It's ironic that Apple is also preaching "Everyone Can Code". In other words, everyone is or can be a power user.
Computers are becoming more and more essential to our lives, so deliberately dumbing them down is a disservice to everyone, who should be learning more not less about how computers work.
My dad was in sales. My first exposure to computers was when he bought an Apple II way back in the day. He used VisiCalc, naturally, the "killer app" for the Apple II. Was he a "power user" or a "normal person"? I'd say both!
Why does a coder have to be a 'power user'? Why can't the applications needed for coding be like any other normal application? You don't need to use esoteric stuff like emacs to be a coder.
> Why can't the applications needed for coding be like any other normal application? You don't need to use esoteric stuff like emacs to be a coder.
What's a "normal application"? How would you classify Xcode?
The complexity comes from the nature of the work. Nobody wants complexity for its own sake, but sometimes you need it, otherwise you can't accomplish anything. That's what the "power" part of the power user means. The power to accomplish your goals. I would contrast "power user" with "powerless user". ;-)
Xcode is a normal application. I think you can get it from the App Store? It comes with all the permissions it needs, simulators, ability to connect to your devices etc. You don't need emacs or something like that.
People get this funny idea that coding is a fundamentally low-level activity in conflict with user protection. It isn't - it can be high-level. A compiler is a pure function!
> I think you can get it from the App Store? It comes with all the permissions it needs, simulators, ability to connect to your devices etc. You don't need emacs or something like that.
Haha, that's only because Apple controls the App Store and the OS. The first time you launch Xcode, it wants your admin privileges so it can install a bunch of stuff outside the sandbox. I shouldn't even say sandbox, because I think Xcode is not actually sandboxed?
Why does a coder have to use Apple's tools? Why can't the applications needed for coding be like any other normal application? You don't need to use proprietary software like xCode to be a coder.
Seems we're in agreement then. My point wasn't that you shouldn't develop on MacOS, but that it won't fit my needs or workflow. If Apple is disinterested in supporting that, then I'm not interested in supporting them.
Why would I pay a premium to use an operating system that can't run software my free OS can?
> Why would I pay a premium to use an operating system that can't run software my free OS can?
Because you don't need all that software if your goal is to 'code'. If your goal is to run some specific ancient text editor then yeah you may struggle. If you want to code and get something done it's the right platform.
And because the 'normal' things are 10x better - power management, touchpad, display driving, etc.
Do you want to spend your time creating, or time trying to make basic display scaling work on Linux? And why are they better? Because Apple integrates.
I guess it is more like people buying Apple instead of paying Linux OEMs, and then feeling all entitled that it should be Linux after all, that is the problem.
Computers are becoming more and more essential to our lives, so deliberately dumbing them down is a disservice to everyone, who should be learning more not less about how computers work.
My dad was in sales. My first exposure to computers was when he bought an Apple II way back in the day. He used VisiCalc, naturally, the "killer app" for the Apple II. Was he a "power user" or a "normal person"? I'd say both!