Why do you use MacOS?

[James]

Hey guys! We're doing another "10 Reasons _____ is just Better" video - this time with MacOS. Now's your chance to tell us what you love about MacOS and/or why MacOS is better than Windows/ Linux.
 
*** We don't really want to hear from the Windows or Linux users here. We want to hear from current MacOS users ***

 

 

 

[WebPlayz]

I love the simplicity and streamlined connection between my phone and the computer with airdrop and being able to continue where I left off on my laptop from my phone's web browser.

[Fasauceome]

Plug in iPhone, save perfect backup of it to iTunes, done. Very simple, very effective.

 

Also, taking any old Mac into an apple store and getting service no matter what is kinda nifty (I have a lot of occasions where I need to reset macOS and it can sometimes be stubborn with resets, the apple store has no trouble)

[Slottr]

I'm a UI/UX design student. The tools apple provides are super useful as I do a lot of group work. iMessage and Airdrop are some of the best things I’ve had while in university 

 

[KarathKasun]

I currently use OS X 10.4.11/10.5.8 on a pair of vintage Macs for my old CS2 licenses.  Cant really comment on newer OS X versions as I dont use them very much, usually just when troubleshooting Photoshop exports on a 2014 Mac Mini for a co-worker.

 

PS is quite usable on the 2014 mini as well as my old dual G5 tower and Al Powerbook considering how old they are.  I sometimes even use Premiere on the dual G5 for little one off projects.

[lululombard]

I use it only for professional use. I'm a DevOps engineer and macOS is the only way to have a proper UNIX based graphic OS that doesn't break because you look at it wrong. Also, the fact that I can run Adobe software while having my terminal and the wonderful "homebrew" package manager. For me, macOS is a beast at productivity, but very bad as soon as you want games. The only thing it lacks is support for nvidia GPUs and something like valve proton.

[captain_to_fire]

Backing up files either to an external HD or NAS as well as restoring from it is so much better with Time Machine (since Mac OS X Leopard) compared to what Windows offers. 

Also, macOS’ Spotlight search (⌘+Space Bar) is still miles ahead than Windows 10’ cortana search. 

• You can run Windows on occasion via Boot Camp 
• It’s well integrated with the iPhone and iPad. Windows 10 no longer has a mobile OS because it’s a failure. 
• MacBooks driven by macOS still have the best in class multitouch trackpad. No Windows laptop comes close. 
• Safari is just a better 1st party browser compared to Microsoft Edge since its open source rendering engine WebKit is supported by most web developers compared to Microsoft’s proprietary engine. 

 

[Rustation]

I’m a visually impaired developer.

for my needs, macOS still handles scaling the UI to hi resolutions in a better, more consistent way than windows

 

the sub hierarchy of having windows in apps, and be able to switch between current window within an app, or current app works a lot better for my mental model of how things should work. This is probably the most important point

 

I have  direct access to a “true” Unix environment that is the same as my main system. WSL comes close. WSL2 goes backwards in some key areas

hardware selection - noone’e a fan of the keyboard, but the rest of the machine is pretty nice.

i strongly dislike a lot of the aesthetic choices being made by pc makers to stand out. Currently I’m working in finance and if I showed up at a meeting with a bigwig from a bank with a RGB PREDATOR with glowing skulls and shit I wouldn’t be taken seriously. Conversely, a lot of the more professional looking options don’t stack up specs wise. The balance that Apple finds is just right for me

platform security: the weird shit that pc makers do to enable features like tracking a laptop even after its had an os reinstall require them to do funky things to windows putting your security at risk. With Apple products, these features are integrated into the architecture of the system in a much saner, safer way

[Guest]

1) Reliability 

- MacOS is far more reliable than Windows. Never had a kernel panic when I didn't install the developer preview or fiddle around with MacOS (such as overclocking the display).

2) Backup

- All my documents and any folder I chose is backed up to iCloud immediately, and there is the Time Machine, which IMO is far better than the backup utility in Windows - and much better than creating a restore point before an update. 

3) iCloud

- The best by far. Anything I do on any device can just be picked up right away. It manages my passwords, emails, everything I need. When my computer breaks - its all accessible through a browser. 

4) Apple Music / iTunes

- Much better than WMP. iCloud library is a big plus, any song I add to iTunes, even not from the store is available on all my devices

5) Photos

- Same with an iCloud library. More importantly my family have a Mac too, so they can add their family photos to the photo stream, and I can see all the family pictures. Great for nostalgia and homesickness. 

6) AirDrop

- Sometimes I want to take a photo and it is busy uploading to iCloud (takes a percentage of the bandwidth, so won't be immediate), so I just click the share icon and click the icon for my laptop and its on my laptop. Easy. 

7) AirPlay

- Its fast and reliable, with no 1080p issues or lag over Wifi. What more could anyone want to mirror their display. 

8.) iWork

- Better than MS Office. By Far, no competition. Pages should be the standard for any 'Word Document'. Even saves like OneNote, so you never need to recover lost work, its all in the iCloud Drive. It does need a better word counter though, but its far more intuitive. Word sucks. 

9) Better High DPI. 

- So you might have noticed all my screenshots on the forum are absolutely huge. I've noticed. The screen on a Mac is 4k (oh yes it is), but the screen real estate you see is 1650x1080, but there are other options. There are no problems with scaling like I've found on windows, and everything looks natural. 

10) Better Minecraft FPS

- I used to get better MC fps when on integrated graphics back when I rocked the MBP 13" Late 2011 and MBA 13" 2013. I've no idea why, but on the same device, much less FPS in Windows. Not sure how this holds true today. I'd sure like to know why, it was essentially difference between playable and unplayable at high render distance. 

[GDRRiley]

1. Final cut pro

2. time machine does great

3. imessage/ face time.

(I don't use one daily sense its my summer break but my GF loves all of those)

[TheKDub]

Gesture support on MacOS is so much nicer than on Windows, specifically when using a Macbook or a Mac with Apple's fancy USB touchpad (Idk the actual name for it).

 

iMessage and Facetime are nice if you have an iPhone to go along with your Mac.

 

AirDrop is such a blessing. Instead of having to dig out a flash drive every time I need to send a file to a university computer (many of which are macs in my program), I can send it over with airdrop. Same for if I want to share something with some friends.

[Kizune]

1. Time machine as a backup/migration tool is superior and is available out of the box.

2. Unix nature for me - long time Unix/Linux user - is much more flexible, allows remote login with SSH, most of the software and scripts can be tested "as is" without the need of adopting it to the Windows file format and such. It is like a super-stable Linux with much better UI.

3. Well thought UI that takes a minimal amount of extra screen estate freeing up the canvas for the more important stuff. Full screen applications management and a virtual desktop management is just better than anything else. Windows with the latest Win10 updates is catching up but still not fully there.

4. Ecosystem. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook Pro - it all just feels like a one piece of digital space. Your laptop unlocks when you open it with Apple Watch, your watch unlocks when you unlock your phone, you can pay with your watch and add tips on the phone later, you can order tickets on laptop, get electronic tickets on the phone and use watch as a boarding pass in the gates. I can go on and on - it is super convenient.

[Foxlet]

I'm mostly fond of XNU and the Unix heritage of the system. It delivers the capabilities of power-user-friendly BSD with the integration of Cocoa in the UI. It's also the only other system with mainstream support for graphics applications (something that Linux still lacks currently).

 

The other side is the challenge of running the OS on exotic hardware. I have a mixture of real Macs and Hackintoshes on AMD architectures, being able to use the OS across systems is great in most situations.

[oliverdunk]

Most of what I would've said has already been mentioned. A few extra points:

 

I like that Apple put a lot of care into the apps that come with the OS. Mail.app is my favourite mail client, even though there are many alternatives.

 

On average, apps feel higher quality. I think this might be because the barrier to entry is higher. It's also possible that developers for macOS are targeting an audience that has higher expectations.

[Tieox]

Ever since Windows 10 for slightly more advanced users ( those with more demands then a Chromebook ) but find themselves upset by Windows 10 for some reason, I always move them over to a Mac Mini (second hand) and the launcher seriously is loved by a large percentage of them.  

 

Rare I help setup a Mini with how good ChromeOS is these days but it does happen.

[Commodus]

A few reasons, but I'll single out the ecosystem.

 

As both a Mac and iPhone user, I get my SMS messages right on my desktop.  I can AirDrop photos from my phone faster than it would take to copy them the old-fashioned way (that is, when I don't sync with iCloud).  Handoff means I can easily open web links from my Apple devices; if I've paired AirPods or Beats headphones with one device, they're automatically available for all my devices.  Basically, it doesn't feel like my devices are fenced off from each other like they tend to be with Windows.

[DrMacintosh]

Well, considering that I am one of the Mac guys on this forum.....I feel obligated to share my reasoning. 

 

I use macOS for a few select reasons which I believe make macOS a more consumer friendly, and overall better operating system compared to Windows 10 or any Linux Distro. These are in order of significance to me: 

• Time Machine
  • Time Machine is amazing. One massive update with iterative backups that provide easy file recovery and can restore a carbon copy of your Mac easily. 
• Being able to reinstall your OS without loosing any data or programs
  • The macOS recovery partition is so powerful and convenient for users because it allows them to reinstall macOS if anything goes wrong without having to lose any programs. This is the exact opposite user experience on Windows 10, whose recovery tools are almost useless. 
• Boot Camp
  • Being able to natively dual boot the two most popular operating systems is a compatibility boon. 
• Disk Utility.app
  • Significantly more effective and compatible in my experience than the Windows version. 
• Optional updates
  • While Windows 10 has gotten better at letting users delay updates, macOS makes it easy to completely disable updates if you want to. You as the user, you should have full control over when you want your system to change. 
• Spotlight Search
  • It will find literally anything in a fraction of a second
• Integration with iOS
  • iCloud, HandOff, AirDrop, and Continuity have no competition.
• iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)
• Useful first party creative apps like iMovie, GarageBand, FinalCut Pro, and Logic
• Mail.app 

 

 

[harryk]

In no particular order,

 

- Reliability: I've never had to deal with any issues that I did not create, usually trying to do something Apple didn't intend

- Security: whether or not its true I trust Apple with my data and believe that their servers and the Mac's I purchase are safe

- UI Design: Everything I need is there and easy to find with no excess. Just compare Finder with Windows File Explorer and decide which one is cleaner and simpler

- Intuitive: Ties in very closely with the above, I find it much easier to explore and do things in MacOS versus Windows. The dynamic menu bar at the top is great, no searching for where tools are in each application

- Spotlight Search: Command-Spacebar is the most underrated feature ever.

- Ecosystem: iCloud, iMessage, AirDrop, Airplay etc. all my devices directly communicate together in ways they were intended to and all my activities and data are synchronized with no input from me

- Stock Apps: The applications Apple build into MacOS are fantastic, Preview is super underrated

- No Bloatware: I honestly wasn't even aware bloatware was a thing for a long time, the concept of it still baffles me

- Optimization: MacOS is designed for Mac hardware and Mac hardware is designed for MacOS. This is the wet dream of an optimization engineer.

- App Store: When I can, I always download software via the app store rather from a website. I trust that it has been vetted and adheres to the reliability and design guidelines set by Apple. It also makes it so easy to upgrade or download again if i delete it.

- Software Handling:  At least for those apps which follow the ethos, everything is contained within the application container. Thus installing should never be more complicated than dragging to the Applications folder and deleting should never be more complicated than dragging to the trash. Why does Windows make this so freakin hard?

- Unix based: A little more advanced but for most intents and purposes MacOS is basically Linux e.g. Terminal app

- Consistent Look: Everything is designed to follow the same theme and include the same basic UI elements. Take a look at Apple's design guidelines, it's hardcore. I abhor any app I have to use which does not subscribe to this.

 

I think the biggest thing Mac has going for it is the all in one package. For a majority of people, they could walk into an Apple store and buy a MacBook and be done. There's really no need to install any software for 99% of tasks. You've got a fantastic web browser, email client, photos manager, music/video manager, video/audio/text/slideshow editors. I really want to emphasize this point: a majority of users have no real reason to get anything outside the Apple ecosystem; everything they need is included.

 

I'd also like to include what I say to everyone when the Mac vs Windows debate comes up. Use what you know how to use. I've heard Mac users say Windows is unintuitive and hard to use and I've heard Windows users say Mac is unintuitive and hard to use (cite Linus vs iJustine Windows/Mac video). I grew up using Mac. My dad had a Performa desktop and then a Powerbook. My first schools were part of the eMac program. I honestly did not use or even see Windows until long after I was proficient with Mac. When I was later forced to use Windows in school I found it difficult and I've never really gotten over that. First impressions matter and my experience with Mac's have always been superior to Windows.

 

Lastly, I want to note that over the years Apple has changed some things in MacOS which I do not like. I always have to spend a couple hours changing certain settings and reconfiguring things to my liking. Personally I think the best version of MacOS/OS X was 10.4 Tiger, though this is definitely nostalgia driven.

 

tldr: Mac's are better, may add more later lol

[captain_to_fire]

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Mail.app

I gotta say Windows 10’s UWP Mail app looks like caca compared to what macOS has. 

1 hour ago, harryk said:

Apple has changed some things in MacOS which I do not like

I don’t like the fact that cover flow in Finder was killed. It looks so good in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. 

 

===================

@James I also like to add that ejecting USB storage devices is so much better in the Mac because you can grab the drive from the desktop and drag it to the Trash at the bottom right. Also, if some reason an application prevents ejection, macOS since Snow Leopard will show you which application uses the drive. Windows 10 on the other hand still hasn’t figured UX glitches like this since Windows XP. 

Edited July 17, 2019 by captain_to_fire

[DrMacintosh]

11 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

Windows 10 on the other hand still hasn’t figured UX glitches like this since Windows XP. 

Can't eject because something is using the drive! 

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Can't eject because something is using the drive! 

I know. All I’m saying is that with the Mac, it will show you which specific application is preventing ejection. Windows 10 will only show a warning but won’t specify which application is using the drive. 

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, captain_to_fire said:

I know. All I’m saying is that with the Mac, it will show you which specific application is preventing ejection. Windows 10 will only show a warning but won’t specify which application is using the drive. 

I guess I dropped my /s on that one....

[KarathKasun]

6 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

I know. All I’m saying is that with the Mac, it will show you which specific application is preventing ejection. Windows 10 will only show a warning but won’t specify which application is using the drive. 

Linux also does the "in use, cant unmount" thing.  You have to use other tools to figure out what is open and what process is holding onto it.

[iamdarkyoshi]

I do use all three of the main OS's, but I spend a hell of a lot more time repairing them, since I work full time at a PC shop.

 

I have never seen macOS fail to boot on properly working hardware. And on a machine that suffered data corruption from a failing drive, I just cloned it to a working drive, and installed macOS over the old one. No customer data lost, since it keeps data when you reinstall.

 

I've just found macOS to be basically bulletproof compared to the cheese that windows 10 is made of. It really does just... keep working. And you can even boot it off an external USB drive!

 

Also, Time Machine is just outstanding. Having a full backup of your operating system and everything else which you can just plug into another mac and even boot to if you want is amazing.

[Giiman95]

Number 1 feature that has me really excited is sidecar. It is a huge leap forward. Finally competition for duet display and primarily Wacom.