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Why do hackers like Macs that much? Wouldn't it be better to use cross-platform tools?

> Why do hackers like Macs that much? Wouldn't it be better to use cross-platform tools?

I think a lot of us like OS X because we get a Unix build environment with a fairly slick GUI and good third-party app support.

Being able to use the same OS for day-to-day tasks (Word docs, Photoshop/Lightroom, etc) and for development is nice, and despite some inconsistencies, the quality of third-party applications is pretty high (i.e. Transmit, TextMate/MacVim, Pixelmator, Adium, etc).

Battery life, when it comes to portables, is also a bonus; most Macs have better battery life and less weight than a similarly specced Dell/HP/Lenovo machine (anecdotal, but I think I'm in the ballpark here).

This is exactly what I say when I explain why I like using a mac. Also the touchpad is amazing. For most of my day-to-day tasks its better than a mouse. I would have never imagined that this was possible.

Totally agreed. The MBP trackpad is a wonderful thing & when combined with various swipe gestures I find it really efficient for getting around.

Things like being able to do a two finger swipe to scroll an out of focus document or four finger swipe to show active windows are just really nice.

Macs are high-end machines and come with a sane OS on them, with support from the manufacturer.

The last two issues together: sane OS, manufacturer support, basically knock out the rest of the market.

Mac support is known to be one of the worst. Linux and Windows are also sane OSs. And there are a lot of high-end machines on the market. So I disagree with you.

All Apple owners I ever met were showing off. For them it's status to have a Mac. They think that when they have a Mac they belong to the group. Or they think they need to have a Mac because they are designers/hackers.

This feeling of belonging to a group knocks out the rest of the market.

I'm not saying Apples are crap. But to me they are not better than lets say a nice Lenovo Thinkpad installed with Ubuntu. In the end of the day it's just a tool to get the job done.

(Why do all iPhone owners put there phone on the table while having a meeting? Just turn the thing off and put it in your wallet!)

Apple support frequently leads the industry by a wide margin in consumer surveys. Apple Care is expensive, but it's fantastic when you need it - I've never had a less than 5 star experience.

"Readers awarded AppleCare a score of 86 points, dwarfing the competition; Lenovo/IBM came in second place with just 61 points."

http://www.macworld.com/article/160089/2011/05/apple_laptops...

A sane OS would let me delete a file with the delete key(!).

You use the command key to issue commands and raw keys to type. So: command-delete means it's fast and easy to delete a file without the worry of accidentally losing a file when your cat jumps on the keyboard.

Maybe the OS can put a cork on the end of my fork so I don't accidentally stab myself while I'm eating.

I'm just kidding, it's a superficial annoyance.

I should have the option though, and what's the purpose of a "recycle bin" if not for feline file administration?

> I should have the option though

No. This is what good software design is. The designer chose this path, offering you the option to change this is what makes software bloated and unmaintainable.

No options in software, gotcha.

Not too many at any rate. If a minor detail like the key to delete files is an option pretty much everything else has to be an option.

Options should only be there as a last resort, not in any other case.

I think everyone has stockholm syndrome with regard to OS GUIs. Windows and OSX are both pretty awful when it comes to consistent and logical design cues.

It does. You just have to add the Command key.

Command-Shift-Delete empties the trash, finalizing the action.

Add Option to the mix, and it won't ask you to confirm the action.

'Enter' to rename is pretty insane also

As if F2 is any saner.

The whole point of cross-platform tools is that they run on multiple platforms. One of the platforms they likely run on is the Mac.

I don't understand the question. How is using a PC more "cross-platform"? If anything, Mac users are a big driving force behind cross-platform initiatives.

If you wanna get cross-platformy, Mac is the only system where you can run and virtualise every OS. It's a web dev's dream.

What do you mean? You can "virtualise every OS" on other platforms as well.

You cannot legally run OS X on anything other than Apple hardware. This gets really annoying when you want to set up a headless browser testing cluster because you can't virtualize any of the Mac OS's you might be targeting.

Well, you can set up some headless mac minis and run a variety of virtualized OS X instances on them.

I personally don't see the advantage of using other hardware, Apple hardware is a better value to me. (I value reliability over lower initial price, and I don't find generic PC components to be cheaper for the same thing, nor to have adequate reliability. )

That's pretty much what I've done when I needed to, don't get me wrong, I like Apple laptops and will be replacing my recently stolen Macbook Pro as soon as my budget allows; but being unable to launch an OS X vm is an inconvenience at times, and a completely unnecessary limitation.

Should also mention that the Mac visualizer them so damn slow. Cause yeah Ive a 2011 high end mac. And Vmware, parallels or vbox, they're all slower than on Windows and Linux Figures.

I'm virtualizing OSX on PCs, I don't care that Apple put a virtual limitation saying "you've no right to do that! its our software!".

It's just as broken as software patents. I pay for it, I use it as a please. Sue me.

Funny than when it comes from Apple its ok and good reason to buy a Mac tho. Imagine if Microsoft did that? Really, just imagine it one second and how bad you'd hate them.

Humans.

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