Programmer thinking of switching

I'm currently a Windows / linux user, I'm thinking of switching to a Mac yet I am not totally convinced.

I work as a programmer for a media development company, I use a Pc at work however I am in the minority that do so. I am told quite often that I should switch from my 'horrible' windows to a 'nice' mac. I'm always somewhat hessitant due to several reasons, however I recently bought a new iPhone 3G and have been fairly impressed. Apart from a whole episode or two with the iTunes store and bonding to a machine I didnt want it to my iPhone has been great. So I have been thinking about getting a mac.

Now I have a few issues with this, for every reason they give me to switch I can think of atleast one reason not to in rebuttal.

eg:

No Virus's on a Mac: I use no anti-virus software and have never had a virus on my pc (or any of my previous pc's) in the last 10 years. I'm a power user I know where the risks are for such things and know how to avoid them.

The software you use is available on a mac too: Yes it is, it also costs to buy those licences again. I dont want to re-invest hundreds in software I already own. But in particular there is certain software there isnt a good equivalent mac version (TortiseSVN jumps to mind)

You get a powerful nix* commandline: I use cygwin or Windows Power Shell already.

Shiny Screens! : The 24" screens are nice... however the Dell ultrasharp 24" are just as nice and have more peripherals and are cheaper.

Now my main worrys are these:

• Value for Money - I think this jumps to mind first. For the same price as a top of the line iMac, I can build a MUCH better equivalent PC. I could source the components myself and ensure every part is built to my specifications. It would be tailored to exactly what I want.
• Software Compatability - I work with a whole range of languages, including .NET. If I am working with a mac I would need to work through mono, loose the somewhat nice Visual Studio IDE. Now I could run fusion or Parallels but that leads me on to my third point.
• I dont want to dual Boot/Virtualization - Why bother buying a mac if I am going to stick windows on it, or run windows within a VM? That goes completely against the point of switching my core OS. I could do what I said in my first point and invest in a better quality PC if that were the case.
• Lack of upgrades - This is going to be an expensive machine I'm going to be investing in. If I do buy one I want to be able in 2 years time to upgrade the processor and memory if I need to. I cant do that without investing in the super high end Mac Pro's. Which I'd love to but are out of my price range.

So my question is are there any pc -> mac converted programmers out there who can give me any feedback on their experience ? Would you recommend the switch? If so why? Are there any potential pitfalls you have come across? Can I use commands like apt-get under Mac ?

apt-get is a debain thing. OS X is not built on Debian. It has its equivilent but no, generally you will use the software updater in OS X to update. Otherwise it seems you have made up your mind. Viruses? If your computer has any shares you are exposed to viruses on your PC without you doing a thing. You have been lucky so far and probably behind a firewall but without any anti virus software on your windows PC if another machine on your lan gets infected expect your machine to be next in line.

Since you don't seem to have any desire to switch of your own accord, I can't see why you would.

I use a Mac for programming mainly because doing anything except running standard business apps under Windows seemed like such a kludge. (TortoiseSVN? Cygwin? You mean I have to download extra software just to be able to check out code and use basic shell commands?!)

If you're in a good place with Windows, stay there.

By the sounds of it, you have no good reasons to switch to a mac. You seem happy with microsoft and your pc. And if you are going to end up buying hundreds of dollars worth of software if you switch, it just doesn't seem logical

theonegod said:

apt-get is a debain thing. OS X is not built on Debian. It has its equivilent but no, generally you will use the software updater in OS X to update.

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I was led to believe there were packages that give the same sort of functionality as debian? Fink I believe its called.

But thankfully you have come to the same conclusion as me. The lack of Visual Studio is a real problem for me, and is the main reason I am going to be sticking with my PC. I am constantly seduced by the idea of a mac, yet the reality is that it would be stupid to invest in one. Thanks guys.

Matt_Lloyd said:

I was led to believe there were packages that give the same sort of functionality as debian? Fink I believe its called.

But thankfully you have come to the same conclusion as me. The lack of Visual Studio is a real problem for me, and is the main reason I am going to be sticking with my PC. I am constantly seduced by the idea of a mac, yet the reality is that it would be stupid to invest in one. Thanks guys.

Click to expand...

Well if you do not want to take the plunge yet, just keep your eye out for a bargain second hand iNtel mac.

Keep your PC, but maybe consider trying out an older mac, just to get your feet wet and without shelling out big bucks on a brand new machine.

And if you are a programmer, then this article may be of interest:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/microsoft-learn-from-apple-III.ars

I thought I also never had viruses on my PC(Also no virus scanner for years),
But I tried AVG then ones and who it found a lot of viruses eating my back ground processes and stuff
They didn't harm(As far as I know), they didn't show up but they slow down your pc

Oh and you really sound you should stick with a mac
As you don't mention positive points, just the view negative

I do program Visual Basic, I stopped that a while ago tough but sometimes I start doing some small applications again
Tough the only program for mac is Realbasic and it sucks
While I think the free Xcode(Basicly visual studio but for mac and free) is worth while to learn(Cocoa)