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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by ezfe on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @08:10AM (#31095712)
>I would not be motivated by using some closed source, walled garden product from a company with business practices I don't like.

Most of the Development flow (and even most of the non-dev flow) happens in Open Source areas:

- Safari - Apps you download, like VSCode - Command line tools

The areas that aren't open source (The Calendar app, file browser) can be replaced as you choose.

I won't tell you to use a Mac, I just want to make it clear that the areas a developer works in are open. And, for anyone worried about things like SIP, that has a fully functional off switch

Oh, and you can run Linux (albeit with some work-in-progress features) - I've done it myself.

Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by akho on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @09:35AM (#31096717)
Safari and VSCode are not open source.

Most people who value freedom in software for practical reasons are motivated by having a way to fix or work around inconveniences, having a community and an active discussion on features, general composability and hackability of software, …

macOs (with all respect to their UI achievements) gives you none of that.

Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by ezfe on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @11:51AM (#31098728)
Safari isn't, you're correct - but WebKit is. And Safari does fall into the category of things that can be fully replaced.
Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by Flankk on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @08:55AM (#31096164)
That's a bit of a ridiculous argument. Xcode is not only closed source, it is required for publishing to the App Store. You can't modify the hardware or the software. It's a virtual prison.
Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by chrisseaton on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @09:13AM (#31096395)
> You can't modify the hardware or the software.

It’s a tool to get a job done - I don’t need to modify it.

Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by akho on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @09:42AM (#31096811)
I don’t know what kind of tool users you hang around, but there isn’t a profession that doesn’t modify or customize their tools (through making jigs, combining pieces from different toolkits, outright rebuilding, making your own tools, …).
Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by chrisseaton on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @10:20AM (#31097351)
That’s the great thing about software - it’s already able to do whatever I need.
Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by chisquared on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @09:41AM (#31096801)
Note that the argument you've called ridiculous is a response to someone who does not want a

> closed source, walled garden product from a company with business practices I don't like

Such a person probably won't be using Xcode, nor has any plans of publishing to the App Store, so Xcode being closed-source isn't a factor at all here.

Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by Flankk on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @09:49AM (#31096929)
It's the main factor for a developer, actually. We're talking about Apple so it makes sense to discuss their products. It doesn't make sense to talk about Microsoft products.
Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by ezfe on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @11:50AM (#31098715)
Well, Xcode only needs to be used if you're publishing to the App Store, which you wouldn't do with a linux machine anyways so that's a moot point when comparing them...