Wednesday, February 26, 2014
If your needs were exactly the opposite (ie, your laptop was fine for development but you were looking for more spit and polish and irreplaceable proprietary software on a general computer), then a Mac would be a good idea.
But really: Linux is, in absolute terms, better for development (open source development, certainly) than OS X - if only because, should you so desire, you can graduate to hacking the operating system itself.
It is, nevertheless, far easier to develop for iOS on OSX, so if that's a concern, a Mac is necessary (or an elaborate VM setup). Also, if you were just not getting on with the Linux user experience (it ain't for everybody), then OSX is a far superior option for development than Windows. Reasons not to spend wads of cash - because 'everybody else is doing it'.
Macs are expensive because they are luxury goods: as with all luxury goods, this is about 70% marketing and 30% genuine technical superiority to cheaper alternatives. If you have only a few hundred notes to spend, then forget about a shiny MBP or whatever. You certainly won't get any advantages for RoR, or web development in general (except in certain proprietary systems like .NET), from having a Mac over having Linux. If anything, having a more hackable OS is an advantage, not a disadvantage.
On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Jason Hsu, Rubyist <jhsu802701@gmail.com> wrote:
I realize this is off-topic, but I understand that an overwhelming majority of Rubyists use Mac computers and not PCs. I currently use Linux-powered PCs. Yes, I ditched Windows years ago just like many of you. Using Linux on a used PC is the cheapest way to compute. (I've been able to buy a 4 or 5-year-old PC that works for as little as $40-$50.)--
I'm interested in purchasing a Mac to put myself on the same page as other software developers. (I'm used to Linux distros that provide the look and feel of Windows XP.) I will use the Mac for software development projects, but I intend to stick with my Linux-powered PCs for general computing. (I don't want to get locked into the Mac world, because it's so much more expensive. Also, there is a case to be made for being versatile.)
I'm thinking of buying a new mini (starts at $600), a new MacBook (starts at $1000), or a refurbished MacBook (starts at $850).
Some questions:
1. How much has OS X changed over the past several versions? Is something from 5 years ago obsolete? Linux, on the other hand, is free. Any current Linux distro will work very well on a 5-year-old PC, and there are even some Linux distros (like Puppy Linux and antiX Linux) that work well on PCs that are 10 or more years old.
2. Is it just me, or are used Macs so exorbitantly expensive as to defeat the point of buying a used computer in the first place? I looked at Craigslist and found a number of used Mac laptops selling for as much as a new one. Most of the Macs selling for a few hundred dollars or less were very old, such as G4s. (I understand that those are 10-15 years old. Good luck getting even $100 or even $50 from a 10-year-old PC.)
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