Why I use a MacBook now

Table of Contents

The only thing constant in life is change

I have always been a PC user, even if I tried something new.

My OS History and Background #

1996: tried OS/2 dual booting with Windows 95.
1997: installed Debian 2.1 alongside OS/2 and Windows 95 (it took me a month to get X up and running, but this may be another story for the future).
2004: started working, using Gentoo on a ThinkPad.
2011: I purchased a white x86 MacBook. I was fed up with its lack of customization, open-source support, and sluggishness. I installed Windows and ended up selling it in 2012.

For all these years, I switched between Linux and Windows, with Arch as my primary driver and sometimes using a MacBook as a replacement.

In 2019, I was hired by a company that, by policy, used only Macs, so I started again.
I didn’t like macOS for its lack of GNU support and window management behavior, which always tried to slow me down. As always, I ended up installing something else (Ubuntu) since I was lucky to get a model that was still compatible.

In 2020, at beSharp, I had to choose between a Dell XPS and a MacBook. I went for the XPS, dual-booting Windows (to have something to install the PearsonVUE agent to take AWS Certification exams) with Arch as my primary OS.

When the Asahi Linux project started, I was curious because the M-series MacBook was promising. Also, having a first-class Linux experience with full hardware support was something I always longed for.
I tried it in 2023, but it still wasn’t something that could be used for my daily work (I have to deal with many different meeting rooms, hardware, and docking stations, and without Thunderbolt support, I’m helpless).

Things happen #

Speaking of ThunderBolt support, suddenly…

Two weeks ago, right a day before heading to Sarajevo to give a speech at Community Day Adria, my Thunderbolt ports stopped working suddenly.

It wasn’t a kernel update; it stopped working with all our docking stations and meeting rooms, even with Windows.

There were no PCs available, so I was given a shiny new MacBook M4 Pro (thanks to Francesco for his immediate help)

With my previous experience, I was prepared to fight multitasking nonsense, install HomeBrew, break system packages, and fight with Python versions until I discovered that…

Multitasking wasn’t so bad, now (finally), I can snap windows, and also assign custom keyboard shortcuts
HomeBrew wasn’t something I still need (spoiler alert: read along and you’ll find why you want Nix package manager instead)
Battery life was definitely something I had never experienced in my life (especially while travelling and giving presentations)
Hardware was, as always, super good
Last, but not least, I could assign custom key shortcuts to switch between Virtual Desktops and have more customization freedom

Still, keyboard task switching is barely usable, and I found out that mouse gestures now don’t support a three-finger tap to act as a middle click. Right after installing it, my Bluetooth mouse didn’t want to get paired. It wasn’t a good start.

I took my flight to Sarajevo, had an amazing time at Community Day Adria, and, when I gave the speech, everything went fine. I didn’t have to worry about finding a laptop charger (during the AWS summit, I had to run because my PC was running out of battery, and the remaining time wasn’t enough to complete my talk).
When I was on my flight back, thinking about the whole experience, I found that my workflow and the way I use my personal computing devices had changed during these years, but I was still working in the same way with the same tools.

I decided to try again and see how it goes with my current workflow. I gave myself a full working week, and, as I’m writing, this is the last day.

I will use the MacBook as my primary work device.

Reasons for my change #

In these years I started working as a System Administrator/Network Engineer/Whatever to keep a big website running on VMWare, switched to DevOps and K8 on-premise, changed to AWS Cloud Native Services, and became a Solutions Architect at beSharp.

I started attending (and enjoying) community events, public speaking, sponsoring booths during events, travelling, and writing articles, and I became a Community Builder and Principal Solutions Architect at work.
These last activities require tools other than the shell, Visual Studio Code, Docker, and a bunch of custom aliases.
PowerPoint, Teams, and Google Meet have become a part of my days. Rebooting to use Windows to modify a presentation and then rebooting to fix a deployment takes time and is not a good workflow. Installing a VM and using PowerPoint is also a hack, considering that I also have to be able to do these activities without having access to a power source or open a PowerPoint while being out of the office. Even with KDE, Google Drive integration is not as good as with native clients.

One of the advice in my talks is

Use the right tool for the job, don’t fall in love with a specific technology. Always try new things and use what’s best for your use case

So here I am, colleagues giving me strange looks when I bring my MacBook to a meeting. (I saw some of them taking photos 😁 )

Customizations #

There are still some things that I need to fix for my daily usage. I found a way to get everything to fit my workflow (like having a three-finger tap, a working task switcher, and GNU packages installed without brew). See them in this article!