Why do you use Apple products?

I think your questionnaire is from Apple hater perspective, it feels like propaganda. Questions are written from the perspective that appears to be "You actually want to get away from Apple but you are stuck or you don't know better" and that's not the case for me. You Ask me if I find Apple software restrictive and put a paragraph explaining to me why it is restrictive for example.

Anyway, IMHO you should simply accept that a lot of people simply have better things to do in life than fine tuning and managing computers. That's why no one of those care about the customisation options of Linux or Android. In fact, most people don't like computers and Apple is the best company out there that manages to make computers that don't feel like computers but tools to achieve your greater objectives.

Cooks may appreciate good knives but their main objective is to make great food and no good cook will be obsessing with the knives more than with the food they cook. They will be most happy with having one reliable knife that cuts good enough than having a set of knives perfectly tuned for every ingredient.

You can see the same pattern in photography, people who are good at taking good photos don't obsess over the photography gear as much as photo gadget nerds who never take good photos and writers don't obsess over pens as much as pen enthusiast.

Mainly because I get paid to solve business problems with my devices as tools. I don't get paid to futz around with Linux, and my clients don't want to hear about why I can't use their document formats or get audio to work on a conference call.

Any time I spend futzing with my tools or solving incompatibilities amounts to unbillable hours.

I manage a bunch of Linux cloud servers. With no GUI or device driver issues Linux works great. I have used Unix since it came out (yes, that old) so it isn't as if I don't get the command line or can't figure things out. But to make a living I need a car that starts every morning, not a garage project.

I used Windows and Android for years but eventually abandoned those platforms because of malware and cross-vendor issues that I don't get with Apple. And my Apple hardware almost never breaks down -- I had a MacBook Air blow up once because of a bad power outlet in Thailand, but other than that it all just reliably works.

The company I work for absolutely must have everyone using it as it's supposed to be much safer to Windows. So I had to spend over $2k for a stupid laptop that won't even run half the apps without hacks like Rosetta. I also hate that there are 3 special keys and command and ctrl are separated.

I am myself a Linux user and using a Mac makes me appreciate Linux so much more. It could be the #1 reason I want to start my own business so I don't have to use a Mac anymore.

Point me to a laptop that goes to sleep properly when I close the lid and wakes up properly when I open it, every time, and I'll try switching, again.

There is simply no other major manufacturer that makes hardware to a comparable quality level. I’ve looked at them all and nothing holds up as well as Macs. Case in point: I have an old 2015 11” MacBook Air that still works completely fine.

On a personal note, my parents ran a Windows consulting/repair business when I was a kid. The sheer abundance and frequency of problems with Windows pretty much funded my childhood, so I grew up with a very negative view of everything to do with Windows and Microsoft. I imagine that people who remember the “old” Microsoft of the 90s also have a similar view, before Gates went on his PR campaign and they finally appointed a competent successor in Nadella.

Ergo I have been using Macs since my early 20s, and for the most part I’ve been happy with them. Although I do think they’ve lost a bit of their magic since Jobs died.

Linux seems interesting and I’d like to set up a cyberdeck running it at some point, but I simply don’t have the time or inclination to do so right now. Sometimes you just need your tools to work.

If you wanted a unix-y laptop for non-silly money with working wifi and battery life measured in the hours in 2004, the G4 iBook was really the only game in town (cheaper PC laptops were available, but their power control barely worked on Windows, nevermind Linux, and they tended to use softmodems and cheapo wifi interfaces with no usable Linux drivers - laptops which worked well with Linux existed but were extremely expensive). From there, mostly habit (I suspect that laptop hooked a _lot_ of nerds; you used to see them all over the place).

Nothing I've seen about modern Windows makes me at all inclined to use it (my one experience actually attempting to use it in the last decade to test something was extremely painful, though it was in a VM, so maybe it just doesn't really work on VMs) and I'm extremely glad to have missed out on the whole Wayland debate on the Linux side.

I've been a Windows user since Win 3.1 and until Win 11. My phones have all been Android, and I can't stand the iPhone UX. Yet, when time came last year to replace my dead Intel-based laptop, I went with an M1 Pro and never looked back. Objectively, M-series laptops are the best ones and nothing else comes close. The combination of power capacity, capability, and form factor are just unbeatable - and I'm basing this on a device two generations behind. Got it refurbished (barely any prior use, looks new, still under warranty), so price was quite acceptable as well.

I prefer iPhones because Apple products are like automatic transmission: they just work.

However, I prefer (Windows) PC's because they are like manual transmission: I have more control. Of course, PC's seem to be more cost-effective (for a personal machine for someone who likes tinkering with computers). There seem to be more software options, too. There are a few MacOS programs I wish I could use though, like: TaskPaper and nvAlt.

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One of my friends wanted to use Linux for work, but had to use MacOS because it was impossible to get audio/video working for video chat. (I heard Linux audio/video support has gotten better recently.)

Apple products "just working" might be another reason they are popular tech worker daily drivers (although I've heard it's gone downhill recently). The extra cost may be justified by the time saved not having to fiddle with your laptop to get it working.

A tech worker probably costs more than $100/hr, so you would reach positive ROI within a few hours of not messing with the laptop.

I use a Linux box for my personal development projects, but use a Mac for work and my own MBA around the house. I also own an iPhone and Apple Watch as well.

As others stated, these things just do what they claim to do on the tin. If you want to tinker, then futz around with Linux. If you don’t want to worry about your OS too much, a Mac will do fine for most use cases.

I’d love to see anyone in this thread suggest some laptops with similar specs and build quality to the current gen offerings from Apple, especially devices that run Linux or a BSD.

Same with iPhones: is there any Android phone that approaches the lifespan of the iPhone?

Both devices should be brand new and supported with updates and warranty. I don’t want a used ThinkPad.

When I was 14 I enjoyed spending an evening installing NVIDIA drivers. I'm 32 now and spend my nights changing diapers.

When I go to use my laptop these days, the last thing I want to do is deal with system admin, I just want to work or play.

I use Apple products because they are complements to my other devices. I have a mac mini as well but that doesn't stop me from having other windows and Linux workstations. I do have an iPhone SE that I like very much and the Air pods Pro gen 2 that I love. Really I use Apple products because I don't want to think about if something will be of good enough quality or not. I'm not picky and don't care for perfection, I sometimes just want something that "just werks" and when it comes to my phone and earbuds and a budget desktop (the base model mac mini), Apple does it wonderfully.

Some of your question doesn’t make sense to me. It feels like you’re comparing apples to oranges. At work I use MBP for my laptop and Linux on our servers. To me, there’s no contradiction there. I could’ve chose Linux on the laptop if I wanted to, but in my opinion Linux is best for servers and macOS is best for personal computing. To me, that’s the best of two worlds. They serve different purposes.

One question asked if I’ve tried to switch away from Apple. It’s the other way round. I used Linux (and Windows) for years before I switched to Mac. Haven’t looked back.

Others may have different preferences, I don’t mind that.

> and an anti-Apple advocate of even longer

Do something more productive with your time…

Not all people enjoy the same thing. I love my iPhone and my MacBook Pro for tons of reason, but someone "anti-Apple" will never listen to me in good faith. You don’t like and don’t want to use Apple products, that’s more than fine. Just don’t be a dick about it, it doesn’t make you superior and doesn’t mean people who use Apple products are dumb because they don’t see how they’re inferior to XYZ. It just means we have different criteria and priorities, which is fine.

I am a linux user too, but if I try to do certain tasks with my linux workstation I lose an enormous amount of time, and the software is just not at the level where it needs to be to carry out those tasks. Just as a simple example, libreoffice is nowhere near what it needs to be.

I love linux and I like it for software development in the business I am operating in. I just don't have the time to screw around trying to get something working when my Mac just does it better and faster and with less stress.

I use Linux on my home and work computers (I'm the tech person at a small government entity and no one cares what OS I use) by choice and preference, and iOS because this iPhone XR (from 2018, I think?) was a hand me down from a friend who likes to buy new phones. I used to use Android phones, and prefer them because of F-Droid and ease of connecting to my computer. The software iFuse on Linux has been indispensable. I'm mostly disillusioned with these machines.

I got an iPhone 13 Pro because it had lidar, which never caught on with Android devices. It's got a great camera and the lidar was pretty fun. It's also way more durable than my OnePlus or Samsung phones have been. The software drives me up the wall though, so I use the old Android as much as its declining battery life allows.

I don't trust Apple anymore. Transitioning out. The thumb scans, then face scans, and then making Little Snitch not fully effective, and now they make their own chips so zero accountability as to what kind of functions are in those chips in a world with satellite internet.

it's all down to iMessage. I don't know where I'd be if it were available elsewhere, but that's whats got me stuck in to the Apple ecosystem. I do like that stuff works without futzing a lot though. I use my Apple TV as an external monitor to my laptop way more than I ever thought I would. that's a feature that I didn't know I wanted.

Link is https://forms.gle/CVcWNRiEoM8Cdn5U8

“Stuff just works” for 99%+ of what I do daily, including HN, photos and music scores.

When I start coding again, the old hardware will get Linux and OpenBSD for networking. The old MacBook Air still works after over 14 years (?) and maybe the Mac cube as well, but I am not a history buff.

I just loaded Trunk Notes, a 14 year old Wiki app, onto the brand new phone, and it runs.

I have versions of Unix shell and Jupyter Notebooks running on iOS, FWIW, no sideloading or jailbreak needed.

Forced to use because of work.

All my personal business is conducted on Linux. I use the Tuxedo Computers AMD laptop.

Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them, generally.

I have preferred the "Classic" Macintosh in the early 1990s because it tried to provide a coherent design across the entire system.

This even extended to file shortcuts: in the Finder I could "Create Shortcut" to a file on a remote AppleTalk file server. I could put that shortcut on a floppy by dragging its icon to the floppy icon. Eject the floppy, hand that to someone, who could go back to their office on the other side of campus, insert the floppy, open the Shortcut file, and the Mac would get the file from the file server, download it, and get to work.

If I needed to move the file on the file server to a new location for a whatever reason, any shortcuts to the file would still work.

These days, we just do this in seconds with a web link. But back then, compared to NDIS networking on DOS-based clients, it was a game-changer.

The PC quickly developed sophisticated networking by throwing money at the servers. Prices could get way up there, particularly when you factored in licenses for each client that could connect.

Although the Macs were more expensive than single user desktop PCs, the Mac ad-hoc, peer networking was just built into the base system.

I could go on about how this tended to play out in many different areas of functionality. Adding a new video card? Turn off Mac. Insert card. Turn on Mac. Done.

Yes, we would argue endlessly about the devilish details that we dealt with on a daily basis. And again, as the corporate networks continued to mature, the Mac as a client was often sidelined.

Mac replaced by cheaper desktop PCs and very expensive network right about the time that the web development took off and disrupted the industry again.

Classic Mac cratered, just to be replaced by my favorite system of all time, the same attempt at whole-system design on top of a mass-market UNIX.

I had more fun productive work building and supporting these network systems. When Windows NT shipped with the modern Win95 GUI toolkit, NT's deep support of every network protocol, and device drivers for just about every x86 bit of hardware, and NT's very strong kernel implementation was made to work. Unified security model. Group Policies. Active Directory wiped out my little toy networks.

Books were written. All that history is now but a distant legend, lost to the mists of the Y2K bug that destroyed human civilization. Now that we seem to be winning against the Terminators and H-Ks, we can perhaps entertain the dream that our children's children will someday step out into the light of a brand new day, the GNU Manifesto in one hand, and in the other, John Perry Barlow's writ of sovereignty for all data, everywhere, forever free.

Short answer: because developers behind the products (with some exceptions) do care.

About end users.

Long answer: when you live and work as a developer long enough, you don’t need long answers anymore.

I couldn’t fill out your survey as the questions were written with far too much of your own bias against Apple. I think any conclusions you draw will be skewed as a result.

I was raised in a house where we were told Apple was an inferior computer and PCs were the only way to go. Not far from your current view. Eventually I grew up and gave them a chance out of boredom and frustration, and I liked them more than Windows or Linux at the time (this was back in 2003). My dad, who raised me to hate Apple, is now using 100% Apple products after he actually saw them and how they work first hand, and got burned several times by PCs. I never thought I’d see the day.

Use what you like, let other people use what they like. If you’re curious, learn about it, but do it with an open mind. I don’t feel like you’re doing that currently.

For me, during those early years, it was exiting to see Apple go from an extreme underdog position and fight its way back. It seemed like every year there was a big OS release that brought a ton of features that changed the way I used the system (Spotlight, QuickLook, etc), something I never experienced at the same level with Windows or Linux. The way different devices worked together was also something I hadn’t before experienced at that level. The iPod syncing with iTunes. Using iSync to get my contracts on my flip phone. It was all seamless. When the iPhone came out, that’s all went a step further and it has made my life much easier. Playing sys admin for my personal computer used to be a bit of a hobby, and the Mac allowed me to do other things, which was really nice as I entered the industry, since I don’t want to play sys admin in my free time anymore.

And while it may sound a bit ridiculous to an anti-Apple advocate, and I risk sounded like a fanboy, Apple (more specifically Jony Ive and Steve Jobs) changed the way I look at many things in the world and how I evaluate problems. Before I went down the Apple rabbit hole I always used to think about what else I can do or have. I had a Thinkpad with a couple USB hubs and every port was full and I wanted more. When I’d get a gift card I’d look for how many things I could get, it didn’t really matter what I wanted or needed, it was about quantity. When I got the Mac, all my stuff didn’t work with it and I had to be more selective… and it was ok. I realized I didn’t need all that stuff and I could be happy by wanting less, and that 1 great thing is better than a lot of not so great things. Then in one of Jony Ive’s videos for a product release he said something to the effect of, “there is nothing we can take away to make it any better.” This blew my mind. My whole life I believed making something better was an additive process. That one line flipped my world upside down, addition through subtraction. So many times at work, even today, when a problem comes up and everyone is looking for what they can add to fix it, I’m looking for what to remove that eliminates the problem all together. This makes problems go away and processes more simple, instead of adding complexity until things collapse. I have Apple to thank for this shift in thinking and will be forever grateful for that. Later I found the quote, “perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away,” which sums it up nicely. You can call some of this a kind of Apple Stockholm syndrome if you wish, but I learned a lesson some people spend a lifetime trying to learn, that it’s easier to achieve happiness by wanting less than by trying to obtain the world.

All that said, if you drop a Windows or Linux system in front of me, I can still use them and get my job done without a problem. I just like my workflow better on a Mac.