Back in the Apple ecosystem.

Posted on August 13, 2023 • 7 min read • 1,337 words

Why I abandoned Linux desktop and android in favor of the Apple ecosystem.

Back to being an Apple fanboy

Back when I was studying software development I was using a MacBook had an iPhone and was quite pleased with the Apple eco system.

Then i got my first job where I could not even get a second monitor or even one in a 16:9 inch format, as the old IT guy i was being hired to replace had this idea that people could not handle more screen realestate than what a simple 17 inch 4:3 monitor provided albeit this was 10 years ago I still remember it as an odd hill to die on.

I did not get any say in the hardware i was provided either, so i got a Lenovo ThinkPad wich is a great machine, just not for an Apple fanboy.

Given how accustomed I had become with using a terminal on the macbook for my development I decided on running Ubuntu desktop on the machine. The entire shop ran on c++ and php and all the servers where FreeBSD. After the old IT guy left and the rules loosened up a bit I got more and better monitors, but Ubuntu had peaked my interest in the more free and open source world of software. So when my phone broke and I was still just getting started earning a paycheck I decided to give Android a go. It was great and actually stayed in the Ubuntu/Android world for about 9-10 years.

So why go back to Apple?

Over the years I’ve become increasingly more frustrated with Ubuntu and all the package and driver management that needed to be done for it to function with peripherals etc. My microphone in MS teams is not working to well, displaylink software for using the projector at work keeps acting up and need multiple things compiled from source to work. You do not have access to the rest of the office suite in Ubuntu and while libre office is great it is just not the same.

Being in a relationship, buying a house, becomming a dad all took away from the spare time I had and made the remaining time even more precious and therefore made me appreciate things that just did not get in my way as much. This had already made me abandon my emacs config I’ve curated over 12-13 years for VsCode - but that is a story for another post.

But that was actually not even what triggered the switch. In late October of 22 I had the brilliant idea to exchange my Audi a3 for a Tesal Model Y (rip money). At the time I was daily driving an old Samsung Galaxy S20 that had severe issues with the battery life to the point where I had to charge it every night after dinner even when I barely touched it all day.

Seeing as it now became both my phone and keys to the car I wanted something with better battery life that I could be sure would not run out of power when I went on longer trips. And as I was soon to become a dad I would like something that took better pictures.

I started researching new phones with great battery life and a decent camera - naturally iPhones came up as battery life is one thing Apple is good at. And the .heic format where every photo is a little video is just so precious when looking back at the early days of fatherhood.

As I already had a decent eye to apple Face ID which just works better than what my samsung could handle and the peripherals Apple had like AirPods etc. I decided to jump back in bed with Apple and get the iPhone 14 pro shortly after getting the Tesla.

Going deeper

The battery life was great. After some acclimating to Apple way of doing things I became quite fond of Face ID integration and iOS in general. It was a breath of fresh air. Apple stance on privacy is also very appealing to me and is a great motivator for me personally to integrate more into the ecosystem.

With Apple you pay a premium for the product to be the product instead of you.

The watch

I had a galaxy watch with my old samsung phone but it had gotten old and did not integrate very will with my new phone, so I went out and spent even more stupid money on an Apple Watch series 8 as I had become accustumed to the notifications and health tracking of having a smart watch. The experience of setting up extra Apple peripherals is just so simple, clean and well integrated that it’s hard not to enjoy the process.

The pods

At christmas I was lucky enough to get a pair or AirPods pro 2. gen and was yet again amazed by the smoothnes of the setup process. Now I am by no means an audiophile, but the sound in theese are amazing and the active noise cancellation is a godsend. The integration where I they just connect to whatever device I am active on or switch to is just amazing.

The laptop

Now as a software developer, tech geek and gamer I naturally spend a lot of time in front of a computer - even at home. As I was soon to become a dad I convinced myself it would be a great idea to get a personal laptop I could take with me to the living room and be around my girlfriend and soon to be kid. Reality kicked in hard when becomming a dad and having time to sit at the computer in the first place is rare so when it is possible it is preferable to retreat to the office space to get some concentrated time in.

In my ignorance I decided to get a MacBook Pro, since as laptops come the new M chips gave an insane battery life and the trackpad makes working directly on a laptop so much more enjoyable than most other brands in my opinion. I found the price of new MacBook Pro a little steep so I decided to get a used M1 pro and as the M2 chips had just been released I got a pretty sweet deal on an entry level 14 inch model.

Apple consuming it all

Quickly all my personal development moved to the MacBook, I got a dock and connected it to my monitors, keyboard and mouse at home and quickly fell in love with the ecosystem.

Everything just worked and the addition of brew package manager becomming a very stable option (it was just getting started last time I used a macbook) made developing on Mac very enjoyable.

The eco system integration means I can answer texts and take calls directly from my MacBook. I can copy something on another device like my iPhone and just cmd-v to paste it on the MacBook it also works the other way around. Answering a mail on the phone and it becomes to long and to much of a hazzle to type on the small screen. I just open up the laptop and continue to write the rest of the mail from there. Same goes for browsing something on the phone and finding it to hard to read on the smaller screen, I just go to the computer and I can just continue right where I left off on the phone.

The ecosystem is packed with many small features like this that makes life so much easier.

Oh did I mention using peripherals like the projector at work just works after a very simple installation of the displaylink drivers. The entire Microsoft Office suite also runs native on MacOs so I can get excel help from some of the gurus at work instead of spending to much time learning the libre office way of doing things.

It has gotten to the point where my Windows desktop is only used for gaming and is rarely even powered on.