Ask YC: Why do you recommend a Macbook?

I started my programming love life with Apple //c. After that, I've mostly used relatively inexpensive laptops running Linux / school PCs.

But I am seeing almost all 'budding hackers' nowadays coding on a Macbook/pro. Startup School is full of Macs!

pg said that Mac lets him drag and drop code from vim to repl - and he was very happy about it. Is it little things like that or is there a cumulative reduction in friction everywhere that justifies the bigger price tag? Is customizing a Mac easy or do they throw arbitrary hurdles at you like with the iPod/iPhone?

I currently run Gutsy on Lenovo T61 for dev. I don't want to miss out on the Mac if there are significant advantages.

OS X is often easier than Windows and powerful like *Nix/BSD.

The plastic case on the MacBook isn't the strongest, though.

I speak from limited experience with Macs, but I'd think that a lot of it has to do with the 'out of the box' experience. I'm running Gutsty right now too and I have it tweaked just the way I like it, but it can take some time / effort to get everything set up "your way". Of course, none of this applies if you're running the stock Gutsy config, but why would you want to do that? Essentially OSX is for people who want the benefits of *nix but don't enjoy, or can't spend the time, hacking their OS as much as hacking their code.

@robmnl: Expose functionality is built into compiz-fusion, and Linux users have been enjoying virtual desktops for god knows how long.

I tried this now but it didn't work for me. I must be missing something. Please help.

I am running GVIM (I am at work so I am on Windows). I am trying to drag and drop a block of code to Python REPL. It is not happening.

You're not missing out on anything, there are no significant advantages (specially not over a t61) I sold my powerbook on ebay, and I'm still happy with my t42 running gutsy as well.