Should I go to MacBook? (or Windows with: Sony Vaio, or Ac

Rails
21

I’m just curious… if your employer doesn’t demand you run Windows, why
would anyone in their right mind do so? It may sound that I am biased,
truly
I am not. I am all for the OS to be the most user/developer friendly.
Wait,
maybe I am biased about being a ‘command-line’ guy, but still I really
don’t
understand why anyone with a choice would even consider running Windows.
I Know there are times when your work environment doesn’t leave you a
choice, or your a gamer… blah blah.

Seriously, IMHO think that people just get stuck in something they are
already familiar with, inferior or not. The ripple effect of long-ago’s
Microsoft great PR.

I personally find my MacBook irreplaceable and think saying should I go
with
OSX or Windows is like going on a first date or trying to rekindle a
relationship with an ex. One is new and exciting and so much fun to use,
and
the other is filled with reservations and false hopes, all for an easy
lay
and a familiar place. *grins.

my $0.02

Mike

On 1/27/07, [email protected] [email protected] wrote:

about Adobe products. The higher post is correct in that there will

–
-mike

22

tks guys,

He’s my main dilemma, after visiting shops yesterday:

*The Macbook is noticeably heaver than the Sony Vaio! *I need a
notebook I
can carry around in my backpack on a daily basis. The Macbook is
2.36kg,
whereas the Vaio (SZ34GP) is only 1.85kg. This really makes it hard
for
me to cross the line over to the Macbook in my particular case. This is
a
shame as the comparison is roughly:

  • Macbook - A*$2000* - Dual Core 2GHz - 2.36kg.
  • Sony VGN SZ34GP - A*$2799* - Dual Core 1.8GHz - 1.85kg (includes
    Vista
    Bus Upgrade)

Ummmm…any ideas? No lighter version of the Macbook
coming
out soon?

Tks
Greg

23

About Adobe CS2,

My MacBook Core 2 Duo with 2GB ram, runs CS2 just fine under Rosetta.
Plus
if you have a license key for Adobe already you can download the CS3
Beta
and use it. ( Not sure the exact terms…)

mike

On 1/27/07, Michael S. [email protected] wrote:

already familiar with, inferior or not. The ripple effect of long-ago’s
Mike

–
-mike

–
-mike

24

He’s my main dilemma, after visiting shops yesterday:
The Macbook is noticeably heaver than the Sony Vaio! (Editor’s
note: 510g !!)
I need a notebook I can carry around in my backpack on a daily
basis.
Ummmm…any ideas?

Lose some weight.
Buy a bigger backpack.

Alain

25

tks guys,

He’s my main dilemma, after visiting shops yesterday:

*The Macbook is noticeably heaver than the Sony Vaio! *I need a
notebook I
can carry around in my backpack on a daily basis. The Macbook is
2.36kg,
whereas the Vaio (SZ34GP) is only 1.85kg. This really makes it hard
for
me to cross the line over to the Macbook in my particular case. This is
a
shame as the comparison is roughly:

  • Macbook - A*$2000* - Dual Core 2GHz - 2.36kg.
  • Sony VGN SZ34GP - A*$2799* - Dual Core 1.8GHz - 1.85kg (includes
    Vista
    Bus Upgrade)

Ummmm…any ideas? No lighter version of the Macbook
coming
out soon?

Tks
Greg

26

The price of the macbook online at apple ranges from 1099.00 - 1499.00
and
is a “Core 2 Duo” not a “Dual Core”.

Is the weight difference really that big of a deal for you? Again, what
you
are trading off in weight as far as developers choice notebook is
incomparable. the Sony vaio for 2799.00 in my opinion is overpriced and
not
worth it. Why buy overpriced hardware with a crappy OS for
$1300.00-$1500.00
more just cause of weight?

I carry my macbook in a messenger bag all over town.

mike

On 1/27/07, Greg H. [email protected] wrote:

–
-mike

27

On Jan 28, 8:40 am, “Greg H.” [email protected]
wrote:

  • Macbook - A*$2000* - Dual Core 2GHz - 2.36kg.
  • Sony VGN SZ34GP - A*$2799* - Dual Core 1.8GHz - 1.85kg (includes Vista
    Bus Upgrade)

Ummmm…any ideas? No lighter version of the Macbook coming
out soon?

Tks
Greg

Your young, fit and the mac will make life better (and save your
wallet).
Apple are always very coy about upcoming products.

join us, join us, join us…

where’s my coffee?

28

Greg H. wrote:

1 - How much HDD does all the normal web development s/w + Parallels
take
up? That is so I can work out how much of a HDD upgrade I should go for
if
I go the Mac? (e.g. Ruby, RadRails, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Parallels)

Development takes little space. Photos, video, music are space eaters.

2 - Are there any applications that come with the Mac that you’d
normally
have to pay more $$ for on the PC platform that are worth it? i.e. do I
get
more effective value for money with the Mac here? (in particular from a
developer point of view)

Be sure to get Parallels and you don’t have to choose. If you plan to
use Parallels daily, get 2GB RAM. Your machine will thank you.

Included apps on my MacBook Pro were iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto and all are
pretty good. I also had ComicLife and a QuickBooks lite version (not
trials).

3 - As an aside as a muso, does GarageBand do Audio & Midi recording?
Or
would I need to spend more money to get a Mac version of something like
Cubase / Protools?

I have no idea because I never use GarageBand.

29

ohhhh…you guys are making it difficult…did I tell you this
weekend
here the large retail chain is offering 10% stock including Macbooks
(which
apparently is not frequent)

ok - so can I ask re the Macbook option:

1 - How much HDD does all the normal web development s/w + Parallels
take
up? That is so I can work out how much of a HDD upgrade I should go for
if
I go the Mac? (e.g. Ruby, RadRails, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Parallels)

2 - Are there any applications that come with the Mac that you’d
normally
have to pay more $$ for on the PC platform that are worth it? i.e. do I
get
more effective value for money with the Mac here? (in particular from a
developer point of view)

3 - As an aside as a muso, does GarageBand do Audio & Midi recording?
Or
would I need to spend more money to get a Mac version of something like
Cubase / Protools?

tks heaps - still have the background thought of my backpack being
heavier
:slight_smile:

Greg

30

On Jan 28, 9:35 am, “Greg H.” [email protected]
wrote:

ohhhh…you guys are making it difficult…did I tell you this weekend
here the large retail chain is offering 10% stock including Macbooks (which
apparently is not frequent)

ok - so can I ask re the Macbook option:

1 - How much HDD does all the normal web development s/w + Parallels take
up? That is so I can work out how much of a HDD upgrade I should go for if
I go the Mac? (e.g. Ruby, RadRails, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Parallels)

Going by the img files:
Parallels - 29MB
Textmate - 20MB
Dreamweaver - 160MB

2 - Are there any applications that come with the Mac that you’d normally
have to pay more $$ for on the PC platform that are worth it? i.e. do I get
more effective value for money with the Mac here? (in particular from a
developer point of view)

http://www.apple.com/macbook/ilife.html

3 - As an aside as a muso, does GarageBand do Audio & Midi recording? Or
would I need to spend more money to get a Mac version of something like
Cubase / Protools?

Yes, but the application is limited to all but the hobby musos. Go
Pro, ProTools (if you have lots of $!) or Ableton (very cool).

tks heaps - still have the background thought of my backpack being heavier

Get a good bag: http://www.sfbags.com/index.htm

31

tks again Michael / askegg

Hopefully last question - but can you quote a couple of specific example
why
Mac O/S is better than Windows? I know this is the general statement,
but
I’ve not really understood why it is better (besides the malware/virus
stuff). Is there anything solid beyond this and useability?

Tks
almost converted Greg

32

On 1/27/07, Greg H. [email protected] wrote:

well, stock is 80gb but you can get up to 200gb. I really don’t know
about
the space constraints you are requesting. I have a lot hdd space that I
never keep track. There are many factors for considering the appropriate
space and needs.

2 - Are there any applications that come with the Mac that you’d
normally

have to pay more $$ for on the PC platform that are worth it? i.e. do I
get more effective value for money with the Mac here? (in particular from a
developer point of view)

Uhm, you might want to take a look at the OSX downloads section on
apple.comand MacPorts, a ton of opensource software for free. From a
developer point
of view, well… what do you really need these days but Eclipse? Or
TextMate.
And if your into java or objc development you get Xcode free, but I
don’t
think that it is installed by default. My main dev tools are TextMate
for
python and ruby, and vim for just about anything else. Again Free!!!
TextMate is not free but well worth the cost.

3 - As an aside as a muso, does GarageBand do Audio & Midi recording?
Or

would I need to spend more money to get a Mac version of something like
Cubase / Protools?

Yes. You will be amazed with GarageBand, I only wish that when I was
younger
and though I would be a rockstart I had such an awesome recording tool.
Okay, so I still think I am a rockstar and plug my guitar right into my
mac
and lay down track with ease. Not to mention all the JamTracks GB has.

tks heaps - still have the background thought of my backpack being
heavier

:slight_smile:

Sounds to me like you actually have no idea about OSX. Let me end with
this.
Once you use OSX coming from windows… say maybe a 2 week learning
curve,
after a few months of use, you will be asking yourself, Why have I not
done
this sooner, and Wow, I knew Microsoft was not the best OS, but I really
didn’t know it was that bad.

I make those as promises to you. Feel free to let me know after a few
months, if I was correct.

Greg

–
-mike

33

On Jan 28, 11:36 am, “Greg H.” [email protected]
wrote:

tks again Michael / askegg

Hopefully last question - but can you quote a couple of specific example why
Mac O/S is better than Windows? I know this is the general statement, but
I’ve not really understood why it is better (besides the malware/virus
stuff). Is there anything solid beyond this and useability?

Tks
almost converted Greg

Now that’s quite a big question…

For me it’s lot of little things, for example:

  1. All I have to do to install a new application is drag it into the
    “Applications” folder. That’s it, no more. This had me stumped when
    I first switched :slight_smile:
  2. Sensible system preferences setting. Easy to find anything you
    need to adjust. Does not contain a maze of tabs and buttons to reach
    what you want and does not have setting you alomost never need.
  3. Being able to drag applications onto the dock for easy access. Add
    Overflow and/or Pathfinder and it’s unbeatable.
  4. Fantastic looking and very readable screen fonts. Every wallpaper
    looks great.
  5. Nice animations when changing contexts. When you minimise a screen
    it “genies” to the dock so you can see where it went. Popups fold in
    to the screen, then disappear when you have acted. The whole screen
    rotates like a cube when switching users. Some people write these
    things off as eye candy, but I like it.
  6. Based on BSD, so most OSS projects are available if you want to
    compile your own stuff.
  7. Dashboard widgets - handy for notes, weather, stocks, sending sms.
    Easy to write your own (their mini websites).
  8. Spotlight - now I can find any document/picture/email/mp3 on my
    system in a few keystrokes. The next version will expand this feature
    to all my other macs as well - cool.
  9. “Option H” to hide the current window - just gets it out of the
    way.
  10. Expose - all my windows on the screen, or just the ones for the
    application I am using. If there is a file on the desktop I need it
    is only a short F11 away. eg. F11 → Pick up files from the desktop -

F11 → drop them on my FTP program (Transmit) and their uploaded.
OR drop them on a Transmit dashboard widget for that website!

  1. Lots more…
34

On Jan 28, 2:06 pm, “Greg H.” [email protected]
wrote:

ok - I’m over the line…on my way to get the macbook whilst the 10%
deal is still on… :slight_smile:

thanks
Greg

You will not regret it.

After you have soent a few weeks learning to live in the new
environment, we would be interested in hearing your opinions.

35

ok - I’m over the line…on my way to get the macbook whilst the 10%
deal is still on… :slight_smile:

thanks
Greg

36

Hi guys,

Can I ask for some pointers re what development stack I should start
setting
up for Rails development on the Mac. On windows I was using:
InstantRails
(web based mysql interface), Ruby install, RadRails, Cywin, capistrano,
tortoise for SVN. Here’s my guess so far for Mac:

  1. IDE => Textmate
  2. mysql web based interface => ???
  3. SVN client => ???
  4. telnet => use Mac command line interface ???
  5. easy FTP graphical interface => ???
  6. other ???

Thanks

37

On 1/28/07, askegg [email protected] wrote:

tortoise for SVN. Here’s my guess so far for Mac:
Here’s mine:

I have Rails installed “properly” (See Hive Logic for tips), but is
you want an “out of the can solution” try Locomotive (http://
locomotive.raaum.org/)

  1. vim
  2. mysql
  3. svn
  4. ssh
  5. scp
  6. bash

:wink:
jeremy

38

On Jan 29, 8:39 am, “Greg H.” [email protected]
wrote:

  1. telnet => use Mac command line interface ???
  2. easy FTP graphical interface => ???
  3. other ???

Thanks

Here’s mine:

  1. IDE => Textmate (learn the keyboard shortcuts!)
  2. Mysql web based interface => None, I use CocoaMySQL (http://
    cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/)
  3. SVN client => Command line, Textmate, or ZigZig (http://
    www.zigzig.com/)
  4. Telnet => iTerm (http://iterm.sourceforge.net/)
  5. FTP => Transmit (Transmit 5); also does SFTP
    and SSH.
    6 CSS - CSSEdit (Espresso — The Web Editor for Mac)

I have Rails installed “properly” (See Hive Logic for tips), but is
you want an “out of the can solution” try Locomotive (http://
locomotive.raaum.org/)

39

Hi, GarageBand does audio and midi-recording. For more about
GarageBand, I would recommend checking the following site:

Good luck,

-Conrad

40

About Truecrypt

It is embeded in the Mac OS X system, it is called fileVault and it
will encrypt all your user files on the fly. Also you have disk
utility where you can create encrypted disk images and don’t forget
that all your passwords are securely saved in your keychain.