This is pretty similar to the policy at my company: you get a Mac, unless you specifically request a Linux laptop. If you need Windows for testing, Microsoft makes VM images available with a browser pre-installed at https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/v...
As a long time Windows user, it would take me a considerable amount of time to get used to the operating system and all applications and utilities that I need to be productive. Not saying Windows is great, but it works for me. And I'm pretty sure they don't hire people to learn an operating system.
As a long time multiple OS user and administrator, I can assure you that people figure out MacOS in the first two weeks. It's not anywhere near as strange as getting used to git for the first time.
We don't hire people in order for them to learn Linux, per se. We hire junior sysadmins who already have at least a home lab level of experience there -- a standard interview request is to describe a disaster that you caused, what went wrong, how you solved it, and what you could have done to prevent it and what you did do differently afterwards.
You're not wrong, I only use mac nowadays but I was previously a windows engineer so I know it in and out. It took me two tries to get used to a macbook, one I returned in its 30 day window and the other a corporate policy required Macs years later. It was frustrating for maybe a month or two, mostly the different keyboard buttons and shortcuts, but eventually I got it and I love it now.
I don't love the cost of apps on it, there are some tiny apps that I can't believe how much they want for them, and some bigger apps that are easily $60-200 but I don't need any of those.
Still use windows to game and I think it's still a nice chill OS that just works, for me at least. I didn't enjoy developing on it, though, I broke WSL a bunch of times.
I don't think it's hard to adjust, especially if you are surrounded by other apple users who can give you tips like the command-shift-4/5 screen grab shortcuts, etc. Perhaps more important is a familiarity with unix style command line, which goes a long way in macOS.
With decent Linux knowledge I think being issued a MBP at my first job out of college was better for my productivity than a windows machine would have been within a week or so, even as a long time Windows user. Windows has generally always had a higher frequency of annoyances.
Would you not apply to a role because you aren't comfortable with the main programming language used?
Learning is a part of the on-boarding experience at any new job and technical learning usually pales in comparison to learning about the business domain and company specific practices.
Another good feature of this policy is that it rules out people who explicitly identify themselves as "$OPERATING_SYSTEM user"s. Tying your identity (personal or professional) to some proprietary software brand is a little silly.
I'm a self-identified $OPERATING_SYSTEM user because I have been using $OPERATING_SYSTEM for 20 years in much the same way, like how it works, have a lot of things set up for it which is not always easily portable (e.g. scripts and programs I wrote), and have a lot of $OPERATING_SYSTEM things hard-wired in to my brain and muscle memory.
Can I spend time and effort changing that? Of course. But why fix something that isn't broken?
Am I tying my identify to $OPERATING_SYSTEM? No. It just works for me, so I'm a $OPERATING_SYSTEM user.
Because this can be a form of brokenness. Someone would be hired for their aptitude and probably not because of something they have already repeated over and over (unless we include factory work). The ability to adapt and create (and be creative) is usually not described as such in SWE work, but a lot of the actual work does include that.
That said, if a job has a match based on OS, it would probably just as much be a good thing to explicitly know that you either will be or won't be a good fit based on what you are used to and what you think you can adapt to. Knowing this about a job or a potential hire saves everyone a lot of time.
I like doing useful things; switching tools merely because a corporate policy says so is not useful (whether there are good or bad reasons for that policy is besides the point here).
Says who? I think (as a devil's advocate) it's very useful that people are interchangeable, and that tools are similar enough to allow people to collaborate.
I also think that if (imaginary percentages used) a 10% reduction in productivity because a worker can't use their most bestest tool ever is worth it if it means I can get 40 of those workers for the same price as 10 workers that are proficient in that very special choice of tool. You can pretty much exchange any of those with management overhead or policy requirements (be it by law or otherwise).
I'm not saying there aren't completely valid reasons for a business to have certain policies limiting the software used by their employees (including OS choice), it's just not useful for me. Learning a new language or technology is useful for me because I can then use that language or technology. But switching OS or editor or whatnot well enough to be my daily driver? I don't really see how that's useful for me. I don't really learn anything new, and I won't be any more productive; it'll just be "a thing I have to do, grumble". That's it's useful for the business is a separate thing.
> tools are similar enough to allow people to collaborate.
I think this reason in particular isn't all that valuable though; especially not since people tend to customize their setups anyway. I once worked somewhere that mandated software choice (including IDE) for this reason and I never saw any value in it.
There are plenty of good developers who haven’t had the time to become masters at multiple operating systems yet. In this economy, it’s better to stick with what you know well.
I once worked at a CDN (you know, 99.9% *nix) that didn't allow Linux machines because corporate IT didn't know how to fix them and their remote cough spyware cough didn't work on them. We even told them they don't need to support us at all and we're all old school unix admins, didn't matter, corporate policy. Windows or mac.
