# iOS and macOS

11 Hacker News commenters recommended iOS and macOS and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend iOS and macOS for seamless device integration, stability and features that just work. The most common caveat is a proprietary, locked-in ecosystem with buggy, sloppy parts.

## Why people recommend it

- Seamless, things just work (3 comments): "iOS/Mac has made this seamless, secure, and in 15-20 years it has not gone wrong for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46477426)) "The key thing with Apple is that Stuff Just Works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47542690)) "iOS/macOS does exactly what they need." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47969639))
- Seamless cross-device integration (2 comments): "iOS/Mac has made this seamless, secure, and in 15-20 years it has not gone wrong for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46477426)) "the integration of the two is where it's at" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214668))
- Stable and consistent over years (2 comments): "iOS/Mac has made this seamless, secure, and in 15-20 years it has not gone wrong for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46477426)) "you would see an uptick trend on stability and consistency, instead of new" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50049782))

## What people warn about

- Buggy, sloppy, hard-to-use interface (3 comments): "it's all so sloppy, too many grievances to even begin enumerating." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005190)) "basic features are barely functional and the UI is not very usable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50112760)) "In cases where iOS/macOS misbehave" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46443669))
- Proprietary, locked-in ecosystem (2 comments): "This is exactly why the hardware + software vertical integration philosophy is fundamentally retarded." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47845864)) "everything is proprietary, so you get locked in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47008092))
- Regressions and feature freezes (3 comments): "one company deciding a feature freeze is not disapproving anything, in fact, it means things have gotten so bad" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49045145)) "the others are so far off that even Apple has regressed 10 - 20% they will still be so far ahead of others" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48792700)) "The process-people entrench themselves, and ruin everything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47550509))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows.md): 1287 recommend
- [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos.md): 1041 recommend
- [Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux.md): 745 recommend
- [Haiku](https://hackerapproved.com/p/haiku-os.md): 115 recommend
- [NetBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbsd.md): 100 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "iOS and macOS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ios-and-macos/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).