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Personally I think this is just a phase triggered by those that actually aren't developers invested into Apple, rather people that want UNIX with a pretty GUI.



I think the emphasis including that in the article on pretty is a fundamental misunderstanding of why developers like macOS.

For me and a lot of others what I really want is a UNIX that just works.

Meaning it just works with its hardware in all ways... audio and video playing, recording, editing and everything else all work very well, without having to recompile the kernel or hunt down and install alpha drivers without source hosted on sketchy sites, which is what drove me away from other UNIXes.

Also macOS is a good platform for developing native iOS apps. Why iOS and not Android? Mostly because the version adoption curve of Android is pretty bad.

The point is it's more about functionality and getting stuff done than it is about pretty. With other UNIXes there was always too much fighting with the system.


The single thing that keeps me with macOS is a universal key that is truly universal. Apps on mac are built around the command key. The windows key and the linux super key don't have anywhere near the consistency across applications that the command key does. `cmd + shift + [` flips through tabs in every application I have. In linux, it works only if I set up the keys for that application, and only if that application has the ability to set those keys. I spend more time in xkb config files than I do programming.


I had a very similar experience. I switched for the pretty fonts, and stayed for the key bindings. You can even add your own key bindings to (almost) any menu item in (almost) any Cocoa app using System Preferences. After I discovered that, I just dug in even more.


BetterTouchTool is also fantastic.


Yeah, everyone is over complicating the issue. Why is it so hard to understand that people want UNIX without the pain?

Unfortunately that doesn't exist apart from macOS right now.


Maybe because when I see people using UNIX systems in 2016, I can hardly see a difference with people using 21' monitors with Aix full with xterms in 1994, as if nothing has changed.




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