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Nibodh Daware
Nibodh Daware

Posted on • Edited on

Why Most Programmers Prefer Mac or Linux Over Windows?

Greetings again!! in the last post I said I am going to start a new series of posts where I will teach all the basics of code where I will teach all the basic "ABC's" of code like variables, functions, constants, etc... Yeah, we are not gonna do it. reason being:

  1. I got a better idea for this idea (This sentence already makes me laugh 😆) and...
  2. I got writer's block while writing "variables in 5 different programming languages" and got this idea so I wrote this one. so I don't think "ABC's of code" will be happening any time soon...

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by the way, the image says it all...

So why exactly do programmers prefer Mac's or Linux's(??) over Windows


I personally own a Mac and it's been a few months since I got it and also have been a Windows user for 5 years before the Mac switch so I can say I have used both extensively. To get it straight I love MacOS will do anything to choose it over Windows laptops and will go over everything I love about it (and maybe some to hate but that's highly unlikely as those things are mostly related to gaming and college).

Things I love

The Terminal


The terminal is the best thing that ever happened to the coding community

The terminal opened so many possibilities for which we had to rely on third-party tools like vim editor which we can use in place of Visual Studio Code or Sublime or Atom or some million other code editors out there. It also eliminated the use of GUI applications most of the time in a good way, it reduced the time to load the app than just writing a command to do the same work. and it is really one of my favourite utilities on mac as it is nearly everything in one place. And also did I mention that you can manipulate some system commands in Mac and Linux which windows can never imagine.

Being Unix


around 67% of the world is being powered by Unix.

What is Unix?

Unix is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research centre by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others (yes, about the same guys who cursed the world with c, of course, kidding). Basically, Unix is a family (or architecture) (and believe It when I say it, this family is way bigger than anybody can ever imagine) of Operating Systems that includes more types or "casts"(am I in the wrong field) of OSs like macOS and Linux(yes android is a Linux operating system so it is included under Unix). And here it gets weird as Windows is made on the architecture which is called Linux but is not Linux and it all gets weird from there. And did I said that 67% of the world is powered by Unix as most of the website servers like this one uses is Linux.

so, without throwing more technical jargon here programmers prefer Unix architecture over the other one as it is more efficient and easy to use. BTW, it is the same reason most games are not available on macOS or Linux and developers think Windows is better to write games for.

The "Apple" Developer


Apple only allows devs to write apps for their OS on mac only

That says it all.

Things I don't like

The Games

it's Unix remember?

As I previously mentioned Unix is efficient for programs and productivity and stuff but it doesn't support games as Windows concentrated on games from the start. That's what felt laggy to me (not like I am an extreme gamer or something this guy hasn't played anything except Minecraft since last year). Anyways there's that.

College

Why do colleges use software that are not cross platform

As I am a college student I have to use Windows almost on a daily basis. Having to switch back and forth from Windows and macOS although it's fast I am into Windows up and running in under 5 minutes (that's why I praise macs, windows works better on Mac hardware than hardware made for Windows)

Conclusion

Summarizing....

I love macs and you might not looking at the prices but if you want smoothness of the fluid OS of macs you would need to spend more than macs and its better off you get a Mac. It might seem like I am biased over Apple products but Linux is also an option being a programmer you would need to know all the OSs as you can't tell what the future will hold and you may be forced to use another OS.

Top comments (2)

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jayjeckel profile image
Jay Jeckel

The idea that programmers choose Apple products is a modern myth that seems to have come from India or Asia. This myth can be disproved by looking at any study done of the topic. The fact is, most programmers and users use Windows, not Mac. Even as far as programmers and developers go, most use Windows, not Mac, and more use Linux than Mac. If you look at trends, Windows is slipping, but it is Linux that is picking up that slack, not Mac.

You can like which ever OS you want, but programmers as a whole do not, have never, and will never choose Apple's overpriced walled garden over the freer and more open alternatives.

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thefluxapex profile image
Ian Pride • Edited

Utter non-sense. And no, I'm not a M$ fan boy, but I am a programmer meaning I master ALL OSes. You could be a web dev maybe, but you have a tremendous amount of things to learn before you're a programmer.