What I Think About When I Think About Switching Back to a Mac

 In 2024, two years after writing this post, I switched to using a Mac and am happy.

Sometimes I feel owned by my computer.

I’ve been using Linux for 3 years and I run an Arch system. This means that I have to set up a lot of things myself.

I’m the one responsible for installing a terminal emulator, for making bluetooth work, for making sure that when I insert a USB drive, my computer mounts it. I don’t have an app store. I have to manually configure my screen mirroring. Even wifi was something I had to set up myself.

I like to tinker. I chose Linux because I wanted to understand my computer better. I wanted to be a better computer user and software developer.

But sometimes… it’s can feel like it’s too much.

I have a life. My kids, my wife, my family, my house, my lawn, my job, my cat, my health, my sleep… it all requires a lot of my time.

And so, sometimes, I think about switching back to a Mac.

If I were to use a Mac, I wouldn’t ever need to think about my init system. Wifi, bluetooth, and multiple monitors would just work. I could use VSCode and just install plugins without understanding how they worked on my system. I could use a Final Cut Pro to edit videos.

I wouldn’t use a tiling window manager. I’d just let the windows fall where they may. It might take me a while longer to find them, but that’s ok. I would switch back to Qwerty (from whatever I’m using now) and submit to the status quo.

I’d leave my MacBook Pro on the dining room table all day and come back to find it still fully charged. My wife would reach over to show me something funny she’d seen online, and be able to navigate my computer.

At work, when someone asks me if the software I wrote works on a Mac, I’d be able to confidently say “yes”, instead of shrugging and saying “I hope so.”

I’d buy AirPods and an iPhone and sing about how well they work together. Everything shiny and smooth. I’d work from Starbucks.

Switching back to Mac would be a surrender, but life would be better in the walls of the castle than it is out here in the Linux hinterland.

That’s what I think… until I think a bit more.

When I think more, the problems of using a Mac come into focus.

Ever year I would have to update my operating system and risk breaking my computer. So I’d hold off for months like so many others do. When I did upgrade, Docker would stop working. But that’s ok. I’d figure it out.

But Docker would run slower on a Mac. I’d have to use Docker Desktop. I would try, but fail, to understand how it works, like so many others do.

I’d be at the whim of whatever the Apple team decides to do with their laptops. If Apple decides that I need a new cable, then I need a new cable. If they decide to use a worse keyboard, they’ve decided that for me.

I’d have access to an app store, yes. But now most apps would be paid. And there’d be fewer options. If I want to install something from outside the app store, I need to do it myself. Or learn to use the Brew package manager which I’ve somehow heard is both amazing and terrible.

If I switched back to Mac, I’d have to relearn the Command Key, disable Siri, and fight with the OS whenever I wanted to do anything “dangerous”.

If I switched back to Mac I’d have trouble diagnosing system errors. Was it something I did? Is this common? Do I need to reinstall the OS? I’d probably just live with the errors, like so many do.

If I switched back to Mac, I’d offload so many small problems to Apple, and so long as they could take care of them, I’d be happy. But they wouldn’t take care of them all… little things would bother me. Eat away at me. And eventually, I’d want to be back on Linux.

Back on Linux where I get to set up my own wifi and bluetooth. Back on Linux where I decide what init system to run. Back on Linux where no one can use my computer but me, because I’ve made it an extension of myself. Back on Linux where I am both owned by and the owner of my computer.

But sometimes, I think about switching back to a Mac.