5 ms·

> most engineers at Encore develop on a Mac They are solving the wrong problem.

by kombine 27d ago

rob_c 27d ago
No, they're realists. Plus show me an off the shelf solution to MDM that exists in the Linux space? (Not too mention an easy to buy consumer devices which supports suspend/resume correctly in 2026, not even Windows can do that any more) Apple is crap and evil about many things, but at least here they know their paying audience...
- mhast 27d ago
  One case where Apple can be very useful is if you're traveling a lot for work. Wherever you are you can probably find a local store that sells and services Macbooks. So if your machine is damaged during a trip you can get it fixed, or buy a replacement on the spot, and at least get through the work you are there to do. For small-ish companies that can be a very useful feature.
  - elAhmo 27d ago
    Buying on the spot - sure. Anything that requires repair has to be usually booked in advance with some waiting time. Relatively short, usually days, but still not really possible to go into the store and get your laptop fixed right away in most cases.
    - superb_dev 27d ago
      The wait can be pretty short, I once got the charging port on my iPhone replaced same day at an Apple Store in Vegas
    - dijit 27d ago
      If you have a business relationship with Apple, it's same-day service. You don't even have to be a large corp for that, my org was 60 people with like 20 Macbooks and we had it. FWIW if you live in a major metro area, Dell also does this, it's not terribly uncommon for business class machines.
    - jtbayly 27d ago
      With the memory shortage, many places you can’t buy most models on the spot. Wait times are almost two months for some machines right now. https://tidbits.com/2026/08/10/mac-delivery-times-stretch-to-months-for-some-models/ https://tidbits.com/2026/08/10/mac-delivery-times-stretch-to...
  - ErroneousBosh 27d ago
    Why wouldn't you do that with any other platform? Buy any laptop, stick Linux on it, get working. Buy a cheap shitty Chromebook, ssh to your dev platform, give it to some school child who doesn't have a laptop when you get your real one back. You don't need to be locked into Apple's ecosystem for that.
    - dofm 27d ago
      > Buy any laptop, stick Linux on it, get working. Except it's still a slightly different challenge each time to "get it working", each different PC. A Mac is a Mac is a Mac, more or less. I have a nice Framework laptop on my desk running Kubuntu alongside my Macs. Every now and then I check in, make sure I could switch to it if I needed to, test all my important tasks, plug it in so the stupid mainboard battery does not go flat. And then I go back to my Mac, because I prefer it and even Tahoe isn't painful enough to switch. KDE is fine and I'll use it if circumstances dictate I have to. I think critics misunderstand the extent to which Mac-using devs are "locked into Apple's ecosystem". Unless you're writing iOS apps, you aren't. You perhaps even exist in a more heterogeneous world (Mac and Linux, Mac and Windows, all three) than a Linux-using web dev does. Essentially everything I run is not at all "locked in". I would miss the ease of keychain, handoff and Apple Notes (which I like despite its flaws). And then I'd deal with it. I'd probably carry on using an iPhone (I am very ambivalent about the iPad) FWIW my "Apple ecosystem" is why I have been able to teach myself open weights/open source AI at a pragmatic level, because my secondhand off-the-shelf kit does an acceptable job of it without me yet having to specify a PC I don't have enough use for as a non-gamer. A lot of people have solved a lot of general problems that I don't have to tinker with too early. This isn't a fanboy thing (I would consider myself a qualified critic). Both KDE and GNOME have some nice things. It's just a question of energies. IIRC it was Adrian Cockcroft who said he used Sun at work, and a Mac at home, because performance tuning was his day job and he didn't want to do it at home; I think this resonates. It has been my own choice for 28 years, largely: Mac plus linux.
      - ErroneousBosh 27d ago
        > Except it's still a slightly different challenge each time to "get it working", each different PC Maybe thirty years ago. Not today. Just go and pick up a second-hand Thinkpad for pennies. Everything will work on it.
- asdf88990 27d ago
  Lots of Lenavo laptops do just fine, but Apple hardware is still supreme for what it is worth.
- MadsRC 27d ago
  FleetDM comes to mind
- esseph 27d ago
  > MDM Linux Jumpcloud, I've used it across Windows / Mac / Linux end user desktops and laptop fleets. https://jumpcloud.com/lp/cross-os-device-management-fava-bean https://jumpcloud.com/lp/cross-os-device-management-fava-bea...
  - Melatonic 24d ago
    I was skeptical at first but we have deployed it and mostly has been solid. They also add new features quite regularly.
UqWBcuFx6NV4r 27d ago
Hacker News is so utterly detached from reality at times, and comments like these really drive that home.
- mathisfun123 27d ago
  Most tech people are utterly detached from reality so that definitely tracks
- TN1ck 27d ago
  Thought I was tripping, someone made the same point today in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49381236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49381236
  - AlexeyBelov 25d ago
    Notice dang's comment below. I dislike such comments, especially when they have no details whatsoever, just a swipe.
- bigyabai 27d ago
  Hacker News is? I worked on an internal tooling team at the beginning of the Apple Silicon transition; we spent months fixing ARM runtime issues that none of our customers encountered. That company probably spent millions of dollars fixing bugs that would never appear in production.

> most engineers at Encore develop on a Mac They are solving the wrong problem.

by kombine 27d ago

> most engineers at Encore develop on a Mac They are solving the wrong problem.

rob_c 27d ago

No, they're realists. Plus show me an off the shelf solution to MDM that exists in the Linux space? (Not too mention an easy to buy consumer devices which supports suspend/resume correctly in 2026, not even Windows can do that any more) Apple is crap and evil about many things, but at least here they know their paying audience...

mhast 27d ago
One case where Apple can be very useful is if you're traveling a lot for work. Wherever you are you can probably find a local store that sells and services Macbooks. So if your machine is damaged during a trip you can get it fixed, or buy a replacement on the spot, and at least get through the work you are there to do. For small-ish companies that can be a very useful feature.
- elAhmo 27d ago
  Buying on the spot - sure. Anything that requires repair has to be usually booked in advance with some waiting time. Relatively short, usually days, but still not really possible to go into the store and get your laptop fixed right away in most cases.
  - superb_dev 27d ago
    The wait can be pretty short, I once got the charging port on my iPhone replaced same day at an Apple Store in Vegas
  - dijit 27d ago
    If you have a business relationship with Apple, it's same-day service. You don't even have to be a large corp for that, my org was 60 people with like 20 Macbooks and we had it. FWIW if you live in a major metro area, Dell also does this, it's not terribly uncommon for business class machines.
  - jtbayly 27d ago
    With the memory shortage, many places you can’t buy most models on the spot. Wait times are almost two months for some machines right now. https://tidbits.com/2026/08/10/mac-delivery-times-stretch-to-months-for-some-models/ https://tidbits.com/2026/08/10/mac-delivery-times-stretch-to...
- ErroneousBosh 27d ago
  Why wouldn't you do that with any other platform? Buy any laptop, stick Linux on it, get working. Buy a cheap shitty Chromebook, ssh to your dev platform, give it to some school child who doesn't have a laptop when you get your real one back. You don't need to be locked into Apple's ecosystem for that.
  - dofm 27d ago
    > Buy any laptop, stick Linux on it, get working. Except it's still a slightly different challenge each time to "get it working", each different PC. A Mac is a Mac is a Mac, more or less. I have a nice Framework laptop on my desk running Kubuntu alongside my Macs. Every now and then I check in, make sure I could switch to it if I needed to, test all my important tasks, plug it in so the stupid mainboard battery does not go flat. And then I go back to my Mac, because I prefer it and even Tahoe isn't painful enough to switch. KDE is fine and I'll use it if circumstances dictate I have to. I think critics misunderstand the extent to which Mac-using devs are "locked into Apple's ecosystem". Unless you're writing iOS apps, you aren't. You perhaps even exist in a more heterogeneous world (Mac and Linux, Mac and Windows, all three) than a Linux-using web dev does. Essentially everything I run is not at all "locked in". I would miss the ease of keychain, handoff and Apple Notes (which I like despite its flaws). And then I'd deal with it. I'd probably carry on using an iPhone (I am very ambivalent about the iPad) FWIW my "Apple ecosystem" is why I have been able to teach myself open weights/open source AI at a pragmatic level, because my secondhand off-the-shelf kit does an acceptable job of it without me yet having to specify a PC I don't have enough use for as a non-gamer. A lot of people have solved a lot of general problems that I don't have to tinker with too early. This isn't a fanboy thing (I would consider myself a qualified critic). Both KDE and GNOME have some nice things. It's just a question of energies. IIRC it was Adrian Cockcroft who said he used Sun at work, and a Mac at home, because performance tuning was his day job and he didn't want to do it at home; I think this resonates. It has been my own choice for 28 years, largely: Mac plus linux.
    - ErroneousBosh 27d ago
      > Except it's still a slightly different challenge each time to "get it working", each different PC Maybe thirty years ago. Not today. Just go and pick up a second-hand Thinkpad for pennies. Everything will work on it.
asdf88990 27d ago
Lots of Lenavo laptops do just fine, but Apple hardware is still supreme for what it is worth.
MadsRC 27d ago
FleetDM comes to mind
esseph 27d ago
> MDM Linux Jumpcloud, I've used it across Windows / Mac / Linux end user desktops and laptop fleets. https://jumpcloud.com/lp/cross-os-device-management-fava-bean https://jumpcloud.com/lp/cross-os-device-management-fava-bea...
- Melatonic 24d ago
  I was skeptical at first but we have deployed it and mostly has been solid. They also add new features quite regularly.

UqWBcuFx6NV4r 27d ago

Hacker News is so utterly detached from reality at times, and comments like these really drive that home.

mathisfun123 27d ago
Most tech people are utterly detached from reality so that definitely tracks
TN1ck 27d ago
Thought I was tripping, someone made the same point today in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49381236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49381236
- AlexeyBelov 25d ago
  Notice dang's comment below. I dislike such comments, especially when they have no details whatsoever, just a swipe.
bigyabai 27d ago
Hacker News is? I worked on an internal tooling team at the beginning of the Apple Silicon transition; we spent months fixing ARM runtime issues that none of our customers encountered. That company probably spent millions of dollars fixing bugs that would never appear in production.