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Why Software Engineers Prefer MacBooks
2K views
Feb 6, 2024
"Why Software Engineers Prefer MacBooks" is an insightful video that explores the reasons behind the popularity of MacBooks among software engineers. The video likely discusses various factors such as the Unix-based operating system macOS, which offers a robust and developer-friendly environment for coding. It may also highlight the reliability, build quality, and sleek design of MacBooks, as well as their seamless integration with other Apple devices and software tools commonly used in software development. Additionally, the video might touch upon the availability of a wide range of developer-friendly applications and tools in the macOS ecosystem. By providing insights into the advantages of using MacBooks for software development, the video aims to help viewers understand why many software engineers prefer this platform for their work.
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0:00
In the 2021 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, nearly 83,000 people shared their preferences
0:05
on operating systems. Mac OS and Linux-based systems were neck and neck around 25% each, and Windows took the
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lead with 45.33%, down from 47.5% in the 2019 survey. If we focus on just those people who describe themselves as professional software developers
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Windows drops to 41.2%, and Mac OS edges out Linux with around 30%
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The survey is interesting because it reflects the views of nearly 58,000 self-proclaimed
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professional developers. Yet, based on my experience over the last 7 or 8 years or so working in large enterprise
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environments as a professional software engineer, it does not reflect the observations I have
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made working at these companies. Nearly every software engineer I've worked with has used a MacBook
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Two companies ago, there was a database engineer who chose to use a Lenovo ThinkPad
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The rest of us use Mac. At my last company, when we were hiring on, they asked us our preference of Windows or
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Mac, and I chose a Mac, along with pretty much everybody else that I associated with
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However, there was one DevOps engineer that I worked with, and also a Quality Assurance
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engineer who chose to go with a Windows. At my current company, I can't think of a single engineer or person that I've been working
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with that uses a Windows laptop. These are large companies, and I've worked with hundreds of software engineers, front-end
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back-end, full-stack. And even when I've been out interviewing at other companies, they have been using MacBook
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Pros, the exception being a small mom-and-pop shop that actually made software for Linux
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trainings and did some virtual machine work around the Linux operating system
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And at the JavaScript conferences that I've attended, nearly everyone is using a MacBook
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The dominance of Windows in the survey feels a little bit off to me. I'd be curious to know your personal observations, because it kind of feels like to me maybe
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there's a lot of these guys that are doing freelance work, maybe some of them might be exaggerating their experience as professionals, or maybe there are just some niches out there
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where there are a ton more people using Windows. That just hasn't been my experience
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So let me know in the comments below what you have seen at the places you have worked, and maybe even the type of company that you work for. Thanks
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Now for my unashamedly biased reasons for why... And now for my unab..
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And now for my unashamedly biased reasons for why professional software engineers prefer MacBooks
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Prior to becoming a software engineer, I had always used Windows laptops
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And in fact, even when I was learning how to code, I started on a Windows laptop
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I've also built a couple of really powerful custom PCs that were used for video editing
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for doing graphics, animation type stuff. They always start off really fast, but after several months of use, the performance starts
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to take a hit. And eventually I end up having to waste a lot of time reinstalling Windows and reinstalling
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all the applications I'd put on there. This even happened with my custom PCs that were dedicated specifically to video editing
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I mean, I put a very limited amount of software on them, and I did not use them for browsing
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I did not use them for gaming, I did not use them for anything other than video editing
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and yet I'd still end up having to reinstall Windows to get the performance boost again
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Compare that to Mac OS. I have never had to reinstall the operating system on any of my MacBooks due to system degradation
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The only sluggishness that I've experienced has been on my oldest MacBook Pro, which was
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all the way back from 2011, and is just showing signs of age as software has become more and
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more demanding, and it just does not have enough RAM to really handle things
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The MacBooks are just more stable and more reliable. Another reason software engineers use MacBooks is because it's easy to develop applications
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for just about anything. Do you want to develop an app on Mac OS, or what about iOS, or tvOS, or watchOS
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Well, you're going to need Xcode, and that's only going to be available for you on a Mac
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What about Android apps, or apps for other operating systems? Well, it's easy enough to run a VM on a MacBook and develop for any of those environments
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However, if you're going to go down the path of developing for iOS on a Windows machine
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then you're probably going to end up having to build in Hackintosh, and then you're dealing with all the finicky maintenance of that, licensing issues, and at that point you're
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basically trying to build a Mac, so you might as well just go buy a MacBook
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Another reason I use MacBook is because the Apple ecosystem just plays nicely together
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I can easily share files across my different devices, and with Sidecar, I can use my iPad
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as a second monitor to my laptop. I can even do cool things like use my iPad as a drawing tablet for design work, or even
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for whiteboarding. Some people complain about the restrictiveness of the App Store and being able to get applications
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into this ecosystem, and that's something that I actually appreciate, because I feel
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like applications available to a MacBook or to an Apple device tend to be at a higher
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threshold for quality and user experience compared to a ton of the apps for Android
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and some of the other operating systems can feel just old, clunkish, and just very janky
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The Mac ecosystem tends to be better when it comes to usability and aesthetics
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Out of the box, I like the terminal in macOS better. The one that comes default in Windows just bites, and yes, you can go install others
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that's great, but I just don't want to be tinkering around with that. I mean, I like to mess around and fiddle around with applications that I'm actually
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building, but I personally am not someone that just wants to really dive into the operating
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system and do a ton of customizations and installing a bunch of additional tools and
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apps and everything to get my environment running if I don't have to, especially if
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six months down the road I'm going to have to reinstall the operating system and do that
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whole thing all over again. Windows is probably going to be more customizable, so if you enjoy tinkering with kernels, more
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power to you. If I wanted ultimate flexibility, then I'd actually look at going down the Linux path
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There's a lot of strong arguments for going down that path, and I even tried it once
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and there's a lot to like. It's just, for me personally, I have a lot of software that I really like to use around
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like video editing, photo stuff, that just is not available in the Linux
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Several of the Windows laptops have been taking on more and more of the Mac aesthetic, which
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is really cool because they're starting to look better than the old clunky bricks that
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they used to be. But one thing that they have not been able to master is the keyboard and the trackpad
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Keyboards are starting to get better. There are some pretty decent ones out there, but I still like the Magic Keyboard on the
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MacBooks, but I especially like the trackpad on the MacBooks because, I mean, just nothing
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competes to them out there. All of the other trackpads that I have ever used have just really kind of felt awful to
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use or the performance just was mediocre, whereas the Magic Trackpad is just super fluid
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and is very refined. Then there's connectivity issues. Specs don't matter if you aren't even able to get around to writing code
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Aside from the early problems with the M1 MacBook Pro connecting to the Magic Mouse that
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was fixed with an update, I have not had any other connectivity issues with any of my MacBooks
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but when it's come to the Windows machines, I have constantly had problems with Bluetooth
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dropping connections or losing connections to external hard drives and to my NAS, sometimes
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in the middle of a really long render or while I'm doing a build that just completely kills
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everything that I'm working on. With Windows, I feel like I have to lean more heavily on wireless dongles to have reliable
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connectivity over the Bluetooth, and I just don't like this because that ties up ports
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that I would like to use for other things like my external monitor or external hard
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drives and sometimes forces me to have to use a hub for those other peripherals
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I know they're super expensive and Apple definitely loves to price gouge, but I'm in a place in
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life now where I just am not feeling the Windows love anymore and I think it's worth it to
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take the time to save up in order to get a MacBook instead of a Windows machine for software engineering
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Totally some internal bias thing, but I don't know, I just feel much more creative when
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I am using my MacBook Pro, and it makes my life as a software engineer so much more enjoyable
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If I've missed anything, be sure to let me know in the comments below. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Lates
#Development Tools
#Operating Systems
#Programming
#Software
#Software Utilities