Why UNIX and Mac OS X Beat Windows

[Builder]

Very much means I'm trying to say something without really saying it... it's a lawyer thing really. "Welllllll, I said mostly..." it's like the cable companies selling you "up to" a certain speed. You know what you said.

No, I genuinely don't understand what you're unhappy about here. Seriously. What's open source and what isn't is strongly based on perspective. This isn't clearer than with the FSF, they don't consider software to be truly free until it's licensed under some form of the GPL. The OpenBSD developers don't consider it open source unless it has all of the binary blobs removed. Debian has binary blobs in it, believe it or not, so #! is not entirely open source. You're probably running several proprietary drivers in fact. 

 

From now on I'll only let you say #! is mostly open source because from your point of view that's what it is.

[Builder]

Haha, #! isn't a kiddy toy designed for paraprofessional wannabes. I'm rather productive on it, would you like to see? There's so much efficiency and customization ability on this OS and the hardware I'm using is a netbook from 2004. That's right, I'm using decade-old hardware and #! is seamless - show me a Mac that can pull that off, will you? Oh, and some copyleft licensing along with it. I can legally and freely do whatever the hell I want to this software with just a little attribution and licensing compatibility. Can your Mac OS X do that?

Funny you should mention that because I'm actually using my 2004 PowerBook G4 at the moment...OS X is very seamless.

 

If you consider most of Silicon Valley to be full of paraprofessional wannabes (like those wankers at Google, what the fuck are they all doing using Macs?) then sure. 

 

I'm glad you like the customizability and "freedom." I honestly don't care for all that myself that I go out of the way to use it. I do run Linux though as I've said before. I'd say I have better things to do than argue over software licensing and the definition of FOSS with 1337 linux hacker fanboys over the internet but, well...

[Midnight]

What does "very much" mean to you? To me it means mostly...

 

To me, it can mean either that or indeed. From context, it sounded like you were affirming that it was open-source, but now I can see how you could have meant mostly.

[Builder]

What Google does is an enigma to any of us, but honestly I don't see them being productive on My First Computer™ setups with the things the corporation makes. Their offices likely run Windows like every other office in the universe and their servers run their own Linux distribution. I could be wrong about their office computers as those may run Linux as well - I've worked in federal environments (with the Army and VA Dept.) who have those PCs running Linux over WinNT. I seriously see Windows tanking in the future and as the IT industry matures more systems admins moving organizations towards Linux, personally. That's just me, though.

No, their developers run whatever they choose to, because that's the way it should be. That the majority of them choose Macs must come as a shock to you but OS X is very popular among devs in Silicon Valley.

 

http://george.nachman.usesthis.com

 

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is George Nachman. I'm a software engineer. I work at Google on the Google Search App for iOS, and my 20% project is iTerm2. I'm also into woodworking and my goal is to build all my home furniture from scratch. I love making stuff, whether physical or virtual, and always have. Helping others to be more productive is how I accumulate karma.

What hardware do you use?

My setup at work is pretty cool: I sit in a zero-gravity recliner, which is the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in. My monitor is a Dell 4K display. It's on a pole-mounted monitor arm so I can position it exactly where I need it when lying almost horizontally. I use an Apple bluetooth keyboard and Magic Trackpad, which is the greatest thing since oxygen. I use a Mac Pro, and have a 15" Macbook Pro for when I'm on the go.

At home, I use a 13" Macbook Pro. I used to use a 15" but I got tired of elbowing strangers on airplanes.

And what software?

I switched over to the Apple universe in 2007, having previously used Windows and Linux. I still use Linux for server-side stuff, but I spend 90% of my time doing client development, which suits my personality (read: short attention span) much better. Not using Windows has been a blessing, because I'm no longer competent to fix broken Windows computers.

For coding, I use vim when possible and XCode when necessary. Most desktop GUIs do more harm than good, and I'd rather hang out in a TTY all day. Since I'm old-school, my shell is still tcsh. I'd like to use bash but tcsh's shortcuts are in the ganglia of my fingers. I got a shell account at my local ISP when I was in high school and learned Unix by typing random commands until something worked. I strongly believe that a person without access to a *nix shell at all times is not living up to his or her full human potential.

That notwithstanding, I think Alfred is a darn fine program. I use Photoshop and Pixelmator for graphics stuff. On my iPhone, I'm a big fan of Downcast for listening to podcasts, and Reeder for RSS feeds (backed by Feedbin, which is quite awesome). I'm still addicted to Flappy Bird, and my high score is 81, which I'm both proud and ashamed of.

What would be your dream setup?

I'm pretty sure I have it already. I do wish there were more options for ergonomic keyboards with built-in trackpads, though. It would be really cool to get waterproof equipment and work from a hot tub, but that's probably impractical somehow.

[Builder]

Cool, a testimonial from a Google dev who's also an Apple fanboy. Do you mind giving me any information validly unveiling actual office statistics within Google's developer population?

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/31/google-to-employees-mac-or-linux-but-no-more-windows/

 

http://bgr.com/2013/11/28/mac-chromebook-google-employees/

 

They're basically Mac only at this point actually. This is so hilarious! I didn't even realize. You're really fucked argumentation wise now.

[Builder]

I'm sure that Google is implementing Macs because they're just such amazing computers with such top-notch software, mhmm. Business politics couldn't have been a consideration at all, right? Apple's just the final arbiter of IT and Google is simply submitting to their sheer amazingness, aren't they?

 

I know you really didn't apply all too much thought into that. Ooh, a piece of candy! At the moment Google's stock is going for well over five times Apple's, too. I'm so cornered, what am I to do?

Here's where you get really desperate. Apple's stock isn't going for less. They underwent a seven way split like four months ago.

 

You're just moving the goalposts now.

 

What Google does is an enigma to any of us, but honestly I don't see them being productive on My First Computer™ setups with the things the corporation makes. Their offices likely run Windows like every other office in the universe and their servers run their own Linux distribution. I could be wrong about their office computers as those may run Linux as well - I've worked in federal environments (with the Army and VA Dept.) who have those PCs running Linux over WinNT.

Do you mind giving me any information validly unveiling actual office statistics within Google's developer population?

Yep. I did.

 

I'm sure that Google is implementing Macs because they're just such amazing computers with such top-notch software, mhmm. Business politics couldn't have been a consideration at all, right? Apple's just the final arbiter of IT and Google is simply submitting to their sheer amazingness, aren't they?

So that's the standard now, is it? I'm sure they'd switch their entire tens of thousands of employee workforce over to Mac because of "business politics."

 

Here's a quote from one of Eric Schmidt's G+ posts:

Interestingly, Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt acknowledged the superiority of Apple’s Macs over PCs in a recent thorough guide for moving from iPhone to Android, actually comparing Android devices with Macs. “Like the people who moved from PCs to Macs and never switched back,” Schmidt wrote on Google+, “you will switch from iPhone to Android and never switch back.”

 

Google apparently went Mac for security: http://appleinsider.com/articles/10/06/01/security_concerns_prompt_google_to_switch_from_windows_to_mac

[Builder]

You're so cute. Google, ha, hah... Mac OS X is still a kiddy toy at the end of the day, and good luck working on it. It's a shit OS for the tech-illiterate. If Google wants to have their IT department run My First Computers, that's their decision.

If there's one thing I hate more than stupid people it's holier-than-thou Linux users. If that's your opinion fine. It's not supported by evidence (most of Silicon Valley runs on Macs) but if you want to believe it then fine. 

 

I use Linux too. You act as if there's something magically more hardcore about it. Perhaps you're one of those Gentoo ricers? No, wait, you use #!. What's that? A Debian install with OpenBox? Great. I'm sure you're proud of your "achievement." Using Linux doesn't make you special. I use Linux. I'm far from special.

[Builder]

Here lies the Maccie, ranting and raving

His OS is the best, it goes without saying

Windows is stupid and Linux is hard

He's acting like a mental retard

 

Here lies the Maccie, his mind so closed

Kind of like his special source code

Macs run UNIX, but only at the letter

A pretty name doesn't make it all too much better

 

Here lies the Maccie, his efforts so frantic

"Everyone's just giving me all of these antics!"

Why won't people stop telling him it's useless

I've done so much in Photoshop and... what else?

 

Here lies the Maccie, cold and alone

His only company being all the other Applian drones

He just doesn't want to hear the reality that

His OS is shit, and that's about that

 

This thread in a nutshell tbh. Peace the fuck out.

Actually that entire thing is the polar opposite of what I've said so far but whatever. I like the effort you spent writing the poem. Perhaps you'd be better off writing poetry than posting here because even when I say Linux is easier to use than you claim and that tons of tech literate people run Macs you still don't believe me.

 

I don't even use Photoshop that often. I'm mainly a developer. The fact that you're an asshole doesn't change any of this. Quite frankly the entire time you've been trying to prove that OS X isn't used by anyone serious about code and if I'm not proof enough and Google and Silicon Valley aren't proof enough then I don't know what is.

[NeoZeon]

Just to be clear, I also develop on on OSX too; Im a computational geodynamist who designs large scale fluid dynamic models powered by cluster computing. There are 5 PhD Students/Postodcs in my lab, all of us use a mac pro that ssh into the giant cluster (around 1200 cores with about 2 gb per core of ram). I have used stampeed and teragrid, two of the worlds fastest computers, all calculating numerical experiments I designed on OSX.  Geophysics, as a research field, are mostly filled with mac users. This is true of most academic research disciplines. We are paid billions of dollars in totality every year (STEM academic research) to make scientific inquiry. We are mostly mac users. 

 

Perhaps pure unix, or a linux client is better. But that doesn't mean people don't use OSX for serious work. We all have our reasons. Ignorance is not the case of being blind, but choosing to keep your eyes closed.

[Valentyn]

I don't even use Photoshop that often. I'm mainly a developer. The fact that you're an asshole doesn't change any of this. Quite frankly the entire time you've been trying to prove that OS X isn't used by anyone serious about code and if I'm not proof enough and Google and Silicon Valley aren't proof enough then I don't know what is.

 

The person that got me to try OS X and Macs was my lecturer at College. Paul Barry, he head ups software development and networking, wrote Head First Pyhton, Head First Programming, Perl Networking,  Bioinformatics Biocomputing and Perl, among other works, is an editor at Linux Journal Magazine, and much much more.

 

I guess all the people he taught, authored books for that helps, and many others in his field are also all computer illiterates in the eyes of 'some people'.

 

I always find it funny when people think all Mac users are ignorant when it comes to computers and tech. 

[Ardacer]

Yeah well let me quote myself...

 

A master chef can do more with dogcrap than a newbie with truffles. OSes are different, to start, in philosophy. Overall benefit of using anything depends on the user, that is my problem with anyone claiming something to be superior. Both things have strenghts.

My uneducated guess is that linux takes the crown almost anywhere, due to huuuuuuge dev base. But it's also it's biggest weakness, you're never certain things are going to work all the time, and as you like, so it's more like a huge sandbox where you can do almost anything, but a part of the sandcastle will probably fall off at times. Another weaknes is no support for MS office (MS fault). Open variants are great and dandy, but there always will be some incompatibilities which are annoying, cause EVERYONE ELSE is on office...  Windows is full closed source OS, flexible in hardware support (best even), most popular, stable and offers best support for gaming, for now. OSX is BSD made to work on apple selected/designed hardware to be perfect for it, superstable, easy to use, powerfull. But it's expensive, only works on apple's hardware properly, and cost/benefit is very questionable at best... But their hardware is amazing. Usually.

 

I personaly would like windows to be more open, but whatever, I'd also like apple to be more hardware flexible too... and I'd like MS to give linux an office version for it...

 

Cant wait to get some time on my hands to play with darwin.

[Builder]

But it's expensive,

Which is to say, completely free of charge and DRM-free as well.

[Ardacer]

Completely free of charge,

 

 

if you buy Apple hardware, or it's illegal. DRM is just a hassle really if you know what to do.

[Builder]

Completely free of charge,

 

 

if you buy Apple hardware, or it's illegal. DRM is just a hassle really if you know what to do.

It's only illegal because they don't want you suing them for not supporting your Hackintosh.

 

It's free as I see it. Do with it what you will. I couldn't care less and Apple couldn't give any fewer fucks either.

[babadoctor]

TL;DR

apple is a locked-down user-friendly OS for old people.

[SIGSEGV]

Getting real tired of all the windows hate. It's getting old.

So is Windows

Edit: aw crap, I replied to a 6 month+ old post again...

[SubTract]

Very good read, Well written.

I would like to see a part added for the change to GPL 3 in the move to 10.10 when they made the OS Free (Really should have been OS 11 (Such a big change))

 

You had me stumped for a second there with your joke about 8.1 then I looked back and saw the number and had a little giggle.

 

Doesn't Anand now work for apple?

[DacStugly]

The last sentence:  "Mac OS X is truly “the world’s most advanced operating system.”" . I completely disagree with this statement. There is no such thing. Only the right tool for the right job.

[sp0rad1c]

I agree that Unix is the greatest operating system family ever created. However, I can only agree that Mac OS X is the expensive brat of Unix. The only way to access it legally costs too much money. The fact that it forces regular users who can't afford it to piracy says a lot. I just sold my retina Macbook Pro because it cost me too much and I only used it for websurfing. I didn't feel encouraged to use it to its full potential at all, but maybe that's out of habit having coded in Windows and Linux distributions for so long.

 

What can I get from OS X that I can't get out of a Linux distribution? Mostly universal agreement with software developers, even though I still find executables that nobody bothered to replicate for Macs. Maybe the tech support of an international corporation, maybe errors that aren't intuitively solved without hours of experience (although some view that kind of learning as potential for growth), but to issue a blanket statement for it like "world's most advanced operating system" is a stretch. I think Apple's marketing and hardware aesthetics is the true reason it thrives so well, besides people who literally grew up with Apple computers.

 

But I guess that's why Apple makes more money than Windows. I dunno, I've never made a billion dollars.

 

EDIT: Sorry for encouraging the necro.

Edited April 1, 2015 by sp0rad1c

[SansVarnic]

 

Knowledge accumulated over the years that I can’t really cite because I forgot where it came from but it’s been verified to be true (myself)

Lol, loved this line.

The rest was great as well but I had to laugh when I read it. Epic boss.

Well written and it makes a great argument for anyone (or me) to use OSX but as I have mentioned in other articles I am to dis-inclined to learn a new OS after using Windows for about 20 years. Well done sir on the work you put forth.

[ohJey]

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/31/google-to-employees-mac-or-linux-but-no-more-windows/

 

http://bgr.com/2013/11/28/mac-chromebook-google-employees/

 

They're basically Mac only at this point actually. This is so hilarious! I didn't even realize. You're really fucked argumentation wise now.

When I went to the Google place in Santa Monica mostly everyone except the people sitting around on laptops were using desktops running Linux.  I didn't check whether people were using Linux on their macbooks.