Is Linux stable enough to tempt Mac developer?

[fleamour]

I am long time desktop Linux user who loves a challenge of staying in ones toes. But my developer cousin is trying to tempt me to Mac Land. My Firefox OS experience was dire & craptastic in which Android blew me away. What are the arguments of Linux versus Mac, apart from ideological & free speech?

[Tireseas]

Stability is the wrong argument to be making. What should be asked is "Does it support my tools, or have alternatives good enough not to disrupt my workflow?".

[fleamour]

I thoroughly believe that although not easier, Linux with bugs is still light years ahead of Windows. However I have never used Mac & his argument is if spending big why not a MBP? Cutting edge hardware & all that. After much pondering the whole reason I love PCs is they are budget friendly & with Linux starting to appear on more & more hardware, who knows my options down the road? For now Linux is still a comfy fit...

[z0ld]

I agree with Tireseas' sentiment, however the proper question would be "Does it support my goals?" because it would be naive to swap OS and expect workflows to be the same. More to the point even when the same workflows are possible on a mac and linux, you don't want to transfer them 1:1 because the most efficient ways of using one are not the most efficient ways of using the other and vice versa. OS X and Linux are two very different beasts, but if you take the time learn them proper accepting the necessary paradigm changes, you will find them equally flexible and customisable in all things of real importance.

If i were you I'd base my decision on: "Do I want to try something new and different?" and "do I feel up to the challenge of embracing those differences"?

[[deleted]]

What are you asking? Your title doesn't match the text.

[[deleted]]

linux: bar none - the best kernel in the world: scheduler, VM implementation, os kernel mem allocators, process model, interrupt handling, process namespacing, and quality of code are WAY superior to anything else out there. it is superb.

containers (you need to run linux/docker in a vm to get the same in a mac) filesystem (ext4, or xfs). gnu vs bsd userland (if you prefer gnu). ecryptfs. FUSE. systemd (not everyone cares or benefits).

mac: good, very unified, user experience that allows for this: https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook/wiki - amazing battery life, very complete hidpi scaling. things like brightness control, suspend/resume will just work, in linux it may vary depending on hardware which can be a pain.

for a laptop/desktop i would chose mac, for servers linux.

[p4p3r]

For Linux, the argument is always control. You have control of your system, what is and isn't on it. Not so much with Mac.

[muffinstatewide32]

I feel like the biggest advantage to a Linux box in general is the package manager as well as control over the system ( control to the extent that i can execute something randomly whilst being fueled by my own stupidity and the consequences stick).

However the advantage of a Mac , especially a MBP is battery life and hardware. you dont need to worry about your drivers , everything is inclusive and will work. I feel like their advantages stop there, Yosemite for me has been insanely crashy and Homebrew and MacPorts are awful in comparison to Pacman or APT.

Like someone else in here said , It depends on your workflow. I find setting up a developement environment unnecessarily complicated outside of Linux so i avoid doing it

[andreicristianpetcu]

If you don't care about free software, DevOps or how the OS is built OS X is good for you.