait a few months after a 1.0 release of the OS to wait for the basic
stability fixes

------
tmikaeld
I'm amazed that no one talks about the issue of Applications on Linux... I've
been running OS X as the main OS for the last 6 years and Windows since before
that ever since Windows 3.0.

Also tried most of the *nix favours throughout the years - but so far the apps
have been unable to replace those on OS X.

What i failed to find as replacement on Linux:

\- User friendly two-way firewall like Hands Off! or Little Snitch.

\- File-organizer app like Hazel.

\- Multi-tab-column file-browser like Pathfinder.

\- Screenshot + annotation manager/editor like Voila.

\- Window layout manager like Moom.

\- Adobe Creative Suite (Yes, i can run it in a VM - but it's s l o w!)

------
akulbe
I am >< close to quitting it myself, for all the reasons he mentioned. I
started using OS X in '04 (on Panther) and have been using it almost
exclusively until recently when the bugs of Yosemite made me run back to Linux
a few times.

I used to _confidently_ recommend OS X to people as something that "just
works". I can no longer do so. It's a buggy steaming pile.

For me, one of the things that made OS X so easy to use was the quality of the
third-party apps. Right now, I have no less than 80 third-party apps installed
on my MBP. I keep telling myself that that is a LOT of money to invest, to
walk away. But then I remind myself that is the "sunken cost fallacy"... I
cannot get the money back.

I wish that many of the same third-party apps existed for Linux. I'd be
__HAPPY __to pay top dollar for stuff on Linux, just like I did on OS X. But
at this point, it 's just not there.

I will go back to using Linux as my main machine, and LOTS of workarounds for
the productivity apps I have on OS X.

I already have a ThinkPad W530 that is an absolute beast of a machine (32GB of
RAM, 3 SSDs w/2.1TB of usable space), but I may trade in my MBP for a
Chromebook Pixel. At this point, it's closer to "just works" than anything
Apple is offering. :/

------
hnriot
This is a rather pointless debate but I have to agree that OSX is getting too
"consumer" for this audience. I have a Thinkpad and it runs Linux great. A lot
of the problems people here refer to are really where they should be on a
consumer operating system. I've noticed this over recent years, hiring new
intake from the top schools every year has seen a change. When I ask them what
they want for their development machine. It used to be Macs with a sprinkling
of Linux/Thinkpad but now I see most going for Windows 7. Since all of our
software is linux based the client machine only needs to be able to run ssh
sessions but it's interesting how many hard core developers want consumer
operating systems. I'd not dream of doing work anything other than a Unix
system, but maybe that's just because I've grown up with it. Starting out with
HP-UX on HP-9000 machines, Apollo, Next, NetBSD, Netware, etc etc. When my
machine doesn't work the way I want it I generally know how to fix it on
Linux. For the majority of people using a consumer operating system that has
nice gui tools for changing things is usually better unless you know what
you're doing.

Coming back to ditching OSX, the recent Chrome/Netflix ability has made a big
difference for me. That was the one last thing that was a pain, it was always
possibly, but not always very reliable and a little tedious, but now there's
nothing left (besides of course Photoshop) that doesn't run on Linux. It's
really less about the operating system and more about what you want to run, if
it's games then windows, if it's designer/photographer then OSX, if it's nerd
(git/gcc/python etc) then it's linux.

------
pwthornton
From a usability perspective, I consider OS 10.10 the best version of OS X
ever (and I manage development and UX work in my day job). It's the
reliability and QA that has really been slipping with OS X in recent versions.
There are a lot of bugs, many features take several patches to work properly,
and with the yearly release schedule, a new version of OS X doesn't really
become stable until a new version is announced.

I've been using OS X since 10.1, and the reliability of OS X has taken a dive
ever since 10.7 launched. 10.6 was certainly the high water mark for
reliability in OS X, and probably the best traditional version of OS X (and a
version that I'd recommend a lot of people and companies stick with if it were
still patched).

Feature wise, I really like 10.10. It makes me more productive, the software
is easy on the eyes, and the iOS and iCloud integration is pretty great. I
like all of that. But I really wish Apple would stop trying to push out new OS
versions so fast and concentrate more on QA. Even iOS has been seen some bug
creep lately.

I get pushing iOS, since the mobile space is so new, but do I really need a
new desktop OS every year built on a paradigm from 30 years ago?

------
thesumofall
Usability also has taken quite a dive with recent iterations of OS X. iOS,
Windows and Android are all not only much more obvious to use for the average
user but are also much more pleasant to look at. For a lot of basic stuff I
need additional software on OS X (e.g. Spectacle) and the OS feels burdened by
all the various UI approaches for basically the same thing (Launchpad, Dock,
Expose, ...)

------
zak_mc_kracken
I recently did the same thing: switched my personal laptop from Mac OS (since
2004) back to Windows. Couldn't be happier.

All my development environment transferred without a hitch (bash and git
worked right out of the box) and compared to Windows 8, Mac OS feels like a
clunky, antiquated OS.

I still use Linux (work desktop) and Mac (work laptop) but Windows is really
where I feel I'm the most productive these days.

------
danbmil99
What system to use for development is a good question. Both popular commercial
OS's (OSX & Windows) [& Canonical with Unity, FWIW] are moving inexorably
towards a more mobile/tablet/touchscreen feel, with an ever-expanding set of
bells & whistles for their core consumers. I think OSX became fashionable
again among devs over the last few years due to its out-of-the-box UNIX-like
terminal and underlying software stack, plus installation tools such as
Homebrew and PIP (along with base level disdain for anything Microsoft).

Presently I run Mint in virtualbox on my Surface pro 3, because native Linux
support does not appear to be there for multi-touch screens and features such
as the detachable keyboard. Multi-touch and some sort of tablet mode (ie
virtual kbd) are critical to be able to develop and test apps that are
destined for anything other than desktop-only status (meaning basically all of
them).

Is there a decent combination of hardware and FOSS OS that really fits today's
agile/mobile developer?

------
intopieces
This thread has and will attract a great number of malcontents (selection
bias?) but it's sufficient to say that the changes made to OS X, over the
protests of power users, has significantly increased the value of the brand.
Mac sales, after succumbing to a small dip in 2013, are now back at an all
time high. [0]

[0] [http://www.statista.com/statistics/276308/global-apple-
mac-s...](http://www.statista.com/statistics/276308/global-apple-mac-sales-
since-fiscal-year-2002/)

So this appears to be the result of popularization, or appealing to the bottom
line consumer, the one that throws away an old computer to buy a brand new one
instead of replacing components piecemeal. The bottom line is: OS X's changes
are not made for you, and you're right to switch to something that suits your
needs. Additionally, the claims of ineptitude are misplaced, given the
information about their recent sales. It appears to be what consumers want.

------
iamcreasy
As a Windows and Linux user, I was expecting some technical information about
what made him quit. There wasn't anything specific as to why those problems
occurred.

My brother had his first Macbook Air a few months back and he didn't do the
Yosemite upgrade as well. When I ask him, why? He replied, "I don't think the
update have anything for me."

------
NathanKP
That directory merge issue really was annoying. I had LaTeX installed and it
spent a good three hours merging the LaTeX install directory. I restarted the
install once because I thought it had gotten hung, but when it happened again
after I restarted I found the debug console and realized what it was doing.

Yosemite really did have an extremely poor install process.

------
aceperry
It's interesting to hear about OSX crashing. I didn't think that was common.
I've been a linux user for the longest time, and have always had to tweak
something to get it running the way that I wanted to. That doesn't bother me
since I like to do that kind of stuff. That and the fact that I've never had
any problems with linux crashing, especially compared to Windows, has kept me
on linux. But I know a lot of people who left linux for OSX because they
didn't like to tweak things and just wanted to get things done.

A friend recently switched from a mac laptop at work to a windows laptop which
surprised me. While she has always been a windows user, I was surprised that
OSX didn't convert her to the platform. I also noticed that as more and more
people start using macs, I hear more and more grumbling about them.

~~~
acdha
> It's interesting to hear about OSX crashing. I didn't think that was common.

It's not – on any of the recent operating systems in normal usage, crashes are
rare and usually a sign of failed hardware.

> I also noticed that as more and more people start using macs, I hear more
> and more grumbling about them.

That's largely a function of popularity and time, particularly since we're
well past the point where people have had time to accumulate custom/broken
settings and install a ton of system-altering crud. I'm sure if everyone
switched to Linux today, they'd start by talking about how much faster it is
and within a few years be complaining about how the same system is slow and
unreliable, particularly if they'd ever installed software written by a large
company.

~~~
aceperry
"I'm sure if everyone switched to Linux today, they'd start by talking about
how much faster it is and within a few years be complaining about how the same
system is slow and unreliable"

Not at all. Linux isn't windows. I don't know if that happens to OSX, but
adding slow software to linux only slows the system when the software is
running. The best example of that would be flash, which will bring a linux box
to its knees. Once you kill the flash process, everything is back to normal.

------
ape4
Apple is probably glad to be rid of nerd/hardcore users.

~~~
citruspi
> Apple is probably glad to be rid of nerd/hardcore users.

Well, they aren't "rid of nerd/hardcore users." There's plenty of "hardcore
users" who use Macs, and more and more try it out or completely switch over
every year.

Also, why would a company who develops an operating system targeted towards
creative users and developers be "glad to be rid of" such an important
demographic?

------
x0054
I must agree with the author on the issue of software quality coming out of
Apple. Perhaps slowing down and concentrating on quality is something Apple
should really consider. We do NOT need a new release of the OSX every single
year. Further, I think they should really decouple the OS from the other
included Applications, like Mail or Face Time. Basically I would love to see
OSX ship with Finder and Preview, and the rest of the usually included apps be
an optional download.

I don't understand why the Copy of OSX I am running should dictate which copy
of Mail, Safari, FaceTime, or iTunes I use. Also, I would really love to see
Apple package at least 2 release worth of API libraries in each release, so
that apps that have yet to be updated to the latest OSX could still run
without issues.

------
sandGorgon
A lot of people here default to Ubuntu for Linux (including me), but I
encourage those who are moving from OSX to give Fedora 21 [1] a shot - The
Gnome 3.14 UI and the systemd integration is a wonderful experience.

If I was not so vested in the whole debian ecosystem, Fedora 21 would have
been perfect.

For those who have only ever used OSX, you should know that you need a USB
stick to build a bootable LiveUSB - this allows you to try Linux without
actually installing it on your Mac [2]

[1]
[https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/](https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/)

[2]
[https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_US...](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_Live_USB#unetbootin)

------
cbhl
Oddly enough, I switched from Ubuntu Linux to OS X because of upgrade pains of
my own -- regressions in the Intel display drivers on my older hardware,
suffering performance as a result of Unity, and cloud services making changes
to messaging protocols in ways that constantly broke Pidgin/libpurple/Empathy.

At one point, I had a workflow consisting of a Chromebook + Chrome + GMail +
Secure Shell[0] + Linux VPS running Ubuntu Linux. It worked pretty well so
long as I could rely on there being a fast, low-latency, stable internet
connection (say, at a university). Then I moved to the Bay Area. ;)

[0] Chrome Extension which purportedly contains OpenSSH compiled for Portable
Native Client so that it can run inside Chrome. Convenient, but YMMV for the
paranoid.

~~~
LaSombra
Have you tried other Linux distributions before the move?

~~~
cbhl
I had been dabbling with couple of big distributions - RHEL, Debian, SuSE,
Knoppix, and maybe one or two others - when dual-booting on an older machine
before I switched to Ubuntu; each one had problems with some hardware or
another (sound, dial-up modem, required a DVD drive for installation, monitor,
and later, Wi-Fi adapter) whereas Ubuntu just worked.

I also tried Arch Linux both in a VPS and in a Virtual Machine after switching
to OS X, but at some point realized that I had more money and far less free
time to spend tinkering with config files than when I was in middle school.

Sometimes I look at the latest Intel-based Surface Pros and wonder whether it
makes sense to go back to Microsoft-land.

------
ryan-allen
I think the system upgrade experience in Windows 8 is much better than OS X is
these days. That was my tipping point.

I run Win8 full time now (on a Macbook Pro), and virtualise linux with Virtual
Box. It's very solid and you can 'do everything' as well as live in a
terminal.

------
breatheoften
A lot of people are commenting about various OSX changes that they perceive as
regressions over the years ... But no one has commented on my pet peeve so I'm
going to share it in hopes that someone else out there will commiserate with
me. They changed the default system-wide keybinding for option-b, option-f,
option-d and friends -- now instead of invoking useful text manipulation
operations (which are hard-wired into my psyche after years of emacs use),
these key-codes now print useless unicode characters... First thing I do on a
clean-install of osx is change the keyboard binding -- but its incredibly
annoying that these bindings don't work when I sit down at someone else's mac
...

------
Or1on
I'm curious if using a tiny computer such as ODROID-XU3 running Ubuntu and a
Widows laptop could work for web development.

The pocket computer needs to be battery powered, able to run virtual machines
and have ethernet/wifi. SSH and Cygwin gnome-terminal (for tabs) could be used
to connect from the Windows laptop.

I have been using Ubuntu for many years but there are a number of windows
audio applications that do not run well under wine or OSX. This setup would
allow me to do web development using Vagrant VMs, Photoshop etc and switch to
audio work without having to reboot.

I have tried running Ubuntu guest VMs from windows and it's not always ideal
for development. There are issues with VMs inside VM that a pocket computer
would not have.

------
bricestacey
I am like the author. Natively, I just use Google Chrome, iTerm2, and Android
Studio. Otherwise, I don't really do anything else (well, I do a lot from the
CLI, thanks homebrew). It's an amazing experience though. No complaints.

I will say my 2009 MBP core 2 duo with an HDD is slow and painful to use, but
I upgraded to the top of the line in 2014 and I'm very happy. It doesn't
really surprise me. I mean, come on. What computer is he using? If he bought a
new one I'm sure there would be no problems. If you can't afford it, you
probably shouldn't be buying Apple anyway. It's like a poor person complaining
that skiing is too expensive. Duh.

~~~
bdcravens
The author didn't really say anything about performance, other than long
upgrade times; nothing about the computer being slow and painful to use.
Pretty much everything was software related. I doubt cost is even an issue.
There are plenty who conclude Apple hardware is great, and purchase it to run
Linux. Linus Torvalds himself used to have a MacBook Air as his personal
machine, and he says his kids still have MBAs.

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/06/09/linus...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/06/09/linus_torvalds_creator_of_linux_programming_language_answers_interview_questions.html)

------
nnain
I was planning to move to OSX and then Yosemite happened! Been running Windows
10 Technical Preview for 2 months on an i5, 12GB laptop and it's been pretty
stable. Just rebooted the machine yesterday after 4-5 days of heavy use; it
didn't even need the reboot. Even computer viruses seem to have been plugged.
My only grudge is with the Web Development environment and unavailability of
XCode on Windows. I use Ubuntu exclusively for all web development work.

Trying to make Windows 8, OSX and Ubuntu Unity more like mobile OSes was a
really bad move. All that people want is a great desktop experience, why make
a small 5" touchscreen the inspiration for the desktop?!

------
phamilton
I've said multiple times that I use OS X because it's the only unix with
netflix.

Apparently that's changed. I haven't tried the latest ubuntu with chrome and
netflix, but if it does indeed work I think I may try switching.

~~~
rsoto
It works hackless since october: [http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/10/psa-
netflix-ubuntu-now-wo...](http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/10/psa-netflix-
ubuntu-now-working-box)

------
mikebelanger
I'm getting the same feeling lately with OS X. I think part of the feeling
stems from other operating systems improving, thus making OS X not as
attractive by comparison. I switched to OS X in 2007. At that point, Windows
was a mess, and most Linux distros were hard to configure. OS X seemed like a
breeze back then. Nowadays, Windows has improved a lot, and a lot of Linux
distros have greatly improved their usability. OS X just doesn't stand out
like it used to.

To top it off, Apple has shifted their focus from 'it just works' to 'buy a
new iPhone/iPad for no reason'.

------
graycat
My term for OP's agony is _mud wrestling_.

I feel the pain:

<rant> YMMV

#1 Problem in Computing: Poorly written documentation to explain the system,
tool, program, whatever. The OP had this problem.

#2 Problem in Computing: System management as in hard/software selection,
installation, configuration, monitoring, updating. The OP had this problem,
too.

#2.1 Special Problem: System security. The source of my most recent case of
mud wrestling.

#3 Problem in Computing: Hard/software design that results in tools that are
efficient and effective to use. Yup, OP had this problem.

#4 Problem in Computing: Everything else. Maybe OP didn't have any of these
problems!

YMMV </rant>

------
o_____________o
Photoshop remains the reason I haven't used Linux as my primary OS for a
couple years now. I held out for a long time, but it's just a singularly
useful piece of software with no reasonable equivalents.

~~~
zenpusher
I use Windows but Gimp is my "go to" graphic design app. It's a solid
alternative to Photoshop.

~~~
o_____________o
Gimp is comparatively terrible at a higher level. 3D, vector, text, smart
objects, adjustment layers, ... if you are in any industry that relies on
Photoshop beyond basic usage, it's very difficult to be with second string
alternatives. This is just how things are in the wild, but I find it baffling
that this is still the case after so many years.

------
kzahel
I can recommend trying a chromebook. You get a "linux" (crouton) laptop with
excellent battery life and you don't have to spend hours upon hours of
wrestling with custom wifi firmware, etc. The only drawback is that disk space
is extremely limited, and there is still no real "mid-range" version (they all
seem to have shitty non-IPS screens except Toshiba's latest). Also if you
press space bar and then enter upon booting it'll wipe your chroot! :-) And if
you need virtualization or custom kernels, also probably not a good fit.

------
RoseO
I got fed up the other week and on a whim switched to Xubuntu on my 2013 MBA
and other than no drivers for the PCI based webcam (Apple webcams no longer
sit on the USB bus) which I barely used anyway, everything is pretty much fine
apart from a few quirks (Trackpad settings and brightness control which were
easily fixed). I had a Time Machine backup just in case if I hated it.

If anything after spending years using various distros on servers it makes
sense to start using it on the desktop too as it is exactly the same
experience I'm used to, with a bonus of a GUI.

------
na85
I just do not get why people complain about Pulse.

Don't get me wrong, I think Poettering is a blight on the Linux landscape but
I've installed pulseaudio dozens of times and never had a problem once.

~~~
badsock
Counter-anecdote: over several years and across multiple installs, I've
experienced intermittent stuttering, multi-second latency, and random crazy-
high CPU usage. Uninstalling Pulse and going back to alsa in each case
completely fixed the problem, with no noticeable loss in functionality.

I've used Linux exclusively as my desktop OS since 1999 - I'm happy to mess
with things till they work. I've never had a piece of software frustrate me so
much. It made me feel like I was taking crazy pills; everyone else seemed fine
with such an obviously broken addition to Linux, worse yet they standardized
around it.

Basically, you got lucky, I didn't. Leads to a very different perspectives!

------
dba7dba
Yosemite is turning out to be like Windows Vista. It's a shame because I have
such good memories of the real Yosemite National Park.

Dang it, why did they have to use Yosemite as the name of this OS?

------
mbillie1
I appreciate the points made, but without comparisons on a point-by-point
basis, I'm still left wondering what the specific linux runes are to replace
OS X - even for this one user.

~~~
jean-loup
_More damning than the lack of personal connection, though, was the complete
lack of transparency and general decline in software quality, as I perceived
it._

It seems that these frustrations against OS X is a mismatch to this user's
minimalist requirements: a mail client, iTerm, and a web browser. The OS X
ecosystem caters a wide net of users ranging from the pink keyboards of middle
school girls to the coffee-infused palms of college students.

------
helmsb
I was a diehard Mac user for nearly 15 years and just recently switched back
to Windows (bought a Surface Pro 3). Couldn't imagine going back at this
point. I'm one of the few people that actually likes Windows 8 and it sings on
the Surface. There are a lot of things I miss about the Mac, specifically the
high quality independent apps but having a super portable machine that can
serve as my tablet and my laptop is so much nicer than my MBP/iPad combo.

------
elrodeo
What frustrates me most in the recent time is the wall of bugs I face in Mac
OS X and Safari particularly. It is getting so ridiculous that even some
Apple-pages do not work in Safari for me, s.t. I have to switch to Chrome to
get the content. For example, opening this URL:

[http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18686?viewlocale=en_US](http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18686?viewlocale=en_US)

results in just a white page in the latest Safari on Yosemite.

------
chmars
According to the article, the author was using Firefox, a non-Apple mail
client and a non-Apple terminal client. That made quitting OS X of course not
that difficult …

In spite of all annoying and time-consuming issues with OS X, I could not
afford to switch to Linux, especially not in a business context. SaaS could
help, however, the leading SaaS provider are US-based and I can therefore not
used them for legal reasons, e.g., due to data privacy legislation.

------
driven
It's meaningless to comment on the 'usability' of 'Linux'. That's the only
fault I'm finding in what is otherwise quite a good piece of consumer
feedback, highlighting the lack of choice given to users throughout the life
cycle of proprietary operating systems. A major issue is the necessitation of
online accounts and the focus on sharing content, which is still completely
irrelevant to many users.

------
catern
In the escape to Linux, I encourage looking at Fedora. Fedora 21 marked the
start of an effort to create a developer-focused "Fedora Workstation" version
of Fedora (alongside Fedora Server and Fedora Cloud products). I've been using
it since its first release last month and I've been really impressed. Check it
out: [https://getfedora.org/](https://getfedora.org/)

------
bsclifton
Apple is a hardware company, plain and simple. Software is always going to be
a second class citizen in their ecosystem. I was really mad at Apple during
the switch from 68k to PPC and they completely lost me when going from Mac OS
Classic to OSX.

If you chose Mac and you're looking to use a platform for a decent amount of
time without upgrading hardware or having your environment break, you're going
to have a bad time

------
GoofballJones
Weird, productivity was the reason I quit Linux. I spent nearly half my time
'tweaking' things to make it run the way I wanted, instead of getting things
done. I honestly love Yosemite. Still searching for the "iOSification" people
talk of though.

Meh, to each their own. It always amuses me though that people have to tell
the world why they're going to switch to a different OS.

------
MBlume
I find it interesting how much agreement there is, not just that OS X is now
declining, but that Snow Leopard in particular was the high point.

------
mark_l_watson
After running Yosemite from an upgrade for a long while, I recently did a
complete disk wipe and a fresh install without using my time machine backups.
This is just one data point, but the effort was worthwhile because my system
feels faster and more solid.

I had done Time machine installs for years, and I probably had a lot of cruft.

------
cgijoe
I find that OS X (even 10.10) is perfectly usable after applying many of the
famous dotfile hacks by mathias bynens:
[https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.osx](https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/blob/master/.osx)

These restore my sanity :)

------
aareet
I find it peculiar that he spends the whole post complaining about OS X and
then proceeds to say that he switched to an alternative that he considers
"markedly inferior" to OS X. Doesn't seem like there was value to his quitting
at all besides a "change of scenery".

------
SwellJoe
I have primarily used Linux on the desktop, and then laptop, since 1995. It
wasn't always painless. Still occasionally is not painless. But, neither is
Mac OS X or Windows, and the Linux desktop/laptop experience is, by far, the
best it's ever been. The pain just takes different shapes, and I've never
seriously considered switching to Windows or Mac for my primary OS, though
I've always had a Windows partition available to boot into and I've
occasionally had a Hackintosh to play with.

When it comes down to it, the conveniences Linux gives me far overshadow the
minor pains of having to Google hardware before I buy it to make sure there
are drivers. Even on this front, I've almost completely stopped doing
it...I've bought several pieces of hardware on a whim in the past few years
without thinking, "Oh, wait, will this work?" then plugging it in and have it
Just Work. No driver installation, no Googling for errors, just a working
camera, sound card, MIDI controller, etc. The major hardware makers, like GPU
and network vendors, are all on board. If you buy quality hardware, it is
almost certainly gonna work with Linux (and all that old hardware that stopped
working with Windows several years ago, due to no new drivers, is still
working in modern Linux; this is true for me of two 24 bit audio interfaces,
and a MIDI controller).

The command line experience of Linux is simply superior to the alternatives.
Mac OS has bash, sure, but all the stuff is in the wrong place with crazy long
paths, and all of the software is installed via ornery dysfunctional package
bundles from Apple (or from an alternative source, like MacPorts or similar; I
truly hate the package management situation on Mac OS X). The command line
feels clumsy and bolted on, even though there's UNIX at the core of Mac OS X.

Actually, a huge part of it probably comes down to package management, for me.
Package management is so bad on Windows and Mac OS X, and so good on Linux
(yum and apt are just really excellent), that I feel a little dirty installing
stuff on those platforms. Being able to choose from thousands of packages,
especially developer packages, having all the Perl modules I use already
packaged and easy to install, having all the Go and node stuff packaged up
nicely and ready for tinkering, having a lot of the system built on Python and
shell scripts with the source readily available, all of this stuff just adds
up to a tinkerers dream.

I feel like I learn something new when I figure out problems on Linux; I feel
like I'm being punished when I run into problems on Mac OS X or Windows, even
if I get them solved. It's just such a different feeling. I'm sure for someone
who isn't technically minded, the experience would be the same...an opaque
system that isn't working right. But, for me, when I'm able to patch something
and send it off to the maintainer, I feel happy and content. I feel
frustration when I run into problems on Mac OS X or Windows. All systems of
the size and complexity of a modern OS have problems, it's just a difference
of how they get resolved that makes the difference.

~~~
aceperry
Great post, mirrors my experiences as well.

I hadn't thought of how great package management was on linux, there are many
systems and the ones I've used work very well. Installing software on Windows
is positively scary. You can't really remove programs completely unless you do
some registry hacking... fun, fun, fun!

------
brador
I did the same last year. 2 weeks and I moved my life out of the Apple
ecosystem to Win 7/android. It's nice to feel happy to sit at a computer again
and have everything just work and feel mine again.

I recommend you look at your options and consider the same.

------
m3talridl3y
My solution has been to have multiple computers at my desk. Windows for
"serious work" (like playing music, youtube videos), and a text-only linux
machine (well, a fullscreened terminal emulator, I need the GUI for clipboard
functionality).

------
mavdi
For me it's the fact that so many of the new wave of techs are mainly focused
on Linux. Docker being one. I think OSX is losing it's hacker status. Linux as
an open source OS will eventually take over in this market.

------
zecken
Am I the only person who likes Yosemite? The interface is cleaner, spotlight
isn't useless anymore, and messages now works with regular texts as well.
Nothing is really broken from previous releases either...

------
aoakenfo
Somebody should start a new computer company (out of your garage of course) by
customizing Linux for Mac hardware and call it Orange

Orange computers in a nutshell:

\- beautiful hardware

\- minimal OS features. no bloat.

\- works out of the box

\- a solid Unix environment for development

------
mkawia
Is there a faster file search than in linux in the latest
FileBrowser(gnome/nautilus) . It's crazy fast ,no indexing and finds files in
huge hard disks in seconds .

------
mvkel
Kind of lame that Geoff cites usability issues as being the main reason he
switched to Linux, then tweets that usability issues weren't the reason he
switched.

I don't get it.

------
hisyam
Why do some people hate Launchpad? I use it all the time and I like it.

If you don't like it just remove the Launchpad icon from the dock and don't
hit the F4 key.

------
markrages
I made the same switch a year ago and I'm happier back in Linux.

It was the breakage of Spotlight-Preview integration that removed my last
reason to stay on OS X.

------
everyone
He should try windows 7. I have experience doing many different computery
tasks (cad, photoshop, making music, programming,making games + the usual) on
linux, windows and osx (+ messing with android and iOS (and DOS and the c64's
os back in the day)) Windows 7 is in my opinion the best modern OS for
personal productivity ie. getting stuff done without much fuss. I also feel in
control of it. I have it set up exactly the way I want (for best performance)
and updates are very unintrusive and tend to mainly be security updates.

------
elberto34
Just trying to get itunes to work on a PC was enough to make me swear off
Apple products . Like windows 8, too much clutter and other annoynces

------
inancgumus
@inancgumus: @newsycombinator Completely disagree. Only agree with Launchpad
and it does not decrease any usability either.

------
owenwil
I don't think Yosemite is as bad as people are making out; there have been
some odd bugs, but many of them are caused by odd legacy migrations from old
laptops or botched upgrades it seems. A fresh install seems to fix many
problems experienced by many.

Even if OS X Yosemite is buggy, I don't think it's worth the switch to Linux
for a desktop machine. It's a step backwards.

~~~
iwince
I never [bought] a Mac, always looked like a control freak's dream, a step
down from even Windows, let alone Linux.

~~~
ubernostrum
Personally, I switched to Linux in the late 90s as my full-time daily
operating system, and kept it that way for nearly a decade. Then I was issued
a Mac at a new job.

And... I don't understand the "control freak" comment, because OS X quickly
became my daily OS. Adjustment consisted of learning a couple new GUI
conventions, and the BSD-ish flavor of OS X's underlying Unix tools as opposed
to the GNU stuff I knew.

Ten years ago I spent most of my productive time in a terminal window, running
irssi, Emacs and a variety of shells inside screen. Today I spend most of my
productive time in a terminal window, running irssi, Emacs and a variety of
shells inside screen.

For non-productive stuff, I went from having a browser, music and video
player, and some games to having a browser, music and video player, and some
games.

Steve Jobs never broke into my house and uninstalled stuff or DRM'd my
existing music collection. OS X has never said "I can't let you do that,
Dave". Stuff works how I expect it to, and I have access to a wider variety of
non-progammer-y software now, plus an OS that's easy to keep relatively safe
when I want to recommend to a non-technical friend or relation.

So perhaps you could elaborate on what "control freak" elements are affecting
me without my knowledge?

------
inancgumus
I completely disagree. Only agree on Launchpad and it does not decrease any
usability either.

------
sameertooth
Now I'm curious if Steve Wozniak still uses OS X...?

------
gchokov
To me, this guy is a drama queen. More like, getting old and refusing to
learn. "Mac OS X is not personal anymore." Really?

------
marauder2369
another guy who needs it to be complicated to feel superior about his computer
skills. Messages in Yosemite is amazing. sms and phone calls perfect. hand off
is a revelation. and it's just damn gorgeous

------
gregjor
Remember that Macs are primarily sold to consumers looking for a nice home
laptop, students, and certain creative professionals. If Linux is even an
option for you, and you're reading and commenting here, that says you are
probably not in any of those groups.

I've used Macs since 1984, and I'm on my second MBA, following two MBPs and
too many Apple desktops to count. I have also owned many, many Windows PCs. My
work is almost entirely on servers running Linux. I am familiar with all three
setups.

As a developer Windows is too much of a pain, mainly because it's not Unix, so
I can't even come close to duplicating a typical server setup. Windows has
steadily improved over the years but I soured on it a long time ago, and even
now I wonder how serious developers can use it, unless they are developing for
Windows. Typical Windows laptops are terrible quality (I buy one or two every
year for my kids), and the nicer Windows laptops are just as expensive as a
MacBook, but with worse battery life, and of course they're running Windows.
If you think OSX has been polluted with iOS ideas, look at what happened with
Windows 8.

I'd love to run Linux on a laptop, and I've done it a few times, but the
overall experience always gets frustrating. I can live with tracking down
drivers and fixing incompatibilities during an install, but I don't want to
keep doing it. Having software at every level -- drivers, OS components,
applications -- coming at me from so many uncoordinated sources just creates a
level of DLL Hell (shared libraries and drivers) that makes me wistful for
Windows 98. Linux is a good server OS, but as a desktop/laptop OS it's an
also-ran for a variety of reasons that everyone here already knows.

I travel a lot (digital nomad, I guess) so overall build quality (durability)
and battery life are the most important features in a laptop, for me. The MBA
and MBP are clearly the best available right now, though I've seen high-end
Lenovo and Sony laptops that appear equivalent to my Macbook, but with poorer
battery life (I get 9 hours on my 13" MBA), and the same or higher price tag.
I don't have time or patience to waste non-billable hours trying to twist the
OS and UI into my vision of perfection. I don't even want a desktop background
picture. I'm not a teenager trying to personalize everything.

Most Mac users are not going to install a lot of apps, or try to tweak the OS,
or make many demands on their system that Apple didn't anticipate. For most
Mac users the experience is good out of the box. The more you fuss with it the
more likely you will break something, or introduce an incompatibility, or get
some crap application or browser extension on it. Developers and hackers (and
gamers) are most prone to this, and they will struggle with their computer no
matter who made it or what OS it runs. They're like teenagers customizing a
car, then complaining that their Toyota Corolla isn't reliable, gets poor gas
mileage, and overheats now that they've overriden all of the defaults and
tweaked it to suit their personal style.

I'm not saying OSX is perfect for me out of the box, but it's close enough. I
don't need to bolt a spoiler on the back, lower the springs, install new rims,
and replace the fuel injection chip. I've disabled Launchpad (easy), Dashboard
(easy), excessive notifications (easy), iCloud (reasonably easy), transparent
windows (easy), accessibility/usability shortcuts and gestures I don't like
(easy), and installed some newer versions of Unix apps I use (usually easy,
but can go wrong -- try doing it on Windows). I don't like iPhoto taking over
when I plug my phone in but I managed to turn that off -- maybe it helps that
I use an Android phone.

My MBA is used at least four hours every day and travels in a backpack. It's
up for weeks at a time, I usually only have to reboot it for an OS upgrade or
patch, or if I run the battery dead. I use Yosemite, it seems OK, no better or
worse than previous OSX releases. I don't have problems with wi-fi, audio,
overheating, or battery life. Maybe I'm just lucky but that's been my
experience with every Apple laptop, and it has not been my experience with any
Windows or Linux laptop.

Macs and OSX have real issues, sure, and there's no reason not to discuss
them. But if you are experiencing frequent crashes, freezes, bugs, dead
battery, etc. it's most likely because of something you've done, or maybe a
faulty machine, than a conspiracy at Apple or a decline in their software QA.
Just remember that you are by definition not the mass market Apple sells to.
That mass market is very happy with Apple's products, as their sales and stock
price continue to demonstrate.

Disclaimer: I worked for Apple more than 25 years ago, I have nothing to do
with the company anymore except as a user of their products.

------
geerlingguy
FYI this was not posted by 'the Woz', but rather by the unrelated Geoff
Wozniak. I imagine many others may have clicked through owing to the domain.

~~~
d23
Part of me thinks this is a bit sleazy. He knows how recognizable the name
"Wozniak" is, and doubly so if he's going to be running a tech blog and
posting about Aplle related things. Would gregwozniak.ca or gwozniak.ca been
that much worse? It would be infinitely less confusing and link-baity.

~~~
axotty
I definitely clicked and read the entire article only because I thought it was
written by Woz. I agree, it is link-baity and misleading.

EDIT: Holy down votes. Don't know what to say. I thought it was Woz, sosume.
All I did was agree with the less-downvoted parent.

EDIT 2: Hive mind crit axotty for 9999.

~~~
lawnchair_larry
You thought Woz was Canadian?

It's the guys name. Using ones own name cannot be linkbaity or misleading.

~~~
axotty
It is when your name is identical to the co-Founder's name. It's link-baity by
the fact that many people were baited into clicking that link under false
pretenses.

I'm not accusing this Wozniak of malice, however.

I didn't look at the TLD I just clicked. I thought Woz was ditching OS X, I
got excited. I was baited.

~~~
pikachu_is_cool
If it means anything, amidst all of the downvotes I completely agree with you.

------
caryhartline
Um, okay? This is like being told why someone switched office chairs.

This only got to the top of Hacker News because of this guy's last name.

~~~
bla2
I think the notion of OS X being pretty good until up to 10.6 and then getting
worse, with many new features feeling "strategic" (for Apple) instead of
useful resonates with people. I have this impression too, at least.

------
_almosnow
Apple's screwing it up with software. Too bad because they undoubtedly had the
best OS ever.

I remember seeing a few posts here and there where people complained about
performance degrading each time they upgraded OS X. My last 3 laptops had been
Mac's (a White Macbook, then a Macbook Pro from 2010, then a Retina Macbook
Pro from these days...) and while I feel 'satisfied' I also kind of noticed
that performance is always worse, and somehow the more I upgrade, the more I
feel like a pain the ass when I use that computer. Since there are no serious
benchmarks on to this (I wonder why) I always thought that it was more of a
'feeling' than something real, or that maybe, sure there was a bit more lag
but I'm running more 'advanced' software.

So yeah, that was me dreaming about how $4,000+ dollars on laptops had not
gone down the drain when I paid a visit to an old friend. I asked my friend to
borrow his computer because I needed to check an email and he did. Old
friend's Macbook is one of these [1], that is, a laptop that wasn't even top
of the line TEN YEARS AGO. I've opened and became surprised that battery still
worked. "Dude, have you ever replaced the battery on this?" "Nope" "Weird,
maybe he just doesn't use it too much"... Laptop woke up almost immediately,
it had OS X Tiger running... Tiger... not even leopard.

And then I started using it... HOLY F __* (excuse the expletives) I WISH MY F
__* RETINA MACBOOK WORKED LIKE THAT. Everything was smooth, Firefox opened
like immediately (no SSD obv. but ok maybe it was already on RAM), I was able
to finish my work and read a few articles and I felt really comfortable the
whole time, and I want to clarify on this, I didn 't felt that I was using a
computer to do my work, that was kind of the magic that Apple products used to
have (all of them, even iPods...). Now I'm always like, oh I gotta do this,
click ... wait ... open this ... wait ... send this ... wait ... change this
setting ... wait. Now I can state it for sure, Apple is really screwing it up
on its software.

I haven't dropped Apple because fortunately for them, most other laptops feel
even worst (at least they haven't screwed the trackpad yet...) but as soon as
a well-made Linux notebook appears I'm out.

[1]
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/MacBook_P...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/MacBook_Pro_situated_on_a_wooden_table.jpg)

~~~
hisyam
> _My last 3 laptops had been Mac 's (a White Macbook, then a Macbook Pro from
> 2010, then a Retina Macbook Pro from these days...) and while I feel
> 'satisfied' I also kind of noticed that performance is always worse, and
> somehow the morethe more I upgrade, the more I feel like a pain the ass when
> I use that computer._

Are you using SSD or normal HDD?

~~~
_almosnow
SSD on retina.

~~~
hisyam
How much RAM?

~~~
_almosnow
8GB

~~~
_almosnow
Soooo.... ?

~~~
hisyam
I'm currently using a Macbook with 4GB of RAM with normal HDD and using
Mavericks is kinda painful. MKBHD's demo on a Mac Mini with SSD looks blazing
fast [1] so I thought I should buy a new Mac with 8GB RAM & SSD but your
experience tells otherwise. Now I'm not so sure...

[1] [http://youtu.be/G_H6mRHS9pc?t=3m10s](http://youtu.be/G_H6mRHS9pc?t=3m10s)

------
ehack1971
This should be deleted from Hacker News,complete waste of our time. Linux or
OS X is a preference and based on needs and personal preference. Who cares
about this person on why they left OS X. Idiots.

~~~
suyash
+1 I feel the same way. HN moderators have basically ruined the website. All
kinds of silly news and stories have been on the main page for quite some time
now. Forget about all the hacker quality content anymore.

------
pikachu_is_cool
Wow, talk about clickbait.

------
zkhalique
I warned about this back in the day, when iOSification was on the horizon. The
trouble started after Steve Jobs died. Yes, iOS before him had problems but
nothing like what came after. The obsession with "wheeee we can get rid of all
skeumorphism" caused Apple to become a follower and not an innovator, and took
away focus from things that really mattered.

------
mountainhacker
What a lame post. If his goal is to make his life easier, working on Linux
every day is a laughable solution.

~~~
thrill
Odd. Some of us have happily used Linux on various laptops since an i387
coprocessor was desirable upgrade.

------
Tamazy
I was about to quit OS X, because of problems like those :

\- MacBook Pro fans -> rocket mode

\- Mail app is not enough sync with my iPhone -> only 1 kind of flag available

\- I'm working with dropbox, and when I want to use Pages on iCloud, I'm
obliged to move my file in the special iCloud directory... so annoying

\- When I edit some stuff on my Pages app, it's not possible for anybody to
read/edit the file online (iCloud.com). Also the SaaS is really slow compare
to Google Drive.

\- Message app is not totally sync on my devices... I mean when I read a
message on one device, it's still unread on an other...

\- iTunes isn't so easy to use...

\- safari isn't so cool compare to chrome or firefox

\- right click "new file" DOESN'T EXIST

\- etc.

Then I realized Linux, Ubuntu are not so sync either and have many other
problems and Windows isn't an option.

Do we have the choice after all ? I'm still waiting for the futur OS 11 to
fulfill my queries...

~~~
Svenstaro
Have you come to accept your Lord and Savior Arch Linux?

Seriously though, you are so quick to discard Linux. What's wrong with
tinkering a little with the OS to set it up initially? Seems that's that most
current professional OS X users are expected to be doing as well. Might as
well put that energy into something that doesn't break constantly without you
knowing why.

~~~
yourad_io
Amen.

I shudder a little when I read about people dismissing Linux because of Unity.
You haven't gotten the full Linux tour until you've tried out a few WMs - it
is painless, riskless and pretty fun. You'll find something that is close to
your needs and then realise that you can actually customise EVERYTHING.

That WM was i3 for me, but my point isn't to spam my personal preference
and/or preach: There's so much stuff out there; something will work for you.
Make it your own.

------
S_A_P
I'm sure this guy is savvy but I think that he gets much more credence due to
his last name being Wozniak. Sorry but any post saying "why I did ____" seems
to rub me the wrong way. I would have much more respect for a post that
outlined issues found and how to reproduce them than a "I'm tired of this so
you should be too" kind of post. personally I don't ca if you know or
like/dislike what I use to work. If I wanted apple or anyone else to fix a
problem I would file a bug report for this items I can't deal with as opposed
to throwing a hissyfit about how my needs aren't being met by a company.

~~~
vacri
How do you fix complaints like "Apple aren't forthcoming with information
about updates"? Get hired at Apple, work your way up the chain until you're a
bigwig, and implement a new policy contrary to their current corporate
culture? It's not like people aren't already begging them for more info.
Filing a bug report isn't going to improve that.

Seems like a bit of a high bar you've set there for the author.

------
ehack1971
Remove this article, not relevant to this site and why he left OS X means
nothing to anyone else or the hackers out here. I use both and love OS X, but
does anyone care why?

