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What's the deal with Mac computers?

 


When I was still in university I think in any given CS class beyond the two intro courses about 90% of students used Windows on their school computer and about 10% were either dual-booting or using Linux exclusively.

I think most of my classmates had the mindset that Mac computers were overpriced and only purchased by people who didn't actually know how to use a computer. I also had professors who were not afraid to tell us how they hated macOS and Mac computers for a variety of reasons, and on my first day of Java 1 freshman year, I remember our professor told us that our time in university would be hell if we didn't have something that ran windows. Additionally, I had several professors who really stressed that we should get familiar with Linux as it would help us later on.

However, when I got my first job out of college I was issued a work computer, I was given the option between a laptop with windows on it and a MacBook, and was told that about half of new hires pick the MacBook. Additionally, talking with other people I went to school with it seems like MacBooks are a pretty common choice for someone who writes code for a living, and as a side note it seems like no one actually uses a Linux desktop for work unless they're regularly dealing with Linux at work. Why is this?


JA:

Macs just work, and they've already got Unix so you're basically got Linux AND then you're running homebrew and git and ruby and python right out the box.

I remember when I started on Windows boxes, I had to install and run everything through CygWin and I thought "NEVER AGAIN". It's like Windows boxes are a bunch of software made by people who really don't want to make software for each other.

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