Linux has better hardware support than OS X

Linux (Fedora 18) works a charm on Dell Precision laptops, powerhouse machines at that, can go 32GB RAM like Thinkpad 530Ws, and 3X SSD if you're so inclined (probably coming in sub MBP price to boot).

Had some hiccups with previous Sony Z-series laptop, but one nice thing about switching machines with Linux is that X11 config settings for your peripherals (trackball, wireless KB, etc.) all apply to the new machine.

The biggest headache has been Nvidia, forcing max power consumption (and heat generation) with multi-monitor setups (of course, IIRC that affects all laptop makes, Macs included).

Fortunately Dell Precisions have 2X fans (CPU & GPU) so cool & quiet overall, just not a big fan of Nvidia, would have a near passively cooled machine were it not for the multi-monitor max power issue.

People use OSX cause it has really good hardware which has good enough software support for the things more people do. I am aware this is probably going to sound along the lines of groupthink, but if there are a lot of people doing this, there must be a good reason.

In my case (and I suspect the case for a lot of folks based on conversations within the place I work at), the sweet spot for OSX is that the hardware is amazing , and the OS is just good enough. I work at a place full of Unix heads, and we all deploy to Linux, but use OSX on our MBP laptops. Software is just one part of the equation, but how your laptop feels when you pick it up and take it to a free working space matters. I guess the Thinkpad does hold up in this regard, but MBP-equivalent Thinkpads are typically more expensive.

I wonder if Avdi has tried using the Dell XPS that he mentions in the article. One of my fellow devs got it a few weeks ago and I tried it. The keyboard on that thing is plasticky and feels weak to the touch, unlike the solid aluminum of the Macbook Pro. I would never get it over an MBP.

Now if Apple changes the core functionality of OSX in a way that hurts dev tools that most people use, they will migrate away. I already see this in my workplace where people are still sticking with Snow Leopard till Apple forces them to upgrade. Why? Because it is good enough.

Exactly. If there is any hardware platform that should be a "reference" platform for Linux (or FreeBSD) it should be the mac. It's a very tightly focused hardware ecosystem with broad adoption and of higher quality - inside and out.

In the past few years we had a lot of success using Mac Minis with OS X as servers. With the latest batch of Mac Minis we have purchased we tried to move over from OS X to Linux, partially because people tend to be more familiar with administering Linux servers and partially because OS X as a server can be a bit quirky.

There's another issue here, and I digress, but...

When I first switched to OSX, it was because there was finally a UNIX system that would "just work" with a printer, or whatever, just like the author describes. Even more importantly, there was a UNIX system with a web browser that "just worked" - no more days of hacking to get a PDF to show up properly, or a flash animation, etc.

Now, in 2013, I am willing to stipulate that the author is correct, and hardware support is no longer an issue with Linux, etc. So why am I staying with OSX ?

Because of the virtualization licensing.

No matter what platform I choose to run myself (and I would prefer a free OS) I absolutely need to virtualize OSX. And OSX is the only system I can do that on.[1]

So that's that. As odd as it seems, it is the OS licensing of an OS I don't even care to run that forces me to run it.

[1] Yes, I know all about it. No, I do not have time to hack around the restrictions and trick vmware, etc. I wish I did. I don't.