The MacOS Thread - For unix users with disposable income.

[Pee Cola]

If OSs were sexual orientations Windows would be heterosexual, MacOS would gay/lesbian, and Linux would be the rest of the alphabet (but mainly T).

On a more serious note, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with MacOS. If you stay in the walled garden it's very easy to use, and Apple don't seem hellbent on enshittifying MacOS in the same way Microsoft is with Windows.

However straying just a tiny bit outside the walled garden to do the sort of stuff I take for granted in Windows, such as file management and installing drivers, can be a colossal ballache.

I use my MacBook for browsing, watching videos and creative stuff. My Windows machine is for serious business (and maybe the occasional bit of light gaming). Right tool for the job and all that.

 

[Organized Derailment]

Apart from the better battery life on Macbooks, what is MacOS better at for tech literate people vs Windows and Linux? I ask that with genuine curiosity rather than trying to start an argument like some fag. I've only used MacOS briefly and while I really liked the overall presentation, I've never been able to come with a strong enough justification to buy any Apple computers. Then again, I didn't do some gigantic deep dive on its pros and cons either.


Don't care for foobar2000's UI?

MacOS is very popular amongst the tech literate. Many developers, engineers, networking and security professionals prefer mac due to its Unix nature.

I for instance work professionally as a Cyber Security analyst, and being able to use many of the Kali toolset natively on Mac is a blessing. I still default to kali for serious engagements but MacOS is an awesome solution in a pinch.

The last Mac I used was the trashcan and doing anything on it felt slow, running High Sierra on it was a pain even with the ram maxed out, Sierra worked well enough on every trashcan before the upgrade, and we never got to try Mojave on them as IT decided to switch to regular PC's at that point.

I've seen deals on used M1 Mac mini's pop up in marketplace between $60 and $100 and I'm not sure if I should bite to use it as a general purpose computer.

You absolutely should.

I use my MacBook for browsing, watching videos and creative stuff. My Windows machine is for serious business (and maybe the occasional bit of light gaming). Right tool for the job and all that.

Interestingly I'm the opposite. MacOS for serious work (Programming/offSec & video editing) and PC for lax/gaming.

Jokes on you, it'll become a circlejerk for the latter two to show their superiority over the walled garden, overpriced, engineered to fail shitheaps for niggers that are afraid of the command line that are Apple products.

Well so far you're wrong, also MacOS's terminal (I use iTerm2 because I'm not queer) is fucking based.

Always visible menu bar that wastes space, SIP and forced mouse acceleration. You sure you don't have a disability?

you're disabled? Got it.

The macOS menu bar isn’t wasted space - it centralizes app controls for cleaner, more consistent UI plus can be hidden if needed. SIP can be disabled so... nice one?

Finally, mouse acceleration generally makes using the trackpad feel smoother and more natural on macOS. Most users find it enhances the overall fluidity of the macOS trackpad (read reviews, everyone compares their dogshit trackpads to Macbook.) and it can be disabled via third party tools if you have autism and you want it gone.

 

[Pee Cola]

Interestingly I'm the opposite. MacOS for serious work (Programming/offSec & video editing) and PC for lax/gaming.

Maybe it says more about me and how I've used computers over the past three decades or so than anything else. It's only been the past couple of years that I've started using macOS on account of Intel Macs gradually becoming e-waste and me picking up a couple of discarded MacBook Pros for free.

Thankfully one of them is Metal, and I'm able to successfully run Sequoia on it thanks to Open Core Legacy Patcher. The non-Metal one seems most comfy with Monterey; I tried upgrading it to Ventura and felt it was a step backwards. I suspect the further away I get from High Sierra or whatever the final official version supports that MacBook, the jankier newer versions will feel.

 

[Organized Derailment]

Thankfully one of them is Metal, and I'm able to successfully run Sequoia on it thanks to Open Core Legacy Patcher. The non-Metal one seems most comfy with Monterey, even though I did upgrade it to Ventura and felt it was a step backwards.

That's one thing I will admit.. Apple's current state of software is disastrous. Each new MacOS upgrade feels like a step back since Big Surr. Still much prefer it to Windows and Linux however.

 

[Sandnigger Mudhut]

I will never forgive Apple for ditching AppleScript. Out of all the attempts to make programming a universal skill, AppleScript came as close as possible to dumbing it down enough to make the idea feasible than all other attempts like: Scratch, Python, etc.

 

[ellroy]

That's one thing I will admit.. Apple's current state of software is disastrous. Each new MacOS upgrade feels like a step back since Big Surr. Still much prefer it to Windows and Linux however.

I think it was earlier than that. When Apple discontinued the XServer line, Mac OS X around the same time stopped catering to tinkerers. There used to be O'Reilly books discussing the internals, and how to do sysadmin tasks and build libraries for the system. There was even documented knowledge discussing how OS X works using Darwin as a sandbox operating system. Now its a wasteland getting to know anything interesting about the system. I'm late to using MacOS and the earliest version I used on a machine I owned was Yosemite, at least I can still say I used OS X before the name change.

It's a shame, there are some high-tech Unix components in that operating system but its all closed source and Darwin withered on the vine because it couldn't get any new updates.

That said, if anyone is interested in hacking open source operating systems as a hobby and want to avoid trannies, Darwin would be a good place to look into since those projects are virtually dead. There are still kernel source releases but the other source releases such as LaunchD haven't received a source release in almost ten years.

 

[Nitro!]

Apart from the better battery life on Macbooks, what is MacOS better at for tech literate people vs Windows and Linux?

Ironically, Windows' window management is still in the stone age. If you have 10+ programs running, all with their own set of windows, it is hell trying to multitask constantly fighting with every window all the time. Grouping by application and Cmd+Tilde speeds things up tenfold. I always have to inevitably touch the mouse with Windows but on macOS 95% is keyboard-only and fast.

 

[Enig]

Is it worth it being a filthy casual and buying a M4 Air or should I do blood donations to afford a MBP because Linux on laptops is fucking suffering, Opencore is way more work than it looks to be on the surface and I miss being able to fullscreen things and three finger swipe, seriously the workflow of macOS is unbeatable for that alone and every imitation of it is either slowass or tied to the fucking foot distribution.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Maybe it says more about me and how I've used computers over the past three decades or so than anything else. It's only been the past couple of years that I've started using macOS on account of Intel Macs gradually becoming e-waste and me picking up a couple of discarded MacBook Pros for free.

Thankfully one of them is Metal, and I'm able to successfully run Sequoia on it thanks to Open Core Legacy Patcher. The non-Metal one seems most comfy with Monterey; I tried upgrading it to Ventura and felt it was a step backwards. I suspect the further away I get from High Sierra or whatever the final official version supports that MacBook, the jankier newer versions will feel.

Gee, who knew that running an OS on hardware that it doesn't support could be imperfect...

 

[Organized Derailment]

Is it worth it being a filthy casual and buying a M4 Air or should I do blood donations to afford a MBP because Linux on laptops is fucking suffering, Opencore is way more work than it looks to be on the surface and I miss being able to fullscreen things and three finger swipe, seriously the workflow of macOS is unbeatable for that alone and every imitation of it is either slowass or tied to the fucking foot distribution.

I use my M3 Macbook Air for video editing, programming and offensive security (running multiple VMs with heavy networking in the background) and it crushes everything. I had the M3 Pro but I sold it because I just didn't need it. You should be find with an Air unless you desperately need 120hz refresh. If I didn't use Final Cut Pro for video editing I would have honestly considered the Pro more, because Adobe runs better on the Pro than Air, but both were usable and I have no problems recommending either.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

I use my M3 Macbook Air for video editing, programming and offensive security (running multiple VMs with heavy networking in the background) and it crushes everything. I had the M3 Pro but I sold it because I just didn't need it. You should be find with an Air unless you desperately need 120hz refresh. If I didn't use Final Cut Pro for video editing I would have honestly considered the Pro more, because Adobe runs better on the Pro than Air, but both were usable and I have no problems recommending either.

One thing to consider in Pro vs Air is that the Air will need to spin up the fans now and then, while the Pro seldom will.

 

[Organized Derailment]

Gee, who knew that running an OS on hardware that it doesn't support could be imperfect...

This is a point I would like to emphasize. Many retards will run MacOS on their PCs either natively or via VM and then act surprised pikachu when it performs like dogshit.

This doesn't go to the person you were replying to because they are reasonable, but to everyone else out there: If you're not running MacOS on Apple hardware it's not going to be a pleasant experience. This isn't Linux slop that can run on a fucking toaster, it's highly optimized and requires a very specific subset of hardware.

 

[Organized Derailment]

One thing to consider in Pro vs Air is that the Air will need to spin up the fans now and then, while the Pro seldom will.

Actually this is no longer pertinent to the later Macbook Airs as they are fanless.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

Actually this is no longer pertinent to the later Macbook Airs as their design is fanless.

Ah, so instead of fan noise, you will get thermal throttling. That makes the choice even easier, get the Pro if you do anything in any way demanding.

 

[Organized Derailment]

Ah, so instead of fan noise, you will get thermal throttling. That makes the choice even easier, get the Pro if you do anything in any way demanding.

True, but as someone who mains an M3 MBA, I rarely notice throttling and I suspect that's due to the efficiency of Apple Silicon. I can edit raw 4k videos in FCP, compile large iOS/MacOS applications in XCode and run multiple Linux/Windows VM's with ease via Parallels without any issues. That being said, for longer and heavier workloads, you're right.. the Pro would be the best choice. You also get a nicer display, more ports, and a slightly nicer keyboard (last one is subjective)

 

[Samuel Fuller]

True, but as someone who mains an M3 MBA, I rarely notice throttling and I suspect that's due to the efficiency of Apple Silicon. I can edit raw 4k videos in FCP, compile large iOS/MacOS applications in XCode and run multiple Linux/Windows VM's with ease via Parallels without any issues. That being said, for longer and heavier workloads, you're right.. the Pro would be the best choice. You also get a nicer display, more ports, and a slightly nicer keyboard (last one is subjective)

I use an M2Pro MBP 16-inch as my daily driver, mainly for VM stuff and just to have tons of admin sites open at all times, and sometimes on a work-from-recliner day it gets a touch toasty, but I haven't had any throttling and only a little fan activity, so I could see the M3 running cooler.

The most fan activity I have had was running games, especially in a Windows VM. Weirdly, Borderlands 3 Mac build ran with all settings maxed and raytracing on, getting around 40 FPS without firing the fans up at all.

 

[Enig]

I use my M3 Macbook Air for video editing, programming and offensive security (running multiple VMs with heavy networking in the background) and it crushes everything. I had the M3 Pro but I sold it because I just didn't need it. You should be find with an Air unless you desperately need 120hz refresh. If I didn't use Final Cut Pro for video editing I would have honestly considered the Pro more, because Adobe runs better on the Pro than Air, but both were usable and I have no problems recommending either.

I went looking and apparently if you spec a 14 inch MBP with the base M4, 1TB of storage and 24GB of RAM it comes out to the same price as a 15 inch Air with 32GB. I’d consider 8GB less RAM a fair tradeoff for the better DPI (3024x1964 on the pro vs 2880x1864 on the other) and cooling fans; I’m just tired of not having the high speed workflow I had under macOS on my 15in MBP and want my retardedly small DPI scale patching back.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

I went looking and apparently if you spec a 14 inch MBP with the base M4, 1TB of storage and 24GB of RAM it comes out to the same price as a 15 inch Air with 32GB. I’d consider 8GB less RAM a fair tradeoff for the better DPI (3024x1964 on the pro vs 2880x1864 on the other) and cooling fans; I’m just tired of not having the high speed workflow I had under macOS on my 15in MBP and want my retardedly small DPI scale patching back.

Keep in mind that RAM use is way lower in macOS than Windows, so that 8GB may not end up being a noticeable sacrifice, depending on what you are doing.

It looks like a good trade-off to me, honestly.

 

[Pee Cola]

Gee, who knew that running an OS on hardware that it doesn't support could be imperfect...

I greatly appreciate that OCLP exists. Breathing new life into old machines can be a minor miracle, and some of us want to squeeze every last drop out of our daily driver machine before retiring it.

I have the original HDD with High Sierra on it for the day when I convert this machine back to period-correct spec for addition to my vintage computer collection.

 

[robots.txt]

Is it worth it being a filthy casual and buying a M4 Air or should I do blood donations to afford a MBP because Linux on laptops is fucking suffering, Opencore is way more work than it looks to be on the surface and I miss being able to fullscreen things and three finger swipe, seriously the workflow of macOS is unbeatable for that alone and every imitation of it is either slowass or tied to the fucking foot distribution.

I've only ever heard my Macbook Pro's fans kick in while doing gaming on a docked 4k monitor. I think in most circumstances the Air would be completely fine otherwise.