YES
Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
91–100 of 183 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#92actually one thing i forgot to ask was, was there anything "bad" about your Dell system?? If you were satisfied with the Dell, why ceven onsider the Mac? Dont get me wrong I am not anti mac (you could even say I am jealous of mac users out there), just asking because i will need to be upgrading my dell in about 6 months... so seeing if there is a clear pain point that i am in denial about that could be totally alleviated with a mac replacement..
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Important point here: you WILL have an adjustment period. You'll have to learn the quirks of the OS. (Where's the damn menu bar!) You'll have to find similar apps to the ones you've used in Windows. (Assuming you don't want to VM everything -- and if you do -- maybe you should question why you're moving to Mac.)
I found equivalent apps for everything except TortoiseSVN (Versions or SCPlugin seems like a fit). I would only use the VM for testing on IE and a few Windows-only apps. Keyboard shortcuts are one of my big concerns -- I'm a big Ctrl key user on Windows.
> Keyboard shortcuts are one of my big concerns -- I'm a big Ctrl key user on Windows.
You get used to it pretty quickly - and I swap back and forth a fair bit.
OSX will let you remap important keys any way you like - but I think it's generally easiest just to stick with the native mapping (otherwise you jump on another machine and get lost).
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#94Software aside, when I was looking for a laptop I simply couldn't find anything even remotely close to Macbook Pro's LCD screen. All PC-based laptops feature what seems to be an exact copy of some crappy, cheap, glossy 6-bit panel with low contrast and distorted colors, only sizes and resolutions are different. Those crappy panels, I suspect, is #1 reason why laptops suddenly got so much cheaper lately.
Don't get me wrong, new MBP's are also glossy, and their panels aren't 8-bit (i.e. only 262K colors, just like everybody else), but they still have decent contrast ratios and reasonably well calibrated.
Keyboards are another matter. Only Lenovo Thinkpads and new generation of Dell Latitude seem to be well-made, everything else feels like an oversized Texas Instruments calculator.
With all that said, I find I'm most productive on Gnome-based Linux distros. PC industry just stopped manufacturing laptops I can put it on. Hopefully, it's temporary.
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#95I just bought one. The lack of home/pgdown/pgup/end is still frustrating. I must say, it's a great piece of hardware and the double tap/corner "right click" is a great addition. Frankly, the hardware is wonderful. The software? Frankly, I'd be happier on a "just works" linux, and I'm tempted to research reverse engineering the touchpad for linux - it's quite a nice addition and it would be a best of both worlds scena…
Yeah, what's the deal with home and end! I just got a mac and I'm still trying to get to the begining and ends of lines. Any solutions? Also why does iPhoto open every time I connect my iPhone? That's pretty annoying.
Far as I know, Home = Cmd+Left and End = Cmd+Left
Also, to stop iPhoto opening, open iPhoto > Preferences, set 'Connecting camera opens' to 'No application'.
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#96If you want to go native, this list of Mac counterparts might help you: Eclipse - There is a Mac version. UltraEdit - Coda or Textmate. SQLYog - Sequel Pro. WinSCP - Cyberduck, YummyFTP. Tons of clients. Check out ExpanDrive for some real fun. TortoiseSVN - Syncro SVN. Adobe CS3 - There is a Mac version. Camtasia Studio - Screenflow. MS Office - There is a Mac version. WAMP - There is a similar MAMP. Then again, you…
With Fusion on a 2.8Ghz iMac, I don't see any particular slowdown running WinXP vs running native.
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#97I recently switched from linux to mac, and I would not pay the apple tax again. I force myself to use the fisher price os they call osx, to justify the apple tax i payed for the hardware. But being a windows to mac user may be a better transition. For those that say use Vmware.. why not just buy the cheaper hardware and run windows. The hardware is all commodity, and you are not getting any benefits from the hardware…
yeah its amazing that apple touts themselves as pro-user but their external keyboards are without a doubt the most craptastic worthless keyboards on the market. they look cool but are utterly useless for prolonged use and yes apple takes your freedom and will slowly turn you into an idiot. we're software developers damnit, we're supposed to be interested in how the computer works under the hood, not looking to put a…
The latest flat aluminum Apple external keyboards are the best I've ever used, and I've been a keyboard snob for decades.
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#98How about the linux to mac switch? Has anyone tried that before?
I switched from Linux to Mac in 2003. I had a laptop stolen, and really liked the idea of a slick PowerPC laptop running Unix. I figured if I didn't like OS X, there were several PPC linux distributions I could choose from. It turns out, I liked Unix, and OS X served my needs better than Linux (all of the Unix utils plus significant commercial application support. Three more Macs later, I don't even think about it when buying a laptop.
I've seen fink mentioned above, but I prefer MacPorts.
Its great to see where things have come in the last few years.
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#99The best part of Mac OS X? The Cocoa text subsystem has a pretty wide set of built-in Emacs commands (including even c-U prefix), which you can customize.
See http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/Cocoa%20Text%20System.... .
Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?
#100if you not experiencing any problems with your dell, then i would suggest that you stick to it. you already have the software needed and it will cost you when you have to buy everything again for your mac.
i switched to mac because i got tired of using cloned (home-made PCs) that failed 3 times in a month. i decided to get something more "robust". my choices were either Thinkpad or Mac. Thinkpad is as expensive as Mac and has the boring Windows (used Windows for years prior to the switch), so i decided to get a mac and explore the new OS.