this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Most nerds I know (including sysadms) started out on Android because of all the reasons you'd expect. Most of them now use iOS / iPadOS because, at home, they want things to Just Work - and have the available income to throw at the problem. Desktop-wise many of them have used Macs on and off, but it seems like lately they trend Windows and Linux again. Probably because macOS has become more hassle than it's worth with the continued locking down, increased paranoia, lower flexibility and ridiculous storage prices. It used to be that you could work around the storage prices, but these days it's practically impossible to run programs from somewhere other than Applications if you want your system to stay up to date. Macs just aren't the great *nix alternative that they used to be, and while Windows is still pretty awful for my use, Linux as a desktop/gaming system is getting better every day. At least so far. I miss when macOS became more useful for every release. The big releases these days break more than they fix for me.
I work in software development, not sure why but most of the sysadmins and DevOps guys I know use Apple (phone and laptop). Most developers use Android (and usually Linux). Most testers use Android and Windows. This is purely from personal experience from the last few teams I worked in.
It's because DevOps need to be able to do anything, and there are some tasks where a Mac has better software. Also, iPhones have amazing integration with Macs. From copy/paste as if they were the same device to being able to open a dev tools inspector on your computer to debug a page loaded up on your phone to just not even needing to use a phone at all (you can run iPhone apps and websites, on every hardware size and operating system version, on a Mac).
In my experience very varied. I feel students lean more towards Android, but if you develop on Mac you’re also more likely to have an iPhone, but the one place where it’s somehow been consistently Android in my team is the app developers.
While I don’t mind it at all, somehow the Android build of our app still has the most issues. Consistently over almost six years now. Which I find a bit ironic.
A friend of mine that was also a former colleague has always been an Android guy. A year ago he switched employer and the new company is iPhone only - but he can’t get the latest versions, and it’s basically just the base version too. So he’s still running with his Galaxy S21, but no e-mail or calendar sync.
I think he’d switch if he could put some of his own cash in and upgrade to the top model.
People can have the preference they want in life, but there’s no need to obnoxious about it.
It's because at home the efficiency doesn't matter and you can do more with x64 still. The constraints of having their memory on the CPU instead of slightly slower socketed memory are more relevant, too, because there are more uses for higher amounts on a desktop.