I am so sick of the platform wars... Every time Apple comes out with something, there are a crap ton of articles such as the one saying Microsoft is more Apple than Apple and Linux is the answer, etc., etc., etc. Some are click bait and some are trying to restart the Microsoft / Apple / Linux wars. Well here's some information from someone who runs or ran just about every top tier OS ever made.
1. Apple Macs are more than just tech specs. You cannot compare hardware chipsets and revisions between a Mac and anything else. The OS varies. It is the combination of elegant hardware, drivers and operating system that work together to provide a very nice overall user experience. You simply have fewer problems overall. If you are a programmer it is the best platform. You get all the developer tools for free and anything open source runs on it. Plus you get Microsoft Office and Adobe apps, etc. that won't run on Linux. Mac's are fantastic for anyone managing a Unix/Linux data center or doing DevOps, etc. It's not just for those graphic artist weenies and photographers. It's a great family home machine as it will less likely get hacked and abused by malware (if properly setup). TimeMachine backups work, it's saved my bacon many times to the point of having a dead hard disk and being back in business a couple hours later with a new drive. Is it the right choice for everyone? Hell no!
2. Linux is great, absolutely amazing; on servers. It sucks badly on laptops. Disclaimer: it is getting better and with System76 and Dell providing very nice Linux hardware platforms. But the GUI is nowhere near consistent with way too many choices. For me it's all command line all the time. Meanwhile, Microsoft is embracing Linux because of the Cloud. They are porting SQL Server to Linux, running Linux in Azure, bringing some Linux/GNU goodness to the command line in Win10, etc. Most everything that runs on Linux runs on Mac. I think the Linux and Open Source guys are winning!
3. You want to buy a Dell XPS Developer Edition with Linux or maybe a System76, go right ahead. You want to strip out Ubuntu and run ArchLinux, more power to you! Just don't go claiming it is a viable replacement for a Mac cause it's not even close. I know all about Linux, been using it prior to the kernel 1.0 release, back when you had to rewrite two boot floppies to get the CDROM to install and there was no broadband. I know how to tweak it and make it sing. I've spent a million hours tweaking it. This is the reason I didn't buy an Android phone. It's a tool an appliance, I don't want to spend all my spare time tweaking it. I want it to work out of the box and I want the OS to get the hell out of my way. Open bag, pull out Mac, flip open lid, unlock, do work, close lid, slide back into the bag, rinse and repeat day after day after day. Plug it in to charge when it needs it. Reboot when you have to. Backups? Make sure TimeMachine or CrashPlan is working, done.
4. Windows has actually improved quite a bit but it's still frustrating. There are still a lot of problems. I don't run Windows at home except for a few virtual machines because I fix computers all day long at work, I don't want to do battle with malware at home on my wife's PC. I converted her to Mac a long time ago and she never has issues. She brings her friends laptops home for me to fix running Vista on a PoS ancient laptop. I now charge $500 to even look at it cause it will consume the next 72 hours of my life fixing it.
I've got 5 Mac's at home, a few iPads and iPhones it all works nice together. I have a SmartOS private cloud with 24TB's of storage at home as well. It's running about 50+ virtual machines many of which are Linux servers. A few Win7/Win10 VMs for when I need them. I run Plex and stream video to AppleTV's and iOS devices. I rarely have problems of any kind. Would I give my wife a Linux laptop to use as her primary computer? Nope, not gonna happen. Have I run Linux as my main system, most definitely yes but lately they hum away in the private cloud with zero GUI and I manage them from SSH and Chef.
You know what? Use what works for you man. Build it yourself but for crying out loud stop fighting about it. People who like Apple are the same kind of people who like BMW, Mercedes, and Audi. They like their computers to look good to the eye, perform well, and be slick. Others will buy an old Toyota Supra juice it up and smoke Ferrari's and Lambo's on the weekends. Or they will take a Honda and juice it up and drag race those luxury cars. Top performance in computers is silly, in three months there is always something faster and better. Of course you can build a tower that will stop a Mac Pro but it's not gonna be as small and fit on the top of your desk and it won't be as quiet, etc.
These new MacBook Pro's with USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 ports and the Touch Bar with TouchID are fascinating but I am no hurry to jump on the bandwagon. Maybe some time down the road it will make sense in a year or two. But there is no reason for me to run out and buy one right now. I do know they have an Esc button so that's good but for me I will wait for iTerm2 to support the TouchBar and some other things to kick in and be compatible, like a 3rd party dock or that LG monitor to be available. Meh... just not that impressed other than it's a major overall improvement.
Flame on my Slashdotter brothers and sisters, Flame on...