You'll have significantly fewer problems with Intel graphics. The Linux drivers are all open-source and they're better integrated with the rest of the system. The only question is if Intel hardware is sufficient for your workload.
NVIDIA makes great hardware, but the interface to it is complex and poorly documented. It's bad enough that Linus once stated that "NVIDIA has been the single worst company we have ever dealt with."
You and all the other replies are missing the whole point. The computer is a tool to get work done. I just want a computer that allows me to get my work done in the least amount of pain as possible. I don't see how Apple gets dethroned in a few years time if this is the state of the competitors.
This computer in its current configuration worked fine with last year's Ubuntu distro. Next year I suspect this will be fixed but something else will be broken. I could switch to Intel but I still won't avoid the next random issue. At the end of the day, the time and money spent will be greater on Linux and for what? So I can say I'm running a complete open system?
> You and all the other replies are missing the whole point. The computer is a tool to get work done. I just want a computer that allows me to get my work done in the least amount of pain as possible. I don't see how Apple gets dethroned in a few years time if this is the state of the competitors.
With respect, macOS "allows you to get your work done in the least amount of pain as possible" precisely because you are used to it and its relative quirks.
I have to use a Mac to occasionally maintain an iOS app. Here's my anecdotal experience: the keyboard shortcuts are entirely unintuitive, Xcode and the Apple store are downright painful to use (Apple's store literally doesn't accept screenshots generated by its own simulator). Software shipped on the machine is often outdated or just broken (trying to install .NET Core on a Mac and dealing with the ancient version of OpenSSL was not fun) and installing new software is a poor experience compared to using apt-get or yum.
I remember using Xcode and being prompted for some credentials during the publishing process - except it prompted more than once. And it was never clear whether I was getting the password right, or I'd typed it in wrong. It turns out windows shake horizontally when you get the password wrong, and if the window disappears and immediately re-appears again then you've got the password correct but you need to type it in again.
Recently I updated Xcode's build component and it decided to silently stop paying any notice to the CODE_SIGNING_REQUIRED environment variable.
Safari is just as poorly designed. Apple frequently enjoy "doing their own thing" which defies conventions set by every other platform - tab behaviour is broken out of the box and does not cycle through links. <iframe> heights are ignored. On mobile, simple CSS properties such as background-attachment aren't supported.
Whenever I have to use a Mac I try to open a terminal as soon as I can and do all work inside one away from Finder and all the other GUI apps, because that's at least a relatively sane part of the system - but I couldn't ever get serious work done on one.
My point is that your anecdotal experiences are far from universal.
>With respect, macOS "allows you to get your work done in the least amount of pain as possible" precisely because you are used to it and its relative quirks.
This is devolving into the same flamewar that always occurs when discussing platform religion so this will be my last post on it.
For the record I have been a dual platform user for 10+ years (Windows and Linux). It was only 4 years ago that I got fed up with countless Android phones having so many bugs. Maybe i'm just cursed. (my last Android phone was a Nexus 5) I finally gave iPhone a try. The experience was so good that I finally considered giving macOS a try. Historically it was always too expensive in my mind to risk trying in case it turned out to be bad. Once the iPhone got me hooked, macOS ended up being a breath of fresh air as well.
As my previous comments eluded, I still try out the other platforms yearly but always go back to macOS now due to the aforementioned problems. Going back to the original comment that I replied to:
>If HN comment sections are early indicators, devs are moving on. We are potentially a few years away from OS X apps no longer being best-in-class for dev tooling. That should scare people who are long Apple, a group that presumably includes their management.
During the 90s and early 00s Apple did not have a majority hold on the dev community. Developers moved to Apple due to to flaws in the other platforms. I have listed issues that are caused by fundamental flaws in the OS. No matter how bad Nvidia is, Linux should never silently crash when trying to log in leaving the user stranded on the login screen. Its just poor design.
If we are talking about Windows well it does not solve any of the OS problems that Apple platforms have and instead introduces additional problems of its own. The only people who would switch are people who are so damaged by Apple's policies on hardware or generic policies that the pain of this overshadows the solid foundation that their OS provides. The pragmatic side of me remains skeptical it will happen on a mass scale.
I triple-boot Ubuntu, Windows and macOS on my Late-2013 MacBook Pro. I bought one with an Intel card specifically for that reason. I have my choice of operating systems, and I find Ubuntu is where I can get things done most easily.
It's not intrinsically obvious that MacOS is easier. Half the OS releases since Mavericks have required some song or dance relating to brew.
NVIDIA makes great hardware, but the interface to it is complex and poorly documented. It's bad enough that Linus once stated that "NVIDIA has been the single worst company we have ever dealt with."