Same for Architecture in the '11-'16 time. I recall that it supported all the software, had decent performance for CAD use cases and easy to pirate Adobe Suite. All round, solid system that worked out of the box mostly.

I think that image kind of stuck. Now I see a lot of CompSci students with MacBooks. I understand the desire for compute power, but at the same time I feel they don't really understand how to use it properly, because of how Apple isolates the user and has such an extensive vendor lock-in strategy.

I feel like, if you can figure out how to make it work with MS Paint on Windows95 (or FreeBSD on potato laptop for CS), then using anything better will put your skillset on steroids.

Laptops were mandatory; MacBooks were all but mandatory.

We always had a few when I worked in international marketing who insisted on Apple when they started. However our IT guys were Win/Linux only and told them that they were on their own if they got an apple. Most of them lasted 6 months before transitioning a windows machine because of constant issues and no support.

Many of them were barely tech literate and only used an apple because everyone else in college used them. They had network of people to help them fix their issues.

I've also seen a lot of graphics people use Apple computers. But I don't see what that has to do with journalism students.

The creative workflow on MacOS is unbeatable - gestures and workspaces and all the little bells and whistles.

You don't even need a gaming distro. You just need to install Steam and (for other games) Bottles and you're pretty much good to go.

I used to be a pure Win dev and used Docker, and so did half of my in-person team. And when we had windows issues, it was always this weird edge-case of "oh, this is only happening on Dave's comp. Or Sarah's. Or Steve's." Even on the same computer brands.

Then pandemic happened, and my company gave everyone Macs to work remotely. And my dept tripled and troubleshooting remotely sucks ass. But these Macs, it was all the same. Dealing with tech issues took an hour vs the whole day. And people spent more time coding than fighting their OS.

On windows, You can absolutely use WSL and all these other work around, but I kept having to fight Windows to do something. Drivers. Or permissions. Or some weird ass setting. But on Macs, troubleshooting and problem solving was way easier. Weird to say, but Apple just gets out of your way.

In terms of "I'm just trying to code", as a Windows user for over 25 years, holy shit Mac just works right out of the box.

And once Linux/proton is more mature, I really can't see using Windows at all.