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Never could get into Aquamacs... I guess it's because I still use Emacs on Linux (both in X and over ssh) daily so I want my Emacs on my mac to be as Linux-like as possible. That's why I always use: https://emacsformacosx.com/

Like it says: it's just Emacs... no extra BS...

There is an official Windows build which is usually found in the "windows" subdirectory on the official mirrors. There's also an unofficial Mac OS X build (though the site is currently down).

I love using my mac for web development, it works perfectly for everything I've tried to do so far. Plus I don't think this guy realizes, but there's an emacs port for mac. A quick google search found this. I've had emacs on my mac pro since the day I bought it.

Wow, TFA is a giant mound of flame-bait! I haven't fed a troll in quite some time, but seeing as he's going after my turf (web developer for 13 years, Mac user for 8), I think I'll bite. Four bullet points with flawed arguments about why Mac OS X is "bad" and one bullet point of nerd-baiting.

Horrific Package Management
This is perhaps the only valid argument of the bunch. Although I've personally used Fink with excellent results in the past, I don't think that it's being maintained as actively as it once was, but from what I can tell Macports is. I've never tried Homebrew, but I'm sure the author has sufficiently explored it's deficiencies to his own satisfaction. The author mentions his preference for Debian based tools, which is what Fink uses, so I'm not sure why he wasn't able to find some common ground there, but obviously he wasn't.

You don't deploy to BSD
Conversely, this is perhaps his weakest argument. It shouldn't matter if your development environment is BSD (Mac) and your target environment is Linux, or any other environment for that matter. In all my years as a web developer, I have NEVER had a local development environment that exactly matched my production environment. Even when I was using Linux on the desktop, it was not the same "flavor" as the servers, so I still didn't have mirrored environments. This is why you have multiple testing environments for your project, just as you have multiple browsers for testing. My local environment is a Macbook Pro. It used to be a Windows 7 machine, which used to be running Windows XP, to run a Java-based platform. We also have Development and QA environments that mirrored Production in order to test these types of compatibility issues. I'm also willing to bet that the Lenovo didn't come preinstalled with whatever variant of Linux you're using on your production server, or that the hardware specs on the server even remotely match either laptop.

Textmate sucks
So don't use it. Try Eclipse (my personal choice) or whatever brand of IDE or text editor you prefer. If all else fails, man up and install emacs.

The hardware is overpriced
I think the same thing about BMWs and Mercedes Benz. However, some people still prefer to drive them.

Some crap about 'LOST' that is completely irrelevant to the conversation
Okay, somewhere in your relationship with your Mac, you were hurt very badly. That's okay, not everyone is a Mac person. Not everyone is a Windows or Linux person either. But at some point you need to just "man up" and deal with the choice you've made or start over and just install Linux on your MacBook Pro.

- Stealth Dave

When will emacs or vim be available for Mac???

You mean like they already are?

Python packages are also a huge problem on a Mac. It is not like setuptools exist for Mac OS X....

Do you just just not know how to google that shit?

Also, when I develop for the web I always format all my devices to HFS+. I will never use FTP or SAMBA as they do not work on Mac.

What on earth?! Are you suggesting you can't just FTP from or to a Mac? Are you trying to mount a Mac drive as a Samba share? why?

And now I wouldn't go back. OS X is Unix for the desktop done right. The filesystem,

Huh? The filesystem? Care to explain?

the simplicity, the consistency... And I still have my command line, and emacs, and all of my old bash shell scripts still work.

I don't find OSX simple. I find linux simpler. It's kind of subjective.

1. Copy your .profile to the OS X /Users/youracct directory.
2. Install Xcode from your OS X Snow Leopard disk for development tools.

And enjoy ancient versions of GCC, messed up headers on newer versions (to make the newer versions *feel* ancient) and my favourite: frameworks.

3. Download and install the latest MacPorts.

Ayiyiyiyiyiyiyi. Firstly, I don't really enjoy source based distros due to the painful slownessof things like upgrades. I also find macports to be way less reliable than other rolling update systems (e.g. OpenBSD ports, Arch). I find that this is one of the major showstoppers with OSX. I like the way you can build alternative versions of packages, but it's not worth the price.

4. Download and install iTerm.
5. Navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices and start the 'Directory Utility' application.
6. In Directory Utility, select Edit -> Enable Root User to make root accessible via the 'su' command.

Never had much of a problem with sudo bash, myself. I don't really get the fuss over this one, personally.

7. No that you have root, MacPorts, and iTerm, start iTerm, su to root, and do "port install coreutils" to install GNU utilities.
8. Edit the PATH statement in your profile and add '/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/libexec/gnubin' to the front.
9. If you're an Emacs lover, also download Emacs from http://emacsformacosx.com/ and add /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS to your PATH.

OK...

Now you have a more-or-less Linux-like command line environment complete with development tools, ports tree, and GNU utilities like the color 'ls' command and the enhanced 'tar' command. You can start Emacs via command line to open text files (keeping in mind that you need to use capital 'E' if you want the GUI version).

More or less, but I'd go for less rather than more. Things never seem to work as well. The ports always seem more brittle than Linux distros.

And you have a rock-solid, highly usable, very logical, concise, and efficient desktop environment

I'm not even sure what all of those adjectives mean with respect to a desktop environment (concise?), but I don't find OSX particularly usable. It's certainly not consistent if you throw macports in there, since the integration between X and OSX is only so-so. E.g. drag 'n' drop doesn't work between the two. I also, emperically find that OSX seems to be just a little bit more crashy than Linux.

without all of the silliness that increasingly mar the KDE and GNOME worlds.

Or you can install a different window manager and have a perfectly usable system without the hassle of changing operting system. I rather like fvwm, myself, but it's not to everyone's taste.

Not to mention that you also have native access to tons of accessories and applications without the need for emulation or virtual machines,

That's also the case on Linux. There are far more applications and accessories than I will ever use.

as well as some things that never worked in Linux even with emulation and/or virtual machines (i.e. desktop voice recognition,

I've used it and it's a fun gimmick, but frankly rather useless, for me at any rate.

a lot of specialized peripherals, and so on). ... well that one cuts both ways. On Linux, you have access to a far greater range of computers. There are also plenty of older peripherals which now ONLY work on Linux.

Try it. You probably won't go back.

I did. I actually use macs on a fairly regular basis for a variety of not especially interesting reasons. I have never found them terrible pleasant to work on.

Switched to Mac OS X. Last fall.

NeuKDE + NeuGNOME = Linux desktop fail.

And now I wouldn't go back. OS X is Unix for the desktop done right. The filesystem, the simplicity, the consistency... And I still have my command line, and emacs, and all of my old bash shell scripts still work.

Here's what to do for a Linux-like experience:

1. Copy your .profile to the OS X /Users/youracct directory.
2. Install Xcode from your OS X Snow Leopard disk for development tools.
3. Download and install the latest MacPorts.
4. Download and install iTerm.
5. Navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices and start the 'Directory Utility' application.
6. In Directory Utility, select Edit -> Enable Root User to make root accessible via the 'su' command.
7. No that you have root, MacPorts, and iTerm, start iTerm, su to root, and do "port install coreutils" to install GNU utilities.
8. Edit the PATH statement in your profile and add '/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/libexec/gnubin' to the front.
9. If you're an Emacs lover, also download Emacs from http://emacsformacosx.com/ and add /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS to your PATH.

Now you have a more-or-less Linux-like command line environment complete with development tools, ports tree, and GNU utilities like the color 'ls' command and the enhanced 'tar' command. You can start Emacs via command line to open text files (keeping in mind that you need to use capital 'E' if you want the GUI version).

And you have a rock-solid, highly usable, very logical, concise, and efficient desktop environment without all of the silliness that increasingly mar the KDE and GNOME worlds. Not to mention that you also have native access to tons of accessories and applications without the need for emulation or virtual machines, as well as some things that never worked in Linux even with emulation and/or virtual machines (i.e. desktop voice recognition, a lot of specialized peripherals, and so on).

Try it. You probably won't go back.