You've hit the nail on the head. I have been in a very similar situation, using OS X for development on a Macbook Pro for 3 years also.
You are absolutely correct when you say that everything is 'not-quite-right': package managers are absent by default; Linux tools are sometimes hackily modified to work on Mac; additional tools have to be manually downloaded.
It's possible and the interface is generally fairly slick but everything feels like a hacky solution to a problem that is just not there with Linux.
Re:The desktop and the developer
by dredmorbius on Wednesday May 21, 2014 @01:14AM
(#7776794)
Apple is really good at delivering a "sane defaults" desktop.
It is not, by definition, an "optimal for task" desktop.
I've used OS X off and on for much of the past decade. It's not a serious productivity platform.
> It's not a serious productivity platform.
To whom? If your customers are Mac users, it sure is.
Re:The desktop and the developer
by dredmorbius on Wednesday May 21, 2014 @07:26AM
(#7777627)
For me, though I thought that was clear.
All the things I'd learned to work-around, suddenly became non-issues, and all of a sudden I had a real window manager again.