I got a MacBook Air last year because Apple Silicon is insanely good. I never have to worry about battery life. I was working on an android app at the time, and Android Studio ran so much better on that thing than it did on my 11 gen intel DPS 15. Build times were almost instant, and unlike the XPS, the battery life was well more than I needed in a day. The XPS I would close everything and could squeeze out about 3 hours, and it was hot on my lap. Got my boss to buy me an M3 Max MBP for work, I’m truly a convert, can’t see myself ever going back unless windows laptops can leapfrog Apple in terms of performance and battery life. And for the Linux crowd, much of my work takes place in a Linux VM and it’s great, build times are noticeably faster than the WSL2 environment I used on the XPS.
Since then I’ve bought the rest of the Apple ecosystem. Like, other than a Vision Pro and HomePods, I’ve got them all. Started with an iPhone simply because it was phone upgrade time, the iPhone 15 series was about to come out with USB C, figured I’d give it a try since it would sync up all the stuff really well with my Mac. Figured I’d try the watch too, I kinda like it (got the magnetic link band for Christmas too, it’s an awesome fidget toy you can wear on your wrist).
My Sony WF-1000xm4 battery died in one of the buds. Now, even though they’re out of warranty I’m pretty sure Sony would replace them, but I figured since I’m increasingly all in on the Apple ecosystem, I’d try the AirPods Pro with their new USB C case. My review: they’re not the best earbuds for noise cancelling, but they’re serviceable, the sound quality is pretty good (I switched to Apple Music at the same time, they encode their music with noticeably higher quality than Spotify, so that’s an important factor here). The real magic though: I stick them in my ears, and then they just follow me to whatever device I’m using. Listening to a podcast while cooking and cleaning, then sit down to do some work, pause my phone, they connect right to the Mac. Get up, grab the iPad to go lay down in bed, the switch automatically. Best thing I’ve ever used in that regard, and they’re quick. Highly recommend if you have many apple devices.
Most recently I bought one of the new M4 iPad Pros. My review isn’t quite as rosy here, don’t buy this thing unless you really want to piss away money. Like, I enjoy playing around with the Apple Pencil and all, but really it says more about my financial discipline than the usefulness of the device. I am hoping to contribute better iPad support to some open source iOS apps. Also bought an Apple TV because my partner was ready to destroy the HiSense google tv we have because its interface is slow and unresponsive, and the audio and video would desync all the time. Crossy road on the TV is amusing.
So that was long, but that’s how I went from no Apple products to all Apple products in a year, save for my gaming desktop which is running windows solely for the reason that it has the best games compatibility and I don’t want to have to spend any more time babysitting it than I have to. RX 5800x3d, 64 GB RAM, 3080ti. It ultimately came down to Apple silicon being the best thing to ever happen to laptops, Apple switching to USB C, and optimism that governments are going to force them to open up the ecosystem a bit more.
I’m currently avoiding silicon until more apps are compiled to work on them. My last bad experience with this was trying to run virtualbox on the host and ununtu as a guest, and it ran slow as crap because some part of virtualbox wasn’t ready for silicon yet.
Disclaimer: I generally avoid Apple like the plague, my comment and experience are specific to a job that really wanted me to use a macbook in my role as a Linux systems admin. My specific complaint may well have been adressed literally years ago by now.
I don’t
You first.
Privacy, security, reliability, creative focused design, powerful hardware and software, great customer support, ease of use from GUI to Terminal (zsh and bash)
Because I don’t use it
Because they’re not Google.
And dog shit isn’t cat shit but I still won’t eat that.
In this day and age you’re forced to pick either; choose.
Cope
Lmao
Nah.
I have:
- Pixel phone with GrapheneOS and no Google apps (yes, the Pixel is from Google, the irony isn’t lost on me); old phone was Motorola; hope my next phone is a Linux phone
- ThinkPad laptop running Linux
- custom Linux desktop
- Tuta for email
- DDG for search
The only Google stuff I use is Drive and maps, and I’m actively replacing drive with NextCloud.
There are more options, you can avoid Microsoft, Google, and Apple. Whether you want to is a separate issue.
Having been a Mac user since the late 80s I don’t like Apple per se, but the design ethos that seems to leak into other applications. This Ars Technica review from 2004 is a great example
This is an example of the best kind of peer pressure. There is simply a “climate of excellence” on the Mac platform. Any developer that does not live up to community standards is looked down upon, or even shunned. Commercial, open source, freeware, shareware, it doesn’t matter: pay attention to detail, or else.
This has definitely changed since the iPhone became their biggest product, but it still has a more polished feel than competitors.
I don’t like Apple but I’m forced to admit that the iPhone my employer is forcing me to use and my wife’s 2012 MacBook Pro are good machines.
The MacBook runs Linux like a charm and is making me consider old MacBooks for my next Linux laptop.
I’m also looking forward to testing iOS 18.
ThinkPads are probably better for Linux because they tend to use Linux-friendly hardware. However, Lenovo has been making some pretty stupid choices recently (e.g. removing your rights if you flash different firmware on their phones), so I can only speak to their older devices. I still have an E495 that’s been working great with Linux since I bought it, and I would probably still have my old T440 if my kids didn’t pour a ton of water on it.
That said, Apple devices are generally pretty decent, provided you don’t need to repair them. If you do need to repair them, you’re in for an expensive surprise, and several models have had nasty design flaws (esp on Mscbook Pros w/ display ribbon cable and butterfly keyboards).
I personality don’t like Apple laptops (have a 2019 Macbook Pro for work and prefer my personal E495), but a lot of people do, and they’re not the worst way to go. Just be careful with the M-series chips if Linux is your goal because support is still early days on that CPU.
Their chip design is pretty good and they have the cash to buy up most of TSMC’s best production
I like it when I use Ableton Live.
I can load any of my projects and everything is running exactly how I left it. Any issues I’ve had have been down to 3rd party plugins.
I’m fortunate in that this is the only thing I use my MBP for, other than accessing music stuff on the internet using Firefox with uBlock, which is synced with my phone.
It’s not logged into Apple ID, and I bought it used. So there’s no money paid to Apple and as little data as I can give them.
It’s my hobby, but if I were to do it professionally I would do everything exactly the same. Except I would buy the machine new.
The title implies eveyone would have at least 1 reason to like Apple.
I don’t.
No, it’s asking people who like Apple why they do. Not all questions need answers from everyone.
We don’t control macOS, iOS, anti-libre software (it fails to include a libre software license text file, like AGPL), so it’s never private, secure or reliable. A great example of dangers to avoid. That’s why I like it. 🚩
Because windows is not preinstalled
Because they are great in pies that you can have for dessert with some ice cream or a glass of milk.
I will give apple credit, if you drink the kool aid and full send into their ecosystem? Their product line is almost unmatched.
But it all only works in exactly the way apple intended- so it really limits what you can do with such expensive pieces of equipment.
