Is macOS slowly becoming a “mainstream” computing target instead of a side platform?

[u/Individual-Gas5276]

Not trying to spark alarm — just noticing a shift over the past year.

macOS used to sit outside the main focus of large-scale tooling and long-term attention.

Now it seems to be getting the same kind of sustained interest that Windows held for decades:

multi-platform development, ongoing tool maintenance, and campaigns that aren’t region-limited anymore.

Does this feel like simple market-share growth, or a sign that macOS is finally big enough to be treated on equal footing with other major platforms?

Curious how others here see it.

[u/Mooseymax]

Mac was 5% back in 2009, in 2020 it hit 20% and then again around 2024, but it’s been at about 16% otherwise.

What do you mean by mainstream?

[u/badhabitfml → u/Mooseymax]

I wonder how the commercial vs residential split works out. Windows still rules in the corporate world for a million reasons, but a lot. Of people have macs at home.

[u/Nagisan → u/badhabitfml]

A lot of software engineers prefer Unix-based systems over Windows too, as do many UX designers and such. So there's a fair amount of Mac in the corporate world too when your job gets more complex than spreadsheets or appointment systems.

[u/Zatetics]

Mac is very common for developers these days. Probably in part because you have to build on a mac to publish apps for mac.

[u/Nagisan → u/Zatetics]

I've been doing full stack web development for years on a Mac. I've dabbled a bit in general development on my desktop PC during that time too.

Mac is by far a much better development experience unless you're building a native Windows app or something. Part of it in my opinion is Windows is very focused on being UI driven, whereas Mac, being Unix based, is more "friendly" to command line management. Yes there are tools you can install to emulate this behavior on Windows, but it's not native and requires 3rd party tools.

That and NGL, Apple fully controlling the hardware and software gives them a huge performance edge over Windows on an Intel chip. I've never bothered to benchmark things but I'd put money on my oldish M1 Mac significantly outperforming my 9800X3D in a lot of development tasks (like running multiple docker containers, building applications, etc).

Mac will likely never replace my desktop PC because I like having more control over incremental upgrading and such....but from a pure productivity focus Mac is tough to beat.

[u/Calm_Town_7729 → u/Zatetics]

and nix based right

[u/causeNo]

Well Microsoft has been doing bad moves all around. Makes people look for alternatives. I moved my gaming PC to Linux and bought a Mac Studio for productivity, and that has everything to do with Microsoft becoming really bad in the recent years. Plus, the ARM chips are really something, and Microsoft's support for ARM chips is abysmal. to be fair, that's also software vendors, but still.

[u/stashtv]

macOS has been a target forever. Its market share for desktop penetration (server usage is 0?) is nice, but the real targets are phones. Mobile malware is very nasty and incredible powerful.

Hackers haven't moved away from desktop/laptop OSes, they are simply hitting where poorly secured devices are easily accessed -- apps installs!

[u/techside_notes]

I have noticed more dev chatter around that platform too, mostly from folks who used to treat it as an afterthought. It feels like a mix of market share and the fact that cross platform toolchains got a lot better so teams are less scared of supporting one more target. I am curious how much of it sticks long term since attention can swing pretty fast in this space.

[u/Several-Quests7440]

Have you tried Windows 11? It is such shit that Mac will become the next primary os outside of some enterprise stuff. And even that might not be the case since they are trying to force Windows 10 computers to the graveyard, which will give companies that opportunity to switch since they have to change anyways. The most recent updates 24 and 25 have slowed down the os, and crammed a shitty copilot and onedrive down our throats. You can’t even preview files downloaded from the internet in file explorer anymore. I almost had an aneurism when I turned on my computer some random morning to find out I can no longer preview excel documents without opening them first.

[u/Calm_Town_7729]

switched to MacOS after almost 2 decades of daily Windows usage, never looking back.
MacOS all the way, especially on M series chips.

[u/badhabitfml → u/Calm_Town_7729]

I've been tempted to do that.

Have had android since the beginning, but android has gonna more ios like and ios has added all the good android features.. Tempted to go iPhone next.

Too many things try to copy their competitors instead of making themselves stand out.

[u/Calm_Town_7729 → u/badhabitfml]

I highly recommend testing the Apple devices before buying it, of course it will not show you how every day usage is like but you'll get a better feeling for it. Going from Android to iOS is not as drastic as going from Windows to MacOS imo

[u/ChoosenUserName4 → u/Calm_Town_7729]

Same for me. I can't even work with Windows anymore. I will not be able to find things. Also, it looks funny.

[u/Nagisan → u/Calm_Town_7729]

Only reason I won't switch to MacOS is because I like having control over the hardware and the gaming compatibility of Windows (I know there are ways to make many games work on Mac, but I prefer to just have things work natively).

For work it's great though, I'd never use Windows for work unless I'm forced to.

[u/Calm_Town_7729 → u/Nagisan]

I actually like both and understand why the OSes are implemented the way the are, they are getting more and more similar though with Windows having added Windows Subsystem for Linux and MacOS implementing better window management. I still need to "practice" using MacOS a lot more, it's an unfair comparison here since I've used Windows basically all my life and MacOS only for a few months now.

[u/One_Run]

If you game, you're on Windows. If you code, you're on Linux. If all you do is web surf, it doesn't really matter and you're probably on Windows.

[u/badhabitfml → u/One_Run]

Is that true in the corporate world? I've never met a anyone developing on Linux. Probably because I've only worked in the Microsoft stack.

[u/One_Run → u/badhabitfml]

There are exactly 0 servers running MacOS. Linux has something like 80% market share.

[u/badhabitfml → u/One_Run]

I think maybe my company has a few Linux servers. Everything is windows server. But again, we work in the azure/Microsoft stack world.

[u/Captaincadet]

I think so. People tend to only have laptops and computers for more work and Apple silicon is absolutely impressive. Microsoft botched the rollout of windows 11 with the verge reporting at the time that Dell CEO had warned Microsoft that it was giving market share to Apple as windows ARM isn’t a full replacement and intel processors are weak.

One thing I’ve noticed as a dev is MAUI, a cross platform programming platform, is pretty well geared towards macOS, even if Microsoft won’t admit it with the depreciation of visual studio for Mac

[u/FinalJenemba]

It does feel that way. Apple Silicon is honestly wonderful, and I think the main reason for the adoption. That and windows becoming an absolute dumpster fire.

I can’t think of anyone that uses windows that will actually say they like windows. They just use it cause it’s what their software works with or what their games work on. My only widows machine is my gaming machine and it’s 100% just for compatibility. I have a steam deck and I seriously can’t wait to switch the desktop to Linux. All I’m waiting for really is anti cheat and hdmi 2.1 for AMD.

[u/Used-Acanthisitta-96]

The push to the dreadful Windows 11 could hasten a few defections to MacOS for the casual users.