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I still brush elbows with people that pay for Sublime Text and Git Tower, I just look down on their judgement as an individual. We don't live in an era where you have to pay for IDEs or compilers or even OSes anymore. Frivolous and vain spending like that absolutely reflects the sort of user you are and many (famously opinionated) developers will judge you for it accordingly. It's like driving a $150,000 supercar to work, you look like a tool and everyone knows it.

> There's much more of a culture of paying your fucking developers on MacOS

No, not really. It's more that Mac users are famously price-insensitive, and since Apple deliberately neglects cross-platform APIs they can create a captive userbase of desperate and moneyed software customers. It's a culture of exploitation on either side, as Apple makes so abundantly clear with their desperate clawing at the iOS market and the right to process payment for thousands of microtransactions a second.

> whereas Windows is shoveled full of "It's free take it" apps that are under the hood paid for through data collection.

MacOS is replete with those too, and many of them will charge you a monthly fee and steal your data. I think Windows is a fucking deralict operating system for the record, but modern MacOS is almost just as terrible and it's honestly hillarious watching people try to deny it. Yeah, you think Apple's fostering a "pay the developers" culture, huh? I don't see much kool-aid left in your styrofoam cup.



I’m genuinely curious to hear such a viewpoint.

I’m a happy paid up user of Sublime, it’s gotten me through my PhD, and I’ve earned my livelihood with it for many years. The motivation to switch to something else because it’s free (either as in beer, or just maintained by volunteers as long as it’s the current cool thing) for me is nonexistent.

I can’t take your comparison between spending $99 on something that helps me earn many many times that, and $150k on a car seriously I’m afraid.


This is kind of a crazy take.

The comparison to a "$150k sports car" is crazy -- a Sports Car can be a flashy way to display wealth. No one is displaying wealth by having once paid for a Sublime License.

No one is sliding up to folks at a bar, flashing their Coda license, to prove they've "made it". "Hey baby, why don't you come back to my place, I've got a developer license for the entire JetBrains Product Suite" is simply not a thing.

The closest analogy I can think of, is probably in construction hardware tooling. Folks being "Mikita" vs "DeWalt" vs "Milwaukee" people or some such.


> It's like driving a $150,000 supercar to work, you look like a tool and everyone knows it.

That’s like your opinion, man. If someone can afford to drive supercar to work - good for them. There’s nothing virtuous in poverty.

> No, not really. It's more that Mac users are famously price-insensitive, and since Apple deliberately neglects cross-platform APIs they can create a captive userbase of desperate and moneyed software customers. It's a culture of exploitation on either side, as Apple makes so abundantly clear with their desperate clawing at the iOS market and the right to process payment for thousands of microtransactions a second.

Again, that’s like your opinion. I grew up knowing that Mac is for artists and people with money because they don’t want to bother with freeware of varying quality.


"That’s like your opinion, man. If someone can afford to drive supercar to work - good for them. There’s nothing virtuous in poverty."

Off topic. While you are free to have your own opinions, we should not let such statements stand alone.

"If someone can afford to do xxx good for them." Can you think of any xxx -fill in the blank - that is not "good for them" admirable? I certainly can. There are way too many examples grab-em-by-the-p** billionaires in our world. They are not admirable, nor can I say "good for them".

"There is nothing virtuous in poverty". My experience differs. The most admirable, strongest, kindest and bravest I know, are those people who exist in poverty or at least struggle. And they are by far hardest working. Struggle can certainly break people and does.

It is a simple truth that we depend on each other. That "good for them" person you talk about depends on the work of others. It is a fact that we who are doing well are doing so at the expense of other people. But let us not celebrate that fact. If you are doing well, at least have the decency to understand your good fortune (aka luck).


> "If someone can afford to do xxx good for them." Can you think of any xxx -fill in the blank - that is not "good for them" admirable? I certainly can. There are way too many examples grab-em-by-the-p* billionaires in our world. They are not admirable, nor can I say "good for them".

Judging by the context of the discussion - we’re not talking about billionaires. We’re talking about your run of the mill wagie who made some cash and now drives his 911 because they can.

> "There is nothing virtuous in poverty". My experience differs. The most admirable, strongest, kindest and bravest I know, are those people who exist in poverty or at least struggle. And they are by far hardest working. Struggle can certainly break people and does.

Cool. What makes them virtuous is their hard work not that they’re poor. They’re virtuous despite being poor, not because of it.

If you’re seething at the thought of someone driving their expensive car to work - you’re just envious asshole who should mind their own business.




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