i mean, if it works for you, it works! by all means, stick with it. it’s all about what works best for you

but since you’re asking about Linux’s features…for me, a college student, Fedora Linux works. the desktop’s workspaces feature allows me to have a different workspace for each task or context, and i can create as many as i want easily. i can open up several apps at once by dragging icons from the app grid and dropping them onto workspaces, so i can get set up quickly

when it comes to updates, i appreciate that i can update my computer whenever i want or put updates off until a more convenient time. app management is super easy (especially in comparison to the dumpster fire that is Windows app management), the Software app that comes out of the box does everything: installing apps from different repositories, system updates, firmware updates, even version upgrades for the OS are handled in one place

the desktop itself is a bit restrictive out of the box. there are no desktop icons and you can only tile windows to half the screen. you can download extensions that restore any functionality you’re missing though, like Desktop Icons NG for desktop icons, and Tiling Assistant for quarter tiling. i like the minimalism though. having no desktop icons forces me to actually organize my files, and to compensate for the lack of tiling i use the workspace feature i mentioned above. i especially like how everything hides itself away when you’re actually doing work, so all that’s visible is the clock, the system indicators, and whatever you have open

there’s plenty of other advantages other people cite like top-to-bottom control of what software is on your system (Linux will even let you get rid of the bootloader if you wanted to for some reason), no DRM, and Everything Just Works™. i can’t personally speak about my experiences with those since i haven’t felt the need to replace any integral software, i haven’t done repairs to my laptop other than putting in a new SSD, and i don’t use any peripherals other than a printer (the printer setup was dead simple though). but i know that if i ever want to do any of these things, i can totally do them

i know my use case is pretty different from a backend software engineer’s, but i thought i would share my personal experience with using Linux as a daily driver

„It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.“ — Voltaire

I would use the word people instead of fools, because even the smartest people can be misled.

Also, for some people freedom is very important even if it cost them dearly. Other people just want convenience and luxury, and don’t mind living in a golden cage.

You really have to make your own decisions in life. What makes you tick?

Perhaps you shouldn’t. Any honest Linux user will tell you up front if that if you have a comfortable system already it may not be worth the disruption in your workflow while dealing with the learning curve. That being said, being free from the whims of Apple is a nice feeling.

EDIT: I’m not sure what the state of virtualization is on the Mac side right now but it wouldn’t be the worst idea to fire one up and try out a distro or two. Kick the tires before you think about committing.

I think that’s a lot about personal preference. Do you enjoy your machine? That you can’t repair it? That you can’t easily take your OS with you one to a machine from another manufacture? Maybe you don’t care. I do. I think Linux gives you a lot of freedom, but if you don’t need or want it, I don’t think there is a reason to change. I mean, apart from the whole Apple-being-a-big-coorporation-that-actively-hinders-reparability issue that one might care about from a societal and environmental perspective.

Maybe you could get all the same stuff you need for development in Linux, and a lot more freedom to boot.

I apologize that this comes off a bit hostile. I am a bit hostile. I am also sorry for it!

I have plenty of philosophical arguments regarding support of free software, and building our own way online we can wax poetic about. There’s also a discussion to be had of the benefits of a ‘bazaar’ over a ‘cathedral’ style of software use.

There’s plenty of great reasons to search out alternatives and not wind up ‘beholden’ to or reliant on any one mega corporation. We’re responsible for the bridges built for those that come after us, do we want those bridges built by Apple and Facebook, or built by the public? You may think that as a user, your choice of operating system doesn’t matter, but your choices do have an active effect on those around you.

At the end of the day though, if you have a work flow that you’re happy with and there’s no reason to change or upset it, I tend to tell people to do what they’re comfortable with. However since you’ve asked this question to begin with, maybe you’re looking for a challenge and just looking for a push?

push

I don’t know that anyone would be in a position to convince you. If macOS fulfills your needs and you don’t have a strong ideological opposition to anything from closed-source software to private corporations, there isn’t a reason to change. I have a MBP that’s a fantastic machine.

Linux, to me, is largely about choice and the ability to directly shape your tools. So I also have a roll-your-own custom Silverblue installation via the ublue.it project on a Thinkpad. It’s not better than my MBP, but I can do different things with it that aren’t tied to Apple’s release schedule. And it’s pretty great to manage my personal OS through GitHub.

In the desktop world, some folks roll with only suckless software and a forked personal copy of an esoteric tiling window manager. Some folks roll with default gnome or kde. Most are somewhere in between. They can use a privacy-focused fork of Firefox or they can use Microsoft Edge. The only limitation is imagination and time, whether yours or someone else’s. The downside compared to a private, proprietary ecosystem like macOS is that more tools are developed erratically, abandoned, or have “unique” user interfaces and assumptions.

But, again, I use both. If you feel like you need to switch away from macOS, that’s really up to what you need to do and what you want to accomplish.

For me the main selling point to linux is control and privacy. I actually can have a sense of ownership over my operating system because it is open-source. I use Fedora, but I recommend Mint as a first distro if you do switch. I had an M1 Macbook and switched to Linux from that, and I enjoy using my computer more knowing my OS is not under the control of a corporation.

I generally find that setting up dev environments to be easier and cleaner in Linux. I prefer standard distro packages compared to homebrew and all it’s quirks. There’s also native support for docker. If you’re doing backend stuff, it also helps that the machine you’re developing on is using a similar OS as the server that’s going to be running your code in production.

If it’s for your workplace though, evaluate whether it’s worth disrupting your workflow to make the switch. Don’t let your productivity suffer because of it. Maybe test it out in your own free time and make gradual migrations. For a long time, I was dualbooting between Windows and Linux, and I’ve slowly migrated over.

Hello from a software engineer in test.

I use Linux because of habit of looking for an alternative to Windows that didn’t require Mac hardware. The machines we’ve been allocated are dog slow Dells, so it was either pain or Linux.

I spend most of my day either remoting into embeded units or servers and debugging/writing scripts to test them. I do that over SSH and bar one I can think of, they all run Debian or a variant.

For me personally, I like to have my development environment mimick (with some niceties) what I work with. In general, I sleep better knowing if it works on my machine, it will probably work on the thing it will eventually be used against. I also know the terminal like the back of my hand and have grown to depend on it for basically everything development. I would never not want to use it.

However, my tech lead runs Windows 7, uses VSCode and relys heavily on GUI programs in general. I would also say, he is far more efficient in his tasks than I am. When I questioned his use of these things he responded “It’s how I like it” and that really stuck with me.

The key take away from this ramble is create a PDE, a personal development environment. Linux is great because your can customize just about everything you’d want to. That being said I’m sure you can customize your Mac just as much where it matters.

Just stay awesome!

Note - I would however check out neovim for the exact reasons I’ve stated here :)