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Macs are not really that great anymore. Between the keyboard, price and lack of upgradability, you have to have a pretty flexible definition of "good for develo

by llampx 7y ago

Macs are not really that great anymore. Between the keyboard, price and lack of upgradability, you have to have a pretty flexible definition of "good for developers" to choose one over even a Windows laptop with WSL, let alone a Ubuntu one.

infecto 7y ago
I think everyone is going to have a different opinion on this but aside from the keyboard fiasco I think Macbooks are still a good option. I agree you cannot upgrade them, but honestly all I can ever see wanting to upgrade is memory but hell, if I Just go with 16gb from the gate I cannot see the need to upgrade in the lifetime of the machine. Its a couple grand but going to last me a while. Linux laptops are still a little flaky for me. I have experienced a couple in the past year and its still not as streamlined as I want. I just don't care about configuration and fine tuning it. WSL is far from ready but I think maybe the Pro version of WSL will yield better results. I think there was still some configuration steps for me that were a little janky especially since I like to use Jetbrains editors. I think PyCharm now does a better job of supporting WSL but again, not as streamlined as I want. Not sure what kind of "developing" you are doing but Macs still work.
- benologist 7y ago
  It's a couple grand but that used to be OK cause you could sell the machines years later and previously they held their value well. Now the free keyboard program only covers the machines for 4 years from the date of purchase, after that they're not going to be worth much. Demand for these Macbooks will probably be tied closely to the lack of alternatives too and disappear quickly.
drclau 7y ago
I keep seeing complaints from devs about the prices of MacBooks. One has to wonder, aren’t devs paid enough these days to not care about the extra few hundred dollars every few years?

by llampx 7y ago

infecto 7y ago

I think everyone is going to have a different opinion on this but aside from the keyboard fiasco I think Macbooks are still a good option. I agree you cannot upgrade them, but honestly all I can ever see wanting to upgrade is memory but hell, if I Just go with 16gb from the gate I cannot see the need to upgrade in the lifetime of the machine. Its a couple grand but going to last me a while. Linux laptops are still a little flaky for me. I have experienced a couple in the past year and its still not as streamlined as I want. I just don't care about configuration and fine tuning it. WSL is far from ready but I think maybe the Pro version of WSL will yield better results. I think there was still some configuration steps for me that were a little janky especially since I like to use Jetbrains editors. I think PyCharm now does a better job of supporting WSL but again, not as streamlined as I want. Not sure what kind of "developing" you are doing but Macs still work.

benologist 7y ago
It's a couple grand but that used to be OK cause you could sell the machines years later and previously they held their value well. Now the free keyboard program only covers the machines for 4 years from the date of purchase, after that they're not going to be worth much. Demand for these Macbooks will probably be tied closely to the lack of alternatives too and disappear quickly.

drclau 7y ago

I keep seeing complaints from devs about the prices of MacBooks. One has to wonder, aren’t devs paid enough these days to not care about the extra few hundred dollars every few years?