Developer curious about macbooks

Spun Ducky

Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
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730
I have been a Thinkpad user for about 2 decades now mainly running windows/linux. I have a friend who swears by macbooks and really wants me to give one a try for a developer machine. I am fully aware I can use vm's for anything windows specific I need.

I wanted to hear what are some good models to look at for a dev machine. I am most interested in something used to keep the price down. I also generally use 13-14" laptops if that helps.
 
I have been a Thinkpad user for about 2 decades now mainly running windows/linux. I have a friend who swears by macbooks and really wants me to give one a try for a developer machine. I am fully aware I can use vm's for anything windows specific I need.

I wanted to hear what are some good models to look at for a dev machine. I am most interested in something used to keep the price down. I also generally use 13-14" laptops if that helps.

If you're happy with Lenovo, then I'd probably stick with them. If you don't have an impetus to change (that is to say, a business reason), I wouldn't bother to switch. And this is coming from someone that is an exclusive Mac user.
If you have a bunch of money to spend, and you don't really care, then I guess go ahead. But I'm lead to believe by your own statements that your goal is to keep the cost down. So, that said, I'd recommend buying something on the used market. Mac specs are the same as PC specs. If you know what your requirements are, you can find what you're looking for. You haven't given anything to base any sort of suggestion on other than size and "keep the price down". However that could be $300 or $5000 as cost is very subjective and relative. And as earlier noted we have no idea what hardware requirements you have.
 
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I've paid my bills using a Mac of one various form or another for well over 10 years. I presently use a MacBook Pro 15", iMac 5K 27", an iPhone 8+, an iPad Pro 10.5, an iPad mini 4 and a 2012 Mac mini on server duties at home. I even own and use daily both the Apple Watch and a recently lost pair of AirPods. I am as entrenched in the ecosystem as you can get. I rely very heavily on Apple specific features like iMessage integration, AirDrop, Handoff and whatever else buzzword they decide to come up with next. I manage a 1000 user windows domain and use windows specific applications to support real time law enforcement operations via Parallels VMs and other approached. I'll take the Pepsi challenge with any person on the planet in being as well versed in both the Mac and Windows side of the house.

If I had to start over tomorrow it would 100% be a windows 10 machine. There simply is no good reason to use a Mac unless you're going to 100% buy into the apple ecosystem and even then I'd still say no. The Mac is dead. Apple hasn't admitted it yet but even they don't seem to see a way forward. Windows 10 as an OS is simply better. MacOS still has the same crappy limitations that it had 10 years ago. Finder is still a joke. It still sucks at network shares. It still doesn't handle full screen apps worth a damn. Apple hardware is still twice as expensive as it should be and each year you seem to lose something for the privilege of paying extra for it. Instead of actual pro features like a damn USB or HDMI port they force feed us useless touch bars and other gimmicks nobody asked for or cares about. The build quality advantage is gone. You can't upgrade shit. The keyboards all suck ass now. Pretty much any major software package is faster on the windows box with similar hardware.

The only thing that keeps me here is the ecosystem. One big example for me: All day long I take screen snips and videos (something MacOS is miles better at) from surveillance software running on a windows VM and bang them out to my officers via iMessage which works 100% faster and easier than any text message or similar service. I can send very large files very quickly and don't have to worry how something will look or work on their iPhones. This simply isn't possible right now without using a Mac. If Apple would port iMessage to Windows I'd be on the phone with my account rep tomorrow ordering the latest Dell XPS. Zero hesitation. I could give you 10 more examples and all 10 would end in the same statement.

Stick with the Thinkpad. Enjoy having a real keyboard. I'm jealous as shit.
 
I’ve been using MacBooks for a long time now.

I wasn’t aware there were that many models. Basically it’s “school”, Air, and Pro.

You probably want the Pro for development.

That being said - they are nice machines that last a good bit. But I wouldn’t be in a hurry to rush out and get one if what your doing now works.
 
All day long I take screen snips and videos (something MacOS is miles better at)t.

i like snipping tool in w10 a million times better... However, microsoft is deleting it for some GD reason.
 
i like snipping tool in w10 a million times better... However, microsoft is deleting it for some GD reason.

Unless I'm using it wrong the mac version is hit a key combo, draw a box and done. It's automatically saved to the location that I've already specified and now even gives me a little floating preview box if I want to drag it somewhere.

On windows there is no key combination. I have to double click it, click new, draw the box, click save, select my location, click OK.

It is quite literally 3 seconds vs 30.
 
Unless I'm using it wrong the mac version is hit a key combo, draw a box and done. It's automatically saved to the location that I've already specified and now even gives me a little floating preview box if I want to drag it somewhere.

On windows there is no key combination. I have to double click it, click new, draw the box, click save, select my location, click OK.

It is quite literally 3 seconds vs 30.

Put it in your bar at the bottom. One click -> draw box -> it auto copies to clipboard. So 2 clicks for me.(until it goes away)
 
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