

Ask HN: Do I need a Mac in order to be taken seriously as a web developer? - discountgenius

People used to use Windows for business, Linux for programming, and Mac for art.  The use of Mac for development has risen significantly since the advent of iOS and I seem to notice a growing trend of web developers moving to Mac.  I have always considered Macs to be overpriced and representative of a "style over function" mentality, but I now accept Apple hardware and software to be of high functional quality.  I am finding more and more web development tools, guides, and tutorials aimed at Mac OS X.<p>What trends have you noticed?<p>What trends do you anticipate?<p>Is it time for me to bite the bullet and go Apple as I attempt to break into web development in the next couple years?
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janogonzalez
Short answer: No

Long answer: The computer you use is just a tool. To be taken seriously you
need to have an impressive portfolio of projects, you will be judged by your
results and not by the tools you used.

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discountgenius
I guess my real questions are: Are Macs the best tools available? If yes, will
they remain the best tools available? Will the trend of development tools and
communities targeting Mac OS continue?

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phren0logy
Quit worrying about this crap and start making stuff. I know that sounds like
a harsh non-answer, but it's true. I offer it because sometimes I have the
same problem. Quit sharpening pencils and start writing.

Do as much as you can with whatever computer you have and a copy of gedit or
something similar. If you hit the limits of this within the first few months,
it's probably your limit, not the tools. If not, then by that time you will be
able to determine for yourself what tools you need.

~~~
manuscreationis
Amen to all of this

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jmsduran
No. If you want to be taken seriously as a web developer, I would argue to
take testing and cross-browser compatibility (HTML/CSS/JS) seriously, whatever
machine/environment you decide use doesn't matter.

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staunch
It depends what you want. If you're trying to get a job, then yeah, it might
actually help to seem more like the cool kids. Get a Mac, use RoR/Node.js,
insist on NoSQL, and wear a Afghan scarf too for good measure.

In practical terms it doesn't matter at all. The web is cross-platform and if
anything I'd say Linux has the advantage as a development environment. It
allows you to create a local environment identical to your server environment.

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kls
_I'd say Linux has the advantage as a development environment_

It really depends on how far you lean towards design, if you do a bit of
design you are going to find more support on the OSX side, if you do pretty
much all code, then I would say you can forgo the Mac. I agree with the parent
post though that Linux or one of the Unix variants (Including OSX) has broader
development tools support that Windows.

The other thing is a quality PC laptop is going to be pretty close in cost. I
view the Sager laptops as being on par with Apple as far as quality of
components and they where not that much cheaper last time I looked at them.

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manuscreationis
To answer the question posed in your title: Absolutely not.

If anything (like another poster here have mentioned), Linux seems to have the
most advantage out of "The Big 3", but it really doesn't matter in the long
term. You should try to be fluent in at least one environment (OS) , and
capable in the others.

Thanks to virtualization, you can run Linux or MacOS on Windows, or any vice-
versa-ed combination you might choose. Pick the platform that has the best
tools for the language you want, and go with it.

One caveat: If you work in an office with all macs, don't be the guy with the
windows machine making the rest of the teams life more difficult. Same goes
for an all Linux or all Windows shop. For your professional development needs,
you should strive to work in unison with your team.

Personal needs? Go with your heart.

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thepreacher
I have also thought about this lately although not exactly in terms of being
taken seriously as a developer but I am noticing more and more that, the
"publicly seen" portable computer of choice is Mac OS X. In more and more
recorded video tutorials, presentations(seminars)- you see the developer using
Mac OS X. Sure I know it doesn't matter what you use as long as the job gets
done. However sometimes you wonder why a mentor or someone you learn from
change from say a Linux box to a Mac. You want to know what tipped the scale
in favour of a Mac.

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megamark16
I run Linux on a Thinkpad, boot into Windows and OSX on virtual machines, and
I don't know if I'm taken seriously, but I get a lot of work done.

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code_pockets
Me too.

Its not the hardware, but the nut behind it that matters.

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thoughtsimple
Hmm, tough question but if you don't have a Mac how do you test? With a Mac
you can test easily on Windows and Linux. But if you just use Windows, then
you need an alternate machine to test for Mac compatibility, you can dual boot
into LInux.

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manuscreationis
What do you mean by "Mac Compatibility"?

Safari?

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thoughtsimple
Sure, you can test on equivalent browsers under Windows during development.
That covers most problems. I wouldn't be comfortable with that though. Not for
a final product.

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manuscreationis
Wanting the tried and true Mac environment for testing is fine.

But that's testing. Your QA team (even if its a team of 1) should have access
to some kind of Mac environment. That doesn't mean your devs need to use Macs.

Ideally, anyways.

