Comments on: The Mac's allure for open-source developers

More and more developers are opting for the Mac. Why?

[all-usernames-in-use]

One of my current subcontractors is a freelance developer who uses nothing but OS X. At first I found him a little hard to work with because he kept implying that our other vendors were providing inferior services simply because they used a FOSS toolchain based on Linux. He's since picked up a lot of Linux experience and his tune has changed accordingly.

If any other software/service providers are reading this, be careful about hiring OS X-based developers. I've found that many of them simply do not - for obvious reasons - grasp the importance of FOSS technologies *on the desktop.* One fundamental misunderstanding is, "it must first work, THEN we can deal with any licensing issues." In fact, with my business the rule is, "we have the talent, let's make it work on our own terms." I find it amusing that some OS X developers have a perfect grasp of server-based FOSS but let everything go when it comes to desktop development.

If you feel your business should head in a similar direction, watch out for these guys because they can become prima donnas really quick. To me it's just one of those little signs to keep an eye out for.

[all-usernames-in-use]

One of my current subcontractors is a freelance developer who uses nothing but OS X. At first I found him a little hard to work with because he kept implying that our other vendors were providing inferior services simply because they used a FOSS toolchain based on Linux. He's since picked up a lot of Linux experience and his tune has changed accordingly.

If any other software/service providers are reading this, be careful about hiring OS X-based developers. I've found that many of them simply do not - for obvious reasons - grasp the importance of FOSS technologies *on the desktop.* One fundamental misunderstanding is, "it must first work, THEN we can deal with any licensing issues." In fact, with my business the rule is, "we have the talent, let's make it work on our own terms." I find it amusing that some OS X developers have a perfect grasp of server-based FOSS but let everything go when it comes to desktop development.

If you feel your business should head in a similar direction, watch out for these guys because they can become prima donnas really quick. To me it's just one of those little signs to keep an eye out for.

[all-usernames-in-use]

Apologies for the double post. In addition, my tone was a bit caustic, but I wanted to emphasize the fact that there really *is* a difference in philosophy that comes with a conscious platform choice. Business owners with a commitment to FOSS would, I think, do well to be aware of this.

[penguiniator]

"Perhaps at some point we just want things to work. When we do, we move to the Mac."

Meaning, I suppose, that when we are too lazy to configure the one-off component of our system that is not auto-configured by the install routine of our chosen distro that we are better off embracing the most proprietary of proprietary desktop operating systems? That certainly does not jive with my experience! I wonder, does the O with the slash through it in "The Open Road" mean "Not"?

Who are the "we" you are referring to in your post? If it is developers, it would be very interesting to know the names of some prominent free software developers you know of that prefer the ultra-proprietary Mac OS to anything free, and to hear them explain how they rationalize a preference for that system while advocating the use of free software to others.

If it is well-informed users you are referring to, it would be instructive to know why they prefer the Mac to GNOME, KDE or XFCE beyond the lazy "I don't want to deal with it" attitude. Again, specific examples would help support your assertion better.

Either way, you imply that using a free system requires the user to configure or fix problems and that using the Mac does not. I know a Mac user, and his experience is anything but trouble-free. He experiences daily system crashes while using Photoshop and has trouble burning data DVDs with valid filesystems readable on other platforms, often requiring him to recreate disks.

Still, he persists in believing that his OS provides a computing experience that is superior to that of other OSes. I'm not going to go so far as to say that Linux has no problems, or that there are not times when I don't want to deal with configuring or fixing a problem. But that laziness on my part has never tempted me to abandon it and to embrace a system that gives me the distinct feeling that I am operating under a very big thumb.

[bmarquis65_dotmac]

The Mac is a fully certified Unix operating system with hundreds of open source applications, utilities, servers and languages like Samba, Apache, X11, Ghostscript, CUPS, bash, php, python, perl, ruby and more.

Maybe I just don't understand how that makes it the "most proprietary of proprietary desktop operating systems". Or perhaps you are just misinformed and are basing your assumptions about the Mac on an older release of the OS. There is a huge difference between OS X and it's predecessor OS 9.

Regarding your friend's issues, do you know what version of the OS he is running, or whether he has checked his hard drive lately? Does he have at least 512Mb of RAM. Regarding the DVD issues, perhaps he needs to purchase Titanium Toast.