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I personally think that Macs are eating into the Linux crowd. Haven't you noticed that in the past year or two how the buzz over Ubuntu has dwindled, and now a

by brfox 18y ago

I personally think that Macs are eating into the Linux crowd. Haven't you noticed that in the past year or two how the buzz over Ubuntu has dwindled, and now all the "cool" developers run around with macs? I wonder what those official stats are.

ashu 18y ago
If the Mac can get the apt-get system working really well (not like fink or ports, but really working in a hassle-free way), then I think it will be unbeatable. Right now, I still prefer Linux. It's just a lot better for development work.
nirmal 18y ago
I used to be a hardcore linux user, then I got a Macbook. But I got the Macbook for aesthetics. I still run a VM for Ubuntu and use it for most of my development that involves any form of compiling.
DaniFong 18y ago
10.5 was quite a step backward [edit: from ubuntu] in terms of development environments. I don't think the battle is over yet :-)
- kylec 18y ago
  How so?
  - DaniFong 18y ago
    After citing my confusion as to why OSX doesn't have a decent package manager, doesn't ship with apropos, doesn't come with gcc, etc. to my friend Nick, he stated that 10.5 was quite a bit more fussy. I haven't used 10.4, so I can't be sure what has changed, but it's a fairly grumpy environment (for backend development, at least) compared to Ubuntu.
    - kylec 18y ago
      I misinterpreted your comment to mean that 10.5 was a step backwards from 10.4. That said, it is a viable development platform, and Apple does provide gcc with XCode. If you want a package manager, there's Fink available. As far as apropos, I've never used it so I don't know. My personal setup is the best of both worlds: work on a Mac and SSH to a Linux server when needed.
    - gaius 18y ago
      Is apropos not just "man -k"? OSX does come with gcc, it's in Xcode. That's not (IIRC) installed by default but installation is just a matter of dragging a folder off the DVD you get in the box. I expect that if you were using OSX to develop WebObjects apps to run on OSX Server, it would kick ass. If you are targeting LAMP I agree it has (few) advantages over Linux.
    - zenspider 18y ago
      "After citing my confusion as to why OSX doesn't have a decent package manager, doesn't ship with apropos, doesn't come with gcc, etc." wrong: macports or fink. wrong: apropos apropos: apropos(1) - search the whatis database for strings wrong: gcc -v: gcc version 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5465) Maybe you could actually TRY things before you make completely false claims that you haven't bothered to test... There is nothing "fussy" about it... I don't even really know what that means. 10.5 ships with xcode just like (pretty much) all the iterations before it. I think 10.0 was the only one to not include it.
      - bayareaguy 18y ago
        No, Dani has a point. Both macports and fink are poor compared to recent linux package managers, which is no surprise since they follow an approach (bsd ports) Apple doesn't use for it's own software. What is really irritating is that macports-installed shared libraries occasionally cause linking problems. Also it's important to keep in mind although you get XCode when you buy OSX, it requires a separate installation step that's both time consuming and easy to overlook and if you're getting OSX with a new computer you'll probably want to ignore the one that comes with it and download the most recent version from ADC which is clumsy compared to apt, yum, conary, etc.
tx 18y ago
They probably have Ubuntu running on them anyway... :)

by brfox 18y ago

ashu 18y ago

If the Mac can get the apt-get system working really well (not like fink or ports, but really working in a hassle-free way), then I think it will be unbeatable. Right now, I still prefer Linux. It's just a lot better for development work.

nirmal 18y ago

I used to be a hardcore linux user, then I got a Macbook. But I got the Macbook for aesthetics. I still run a VM for Ubuntu and use it for most of my development that involves any form of compiling.

DaniFong 18y ago

10.5 was quite a step backward [edit: from ubuntu] in terms of development environments. I don't think the battle is over yet :-)

kylec 18y ago
How so?
- DaniFong 18y ago
  After citing my confusion as to why OSX doesn't have a decent package manager, doesn't ship with apropos, doesn't come with gcc, etc. to my friend Nick, he stated that 10.5 was quite a bit more fussy. I haven't used 10.4, so I can't be sure what has changed, but it's a fairly grumpy environment (for backend development, at least) compared to Ubuntu.
  - kylec 18y ago
    I misinterpreted your comment to mean that 10.5 was a step backwards from 10.4. That said, it is a viable development platform, and Apple does provide gcc with XCode. If you want a package manager, there's Fink available. As far as apropos, I've never used it so I don't know. My personal setup is the best of both worlds: work on a Mac and SSH to a Linux server when needed.
  - gaius 18y ago
    Is apropos not just "man -k"? OSX does come with gcc, it's in Xcode. That's not (IIRC) installed by default but installation is just a matter of dragging a folder off the DVD you get in the box. I expect that if you were using OSX to develop WebObjects apps to run on OSX Server, it would kick ass. If you are targeting LAMP I agree it has (few) advantages over Linux.
  - zenspider 18y ago
    "After citing my confusion as to why OSX doesn't have a decent package manager, doesn't ship with apropos, doesn't come with gcc, etc." wrong: macports or fink. wrong: apropos apropos: apropos(1) - search the whatis database for strings wrong: gcc -v: gcc version 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5465) Maybe you could actually TRY things before you make completely false claims that you haven't bothered to test... There is nothing "fussy" about it... I don't even really know what that means. 10.5 ships with xcode just like (pretty much) all the iterations before it. I think 10.0 was the only one to not include it.
    - bayareaguy 18y ago
      No, Dani has a point. Both macports and fink are poor compared to recent linux package managers, which is no surprise since they follow an approach (bsd ports) Apple doesn't use for it's own software. What is really irritating is that macports-installed shared libraries occasionally cause linking problems. Also it's important to keep in mind although you get XCode when you buy OSX, it requires a separate installation step that's both time consuming and easy to overlook and if you're getting OSX with a new computer you'll probably want to ignore the one that comes with it and download the most recent version from ADC which is clumsy compared to apt, yum, conary, etc.

tx 18y ago

They probably have Ubuntu running on them anyway... :)