

A long time between Macs - jedwhite
http://blog.jedwhite.com/2009/04/long-time-between-macs.html
One coder's story of why he switched back to Macs after years on PCs, Windows and Linux.
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calambrac
How many times can the exact same stupid article be written? Congratulations,
you use a Mac. This is hacker news?

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DannoHung
Yeah, I like my Mac and all, but I wish no one would ever submit one of these
stupid articles again.

~~~
threep
if you cant say something nice...

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nanexcool
" Pitching on a PC sends a subtle signal of dowdiness and "unsexy"."

I know this is just this guy's opinion, but does anyone else here share it? I
don't.

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jhickner
I do. The last of my Microsoft friends switched recently. A lot of the best
.Net development now happens in VMWare, believe it or not.

Although rather than "dowdy and unsexy" I'd say the signal you're sending by
pulling out a PC laptop is that you either can't evaluate good design or you
don't see it as a priority.

~~~
zcrar70
> the signal you're sending by pulling out a PC laptop is that you either
> can't evaluate good design or you don't see it as a priority.

You could also argue that by pulling out a Mac laptop, you're sending out the
signal that good design is the _only_ thing you're capable of evaluating.

I agree that Macs are good-looking machines, and that OSX is aesthetically
superior to Windows and Gnome/KDE, but surely that shouldn't be the main
driver for choosing an OS or a machine over another?

There isn't a day that I don't wish my Linux desktop looked better, but I
still use that over the Mac because I find it a better development
environment, even if it doesn't give me a warm glow inside each time I look at
it.

~~~
jedwhite
I've been using Ubuntu as my main development environment as a while (mostly
Eclipse with Rails/Python and still a bit of Java), but having started using a
Mac for my notebook again, I have to say that as a development machine it is
pretty sweet. Everything is well integrated and you spend a lot less time
keeping the environment running.

Now I know with Gnome/KDE that half the appeal IS that you have real control
over the environment. But as a result you spend a lot of time futzing around
setting it up the way you want, and a lot of time managing just keeping things
running together.

I still haven't had time to figure out all the things that broke after moving
to 9.0.4 (like Google Gadgets and Flash in Firefox for a start).

Don't get me wrong cause none of that is hard and I love playing with that
stuff as much as the next guy. But there is no question that you spend a lot
less time worrying about those things (because you like it or not) coding on a
Mac.

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jzachary
If the pitch is for a great product that people want to use, does it really
matter if it's on a Mac or Windows laptop? Substance is more important than
style.

I use PowerPoint, but I design my decks using the principle of "austere
minimalism". Each slide makes one point with the minimal amount of material.
Keynote wasn't better or worse as a presentation tool when I had a Mac.

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njharman
First it's annoying that people call Apple computers "macs".

Second isn't this more of a case of devs picking "*nix laptop that doesn't
suck" rather than choosing an apple.

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jedwhite
Especially all those guys from Apple :)

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jedwhite
Anyone else made the switch recently and had any problems with it?

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req2
I use a Mac at work, and I have, essentially, three problems.

The biggest problem as I run up against it all the time is the mouse tracking.
I tried switching mice, Microsoft's Intellimouse software for Mac, and finally
settled for a custom setting widget that lets me boost the mouse speed to 10x
(!) that allowed by the default controls. This is a bit of a personal thing,
but I like sensitive mice, and I dislike needing to move my arm to cross the
screen. The weird acceleration curve that I am stuck with is very frustrating.

The second problem is Mac support. If I find something on the internet, it
usually has a Windows version. And a Linux port. And maybe someone ported it
to Mac. It's not always a problem, but it happens often enough that I don't
want to reinvent the wheel to try a new program and I wish I were using
another OS.

The third problem is cost- $1200 for 8GB of RAM?
<http://store.apple.com/us/memorymodel/ME_IMAC_AL_20_G3> There are times when
you don't need to go to Apple for hardware, but when you do, you get taken to
the cleaners, and that's after spending quite a bundle on the software.

~~~
dangrover
You can buy RAM for Macs from non-Apple sources for much cheaper.

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socratees
I'm buying a mac very soon.

