[cryptica]

In this case, people are the problem for being suggestible and buying Apple obsessively. I've worked for 3 different tech companies which bought and forced me to use an expensive company-supplied MacBook, in spite of the fact that their software project ran in production on Linux which is free. The problem is that people are brainwashed.

[_djo_]

That says more about you than about those making those decisions. Have you ever spent the time to figure out why those tech companies might prefer to issue Macs? To look at their total cost of ownership numbers, at the availability of configuration management and security software, at levels of support, and at overall reliability and machine lifespan?

I've been involved in a few exercises to decide what type of machine to use as a standard developer spec device. MacBooks generally turned out to be our best option when taking all requirements into account.

Linux-based offerings are getting steadily better, which is a good thing, but levels of support are still a bit of a problem.

[cryptica]

One of the companies I worked for (a non-profit), the product I was working on was 100% open source and 100% running on Linux, but they still forced me to used a company-supplied Apple Macbook instead of letting me use my personal computer which would have cost them nothing.

In the 2 other companies, I started work with my personal Linux computer but they forced me to switch to a company-supplied Macbook later. It's not about costs.

[_djo_]

Every company I've worked for in recent years has blocked people using their personal computers for work, for compliance reasons. Unless you could prove that the personal devices are under the same compliance regime you'd fail any audit.

Even non-profits often have to abide by the same compliance requirements, often insisted on by their funders.

Issuing a standard computer with a standard managed configuration just removes a ton of headaches for IT.