It's a reasonable question.

For me it's really that I make money writing code; I haven't figured out how to get paid for configuring my laptop, so I'd prefer not to spend time on it. Also, work has no issues handing me an iMac but would get testy if I started running Linux on their network ... I realize that's silly but it's not a fight I'm interested in having. Once that stake is in the ground it makes sense to me to keep the environment homogeneous. Plus there's software I really do find useful: File Vault, Time Machine, iTunes, Omnigraffle, Skype, Live, Logic, iPhoto, and so on. I'm sure there are Linux alternatives but there's a cost associated with switching that I would find very expensive. So although the hardware might be more expensive than the alternatives (and again, even if it's $1k over the life of the machine is that a lot?), the operating costs are -- for me -- cheaper.

If I'd ever run into serious issues moving code between Linux and OS X I'd rethink it but I'm not sure I can remember a time when functional tests passed or failed in one environment but not the other. It all gets rerun in integration testing anyway, so even if something cropped up it'd be more of a curiosity than a production issue. I wouldn't run serious load, capacity, or performance testing on my desktop no matter what the OS, so that's a wash. I could imagine cases where this isn't so easy but apparently that's not the kind of development I do.

I'm not trying to sway anyone. It works well for me and has proven a profitable choice, that's all I really care.

I'm curious ... what's changed? I get a lot of mileage out of OS X as a developer workstation and am honestly wondering what I'd gain by switching back to Linux.

I know there's a lot of talk about cost but that's irrelevant to me, $1k this way or that over the life of a computer just doesn't matter much. There seems to be discussion about the "walled garden" but at least for what I'm doing (Erlang, Scala, Ruby, Lisp, Postgres, MySQL, Emacs, &c.) I've never run into an issue. Nor has there ever been much of an issue deploying to Linux once the code's written.

So what blows?

In the same spirit as Cryptonomicon, I'd suggest:

- Thomas Pynchon: Against the Day, Gravity's Rainbow ... if you were forced to read The Crying of Lot 49 in school, give Pynchon another chance, he gets much better.

- Anything by David Foster Wallace. Although not all his work is not directly mathematical, his interest in math influences the way he writes. Infinite Jest is a fabulous read.

- Georges Perec: Life, A User's Manual. The Oulipo movement (of which Perec's a member) let algorithms directly influence the text (as well crop up in their stories). Perec is good, Calvino, Queneau, and Mathews are also Oulipo members readily available in English.

- Paul Verhaeghen: Omega Minor ... more science than math, still, a very engaging read.

(And although not mathematical at all, if you liked Crypto, you'd probably like Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.)

Along those lines: Racket: http://docs.racket-lang.org/ ... from download to putting pictures on the screen in 30 seconds.

"Twat" is the term you're looking for.

Oh, you mean the things that didn't work with C back in 1988 and didn't work with C++ in 1994 and didn't work with Perl in 1998 and didn't work with Java in 2003 and didn't work with C# in 2008 won't work with Ruby in 2011? Gosh, it's almost like all that prior experience is transferrable somehow, if only we could find some commonality.

"They" may be well educated and wealthy, but "they" are also bigots. If it's not offensive, why only "when not in a the presence of black people"? What are you all afraid of?

The "it's only a word" non-argument only makes sense if the words don't have meaning. Once they're stand-ins for concepts they're no longer "just words." Didn't you learn anything about semiotics in school?

Consider a drum, xylophone, small guitar ... that sort of thing. Kids love shit that makes noise, exposing them to music is no bad thing, and it will drive your siblings crazy. Win, win, win. We bought my GF's nephew a drum for Xmas when he was a little kid; he's now in his second year at Berklee. It's probably not a direct correlation, but the exposure can't have hurt.

If we can set aside the fact that this is a cult leader who likes to play dress-up (hard, I agree), it might be that his statements have some merit. I mean, Twitter isn't actual communication, the people on Facebook aren't really friends, a half a dozen regularly read blogs do not comprise a realistic worldview, and so on. There's so much technical mediation of the real world nowadays that it's not like you have to look far to find someone who doesn't believe it's true unless his phone tells him about it. (Or, worse, who can't experience something without twittering it.)

Sometimes even insane people make valid points.

If this were the only true assertion you made (and it's not) it's reason enough to seriously consider Perl. I'd love to use Ruby more (it's a fun language, I like the OO, distributed and multithreaded programs are easy to write) but the libraries are lacking (as is easy library management).

Makes you figure there's a reason (La)TeX is still popular too, huh?

The issue must be an interesting one ... Ally McBeal ran the issue up the legal flagpole as well.

http://www.tv.com/ally-mcbeal/these-are-the-days/episode/1000/summary.html?tag=ep_guide;summary

With respect, I'm not sure either of these issues are the fault of the software.

For instance, the default Apache httpd.conf reads:

# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do. They're here only as hints or reminders. If you are unsure
# consult the online docs. You have been warned.

I suspect that a similar warning may have been missing from the init.el that was being passed around.

Of course, emacs-lisp doesn't look much like C (or a language whose syntax derived from C), so there's certainly some getting over the parenthesis and function-first syntax. After that hurdle (and a bit of understanding what a symbol is and how to quote a list), it's just a matter of looking up unfamiliar functions (online, with C-h f), isn't it?

It's probably just me, but these statements seem contradictory.

Seriously, emacs users are actually a really helpful bunch, check out the emacs wiki for instance. Or consider the amount of effort that's gone into making the customization system (M-x customize) easy for both end users to use and emacs-lisp developers to incorporate into their extensions. Or the quality (and price!) of the Emacs manual, Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp, or Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

Emacs users might be perceived as elitist or something, but the feeling I've always had is that it's a community that strives to be welcoming and not holier-than-thou.

If?

I'm not sure. Maybe it's all hogwash, but Apple appears to take the working conditions of its suppliers' employees pretty seriously. You can read about it here: http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/ .