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I'm struggling what to get, I largely need a Mac just to test Safari against web-sites I develop, and while you can do that on an iPad, the lack of a real brows

I'm struggling what to get, I largely need a Mac just to test Safari against web-sites I develop, and while you can do that on an iPad, the lack of a real browser development console makes tracking down JS bugs a nightmare (and, yes, I've seen the hacky iFrame websites that "add" a developer console to iPad, it isn't good enough). So that leaves me with a Mac Mini, Macbook, Macbook Air, or one of those services which claims they can do virtual Safari testing (but I'm unclear how that would work on localhost/internal sites). Is there any real advantage to the Mac Mini aside from slightly more power and ports? For the same money a Macbook/Air comes with its own screen, keyboard, and mouse.

lostgame 8y ago
For you, it must be annoying that Apple killed Safari for Windows, but I always wondered why they did that to start.
- danso 8y ago
  I can't imagine that Windows Safari usage rates were very good. According to the last 90 days of federal website analytics [0], Safari was used by 28.9% of users (Chrome and IE are 46.6% and 10.5%, respectively). But only 14% of Safari visits were from MacOS -- i.e. 4% of all browsers. 0: https://analytics.usa.gov/ https://analytics.usa.gov/
matthewmacleod 8y ago
FWIW, Browserstack does a pretty good job of testing limited-access sites – traffic appears to be routed back through your local machine when using the Chrome extension, so everything works as expected. I'd say it's pretty good if you're doing basic functionality checks, but it's ultimately not as nice as having the real thing, especially not if you're trying to debug anything graphically intensive etc.
adrianN 8y ago
If you need it just for testing, just pick something used from ebay. I use a 2009 Macbook at home and it works fine.
Doctor_Fegg 8y ago
Get a secondhand Mac mini cheap. Then you can use the iPad to test Safari, and open the dev tools (for the iPad instance) in Safari on the Mac mini. The ability to remotely debug iOS Safari is a really nice feature of Mac Safari.
_ph_ 8y ago
If portability and usage off the power grid doesn't matter to you, the mac mini is the preferred choice as you get a vastly more powerful computer, in comparable configurations at a cheaper price. Especially if you would use an external screen/keyboard/mouse with your laptop anyway. The entry level laptop at Apple now is the MacBook Air, which gives you a dual-core CPU and up to 16gig of memory. The mini starts at 4 cores, goes up to 6 and up to 64g. And it has a ton of ports. It doesn't have a keyboard which might be expensive to repair, no battery that can fail, much less likely to fail from overheating than a laptop.
akvadrako 8y ago
Maybe it's also better to rent time on a Mac Mini that you can remote into, so you can setup tunnels to internal sites.

lostgame 8y ago

For you, it must be annoying that Apple killed Safari for Windows, but I always wondered why they did that to start.

danso 8y ago
I can't imagine that Windows Safari usage rates were very good. According to the last 90 days of federal website analytics [0], Safari was used by 28.9% of users (Chrome and IE are 46.6% and 10.5%, respectively). But only 14% of Safari visits were from MacOS -- i.e. 4% of all browsers. 0: https://analytics.usa.gov/ https://analytics.usa.gov/

matthewmacleod 8y ago

FWIW, Browserstack does a pretty good job of testing limited-access sites – traffic appears to be routed back through your local machine when using the Chrome extension, so everything works as expected. I'd say it's pretty good if you're doing basic functionality checks, but it's ultimately not as nice as having the real thing, especially not if you're trying to debug anything graphically intensive etc.

adrianN 8y ago

If you need it just for testing, just pick something used from ebay. I use a 2009 Macbook at home and it works fine.

Doctor_Fegg 8y ago

Get a secondhand Mac mini cheap. Then you can use the iPad to test Safari, and open the dev tools (for the iPad instance) in Safari on the Mac mini. The ability to remotely debug iOS Safari is a really nice feature of Mac Safari.

_ph_ 8y ago

If portability and usage off the power grid doesn't matter to you, the mac mini is the preferred choice as you get a vastly more powerful computer, in comparable configurations at a cheaper price. Especially if you would use an external screen/keyboard/mouse with your laptop anyway. The entry level laptop at Apple now is the MacBook Air, which gives you a dual-core CPU and up to 16gig of memory. The mini starts at 4 cores, goes up to 6 and up to 64g. And it has a ton of ports. It doesn't have a keyboard which might be expensive to repair, no battery that can fail, much less likely to fail from overheating than a laptop.

akvadrako 8y ago

Maybe it's also better to rent time on a Mac Mini that you can remote into, so you can setup tunnels to internal sites.