Quick, someone check the temperature sensor for Hell!

[tcepsa]

I was at the Northern Virginia Software Symposium this weekend. Holy crap was it awesome. If Groovy can deliver on the things that were hinted at over the weekend... wow. But that's not what this post is about. This post it about a simple observation that I made while at the conference

Comments

[belushi81x]

I've been tellin you (because I tell everybody) for years that macs are friggin' awesome!!!!

[belushi81x]

Seriously tho.... you dont' want anythign without an intel chip these days.... used or no... if you're getting a desktop and you don't want to spend top dollar just get a mini.

If you're going for a laptop all their laptops are pretty solid (If you get a laptop I seriously reccomend an extended warentee, tho i owuld say that for any brand, I think)...

The 2 questions I have to ask are
1) budget?
2) use?

Because I know the work you do I will point out that apple puts out most of their own dev tools on the cheap.

[tcepsa]

~nods~ Intel chip good. Got it. Will probably take your suggestion on a Mini, since right now I'm just trying to get my feet wet, get a feel for it, and see whether it's something that would be worth my investing more time and money in, or whether at this point it would be better for me to stick to honing my current Windows and/or Linux skills

[belushi81x]

Apple Dev tools...
http://developer.apple.com/
Bum arroudn there, you'll find lots of interesting reading and tools etc.
(tho if you're mostly doing java you might as well just get tools from SUN) Apple users have made some interesting dev too on shareware/demo at
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/

• What is Eclipse?? I am not familiar with that.
  
• I use firefox on my mac often and the apple default browser (safari) is also quite well done.
  
• The is a version of open office for mac. There are also other options including apple developed software (called iWork) and ported versions of UNIX software that used to be used like open office.
  
• Haven't done a lot of image editing. iPhoto does most of what i need it to do... (keep and orgainize photos... SIMPLE touchups... etc.)
  
• You can do a lot without using a mouse. There are a lot of tricks, but saddly you must still use your

brat

[judyisis]

I'm mad at you because I JUST talked to you this AM and you didn't ask me how I like the Mac that you know I have!
That being said--since you and Xilet are my computer guru goto people, I know you know way more about the Macs than I do, and I can't help with the technical stuff you need to know. I will tell you this, tho--the Mac I am using, even tho it is quite old, is making me happier than any PC I have EVER used. I cannot WAIT until I can plunk down the funds for a shiny new one!! Every single person I have talked to about Macs (who has one) since I first started asking YOU about them loves them and will not use PCs anymore. (And I've asked a butt-load of people) I am a solid convert.
(Just make sure you take snow-cone syrup to hell when you go ;)

Re: brat

[tcepsa]

The reason I didn't say anything this morning was, well, you said it yourself--I'm more looking for technical details like what kind of processor I'd need, how much RAM, etc. for stuff like code development. I know that there are enough fans out there that they must be doing several somethings very right, and I'm trying to discern whether it's enough to warrant the expense involved in making the transition when I've already got my current level of proficiency in Windows and Windows-related tools.

Re: brat

[judyisis]

ya ya--I still woulda thought it was cool! I'm glad they impressed you ;)
The Minis are super cute, if you get one!

Re: brat

[belushi81x]

The cheap minis are more powerful than the 4 year old mac I am typing on now and I have done dev work on this machine... mostly home-brew tho.

[purplepathos]

I've been using Macs at home for thirteen years, exclusively. Living in a college town, all of my Macs have been used and have been pretty reliable. I don't do anything too advanced with them--internet stuff, games, photos, CD/DVD playing/burning, etc. I love how intuitive they are--someone like me who hasn't had much real training can just get on them and use them. My only real frustration is the lack of software support for them. So many times there's some piece of software that looks like fun and I'd love to have it, but, whoops, it's not available for the Mac. Grr.