If your needs were exactly the opposite (ie, your laptop was fine for development but you were looking for more spit and polish and irreplaceable proprietary software on a general computer), then a Mac would be a good idea.
But really: Linux is, in absolute terms, *better for development *(open source development, certainly) than OS X - if only because, should you so desire, you can graduate to hacking the operating system itself. It is, nevertheless, far easier to develop for iOS on OSX, so if that's a concern, a Mac is necessary (or an elaborate VM setup). Also, if you were just not getting on with the Linux user experience (it ain't for everybody), then OSX is a far superior option for development than Windows. Reasons *not *to spend wads of cash - because 'everybody else is doing it'. Macs are expensive because they are luxury goods: as with all luxury goods, this is about 70% marketing and 30% genuine technical superiority to cheaper alternatives. If you have only a few hundred notes to spend, then forget about a shiny MBP or whatever. You certainly won't get any advantages for RoR, or web development in general (except in certain proprietary systems like .NET), from having a Mac over having Linux. If anything, having a more hackable OS is an advantage, not a disadvantage. On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 10:00 PM, Jason Hsu, Rubyist <[email protected]>wrote: > I realize this is off-topic, but I understand that an overwhelming > majority of Rubyists use Mac computers and not PCs. I currently use > Linux-powered PCs. Yes, I ditched Windows years ago just like many of you. > Using Linux on a used PC is the cheapest way to compute. (I've been able to > buy a 4 or 5-year-old PC that works for as little as $40-$50.) > > I'm interested in purchasing a Mac to put myself on the same page as other > software developers. (I'm used to Linux distros that provide the look and > feel of Windows XP.) I will use the Mac for software development projects, > but I intend to stick with my Linux-powered PCs for general computing. (I > don't want to get locked into the Mac world, because it's so much more > expensive. Also, there is a case to be made for being versatile.) > > I'm thinking of buying a new mini (starts at $600), a new MacBook (starts > at $1000), or a refurbished MacBook (starts at $850). > > Some questions: > 1. How much has OS X changed over the past several versions? Is something > from 5 years ago obsolete? Linux, on the other hand, is free. Any current > Linux distro will work very well on a 5-year-old PC, and there are even > some Linux distros (like Puppy Linux and antiX Linux) that work well on PCs > that are 10 or more years old. > 2. Is it just me, or are used Macs so exorbitantly expensive as to defeat > the point of buying a used computer in the first place? I looked at > Craigslist and found a number of used Mac laptops selling for as much as a > new one. Most of the Macs selling for a few hundred dollars or less were > very old, such as G4s. (I understand that those are 10-15 years old. Good > luck getting even $100 or even $50 from a 10-year-old PC.) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rubyonrails-talk/68ab588b-edb7-442a-9eae-7af0f19a1beb%40googlegroups.com > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rubyonrails-talk/CAAb4X%3DzisgJQsrGm%2BjfRMBrse8LFCJ7zMtO-jBruVhc7VyLMOA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
