6
HogDev
5y

Yo, have some questions for all you Macbook devs here.
#0. What language do you mostly write in?
#1. Do any of you dualboot / use VM's on your Mac?
#2. Is it better or worse (in your experience) to code on a Macbook in general?

Asking bc Im thinking on getting one for The thin and lightness of it.

Comments
  • 1
    Most of my colleagues use macbooks, most of them are frontend web developers, mainly JavaScript and CSS related things. No VM's

    python, ruby, php, devs mainly use windows and Linux at my company.
  • 4
    I have a macbook air because work bought it for me.

    It's nice; much nicer than I was expecting. The keyboard layout still trips me a few times a day, but I'm largely used to it now.

    I do Ruby/Rails and Es6+React with Postgres (full stack dev). Setting up Postgres was annoyingly difficult, though I suspect that might be easier now.

    I do not dualboot, and have not considered it because I have a Debian machine at home that I also use for development.

    What I miss the most from linux is the customizability, ease of setting up dev environments, and the more intuitive (and custom) shortcuts. Utilities for mac don't work quite as well, and typically lag behind somewhat.

    However, I don't find developing to be problematic nor annoying on Mac's. The hardware is nice (though the display could be higher res...), the OS is stable and smooth, the device is light and pretty. It's just expensive and offers a slightly worse development experience.

    I wouldn't dissuade someone from using a macbook for development, but I wouldn't suggest it, either.
  • 1
    0. Backend, mostly PHP. But generally, full stack.
    1. Parallels VM, rarely used - just for specific VPN client (which, this way, doesn’t cut off my Mac’s network)
    2. Better. Since 2006, when I fully switched to Mac.

    I’m using my fifth Mac now (MacBook Pro 13” 2018).
  • 0
    @Root You brought up a good point, the hardware is Nice and the OS is stable. That's another reason to why im thinking about switching side. I use a pc now dualbooted with Linux (cause I think its much nicer than VM's), and even though its an expensive maxed out windows machine it feels like the hardware gets worse and worse for each month.
  • 1
    If you want to have the ability to build native iOS apps (I use react native), or anything else your heart desires, then a mbp is a must. I bought a second hand lately for that reason for 1k Euro (model 2014, 16g ram, 512 ssd, i7) and I'm very happy with it. There are also some apps only available for osx that are really great, like sketch, to name one. And it looks and feels great as a machine. I wouldn't dish out 3k for a new one though.
  • 1
    #0 Clojure, Elixir, JavaScript, PHP, Java, Kotlin
    #1 Nope, none
    #2 In comparison to what? I find it most comfortably to work with MacBooks
  • 1
    Swift, Objective-C, C, C++ varies depending on the project. Our office has iMacs so I tend to use that way more than my MacBook pro
  • 1
    I use primarily C# and GML, have had no issues with it but I wouldnt say it's better or worse than using Linux or windows for programming but I think MacOS is perfectly designed for a laptop.

    If you do look at Mac's I would suggest the 13-inch with touchbar, what I'm running and it's brilliant
  • 1
    Long time macbook user here. Love my macs(have a 2017 and a 2013 macbook pro both of them) and use them both in professional environment(web and mobile) as well as my main driver at home.

    They are reliable af and I have never had an issue, the only reason why I got the 17 model was because I am spoiled af and they gave it to me at work.

    Concerning development: i fucking love it. It really offers a good experience for web and mobile since you can do both android and ios on a mac. I use vms for mobile apps if i need to(when I don't feel like using my android devices or iOS devices) and generally have a good experience.

    To be fair though, I do near the same thing with my Linux machines(2 of them...i know i have a lot of computers....leave me alone) except for mobile and if you are a web dev they work nice and have decent specs for pretty much everything web.

    All in all I enjoy all operating systems
  • 0
    @lxmcf thanks, I've been looking at the 13inch, it looks dope and as I said, its thin and Light :)
  • 1
    MacBooks are what work provides. I find it an excellent development platform. I have iterm for ssh, so I can connect to dev and test servers to develop using vim. Firefox Dev edition to test as I go, macvim and macdown for notes, chicken for vnc connections to various windows VMs, Alfred to manage app launching and the clipboard, and insomnia for testing and structuring API calls I build into my code.

    Since I run VMs on my machine at home, I just tunnel to its vnc ports over ssh. That way I don't need to run any VMs locally, which absolutely lights up the laptop's fan.

    A MacBook is a fine dev workstation. I can't speak to how it runs some clunky IDE, since I never use them, but I assume it runs them fine.
  • 2
    I love developing on my Mac. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have a PC I use for gaming (and did some developing on a while back but not anymore). I mostly code in Objective-C and Swift as well as JavaScript and PHP, and am also getting back into C++. I like Atom as an editor when I am not using Xcode. I don’t dual boot because I have no need to run Linux as the freebsd command line is all I need anyway and am not a big Linux guy.
  • 1
    0. I use Ruby, Python,

    1. Yes, I use VM it's runs great

    2. Of course, I love to code on macbook, it's trackpad is perfect, also terminal
  • 0
    @bahua Awesome, cool idéa to ssh in to a VM. Gotta look it up :)
  • 1
    0. Java, html5+derevatives, shell, python, php.
    1. No need for dual boot. All required software from windows works on mac, like photoshop and ms office. All software that is absent on windows but exists on linux - has a version for osx. You need dualboot only for legacy things like silverlight/flash.
    2. Shortcuts are different, there is the 'cmd' key that is used for almost all shortcuts, ctrl and alt and shift are just modifiers.

    No direct keys for home/end/pgup/pgdown/insert/delete. You have to use cmd-combinations

    Touchpad - it's a pure awesomeness.

    Overall - its a bit nicer than working on windows, different than working on customized linux. It's easier when you are used to work with it (keyboard shortcuts are mostly unified).

    Quite a lot of niche tools are too candy-like and paid. That's the downside. To have write access for ntfs you have to pay for it.
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