Apple is the technical equivalent of North Korea.

There are certain things that bother me about the products themselves. For example, there is one of the other tools that are not Apple-certified, but which you still need from time to time, and what cannot be installed via homebrew or the like is often much more complex to install. I understand the thinking behind it. So, I came up with more reasons:

• Apple is the technical equivalent of North Korea. Both there and their people are locked in a fairly closed system, with the difference that the North Koreans are mostly not enthusiastic about it.
• When you’re a “power user” like programmers, you get annoyed with the usability of Mac OS. I’ve been using Mac OS for a few years and would still say it’s a downgrade coming from Linux or Windows.
• I think freely stating that the only thing “professional” programmers hate about Apple products is the lack of many legacy ports/and/or optical drives, etc. Generally speaking, the point that Apple is trying to replace everything with software is good, but the fact that Apple is banning things like USB ports because of this is really annoying.
• There would not always be two systems for tablets, cell phones, and computers, for which you have to program twice and which you as a developer also have to purchase. Because of course, you need a Mac for IPad/Phone programming.
• Developers hate Apple because the devices are grossly overpriced and the company is clearly using its power.
• Repairs are necessary due to many weak points in the electronic design. These repairs are then also made more difficult. I’m not giving any examples here, you just have to find out more, but what Apple is doing is pretty disgusting.
• The last point is certainly that popular things are being optimized away (the keyboard is being made smaller, the touchpad, which everyone actually really liked, sometimes one less USB port). These are often things where Apple, if you want something different, directly opens up properly.

As a developer, I don’t like all closed systems. Closed in the sense that they develop, follow, and keep secret their own standards. The reason is, that adapting to open standards makes our lives as developers much easier. As an example: you can develop an app in HTML/CSS/Javascript on any operating system that can run a text editor.

On the contrary: if you want to develop a (native) iPhone app, you don’t have a choice: a MacBook is required.