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Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#61

Post by tdavis »

Poleris wrote: post #35

I was in your position recently and decided to switch. 3 months later and I'm back with Windows - it is simply more efficient for me . I'm really big on productivity, so I really tried to customize every tool I've listed below. To give some background, the main programs I use are: 1. ( http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/04/09/launchers.h... "Launchers - SlickRun vs QuickSilver + Butler/Launchbar") a) Ported a…

For someone who used a Mac for 3 months, I'm surprised you never figured out there is a right click... there's been a right click for a long time. I use it constantly.

"If you spent a lot of time becoming proficient on your platform of choice, you probably can only lose on OS X."

Until you spend a lot of time becoming proficient with OS X... it goes both ways. I don't understand how people come to these conclusions.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#62

Post by lacker »

bprater wrote: post #16

If 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…

I'd add Aquamacs if you are an emacs user.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#63

Post by lacker »

drwh0 wrote: post #23
minalecs wrote: post #18

I 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…

I don't like macs because they are gramma-friendly, I like them because I can run a real bash rather than cygwin. You want to know how a computer works under the hood, you should prefer OS X to windows.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#64

Post by drwh0 »

elai wrote: post #58

There's less yak shaving on a mac vs. linux/windows. If linux had minimal yak shaving and a really good quicksilver replacement, (and a bit more elegance to their program suites) I'd go there in a heartbeat. But there is always tons and tons of yak shaving and i've found laptop hardware support to be painful. You can get a refurb macbook pro with comparable specs to a dell laptop for the same price right now. And the…

and a really good quicksilver replacement

yeah we call it xmonad. why make keyboard shortcuts a slapped-on app when they can be your entire desktop?

But there is always tons and tons of yak shaving

wtf are you even talking about?

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#66

Post by jonnytran »

drwh0 wrote: post #23
minalecs wrote: post #18

I 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…

If you truly believe you should have to look at the code and that things shouldn't "just work", then you must not know about modularization and encapsulation. If I have to know about how the C linker works in order to install a program, then the OS I'm using is a terribly leaky abstraction with a poorly designed user interface/API.

I want my basic tools to just work so that I can concentrate on developing my own programs and tools.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#67

Post by ibsulon »

I 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 scenario.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#68

Post by jtuyen »

By end of the day.. just use whatever your comfortable with. If you want to experiment with OSX, just spec and build yourself a hackintosh osx86 with an apple keyboard. Once you get the feel of OSX and you're comfortable with the dev software, get yourself the real deal.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#69

Post by philcrissman »

I think the only answer anyone can give you is whether or not a switch was worth it for _them_.

Will a switch be worth it for you? I don't think anyone can answer that. You seem to have done your homework, so... maybe?

To actually answer the question you asked... I think it was worth it, for me. As some others said, expect to take a little while to learn new shortcuts/OS behaviors.

Re: Ask HN: Is it worth switching to a Mac?

#70

Post by bemmu »

bprater wrote: post #16

If 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…

Instead of looking for an (S)FTP client, you can use FUSE and just mount the remote servers. Writing your own FUSE file system isn't all that hard either, I'm currently hacking together one that allows me to mount my MySpace developer account as a disk to edit things directly :)
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