David Heinemeier Hansson

A growing number of developers are switching from Mac to Linux, driven by factors like improved hardware options, Apple's strained developer relations, and influential tech personalities adopting Arch Linux with Hyprland. Despite Arch's reputation for difficulty, it's gaining traction among new user circles, supported by the AUR package repository and gaming advances through Steam Deck. While Linux remains niche on desktop, it's gaining significant mindshare among developers seeking free, open alternatives to commercial operating systems.

Get in losers, we're moving to Linux!

used both, I loved Linux/Ubuntu more than MacOS, but I must say Mac’s hardware and built quality is top notch comparing to other laptop

For laptop, I think nothing compare with Macbooks right now. But for Desktop, linux is the best. Windows is for the trash can.

First and foremost: the opinion below is solely my own, based on my own experiences with Apple hardware (and the state of the current device market). If you find Macs being your thing, good for you - keep at it. 😊 My experience was dissapointing and that’s what the text below is about. This is just to give you another perspective. YMMV. 😉
I used to own a Mac (and an iPhone too, but that’s a different story). I found the ecosystem too limiting for my taste - always had to add a prosthetic of sorts to do what I want. And today it’s no different, it’s just the prosthetic has a well known name (Homebrew) and is a bit easier to use. My adventure with MacOS ended after 6 months and Linux took it’s place (on the same hardware - Linux ran like a charm on Apple hardware back then). The experiment wasn’t also worth the money - I easily could’ve bought a better hardware in the same price range. And the mythical quality is only superficial.
Now, I exchange hardware around every 5 years or so, so it has to be top notch at the time of buying and hold it’s own for at least 3-4 years. Sadly Apple hardware went very old very fast (faster than any hardware I had, after a year or so, I found it too limiting) with no options for upgrade. Let’s look at RAM capacity - important when you’re working on complex, container-based systems, as this will go down very fast. The top MacBook Pro model available today in my country has 48GB RAM - that’s low for developement standards today (of course I can choose a higher option, but let’s stay in this price range, as the upgrade to 128GB costs and additional 25% of the price). For the same price (the “not upgraded Apple” price) I can buy a Dell, Asus or Lenovo with 128GB (and other parameters are nice too, like NVMe drives, etc.) - that’s over double the amount for the same price. That alone speaks volumes - I’m can have something better in the same price range and I can be extremely picky about it. And why would I stay with Apple, given the circumstances? For being locked in and needing prosthetics to make it usable? No, thanks. I’ll pass. 😉
Linux, however, is something I haven’t regretted in 20 years now (excluding that little romance with MacOS). I went from hobby to a full-time everyday use environment very quickly. I did my fair share of distro-hopping (Slackware -&gt; RedHat -&gt; Ubuntu -&gt; Debian -&gt; Gentoo -&gt; Debian -&gt; Arch -&gt; Debian) and I finally settled for Debian. And it just keeps on giving more and more as time goes on. 🙂
Of course it’s not all roses here either, as I have to choose the hardware carefully enough to make sure everything works undisturbed (looking at you Intel and your f-ed up wifi stack - I swear, they can’t fix this for sh… when something really breaks - some bugs are years old now). Companies like Tuxedo help here a lot - even if you don’t buy their hardware, you can see what configs truly work.

I like doing development work on a mac or on linux. I do not like having to constantly fiddle with my linux box if/when it breaks. I like that I haven’t had to install a mac in ~15 years and that I can just buy a new one, connect my time machine backup, and be ready to go immediately with my who dev env already set up.

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influential tech personalities adopting Arch Linux with Hyprland
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theprimeagen mentioned?