Why I switched to Mac
Joining the evil empire
A couple of the people reading this know me in real life and know I love Linux. For those who don’t know the back story here, I installed Linux on the first computer I got my hands on back when I was 13 (off of an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS CD I found in a library book) and never looked back. Over COVID I did all the distro hopping, eventually did the Arch-Gentoo-LFS rabbit hole, and even played with the BSDs and Plan9. But with college looming, I ditched the amazing world of Linux and bought a MacBook Pro.
Why? Well, it all started when I ditched Android. At the time I had no real beef with Android, but it was right after the iPhone SE 2 came out and it was simply the best value and I needed to replace my Galaxy S5. Once I got my hands on it I loved it. It was faster, had a better battery, and just worked. I only recently got rid of it in favor of an iPhone 13 and all in all was a great phone that is going to get way more life (I passed it on to my little brother) and be way more usable than even a flagship Android.
Now plenty of people use the iPhone and Linux and I did for about 2 years, so let’s talk about what really started to push me over the edge.
First was my iPad. Right before my Junior year of High School, I purchased an iPad Air and Apple Pencil as a way to better take notes and mark up assignments. Right away that iPad was my new favorite thing. I was doing almost all my schoolwork, most of my web browsing, and tons of movie-watching on it. It became my second computer, to the point that if I wasn’t coding or doing something that needed a full-fat computer I was using my iPad (and sometimes even just SSHing into my Linux machine from the iPad). Even now, 2 years later, I love that device and I use it all the time every day.
Now with the iPhone, iPad, and the AirPods I got for Christmas, my Linux machine felt like the odd one out. It was the one thing I could AirDrop too, copy and paste between, and run all my apps on. Now this was hardly crippling but as the year went on I started really eyeing the MacBook as my college device and when I graduated and finally was looking at a computer the integration with my current devices would’ve probably alone been enough to sell me on it, but there where two more big things that made it the best choice for me.
First of all, it’s UNIX. For some of the stuff at my school, I need Mac or Windows and I can’t stand Windows. For my day-to-day projects and the way I use my computer, I need a UNIX machine and Mac is that option. For a while, I thought about getting a laptop that could run a Windows VM within Linux, but at some point, it’s not worth it and a Mac is one Unix machine that can do everything I need it to without VMs.
Secondly the value. Just a couple of years ago saying Macs are the best value for performance would get you laughed out of a room, now it’s a reality. A Mac is the best laptop for the money by the numbers and that's not something I can ignore. Source for the number on the MacBook pro in case you haven’t seen ‘em: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/macbook-pro-14-inch-2023
So between integration with my existing devices, a solid operating system, and they’re fast. So I chose a Mac. I still love Linux, I still have my old machine and I remote into it when Debian just works better. But for my everyday desktop and view of the virtual world, a 14-inch MacBook is the best option for me. I miss Linux, I really do, but until it can offer this level of desktop experience I’ve gotta air on the side of pragmatism.
Happy hacking!