I was forced to switch from Debian running on an Asus ZenBook to a MacBook Pro 4 years ago when I got my first "real" software engineering job. Having used Linux for 8+ years before that in highschool and college, it took some getting used to learning new key bindings and quickly navigating the OS. Fortunately, I was surrounded by experienced highly technical MacOS users so I had a lot of support when I didn't know how to do something on MacOS. I'm now at the point where I can easily switch between Linux and MacOS (going to windows is a lot harder for me).
There are a few things that make me comfortable in both OSs:
- I spend 80% of my time in the terminal (nvim, tmux, etc.)
- Apt and Brew are pretty comparable package managers for my needs
- I learned to use spotlight on MacOS and I make sure my Linux system has a similar fuzzy launcher with the same key binding
- I use vcsh to manage my dot files it's split into 3 repos root: all cross-platform config, macos: MacOS specific config, debian: All Debian specific config
- I keep most windows fullscreen which helps me focus on what I'm doing
- If I need to look at things side by side, I use Tmux if they're both in the terminal or hammerspoon if one is in the browser
- Hammerspoon is the most useful MacOS specific application in existence, is a text configured swiss army knife that I currently use for: window tiling, keyboard application launching/jump to application, and clipboard history
- Karabiner is really useful for remapping keys like Caps Lock -> Ctrl, also it can disable the built-in keyboard so I can set my mechanical keyboard on top of it
I recently bought an M1 MacBook Pro to use as my personal development machine and it's been life changing. It is far and away the best laptop I've ever owned! Doing everyday tasks like moving files around in the file manager and opening applications is noticeably faster (or more accurately unnoticeably faster as I don't ever have to wait it just does what I want instantly so I don't think about it). Using my M1 now reminds me of how I felt in highschool when I put Debian with xfce on my netbook after having Windows 7 on it, everything felt so snappy and quick. It's delightful to go from a machine that has a slight lag after every action to one that doesn't.
Another thing that I've really enjoyed about MacOS is a lot of things "just work". I remember spending days messing with Wayland and X trying to fix screen tearing issues during HD video playback and everytime there was a major version update for Debian I'd spend a couple hours fixing small things in my workflow that stopped working. There are some annoying things with MacOS too, mostly hardware issue revolving around dongle life, but they don't usually take long to sort out. I'm at the point in my life where I'm starting to prefer convenience over configuration (e.g. I haven't rooted my last few phones, because the extra configuration options aren't worth the time sink)
Overall, having used both MacOS and Linux(Debian) as daily drivers for years I really like both, but day-to-day use of my M1 has pushed me solidly into the MacOS camp and I would choose an M1 MacBook Pro over even the best alternative running Linux.
There are a few things that make me comfortable in both OSs: - I spend 80% of my time in the terminal (nvim, tmux, etc.) - Apt and Brew are pretty comparable package managers for my needs - I learned to use spotlight on MacOS and I make sure my Linux system has a similar fuzzy launcher with the same key binding - I use vcsh to manage my dot files it's split into 3 repos root: all cross-platform config, macos: MacOS specific config, debian: All Debian specific config - I keep most windows fullscreen which helps me focus on what I'm doing - If I need to look at things side by side, I use Tmux if they're both in the terminal or hammerspoon if one is in the browser - Hammerspoon is the most useful MacOS specific application in existence, is a text configured swiss army knife that I currently use for: window tiling, keyboard application launching/jump to application, and clipboard history - Karabiner is really useful for remapping keys like Caps Lock -> Ctrl, also it can disable the built-in keyboard so I can set my mechanical keyboard on top of it
I recently bought an M1 MacBook Pro to use as my personal development machine and it's been life changing. It is far and away the best laptop I've ever owned! Doing everyday tasks like moving files around in the file manager and opening applications is noticeably faster (or more accurately unnoticeably faster as I don't ever have to wait it just does what I want instantly so I don't think about it). Using my M1 now reminds me of how I felt in highschool when I put Debian with xfce on my netbook after having Windows 7 on it, everything felt so snappy and quick. It's delightful to go from a machine that has a slight lag after every action to one that doesn't.
Another thing that I've really enjoyed about MacOS is a lot of things "just work". I remember spending days messing with Wayland and X trying to fix screen tearing issues during HD video playback and everytime there was a major version update for Debian I'd spend a couple hours fixing small things in my workflow that stopped working. There are some annoying things with MacOS too, mostly hardware issue revolving around dongle life, but they don't usually take long to sort out. I'm at the point in my life where I'm starting to prefer convenience over configuration (e.g. I haven't rooted my last few phones, because the extra configuration options aren't worth the time sink)
Overall, having used both MacOS and Linux(Debian) as daily drivers for years I really like both, but day-to-day use of my M1 has pushed me solidly into the MacOS camp and I would choose an M1 MacBook Pro over even the best alternative running Linux.