

The Comeback of the Mac - pulmo
http://muensteraner.net/mac-comeback/

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dgreensp
You can't explain the comeback of the Mac if you cling to the assumption that
Microsoft products are cheaper and better for getting "real work" done.
(rendered here as "tool for a specific task" vs. "leisure".)

You can get a Mac desktop for $600 and a laptop for $1000-2000, and the prices
are going down every year. These aren't cheapo versions of Apple's more
expensive offerings, either, they're the real deal, with better hardware
design than pretty much any PC laptop. And they run Windows.

How cheap do people expect a computer to be?

~~~
pulmo
A cheap notebook would be around 350 bucks. You can get "real work" done with
them (like with any Macbook) but it's no fun to use them in the living room on
the sofa.

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samspenc
There's a total opportunity here for a third operating system to make a
desktop play - but no one seems to be interested in doing one.

Ubuntu? Window of opportunity has passed & Canonical doesn't seem interested
in desktop market.

Chrome OS? Awesome as a browser+netbook, but a bit limited for some people's
tastes.

Really, if a company like Google had been able to produce a true and full
operating system, with Ubuntu/Linux extensibility and the beauty of Mac
OS/ChromeOS, they could have come up with a winner ... but it hasn't happened
yet.

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DonGateley
It's because of VMware Fusion and Parallels. Simple.

My next system will probably be a Mac primarily running Windows 7 or 8 where
I'm currently the most invested. The ability to have both in the same box
justifies the extra cost of a Mac to me. My older XP music production system
is actually a VMware Fusion virtual machine running on an older MacBook and
used mostly for the XP apps.

Both integrate flawlessly on my home network where I use TeamViewer to access
them from what is currently my main Windows machine.

~~~
memracom
Actually it's because of Virtualbox. I just bought a Macbook Pro a couple of
weeks ago to do some iOS native app development and Virtualbox is one of the
first things that I installed. I already have my Ubuntu VM and my Windows 7 VM
up and running, ready for when I need to do some work that is OS specific.

Not to say that there is anything wrong with VMWare or Parallels, its just
that I happen to like Virtualbox and have used it on Linux and Windows as
well.

I was originally planning on getting a used machine but when I looked at the
prices of new ones and compared prices, the difference was just too small to
take the risks of non-warranty hardware.

~~~
DonGateley
Silly me. I didn't even know that Virtualbox existed for the Mac. I too like
it a lot in the windows environment and use it to play with Chrome OS. I'll
have to give the Mac version a look. Thanks.

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udev
I think it's because a MacBook is a high quality device, and you can install
other OSes on relatively pain free.

Also OSX covers the bases well, both for regular users and developers. One
noteworthy group that are left out are the gamers.

~~~
fiatmoney
I don't know what your pain threshold is, but installing & running any blend
of Linux on a recent Macbook is not exactly a fun time.

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mathattack
For the first time in forever I have a Mac as my primary work computer.
(Granted with Windows on VM for a few things) I converted from Wintel at home
back to Mac about 3 years ago, and I was a relatively later adopter.

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jonaldomo
I would bet the success of the iphone and ipad play into this as well.

FWIW: I'm a developer and after being on a Macbook Pro with a Retina display
for over a year I can't imagine working on anything else.

~~~
lightblade
Also, don't forget the ecosystem.

    
    
        Want to buy a song? iTune, 1 click and start listening
        Want to install development tool? brew install
        Want to install other tools? brew cask install
        Want to buy software? App store, 1 click
        Want to listen to music on your big ass speaker? Airplay, click and done

~~~
memracom
I don't believe that things are so simple. Some things are not in a repo like
Homebrew or MacPorts. Personally I chose to use MacPorts for UNIX world tools.
I installed STS Eclipse from their site. Same with AppCode. There are other
things that you need to go and hunt for.

Even on Linux, which has arguably the best package repo systems, you still
need to go to upstream for important tools because the distros lag behind.

