Comment by rbanffy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rbanffy | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I am sorry, but nothing beats needing MySQL, PostgreSQL, some Emacs thingie or a splittable terminal and being able to instantly issue a "sudo aptitude install" on a terminal and have everything taken care for you.

Some developers adapt to OSX, but, if you read TFA, you'll realize this is not a cross section of the hard-core hacker types: 80% of the sample prefers Windows.

OSX is quite acceptable in roles traditionally reserved to Windows PCs in the corporate world. It runs Office, Outlook, talks nicely to Exchange and runs Eclipse just fine. Many corporate Java developers (a bunch that traditionally used Windows) can use Macs for work and enjoy some advantages in relation to those who use Windows.

You may argue that Linux is not as polished a Unix as OSX (I disagree, but smart people believe it), but no serious hacker thinks Windows is acceptable for development unless they are also targeting Windows for deployment.

I use Linux from 1997 and OSX from 2005.

Indeed installing mysql on ubuntu is simpler and faster then on OSX. But installing major packages only happens that often.

What happens much more often is having to constantly fiddling with your Linux machine for it to continue working flawlessly. Upgrades tend to break things, external devices not being supported, etc, etc, etc. You need to constantly invest time in keeping it going. Much less so on OSX.

For me OSX is a Unix that just works and has a beautiful GUI.

It's not just major packages: minor things like screen, tree, zsh, libraries, tools, extras and plugins. I don't care how often I have to install stuff, the hassle OSX causes for that is not worth the beautiful GUI that still doesn't maximize windows properly. Anything complicated is painful on a Mac and I do complicated stuff everyday.

And it's more likely your fiddling is breaking your Linux box than the other way around. Either that or 1995 wants its Linux back.

Note that many casual users do not know that shift click to maximize will "properly" maximize many, but not all, OS X apps.

> many, but not all, OS X apps

I rest my case

And the "fullscreen" button in the top right will "properly" maximize every app that sports it.

And it only took them what? 24 years? The not-quite-maximize buttons were introduced on System 5. I may be wrong, but I believe NeXT did that right.

>constantly fiddling with your Linux machine for it to continue working flawlessly. Upgrades tend to break things,

Eh? I've run Slackware for years and it works fine, including upgrades. No fiddling either.

Maybe you're thinking of Ubuntu and extrapolating that to all Linuxes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com