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The desktop and the developer

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Re: The desktop and the developer

#111

Post by sanderjd »

exodust wrote: post #100
cs02rm0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a macbook, but agree with you. Unfortunately as a piece of hardware it seems to me virtually unrivalled, the latest internal components are available to new machines promptly, they have great displays with loads of real estate, long battery life, very good manufacturer support and the 13" is a superb, thin form factor for travelling with. I run a cluster of Linux VMs on it using vagrant so it's just my browser,…

Surely it's a myth that macbook hardware is of superhero "unrivalled" quality. I haven't seen links to comparative data backing up the claim. Failure rates, service rates, lifespan, side by side images of components at a microscopic level, data showing resistance to heat, cold, dust, impacts etc. What you will find is a lot of people repeating the claim about Apple hardware and the OS. A belief based it seems on one…

This is so interesting! Your parent said "unrivaled hardware" and went on to give some examples of the types of things meant by that: frequent component updates, nice high-res displays, battery life, support, and form factor. (Left out the trackpad, which really is a huge differentiator.) You replied by questioning things like failure rates, lifespan, side by side component images, and resistance to heat, cold, dust, and impacts. There is a big difference between your lists, his are things users care about day to day, and yours are things engineers or IT managers care about. Well, I'm a user, and while I have very little affection for Apple, as far as I can tell they're the only ones making very nice user-focused laptop hardware at reasonable prices ($1000-$1200 vs. more like $2000 for a similarly nice (but, irrelevantly, more powerful!) non-Mac in my experience).

I find the logo and "sameness" rather embarrassing, but it seems to be the only game in town. Please do link me to a $1200 non-Mac laptop with a high-res 15" screen, thin form factor, and nice trackpad.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#112

Post by benaston »

tatqx wrote: post #74
jrajav wrote: post #53

Missing a killer feature here, at least for me: High-DPI support. No environment on Linux deals with high-DPI adequately yet. Between that and the other big one mentioned in the article, multitouch trackpad support, there is simply no way I can compromise. There isn't really anything else tying me down to OS X, but those two are huge. They're the only major changes I've seen in my workflow and desktop experience in t…

High-DPI support in Ubuntu 14.04 is pretty good and it works great on the retina MacBook Pros.

I installed 14.04 yesterday and was unable to get retina support. How do you enable it?

Re: The desktop and the developer

#113

Post by ClashTheBunny »

jaegerpicker wrote: post #86

Two big reasons I think Mac OSX is so popular with devs: 1.) There are better graphical tools/apps available for OSX then any other OS. Kaldeoscope, Tower, SourceTree(also for windows), Atom(coming soon to other platforms), iTunes, many more games available for down time, evernote client, tweetbot, sequel pro, pattern, and imessage are just some of the better apps that are aren't available or have poor alternates on…

I really think that this is the answer. There is no other way to create iOS apps today. You must own an Apple branded computer to do so and for that reason there are always going to be a high percentage of people with a MacBook of some sort just to do the compile.

I can spin up a VM of Linux on anything, but I can't legally do the same with OS X without having the hardware.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#114

Post by recursive »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #23
drb311 wrote: post #19

This line stood out for me: "They use an Apple because they don't want to use different hardware for work and pleasure." I'm not a coder, and I don't find the idea of a single machine for work and pleasure particularly appealing. Is there something about software developers that means they like to blur the line between home and work? Most of the developers I know enjoy coding, and have side projects that involve codi…

Good computers for development are relatively expensive but once you're used to one you don't want to go home and use a crappy computer. You probably don't want to buy 2 either.

I specifically like to use crappy computers at home. I don't like thinking about computers, and that way, if something goes wrong (which admittedly isn't often) I can go to the computer store and solve all my problems for minimal concern and cost.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#116

Post by collyw »

ekianjo wrote: post #105
exodust wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely it's a myth that macbook hardware is of superhero "unrivalled" quality. I haven't seen links to comparative data backing up the claim. Failure rates, service rates, lifespan, side by side images of components at a microscopic level, data showing resistance to heat, cold, dust, impacts etc. What you will find is a lot of people repeating the claim about Apple hardware and the OS. A belief based it seems on one…

> I wish more presenters and performers opted out of the glowing marketing campaigns of the equipment they use. The brand of your equipment is not the reason why you're up there presenting. This. It looks like everyone is happy to promote the Apple brand on top of themselves. For free.

My friend pays to promote them with his ".mac" email address!

Re: The desktop and the developer

#117

Post by nswanberg »

Is the author suggesting using Macs is a new trend? Or is the main point that a new desktop focused on using cloud hosted services would become popular?

Nine years ago Paul Graham wrote about hackers returning to the Mac (http://paulgraham.com/mac.html), where he concluded that his dad, who had not taken Paul's suggestion to buy Sun stock 10 years prior, should buy Apple stock (it turned out to be a good bet but for slightly different reasons).

A developer-targeted desktop environment that is better optimized for most developer's workflow, and that has native integration to Github and the like sounds nice, but considering the effort needed to coordinate an effort, wouldn't it be better to advocate a cloud-based IDE and use a Chromebook or iPad?

Separately, it's interesting how little argument there is about which OS is better in this thread. It could be the sort of people that comment here, or it's an indication about how much people care about and identify with an OS nowadays.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#118

Post by collyw »

eyko wrote: post #87
davexunit wrote: post #20

I've used OS X at work for the past 2 years and I completely disagree that OS X is nice for developers. I've had a lot of issues that I wouldn't have had if I was using a GNU/Linux distro like Debian. Major issues with GCC after certain updates, outdated GNU software like bash, brew is barely acceptable as a package manager (can't hold a candle to dpkg/apt), and I have to go to websites to get the installers for most…

Totally agree. I've got a Macbook Air (OSX Mavericks) and a (Lenovo)Thinkpad (Arch Linux). I'd add to your points that it's not only a software issue, but also a hardware issue. Recently I've found myself tweaking the trackpoint settings and have gone so far as modifying the driver and the syndaemon utility just to be able to get a better user experience. When it comes to Apple's hardware/software combination, I'm so…

The track-pad on the Macbook Air I have is crap. No buttons.

You can click, or emulate a double click with two fingers. No third button emulation that I have worked out (and no, using your other hand on the keyboard does not count). As far as I am concerned that is a big disadvantage not having the paste buffer functionality available for the track-pad.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#119

Post by stcredzero »

eyko wrote: post #87
davexunit wrote: post #20

I've used OS X at work for the past 2 years and I completely disagree that OS X is nice for developers. I've had a lot of issues that I wouldn't have had if I was using a GNU/Linux distro like Debian. Major issues with GCC after certain updates, outdated GNU software like bash, brew is barely acceptable as a package manager (can't hold a candle to dpkg/apt), and I have to go to websites to get the installers for most…

Totally agree. I've got a Macbook Air (OSX Mavericks) and a (Lenovo)Thinkpad (Arch Linux). I'd add to your points that it's not only a software issue, but also a hardware issue. Recently I've found myself tweaking the trackpoint settings and have gone so far as modifying the driver and the syndaemon utility just to be able to get a better user experience. When it comes to Apple's hardware/software combination, I'm so…

And I wouldn't usually complain much about that, but the other fact is that the TrackPoint nipple is probably equally as bad in build quality and when you move the pointer a bit, it seems to get stuck and continues to move your pointer until you rub that nipple left or right.

Back in the day, IBM made some good hardware. The Trackpoint was one of the things they made that were cited as examples of good engineering. Specifically, it was designed not to do what you just described.

Re: The desktop and the developer

#120

Post by collyw »

aerique wrote: post #52
tomp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only used Linux for a short while and that was when Ubuntu Unity was a very new thing, so I assume it got better now, but then it couldn't possibly compare to OSX virtual desktops; it was usable, but very annoying. Having said that, I need a terminal (iTerm2), a browser, and a packet manager (homebrew), and I'm happy. I assume build issues would happen on Linux too, and they would probably be harder to resolve (mor…

One of the nice things about Linux desktops is that you're not tied to the default window manager like you are in Windows and OSX. While Linux distros might have a default window manager (like your Unity example for Ubuntu) it is still easy to switch. This allows developers to experiment with different paradigms with regards to the GUI, see for example the popularity of tiling WMs on Linux. (i3 has my preference, oth…

Totally agree.

I used to love KDE, then they messed it up with KDE 4. Moved to Ubuntu / Gnome. Then Ubuntu screwed it up when they made it all Unity based. Screw that, I was happy working the way I was without to much shiny. Now using XFCE, and its refreshingly simple.

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