Certainly there are specific occasions where perhaps you might prefer a biege box. Especially if you live over seas and have to pay way more for the hardware. In the US the Mac Mini is 900 dollars and is comparable to any PC when you take into account the features and software that comes with it.
If the issue was simply that you were a unix developer, I would still consider using the Mac ad then installing a virtual machine on it and doing all you developing in the virtual environment.
The benefits include:
- one machine to do both development and personal stuff (as long as there are no security or proprietary issues with what you are working on)
- Multiple snapshots for you to return to different save points so that if you go down the wrong road developing you can easily go back
- by using virtual machines you can have them networked so that you can essentially have your own development network even if you are not attached to a physical network. That means you can have your unix VM running as well as other oses and see if they play nicely while you are on some mountain top enjoying the view
As far as gaming is concerned, i have the mac book pro which was still cheaper than the desktop mentioned in the original post. When i was dual booting I ran Half-life 2 seamlessly. It was really a joy to play on.
And so, I agree with you as well, that there are some times that you might be able to go to Mac, (in this case overseas cost issues) but i think that is an exception as opposed to the rule.
I have been a PC Wiindows(Microsoft) bubba for over 20 years. I have a taught many classes on PCs and Windows. I recently purchased a Mac Book Pro. I started off dual booting. After about a month I realized I was hardly ever booting to the PC side. I deleted the Windows side and reclaimed the space.
There is simply no good reason to get a PC. If you want to run Windows, fine, get a Mac and dual boot. At the least you double your chances of getting things done. It also makes you more versatile and more marketable. Apple was genius to first change to a BSD based OS and then to move to intel. The BSD based Mac OS X has the best of both worlds. Simply the best most powerful command line interface, and the most impressive and user friendly GUI.
I recently wrote and article for the Ins and Outs Magazine.
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Certainly there are specific occasions where perhaps you might prefer a biege box. Especially if you live over seas and have to pay way more for the hardware. In the US the Mac Mini is 900 dollars and is comparable to any PC when you take into account the features and software that comes with it. If the issue was simply that you were a unix developer, I would still consider using the Mac ad then installing a virtual machine on it and doing all you developing in the virtual environment. The benefits include: - one machine to do both development and personal stuff (as long as there are no security or proprietary issues with what you are working on) - Multiple snapshots for you to return to different save points so that if you go down the wrong road developing you can easily go back - by using virtual machines you can have them networked so that you can essentially have your own development network even if you are not attached to a physical network. That means you can have your unix VM running as well as other oses and see if they play nicely while you are on some mountain top enjoying the view As far as gaming is concerned, i have the mac book pro which was still cheaper than the desktop mentioned in the original post. When i was dual booting I ran Half-life 2 seamlessly. It was really a joy to play on. And so, I agree with you as well, that there are some times that you might be able to go to Mac, (in this case overseas cost issues) but i think that is an exception as opposed to the rule.
I have been a PC Wiindows(Microsoft) bubba for over 20 years. I have a taught many classes on PCs and Windows. I recently purchased a Mac Book Pro. I started off dual booting. After about a month I realized I was hardly ever booting to the PC side. I deleted the Windows side and reclaimed the space.
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;)
There is simply no good reason to get a PC. If you want to run Windows, fine, get a Mac and dual boot. At the least you double your chances of getting things done. It also makes you more versatile and more marketable. Apple was genius to first change to a BSD based OS and then to move to intel. The BSD based Mac OS X has the best of both worlds. Simply the best most powerful command line interface, and the most impressive and user friendly GUI.
I recently wrote and article for the Ins and Outs Magazine.
Viva La Revolution!
http://www.insandoutsmagazine.com/content_tek.htm
I advise all my clients and students that, if you are going to get a computer, get a mac. Once you go Mac, you will never go back!