Skip to content

Comment on Ask HN: Convince a programmer to switch over to Mac (from Linux)

Comments

Truthfully, if I didn't have to do a lot of graphics work as well, I wouldn't use a Mac. But being able to dive from Eclipse into Illustrator>Photoshop>After Effects, then into the terminal, sftp, ssh, remote mysql and dive back into Safari/FF/Chromium to test it, is very useful for my workflow as an all-in-one freelancer. I certainly wouldn't be able to use Windows for it. I could use Ubuntu, but would suffer on the graphic design front, especially dealing with motion and typography. If I didn't have the added design requirements, I'd probable just use some linux flavor. As it is, alone, the hardware/software combo isn't worth it if you're just coding.

If someone is just developing, not designing, then no reason to go OS X. If design and dev are tightly bound in the workflow, then it's the only good solution right now.

I definitely understand the Photoshop argument in favor of Macs. I just can't get used to GIMP, but luckily I don't need to do a whole lot of graphics work.

I've heard people talking about the software, overall, being better for programmers, but with no specific examples or comparisons to similar tools on nix/windows. I'm assuming you haven't seen a big difference either if you're using Eclipse primarily.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.