> Is it not at least somewhat possible that at least some of those Apple laptops will age out and be replaced with GNU/Linux laptops?
Has Linux desktop share been increasing lately? I'm not sure why a newer Mac with better CPU options is going to result in increasing Linux share. If anything, it's likely to be neutral or favor the Mac with it's newer/ faster CPU.
> But frankly I believe Apple have lost ground UI-wise over the intervening decades, while free alternatives have gained it (they are still not at parity, granted).
Maybe? I'm not as sold on Linux gaining a ton of ground here. I'm also not sold on the idea that the Mac as a whole is worse off interface wise than it was 10 years ago. While there are some issues, there are also places where it's significantly improved as well. Particularly if you have an iPhone and use Apple's other services.
As much as I would like it to happen, I think it's unlikely Linux will be taking any market share away from Macs. That said, I could imagine it happening a couple ways. The first being an increasingly iPhonified and restricted Mac OS that some devs get fed up with.
The second would be Apple pushing all MacBooks to M1 too soon, breaking certain tools and workflows.
While I think both of those scenarios could easily happen, most devs will probably decide just put up with the extra trouble rather than switch to Linux.
> The second would be Apple pushing all MacBooks to M1 too soon, breaking certain tools and workflows.
I don't think this is an issue. Apple has been fairly straight about timelines and people who want to stick with Intel have plenty of time and options to get their stuff in a row in advance. More important, Apple fixed most of the major irritations with the MacBook Pro. If they hadn't launched the 16" MBP last year, people would have been stuck with a fairly old/ compromised design.
I suspect Apple is going to maintain MacOS right where it is now. People have been worried about "iOSification" for nearly a decade now and while there have been some elements, the core functionality is fundamentally the same.
Big Sur has me more worried about iOS-ification than ever before. The UI is a train wreck. It looks designed for touch and I have no idea why. I guess Sidecar?
They changed a ton about the UI in Big Sur, none of it for the better as far as I can tell. They took away even more choice, I can't have a "classic" desktop experience.
My biggest frustration is that they were willing to make such drastic changes to the desktop UI at all. I have to re-learn a ton of keyboard navigation now. And there doesn't seem to be a coherent design to the workflows.
Such a drastic change seems to be an admission that they thought the previous design language was wrong but they seem to have replaced it with... no vision at all?
I am hopeful for the next generation of M1 MacBook Pros and whatever the next MacOS is. Hopefully they get their design philosophy straight and stick with it.
I quite like the Big Sur UI and definitely don't consider it a train wreck. I've been a Mac user since the PowerBook G4, and the M1 MacBook Air with Big Sur is the best "desktop" computer I've ever owned. I have it connected to a beautiful 32" display, it's fast, silent and I find the UI very usable
I see a strong vision in Big Sur, one that pulls macOS visually into line with iOS, but there are a lot of rough edges right now. Especially with some Catalyst apps bringing iOS paradigms onto Mac. Even Apple's Catalyst apps (News in particular) are just gross, can't even change the font size with a keyboard shortcut
Visually it is a dumpster fire. Window borders are inconsistently sized, the close/minimize/full screen buttons aren’t consistently placed.
There’s an enormous amount of wasted space. You need that 32” monitor. My 16” RMBP now has as much usable space as my 13”.
Keyboard navigation is bizarre. Try this:
1) Open Mail.
2) Cmd W.
3) Cmd 1 (or is it Cmd 0?!, hint: it’s whatever Messages isn’t!)
4) Without using your mouse select a message in your inbox.
5) Without using your mouse navigate to a folder under your inbox.
6) Without using your mouse navigate to an inbox in another account.
All of this is possible in Catalina and earlier with zero confusion (selections are highlighted clearly) and can be done “backwards” using shift. In Big Sur some of it is actually impossible and you have to just guess where you start.
When native apps aren’t even consistent in their behavior and appearance that is a trainwreck.
You may be able to read the tea leaves and see a grand vision here but I have to use a half-baked desktop environment until Not-Jony Ive is satisfied they have reminded me they are not Jony Ive. To them I say, trust me, I noticed.
I don't have a problem with using the smaller MacBook Air 13" screen for development (I upgraded from a 15" MBP)
I'm not a huge Mail user so I'm not up-to-speed on keyboard shortcuts. But I was able to navigate with the keyboard easily — I hit tab to focus on the correct list then use the up/down arrows to select the inbox or message (your 4/5/6). After hitting Cmd+W both Cmd+0 or Cmd+1 bring the Mail window back for me. And Cmd+Shift+D still sends mail which is the main one I use
I am a huge Xcode user and primarily use the keyboard for code navigation, and that is as good as ever on the 13" MacBook Air in Big Sur. Also use Sketch a lot, and that has been just great too
I guess we have a very different perception of Big Sur but mine is generally favourable, and I don't see the wasted space that you see. There have been a few weekends where I have done all my work on the 13" MBA, which is only just now possible due to battery life, and the experience has been really, really nice
Yes but those shortcuts are inconsistent. Cmd 1 does not bring back Messages for example. I have to press tab several times in Mail to figure out where I am in Big Sur where in Catalina the selection is always highlighted. You can’t use the keyboard to change mailboxes in Big Sur as far as I can tell. There’s no clear “language” to the shortcuts.
You’d have more usable space with Catalina on that 13” screen. It was a noticeable loss of space upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur on a 16” RMBP. I used to have space for three partially overlayed windows on my 16” screen. Now I am lucky to get two. Usable space on a 16” Big Sur MacBook is similar to a 13” Catalina MacBook. I have both. My workflows changed. There is no benefit to me as a user.
Both Messages and Mail both use Cmd+0 to bring the message viewer to the front. That's what the shortcut is listed as in the Window menu. Same with Calendar if you close the main calendar window
Messages does not have great keyboard navigation — I can't tab around like I can in Mail. I am putting this down to the fact it is a Catalyst app and they are a bit sloppy with consistency (not necessarily a Big Sur thing, as these were on Catalina)
But in Catalina Cmd-1 selects the inbox and full sidebar navigation including between accounts is possible with arrow keys. Nested lists can expand and collapse with left and right.
In Big Sur Cmd-1 just reopens the window with no selection. In addition you cannot navigate the full sidebar with arrow keys.
Combine this with the lack of visual indication of your selection and keyboard navigation becomes a struggle.
> Such a drastic change seems to be an admission that they thought the previous design language was wrong but they seem to have replaced it with... no vision at all?
Sure, but Jonny Ive just officially left. He was head of all design (when he should have been head of hardware design only). It’s natural that there would be greater-than-usual changes as someone new took over.
Big Sur has some pretty terrible changes. There’s nothing surprising that changes occurred. The only surprise is how bad they are.
The frustrating thing for me is the whole idea of rebooting things visually when it's not based on productivity or additional features. So much of this is just a visual reboot.
Overall though when I hear about the "iOSification" I worry foremost about locking down the OS which doesn't seem to be a big issue.
My personal computer is on Big Sur, but I've kept my work laptop on Catalina so a lot of this doesn't hit me work wise. It doesn't seem too horrible to me when working on private projects but that's a small percentage of my time.
> My biggest frustration is that they were willing to make such drastic changes to the desktop UI at all.
I feel you there, one of the reasons I didn't like Windows is big, seemingly random UI changes. I don't think Bir Sur is crazy like Windows NT -> Windows Vista crazy, just feels like a big change for MacOS which has been relatively stable for a few years.
Seems like Apple tends to go long when they make big sweeping UI changes, then in the following releases they dial things back or work out the glitches. It's frustrating for certain.
At least I feel I see a lot more Linux now, not just in the company I work for but also elsewhere.
The speed advantage over Windows is so huge that it is painful to go back once you've seen it.
MS Office isn't seen as a requirement anymore, nobody think it is funny if you use GSuite and besides, last time I used an office file for work is months ago: everything exist inæ Slack, Teams, Confluence or Jira and these are about equally bad on all platforms.
The same is true (except the awful part) for C# development: it is probably even better on Linux.
People could switch to Mac and I guess many will. For others, like me Mac just doesn't work and for us Linux is an almost obvious choice.
At the company I work for (400 people in Norway, offices in Sweden, Denmark and Romania as well) I don't know anyone who has a MS Office license.
There is a procedure to get one, but so far I don't know anyone who used it. Quite on the contrary I know one of our sales guys used to install and run Linux on his laptop.
Yes, I work and an above average technical company but we do have HR, sales etc and they aren't engineers (at least not most of them).
> At least I feel I see a lot more Linux now, not just in the company I work for but also elsewhere.
I see it far more now than I did ~5-10 years ago when it was my daily driver. I'm just not sure if it's gotten a baseline support and flatlined or if it's growing consistently now.
Fully agree with almost all of your points, and if MacOS did go off the deep end in terms of functionality, I'd be back on Linux. It's why I'm a big fan of what Marcan is doing and follow it closely.
If Linux support was as good now as it was when I switched, I'd likely have never switched to the Mac.
I run on Mac for desktop, Linux for projects. I don’t know that more people have been switching than before, but I thought the author of this[0] piece illustrated well that it’s easier than ever. That said, the author states that they opt not to have a phone. That’s much less lock-in than most of the market.
Has Linux desktop share been increasing lately? I'm not sure why a newer Mac with better CPU options is going to result in increasing Linux share. If anything, it's likely to be neutral or favor the Mac with it's newer/ faster CPU.
> But frankly I believe Apple have lost ground UI-wise over the intervening decades, while free alternatives have gained it (they are still not at parity, granted).
Maybe? I'm not as sold on Linux gaining a ton of ground here. I'm also not sold on the idea that the Mac as a whole is worse off interface wise than it was 10 years ago. While there are some issues, there are also places where it's significantly improved as well. Particularly if you have an iPhone and use Apple's other services.