Should I go to MacBook??? (or Windows with: Sony Vaio, or Acer TravelMate Series 3010 ???)

rubyonrails-talk
21

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

22

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

23

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)

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.com and 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.

24

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

25

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! 11) Lots more....

26

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

thanks Greg

27

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.

28

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

29

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/)

30
  1. vim
  2. mysql
  3. svn
  4. ssh
  5. scp
  6. bash

:wink: jeremy

31

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

Good luck,

-Conrad

32

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.

33

I have a similar, but slightly more informed issue... I am also considering the powerbook 15, but unlike the folks above i have been doing all of my developing / system work on gentoo for years. Before gentoo, it was slackware. Before slackware... hmmm.. i think commador 64. I have never been into windows, and i never plan on using it. what i am wondering, is whether buying a mac has a shot at turning me into a mac user. I am planning on getting a mac yes..
but, in the back of my mind, i am also planning on buying parallels and just running gentoo vm's for all my devel. maybe old habits die hard. so, i pitch the question, is rails development that much better on a mac with textmate, than gentoo with vim. given, i have never even sat down on a mac, never seen textmate. but, i know linux and vi like the back of my hand. is it really all that?

34

I have a similar, but slightly more informed issue… I am also considering the powerbook 15, but unlike the folks above i have been doing all of my developing / system work on gentoo for years. Before gentoo, it was slackware. Before slackware… hmmm… i think

commador 64. I have never been into windows, and i never plan on using it. what i am wondering, is whether buying a mac has a shot at turning me into a mac user. I am planning on getting a mac yes… but, in the back of my mind, i am also planning on buying parallels

and just running gentoo vm’s for all my devel. maybe old habits die hard. so, i pitch the question, is rails development that much better on a mac with textmate, than gentoo with vim. given, i have never

even sat down on a mac, never seen textmate. but, i know linux and vi like the back of my hand. is it really all that?

Your talking about one aspect of an entire OS. It’s much more than just one text editor and one language. That alone seems to be a bit short-sighted. Why don’t you go to an Apple store and play around?

I have been using BSD and Linux since 1997 and for years I didn’t even use Xwindows, I prefered my shell and console. That’s changed and now I like aesthetics when it comes to a GUI. Apple has the prettiest interface there is and alot of it is based on gnome and kde, yes I know very tweaked. If linux had a more pleasing GUI–mostly better font rendering–I don’t know if I would ever have bought a mac. To late, I am sold. I use linux for all my servers and probably always will, but my workstation is a mac pro and my lappie is a MacBook, and I am pretty attached to them. In short, do I think you will be satisfied? Beyond a shadow of doubt I do, and you’ll probably wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

To me OSX is just like FreeBSD (I know… mach kernel) but without all the time spent manually configuring everything and a beautiful desktop.

35

Jeremy Kemper wrote:

    > 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

    Here's mine:

    1. IDE => Textmate (learn the keyboard shortcuts!)     2. Mysql web based interface => None, I use CocoaMySQL (http://     cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/ <http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/&gt;\)     3. SVN client => Command line, Textmate, or ZigZig (http://     www.zigzig.com/ <http://www.zigzig.com/&gt;\)     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/ <http://locomotive.raaum.org/&gt;\)

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

:wink: jeremy

1. emacs 2. mysql 3. svn 4. ssh 5. scp 6. bash, firefox, firebug

Why should I use a Mac with these tools? Stick with (K)Ubuntu or other linux distro.

zsombor

36

hey there

Hi all,

I have a dilemma! I want to go to a very compact notebook for on-the-go rails coding, however after reviewing what's available it seems the *MacBook * is a real contender, but I've not been a Mac/Apple user before. Some advice would be great.

*Re Hardware Choice *(a) *Sony Vaio* VGNTX47GPW - 11" screen, 1.25kg, bit smaller than MacBook   ==> excellent BUT more expensive ~A$3600

I have the 17GPW - its an older version of what you're looking at - its a gorgeous machine and the weight and battery life are great. To make it usable ive had to take windows off of it and put linux on, however sony havent released all the innerworking of their machine to the developer community, so somethings are difficult/fickle to get working well enough to be ideal (suspend/hibernate primarily, but alls the memory card slot). my lease is up on this in about 12 mths, at which point unless sony get real and release details needed to get linux working 100% on this machine, i'll get the TX47 or (perhpas 67 by then) if not Im getting a Macbook Pro.