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Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

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Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#61

Post by duskwuff »

Tichy wrote: post #47

Since so many pros and cons have already mentioned, I'll just add that the Mac keyboards are not so super for coding (at least the german ones). It doesn't have "Home", "Page Down", "Page Up" or "Del", other keys like "~" and "\" require weird keyboard combos ("\" = alt+shift+"/"). Probably not an issue if you are a whiz with Emacs or Vim, but I tend to not remember many keyboard shortcuts, so atm it still bothers me…

Assuming you're on a laptop, Fn+up/down = page up/down, Fn+left/right = home/end, and Fn+backspace = delete.

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#62

Post by mechanical_fish »

jrockway wrote: post #23
GeneralMaximus wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second that. Sure, you could get productive on Windows and Linux, but they're definitely not low maintainence. Plus, you could always install Windows using BootCamp or VMWare Fusion. I wrote a blog entry on this. although it's from a hobbyists's perspective: http://blog.uncool.in/2009/03/10/thoughts-on-using-a-mac-as-...

I second that. Sure, you could get productive on Windows and Linux, but they're definitely not low maintainence [sic]. Nor are Macs. Every piece of software needs to be updated manually, as there is no system-wide update manager. If you want to install UNIX software (like C libraries that your language needs to bind to), you will need to install some sort of ports system, and maintain that. (When I used a Mac a few y…

When I used a Mac a few years ago, none of the ports systems all had the latest versions of packages I needed

Things change. Hackers have been migrating to the Mac en masse. So MacPorts has gotten better and better.

Two or three years ago I went through the pain of installing Ruby/Rails, MySQL, Apache, and git from source -- that was the popular choice at the time, because MacPorts was just not up to date. But MacPorts now has current versions of ruby, mysql, git, and apache, so it's time to switch back.

Yeah, it's probably not as good as apt-get. On the other hand, on the Mac I have Mac software, which more than makes up for it. And if I'm ever nostalgic for apt-get a Linux virtual machine is not far away.

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#63

Post by duskwuff »

ks wrote: post #51
joechung wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If I were on a PC I would only be able to have one version of IE installed." That's not true. You can have virtual machines to test multiple versions of IE, too.

Microsoft has released a program called "Web SuperPreview". It enables you to compare pages both in IE6 and IE7/8. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8e6...

The performance is kind of "meh", though, especially in VMWare (where it's practically unusable). I personally prefer IETester: http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#64

Post by mechanical_fish »

amastilovic wrote: post #52

As someone who is doing programming nearly 90% of my working hours, and someone who used all three major systems (OS X, Vista, Linux), I would suggest you go with a computer that is giving you highest raw metal power for the buck. If you are really working and not playing around with desktop cpu monitor gadgets or trying out hundreds of time organizing schemes instead of doing some actual work, you will come to the c…

it's all about cpu and memory cycles you wait for while compiling, debugging, testing.

Did you miss the part where the guy did a lot of Python development and HTML/CSS?

"Why are you sword-fighting in the hallway?" "Oh, I'm waiting for my CSS to compile!"

Last year DHH claimed to be doing all his Rails development on a MacBook Air, a wonderful machine which I really like but not the fastest computer around. On the other hand, it's still faster than anything I had years ago. And the speed difference between the Air and my 24" iMac doesn't much matter for Rails, unless you recompile your MacPorts or rubygem docs on an hourly basis.

But, if you see no value in the Mac OS, by all means use something else.

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#66

Post by mechanical_fish »

jlees wrote: post #57
joshsharp wrote: post #11

I have a Mac and a PC and I feel more productive on a PC. I think the main reason for this is that I'm a "maximised windows" kinda guy and switching between windows and tasks feels much more smooth and simple for me in Windows. It may sound like a small thing but because the OS X dock deals with apps, not windows, it can be a pain switching between open windows (yes I'm aware of shortcut keys etc). Also the tendency…

Using virtual desktops really makes task switching on a Mac much less painful.

And/or you use Quicksilver and Witch. And life becomes even less painful.

I hide the Mac OS dock on day one and never look at it again, except for every couple of days when I have to relaunch Quicksilver. (It's not the best-maintained piece of software in the world, and it has some kind of long-term memory-management issue. One of these days I might have to try Launchbar instead.)

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#67

Post by juliend2 »

If you need to use Photoshop for your HTML/CSS editing (for taking image from layouts, for example), dont go with Linux. Because you will not have the possibility to install the latest version of Photoshop in any version of Linux. Sure you can use a VM for things like that, but Photoshop requires a lot of memory. Sometimes you'll have to open a 100 megs Photoshop file (PSD files can really be huge like that)... Because of this, i cannot imagine myself using something else than a Mac or Windows. Unfortunately, because i love Linux otherwise.

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#68

Post by rit »

ideamonk wrote: post #36

Don't forget that on OS X you would find Textmate, which has no match yet. On windows the best editor would be Notepad++. But nothing comes closer to Textmate. If you wish to save some money, then better got for a PC.

When I changed jobs last year, I briefly was at a place where all developers were on Windows (After 2 years of having a Mac at work). I started digging around, and there's a Windows "clone" of Textmate which is built to also fully support TextMate Plugin Bundles.

I used it for awhile, and it's pretty good. It's called "E" - http://www.e-texteditor.com/

I still prefer TextMate, but if stuck on Windows, E is pretty nice for getting close in editor.

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#69

Post by Tichy »

duskwuff wrote: post #61
Tichy wrote: post #47

Since so many pros and cons have already mentioned, I'll just add that the Mac keyboards are not so super for coding (at least the german ones). It doesn't have "Home", "Page Down", "Page Up" or "Del", other keys like "~" and "\" require weird keyboard combos ("\" = alt+shift+"/"). Probably not an issue if you are a whiz with Emacs or Vim, but I tend to not remember many keyboard shortcuts, so atm it still bothers me…

Assuming you're on a laptop, Fn+up/down = page up/down, Fn+left/right = home/end, and Fn+backspace = delete.

Thanks!!!

Re: Ask HN: MAC vs PC for a developer?

#70

Post by moe »

hs wrote: post #22
joshsharp wrote: post #11

I have a Mac and a PC and I feel more productive on a PC. I think the main reason for this is that I'm a "maximised windows" kinda guy and switching between windows and tasks feels much more smooth and simple for me in Windows. It may sound like a small thing but because the OS X dock deals with apps, not windows, it can be a pain switching between open windows (yes I'm aware of shortcut keys etc). Also the tendency…

tiled wm like ion3, wmii, dwm open new windows automatically maximized no need to use mouse to scroll, move, resize, min, max window ... huge time saver

As a long-year ion3 user I'd like to second that. The productivity boost is comparable to moving to vim/emacs from notepad.
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