I am contemplating a switch from PC to Mac after about 14 years of PC-only use. One of my co-workers — Cody Morrison recently switched to a Mac and is hardcore supporter of it.
However, I’d like to get the feedback of Web Professionals who can skip the hype and just give me a straight up opinion of why I should switch to a Mac or not.
I have been looking enviously at a lot of features on the Mac, including Textmate and OSX itself looks like a beautifully designed operating system.
If you have the time, please just post a quick comment in this post. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
As a quick sidenote, I would be buying one of the smaller 13″ MacBooks as my first Mac. It would be me just putting my toe in the water that is Apple.
if I were to buy a laptop now, it’d be one of the macbook pros – that over the regular mac book just because of the video card. The ability to run windows and osx on the same machine is amazing! I would not, however, buy a mac desktop. The iMac’s are basicly laptops inside anyway, and the lack of upgradability is stupid for me. And the Mac Pro’s are just too damn expensive.
I’ve been using a Mac (an iBook G4) for about a year now and I have personally found that coding on my Mac is less stressful for me than on my PC. It took me some time to get used to coding on my Mac, but now it’s harder for me to code on my PC.
So why is it easier? The programs available on the Mac or just the way the Mac is designed that makes it easier?
I think it’s a combination of both. I don’t use a editor that is Mac only so it’s virtually the same for me.
#1 would be the ability to run as many OSs as you want under one Mac. Windows, Unix variants, Linux variants, OS X and all the browsers. Simply for the ability to test your sites. Parallels is awesome.
#2 would be drag and drop just about everywhere. Drag text from a web browser or images from them. Drop it on an app and it opens in it. Drag files to the mail icon in the dock, starts a new message and attaches them.
#3 built in PDF reading and creation, create a pdf from a web site etc. Zip and unzip is built into the OS as well on a side note.
#4 not having your entire window blocked by an app. Like Photoshop, lets you see other apps behind it so you can read your mail that has notes in it or Word that has your content in it.
#5 Dashboard – little widgets that are a second away for PHP, CSS, XHTML and just about anything else you can think of that you might need on the fly while coding.
Just a ton of things that make work easier on a Mac. I have 15 years of experience working in Windows. I know it inside and out and that is why I switched to Mac 2 years ago.
Wow, see that is the type of responce I really wanted but couldn’t quite describe. Thank you for the feedback so far.
Get a mAC!
I’ve beenon it since November of 05
My proctivity has tripled. I ‘m a diverse web designer/developer.
I can Design, as well as program, and create Opensource applications.
Now that there is Parallels I can run windows and OSX on an Intel Mac with out having to reboot or switch Kernels.
With as much use as you will get out of a Mac, I’d say yes. Get it, but you know when we rock the LANage if I see you with it – I will kill you.
@jester m4n: Dude… don’t be jealous of the MAC… And on a side note, I await your comments on future articles. I’ll plan some just for you!
Pssssh only difference between the 2 is pretty buttons and which OS you choose since either side can run the other.
I always wondered why PCs had to be so damn ugly. Seriously, they have the largest market share and they are damn ugly.
@DFish – Wow, you found the site… oh god, I’m glad I moderated the article list.
Use Mac OS X for 1 month and you’ll never want to use Windows again. That simple.
Use what is best for your needs.. but more and more technology conferences (and especially web development conferences) are looking like this:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2i0b3wz.jpg
Typically you will find at technology conferences that Mac laptops outnumber other laptops by a huge margin. Macs are a great platform for web development because many of the tools are built-in apache, php, perl and there are fantastic editors available. Here are a few:
Coda – http://www.panic.com/coda/
Espresso – http://macrabbit.com/espresso/
Textmate – http://macromates.com/
Dreamweaver – http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/
Best,
Macblogz.com
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