I hate Apple so god damned much. When I got started in 2003 with the cohort I was in for my elementary education degree, the university required us to get an Apple MacBook G4. We weren’t allowed to choose any other laptop, just that one, and we had to get it from the campus computer store (so of course the school was getting a kickback 🖕).
The power cord on those had a weird round dongle on the end that plugged into the computer. In the center of the dongle was a very thin pin. So, of course, I accidentally tripped on it, and the pin snapped off inside the computer. Easy enough to remove, but it meant I had to buy a brand new adapter to do my coursework.
$80.
Eighty fucking dollars. And there were no third-party adapters at the time (at least when I looked). Oh, and that replacement adapter? CAUGHT ON FUCKING FIRE.
I have not spend a dime on anything Apple touches since then. I’ve been issued iPads by school districts for which I’ve worked in the past, but those pretty much stay locked up in my cabinet. Nope…no Apple Music, no Apple TV, not even a covered-by-the-district $1.99 app for my school iPad.
Luckily, as teacher, I’ve either been issued a Dell or at the very least a MacBook Air with Windows 10 bootcamped every year since. Unfortunately, I am in a new district in Oregon this year (had been in Texas), and my device this year is a non-bootcampable MacBook Air. 🤬
If it helps, you can at least use any USBC charger you want now. I love my M1 air, but have some similar ranty feelings about the older models from 10-15 years ago. I hope you at least give it a chance. I don’t think I could ever go back to Windows. It is Mac or Linux for me.
Well, since you may be forced to use it, here are some utilities to make it better:
Rectangle Pro - 200% necessary. $10. Worth every penny.
Cleanshot X
Homebrew
AltTab
iTerm2
Oh My Zsh
Karabiner Elements may be useful if you need macros/key bindings.
Also, this is cross platform, but giving a shout-out to Obsidian. With a couple plugins, it is a fantastic notes app that is markdown based.
There are plenty of things that are irritating in OSX, but there is a lot I like after using it for a while. Most of the irritations are gone with the above utilities. Unlike Windows, I didn’t have to spend a whole bunch of time debloating the OS and advertisements are not shoved in my face. I probably turned it off, but I don’t have a damn digital assistant shoved in my face either. Both Linux and OSX (which is Unix) have very clean interfaces. As someone with severe ADHD, an overly distracting UI will stress me out. A lot.
I do have some rather strong feelings about what they are doing with permissions in the Sequoia beta, but I also get what they are trying to achieve. iOS though is torture. I will say that for my iPad that it has improved a lot in 18, but I have 0 desire to ever have an iPhone. iPad is still ultimately hindered by the OS. The iPad Pro has an absurd amount of power, but the restrictions in iPad OS hobble what it is truly capable of.
There are plenty of things that are irritating in OSX, but there is a lot I like after using it for a while.
This is my feeling at this point as well. I can’t stand the way OS X’s DE is setup, but holy cow having an actual bash (okay zsh but still) shell with common utilities on my computer is amazing for IT stuff and just bypasses so much faffing with powershell oddities and WSL specifics and let’s you focus far more on just doing the thing
Oh no…there’s no modifying of a school district’s technology allowed. That’s just not a thing, at least not that I’ve heard of in the US. Thanks for the recommendations, though, maybe it’ll help someone else.
The most insane thing about Mac chargers is their lack of a strain relief, solely because the designers didn’t like how they look. So of course they fucking break all the time.
When I was in nursing school I saw all my classmates typing on the brand new Mac’s . And I was sitting there typing on a Toshiba then I gave up the computer and just started writing because I knew ahead of time I would have to prove myself in the field more than getting an A. I got out with a B in all my classes. But somewhere there are many nurses who got D and can barely do field work. I was lucky to have a mom as a nurse. But when I go to a doctors office and a PRN is asking me questions I always ask where did you go to school and so forth. They usually get pissed but I do not care because they relay shit to the doctor. And 90 percent of the time when you go to rural doctors they just read the shit on the screen and go by that. I can say this as a traveling nurse and an ex opiod addict.
I hate Apple so god damned much. When I got started in 2003 with the cohort I was in for my elementary education degree, the university required us to get an Apple MacBook G4. We weren’t allowed to choose any other laptop, just that one, and we had to get it from the campus computer store (so of course the school was getting a kickback 🖕).
The power cord on those had a weird round dongle on the end that plugged into the computer. In the center of the dongle was a very thin pin. So, of course, I accidentally tripped on it, and the pin snapped off inside the computer. Easy enough to remove, but it meant I had to buy a brand new adapter to do my coursework.
$80.
Eighty fucking dollars. And there were no third-party adapters at the time (at least when I looked). Oh, and that replacement adapter? CAUGHT ON FUCKING FIRE.
I have not spend a dime on anything Apple touches since then. I’ve been issued iPads by school districts for which I’ve worked in the past, but those pretty much stay locked up in my cabinet. Nope…no Apple Music, no Apple TV, not even a covered-by-the-district $1.99 app for my school iPad.
Luckily, as teacher, I’ve either been issued a Dell or at the very least a MacBook Air with Windows 10 bootcamped every year since. Unfortunately, I am in a new district in Oregon this year (had been in Texas), and my device this year is a non-bootcampable MacBook Air. 🤬
If it helps, you can at least use any USBC charger you want now. I love my M1 air, but have some similar ranty feelings about the older models from 10-15 years ago. I hope you at least give it a chance. I don’t think I could ever go back to Windows. It is Mac or Linux for me.
Oh I know, but it’s not about the charger at this point; it’s about the company and their stupid, stupid operating system that is dumb.
Well, since you may be forced to use it, here are some utilities to make it better: Rectangle Pro - 200% necessary. $10. Worth every penny. Cleanshot X Homebrew AltTab iTerm2 Oh My Zsh Karabiner Elements may be useful if you need macros/key bindings.
Also, this is cross platform, but giving a shout-out to Obsidian. With a couple plugins, it is a fantastic notes app that is markdown based.
There are plenty of things that are irritating in OSX, but there is a lot I like after using it for a while. Most of the irritations are gone with the above utilities. Unlike Windows, I didn’t have to spend a whole bunch of time debloating the OS and advertisements are not shoved in my face. I probably turned it off, but I don’t have a damn digital assistant shoved in my face either. Both Linux and OSX (which is Unix) have very clean interfaces. As someone with severe ADHD, an overly distracting UI will stress me out. A lot.
I do have some rather strong feelings about what they are doing with permissions in the Sequoia beta, but I also get what they are trying to achieve. iOS though is torture. I will say that for my iPad that it has improved a lot in 18, but I have 0 desire to ever have an iPhone. iPad is still ultimately hindered by the OS. The iPad Pro has an absurd amount of power, but the restrictions in iPad OS hobble what it is truly capable of.
This is my feeling at this point as well. I can’t stand the way OS X’s DE is setup, but holy cow having an actual bash (okay
zshbut still) shell with common utilities on my computer is amazing for IT stuff and just bypasses so much faffing with powershell oddities and WSL specifics and let’s you focus far more on just doing the thingOh no…there’s no modifying of a school district’s technology allowed. That’s just not a thing, at least not that I’ve heard of in the US. Thanks for the recommendations, though, maybe it’ll help someone else.
FUCK THOSE CHARGERS.
I mean yeah, the entire industry was riddled with shitty chargers at that time, but these were the worst.
The most insane thing about Mac chargers is their lack of a strain relief, solely because the designers didn’t like how they look. So of course they fucking break all the time.
When I was in nursing school I saw all my classmates typing on the brand new Mac’s . And I was sitting there typing on a Toshiba then I gave up the computer and just started writing because I knew ahead of time I would have to prove myself in the field more than getting an A. I got out with a B in all my classes. But somewhere there are many nurses who got D and can barely do field work. I was lucky to have a mom as a nurse. But when I go to a doctors office and a PRN is asking me questions I always ask where did you go to school and so forth. They usually get pissed but I do not care because they relay shit to the doctor. And 90 percent of the time when you go to rural doctors they just read the shit on the screen and go by that. I can say this as a traveling nurse and an ex opiod addict.
Are you okay? That’s some serious word salad.