Why I'm Still Using macOS

I started an email thread with Jeremy Friesen, that we later roped Jack Baty into, discussing our relative computing choices. The thread has gotten lengthy, and honestly was probably always better suited for blogging, so I decided to post my next response here.

Jeremy and Jack have both switched at least part of their computing from macOS to Linux, continuing a decades old tradition of getting fed up with Apple’s corporate malarkey and jumping ship to the open waters of open source. I don’t want to speak for them, but my impression is that Jeremy has had more luck making the switch than Jack has, but they’ve both wound up with one foot in each pool. I feel the pull of Switcher Season every few years myself, more powerfully in 2025 than in the past, but still not quite strongly enough to convince me that it’d be in my best interest.

There are a few practical reasons I’m still enjoying my walled garden.

Sunk Costs

I’ve spent quite a bit of money on my Apple ecosystem over the years. An investment that I’d like to make the best out of. Most recently an Apple Watch Ultra 2, a decision I struggled over for weeks. I was very close to buying a Garmin Fenix, but in the end decided on the Apple Watch because, again, it was so well integrated with the rest of the Apple ecosystem.

There’s also a number of third-party applications that I’ve paid for, most notably OmniFocus, an app for which there really is no equivalent anywhere else.¹ There’s also OmniGraffle from the same crew, as well as Transmit, Acorn, and DEVONthink. All in all, the third-party ecosystem might be the most compelling reason not to switch.

Hardware

Linux has an even more difficult time running on Macs since Apple switched to their M-series chips, and the PC world just doesn’t have anything close to the power, efficiency, and build quality of a Mac. Vendors like System76 and Framework each make compelling cases for their machines, in the end you just won’t get the same battery life and performance as you will running macOS on a MacBook.

One only needs to feel the difference between any PC and a MacBook. Pick one up, set it down and open the lid, close it again. Pick it back up. The Mac feels sturdy, well built. Test the trackpad, the keyboard, feel the snap of the MagSafe power cord as it magnetically connects and lights up. The Mac hardware is once again that good.

Also, buying new hardware would be expensive. Especially if I wanted something that was at least close to the build quality and specs of a MacBook. It’d be several thousand dollars invested in a new machine that I’m not entirely sure I want.

Familial Obligations

Over the past two decades of using Apple gear, I inevitably bought some for my kids when they were ready. Starting with iPhones when they were teenagers, then Macs for college if they chose to go, and HomePods or Apple Watches for gifts. I pay for Apple One Premier which comes with just enough accounts for everyone in our family to share iCloud Drive, Apple TV, and Apple Music. As our family has grown and moved farther away, we rely on FaceTime and Messages to keep in touch, sharing quick photos and videos throughout the day. We also share our workouts in Apple Fitness, so I often get pings from one of my daughters and reply with a quick encouragement.

If I were to start moving away from Apple, and macOS specifically, I’d miss out on some of those little interactions throughout the day. Maybe I’d be more focused at work, but I also wouldn’t have those little pings of connection that make me smile.

Will I Ever Switch?

Given all of that, even after sounding like a commercial for Apple in this post, I still want to switch. Apple’s declining software quality, their horrible design decisions over the past few years, poor treatment of developers, overall greed, and executive embrace of our authoritarian regime have all given me ample reason to move to a computing platform that I can own and control. There’d be so much that I’d miss though, I’m not sure when I’ll ever decide to do it. Maybe if Tim Cook gives Trump another gold trophy. Or if Apple abandons all good taste and decides to put ads in Finder like Microsoft. At that point I’d drop them like a hot potato.