Logic Pro, Final Cut. And you cant even buy a decent Mac to run them without paying arm and leg.
Everyting else seems to be cross platform and runs ok on Windows, or even linux.
Yes, but then you have to run Windows or Linux.
I think that people don't (on the whole) get Macs in order to run particular software, but many (myself included) do get Macs in order to run MacOS. (Silky smooth trackpads don't hurt, either.)
The tools I use in my work aren’t really available in a good form on Linux, so MacOS it is. Also, I have quite a lot of software already that would be both hard an expensive to replace, but I wouldn’t go back to Windows, ever, then I would rather live with the limitations of Linux.
This is exactly how I've always felt about the Mac OS UI. Small example of why I feel this way: There are many windows on a Mac that you can open that you then cannot switch back to with the keyboard alone. Try it out - on an unmodified macOS open "About this Mac" then alt-tab to some other program. Now try to get back to "About this Mac" with your keyboard the same way you switched away from it. And it's the same for any window you open from a menu-bar.
Macs fail so horribly on such a very, very, very basic interaction and the entire OS is filled with shit like this. I could literally fill an entire blog with examples of how badly the macOS fails users, but that would mean I'd have to use my Macs more often for things other than just compiling iOS apps. No fucking thanks!
Windows is a mecca of consistency where it really matters compared to this garbage. Sure, you can complain about the rare times that you're exposed to 2 different control panels (yawn) but if you fuck up very basic things like window management like macOS does it's much, much worse IMO.
I feel like really good marketing, sex appeal, status symbolism, herd immunity (at least in Silicon Valley) and of course the fact that macOS is a very stable, low-maintenance Unix keep a lot of people blind to the glaring inconsistencies in the macOS UI.
It’s not even comparable.
Most windows can be switched to by switching to the app with Cmd+Tab, then cycling windows with Cmd+`. The "About this Mac" window is an outlier because it isn't associated with an application.
I have not had a consistent user interface with Windows since 2012 with the release of Metro.
(on my Mojave machine, it does stay open when I move away from it, when I cmd-tab to something else and then a third something else, "About this Mac" is still visible.)
But the trackpad and screens (and the handling of the screen by MacOS which is leagues beyond Windows / Linux) alone are worth the price tags in Macs.
And if Wine doesn't cut it, KVM with Gnome Boxes works amazingly well and is super easy to use. I had to do that for my tax software last year.
It does adhere to the Windows style of taskbar and window management by default, so of course YMMV.
But even for software that is available cross platform, or that has comparable equivalents, the app could be the greatest thing since sliced bread, that can't fix the cluster fuck that is windows.
Edit: I should add: I haven't tried a Linux desktop in quite a while (I use Debian servers on a daily basis). Maybe it's gotten better, but given the number of "hey cool, it uses Electron so that means there'll be a Linux version" comments I see, I'm not really that optimistic.
I'm talking about killer applications, where the overall experience on mac is magnitudes better than anywhere else.
No, but when it is time to buy another Mac, you'd like it to run Omnifocus.
I did.
But there are many more: Things, DeckSet, Affinity Designer/Photo/Illustrator (available on Windows, but nothing of the same quality on Linux), Little Snitch, LaunchBar/Alfred. The Mac has traditionally had a very good shareware ecosystem.
But even basic things like Preview are many times better than Evince, Okular, or whatever Windows uses. Who needs a killer app when the OS is already a killer app?
The Cocoa APIs in the hands of decent developers result in pretty amazing software. Desktop services were great too (though I gather have been hobbled in recent macOS releases?).
I’m actually really surprised there hasn’t been more of a push to emulate Apple’s approach to desktop / GUI APIs. For all the effort dumped into Gnome, KDE, and a thousand skin-deep window dressings for Linux, we could have had a truly first-class alternative implementation of Cocoa.
As it is I worry that too many developers are living as vassals to Apple’s platform. It would be nice to have an alternative to Apple that doesn’t abandon all the blood sweat and tears non-Apple developers have poured into enriching the platform.
For designers not on Figma: Sketch, OmniGraffle, Principle, xScope and a fully featured OS color picker and palette manager that works across all apps.
As a developer, I wouldn't want to miss: Paw, Alfred, iA Writer, Monodraw and Kaleidoscope.
A niche favorite that really has no analogues at all: Lumen video synthesizer
Only the design stuff is probably in the "worth getting a Mac for" category though.
Don’t forget that “Apple‘s software” includes utilities like Preview, Spotlight, Finder, the screenshot utility, and even System Preferences where Microsoft isn’t delivering a competent alternative. Let me know when enabling or disabling a network card doesn’t dump me into the Windows Vista Control Panel in a completely separate window.
And Windows still updates itself too much. It’s infuriating. The whole concept of active hours sucks. Microsoft’s “solution” to their update nightmare is to make you keep your computer on all the time. Every time I fire up my gaming PC it wants to update and hijacks my ability to shut down or restart. They should have a “consumers who don’t give a shit about KB1234567 .NET 3.5 patch” channel that releases no more frequently than monthly or maybe even quarterly.
Then if you own an iPhone like half the USA and are already interested in a laptop that costs at least $999 it’s really hard to look away from the Mac.
Considering that smartphones are more important to most people than their laptops, including many people that use laptops for a living, it shouldn’t be surprising that macOS is such a compelling option. My laptop is now basically just for work while my phone is my “PC” - my personal computer.
And in that sense iOS is a driver as a reason to use macOS. I’m not going to give up Handoff and AirDrop just to save a few bucks - and which Android phone costs $399, has the fastest available processor, has a solid camera, and will get 5+ years of software updates?
It doesn't have the fastest processor, but at least I can use it however I want, and doesn't have a 1500mAh battery that will render it useless in two years.
It's interesting that people go on the Internet, by nature a global medium, and then assume that their audience is American. iOS currently has a worldwide market share of about 27% (source: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide).
Is there a good machine that allows me to run an ok operating system with command line that has fewer software limitations (Linux) and doesn't feel unpredictable and sometimes broken (Windows)?
I use Linux. I like Linux. But sometimes some mainstream software won't run there. A VM helps but doesn't solve everything.
If you hadn't included that restriction, I'd tell you about Numbers. Not all spreadsheet type problems fit into its limitations, but for those that do, it makes you ask "Why don't all spreadsheets work this way?"
But you did make that a restriction on your criteria, so forget I said anything. :)
The first non-Apple software I thought of when you asked the question was PDFpen, which operates vaguely like what is now called "Acrobat DC" used to. Acrobat drives me up a wall; it's like they asked, "How can we make the Microsoft ribbon interface even worse? Let's do that!"
I have about three Markdown editors that are Mac-only that I like better than any cross-platform alternative I've tried. (Byword, Markdown Pro and MultiMarkdown Composer.) I have three because none of them does everything right, so I occasionally have to switch for some task or other. I'd happily switch to something cross-platform if it matched the union of those three apps' features, those I care about, anyway.
I suspect I have three solid Markdown editors to choose from because they're all based on solid OS-level rich text editing features that exceed what you get on Windows, so the non-Mac competition has to waste a lot of resources reinventing wheels. Just as one example, you get grammar checking for free in most Mac native text-editing software. Where it doesn't occur, it's usually because the app is cross-platform and is thus avoiding Mac-specific features.
A related example is the built-in dictionary. You can get dictionary/thesaurus apps on other platforms, but they generally aren't as deeply integrated as the one on macOS.
Then there are the times where you have a cross-platform app that simply works better on macOS. VLC and MacVim (as compared to gVim) come to mind.
The combination of: wide acceptance + an owner who is not incentivized to use your chat (meta)data to sell ads. That is something for a platform we use to share very intimate conversations.
Sure, there is Signal, but it is far less widely used (at least among my friends).
And then Messages has some very nice platform integrations, such as: Continuity, fill 2FA codes from SMS received on your phone into a web form on your Mac, animoji.
Messages only works on iOS. iOS has a worldwide market share of 27% (source: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide). I'm not sure I'd call that 'wide acceptance'.
The ubiquity and integration with the OS is unlike anything anywhere else. Every time I've tried to use Linux/Windows/Android it's the killer feature that brings me back.
The fact that most software nowadays are cross platform and run on Mac is actually an improvement from earlier situation! (Gaming is lagging behind because of DirectX and other windows only engine)
Play a DirectX game on Linux via DXVK or Proton,and you stand a good chance of getting better performance than Windows (!)
I run basic software like a browser, command-line tools, editors, a few IDEs - it's all completely cross-platform stuff - and I think it's worth getting a Mac for that. I don't know any better hardware for personal computing. What do you use that's better designed, integrated and constructed?
That really depends on what you care about. I have a keyboard that doesn't suck, a nice selection of ports, a cooling solution that's quieter and more effective at load, expandable memory/storage (yes, I have actually used this), a power brick that can sustain full load for an indefinite amount of time, a high refresh display and a numpad. Considering repairability, I'd argue it's better constructed than a MacBook. Concerning design, it fits more of my requirements hardware wise. And for integration, all the hardware components I use have stable Linux drivers.