any real-life stories about migration from PC to MAC in the coders/designers world?

marcnyc

Hello, this is my life:
I am an audio engineer and I do websites on the side.
I owe and use a PC to design websites (Dreamweaver, Flash, Apache, PHP). I use APPLE MAC at work for audio engineering (Pro Tools).

I wanna start doing audio at home too but I can't afford to pay for and to carry around two laptops so I am having thoughts about doing the move to Mac.

I am NOT interested to hear or start a debate about which platform is better, because I love them both, every platform has it's better and worse sides.

I would like to know if there are any of you with REAL LIFE experiences about switching from PC to Mac.

I know the software exists, but how good does it work? How easy is it to get Apache and PHP locally on a Mac and code with it? How good does Flash work on Mac (I keep hearing that it performs slower)? How bad is the internet really on Mac (let's not argue, we know Mac's internet is not nearly as developed as in the PC world, maybe mainly because the internet has a major user base of IE/PC users and everybody tends to code for that)?

These are the kind of comparisons I'd like to hear about. I'd really like to hear from anybody who has actually DONE the move, who talks from experience.

goldbug

I switched to using my iBook as my primary "personal" machine at home around fall of last year, and I like it.

As far as "internet on the mac" goes, if you mean browsing the web-- it's not really a problem, especially if you stick to Mozilla/Camino, Opera, or if you can't let go-- IE for Mac.

As far as installing apache/php/mysql/etc... on my mac, I've yet to go that far (I've got FreeBSD and Linux boxen on my home network for anything like that).

In terms of developing on the mac....
If you're a cheapskate like me, your choice of text editors are slim. (before anyone starts flaming, I know full well that emacs, etc... is nice and powerful, but I prefer GUI editors) Coming from using UltraEdit daily on Wintel machines, it's kind of annoying to find so few good choices (imho). I've found Jedit to be really full featured and nice to use, but its rather "slow." Pepper was a good free editor at one point, but it costs $ now. I'm sure BBedit is okay, but i'm not shelling out $100+ for a stinking text editor. Another option is to use some X apps under the Jaguar X implementation, but again, i'm too cheap (to pay $100 for an OS upgrade). I'll probably cave and buy the upcoming OSX release, but until then, I'll be patient with JEdit.

P.S. If anyone knows of any cheap->free ($50 or less) text editors for OS X (native) that can do extensible syntax highlighting and vertical/block editing among other things, and isnt as slow as JEdit, PLEASE let me know!

marcnyc

Thanks, that's the kind of advice I am looking for.

Unfortunately I don't have a unix box so I'll have to be able to do everything if I switch...

I haven't made up my mind but the lack of software compared to the PC world is definitely one of the reasons that are holding me back and have been doing so for years.

I can let go of IE and use Opera or Mozilla (I tried Safari and it sucked!) but I will still have IE installed because every webdesigner in the world should test for all browsers...

Another thing that really bugs me is that a webdesigner is lost if he can't test his stuff toward the most used platform of all (IE on PC)!!! That really bugs me!!!

I am definitely cheap like you are ;-)
I actually don't even use editors on PC. I use NotePad to code PHP and I use Dreamweaver for "graphical" html pages...
I also use Flash a lot and want to make sure that that works well on Mac both in programming stage and playback/testing stage (cause I heard different)...

goldbug

Not sure about the Flash stuff. I stopped doing/authoring Flash a while before I even bought the iBook. As far as Flash animations embedded in sites goes, I've not noticed a difference (perhaps I'm just not attentive).

If possible, I'd try to have a PC handy (spare in closet or a kind friend's) to test the sites on IE for Windows. IE on the Mac is quite different than the Windows version. (and some would argue, more standards-compliant).

If you make sure everything works perfectly in a recent build of Mozilla (1.3.1 Mac is yummy), it should work fine in IE and Opera (for maybe 95% or more of everything, developing the opposite direction does not yeild such results).

Returning to apache/php/etc.. on OSX, I would assume they would work fine (might take some compiling), seeing as how OSX is derived from UNIX/BSD. But, I could be very mistaken, so as always, one might want to RT[F*]M before bothering. Maybe I might just get bored enough to install said packages on my mac tonight (not of McDonald's fame).

The F***ing is optional. 🙂

jerdo

All of the things you have listed should work fine on a Mac with OSX. If you go with OS 9 or prior you might have issues with MySQL/PHP/Apache (not sure which of those even work for 9). As far as Macromedia is concerned, they have been making a big push towards Mac lately so all your favorite Macromedia programs will be pretty much the same on OSX as they were on Windows. Also, OSX comes with Internet Explorer so you are set.

goldbug

Just for reference:

Webserve from OSX:
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3

MySQL on OSX (Jaguar):

MySQL Documentation

[deleted]

Hi,

I'm a PHP developer for 3 years now. I started with a PC. My collegue, who is a graphic designer was using an iBook. I considered it as a big GameBoy and certainly not a computer for me !

After a while, I became interested by Mac OS (version 9 at this time). I worked some month with a small IMac but I was not really convinced, so I switched back to Windows.

When Mac OS X arrived, I was really excited and I tried again to switch to Apple computers. I must say Mac OS X (and especially Jaguar = Mac OS 10.2) is really great ! I own a PowerBook Titanium now and I will not switch back to the PC world ever. That's for sure !

Apache is pre-installed with Mac OS X. PHP and MySQL can be installed very easily. There's a great site if you want packages and informations on how to do it : http://www.entropy.ch

I'm using BBEdit for editing PHP code : http://www.barebones.com

I also develop Flash applications. Actually, Macromedia softwares (Dreamweaver, Flash, ...) are similar to Windows versions.

It's true that Flash player is a little slower under Mac OS X, especially with IE. It's better if you're using Apple Safari : http://www.apple.com/safari/

Don't hesitate to switch to Mac, you won't regret !

Vincent.

marcnyc

Thanks for your contribution man... I have been using some Mac OS X at work and I like it a lot... My main concern right now (before switching) remain:

general availability of software (there's always way less than for PC - but is it true that on OS X I can install both Linux/Unix and Mac software out of the box?)
availability of the softwares I love (Trillian for example is very important for me and doesn't exist for Mac, also DUN Manager to manage multiple internet connections or MailWasher to manage spam don't exist)
prices (Macs are soooo expensive!!!)

goldbug

Let's see what advice I can offer:

Originally posted by marcnyc
Thanks for your contribution man... I have been using some Mac OS X at work and I like it a lot... My main concern right now (before switching) remain:

general availability of software (there's always way less than for PC - but is it true that on OS X I can install both Linux/Unix and Mac software out of the box?)[/B]
Not sure. I know that Jaguar has X windows features, but alas, I am still using 10.1, so cannot be sure. There are several OSX ports for a lot of linux/unix stuff floating around out there.

availability of the softwares I love (Trillian for example is very important for me and doesn't exist for Mac, also DUN Manager to manage multiple internet connections or MailWasher to manage spam don't exist)[/B]
Instead of Trillian, you can give Jabber a try. It does a lot of the more "important" stuff that Trillian offers, most importantly, the ability to connect to different services/transports (AIM,MSN,ICQ, etc...) I use Psi for my Jabber client. It works on OS X, Windows, Linux/BSD, etc...
As far as anti-spam measures go, I personally LOVE the Bayesian spam filter built into the Mozilla Mail client. As an added bonus, Mozilla Mail is also cross-platform.

prices (Macs are soooo expensive!!!) [/B]
Can't help you here, but I definitely know how it goes.

marcnyc

Thanks a lot for you help... Actually yesterday I found out that there are also two more multi-IM softwares for Mac OS X called FIRE (fire.sourceforge.net) and PROTEUS (www.indigofield.com) so I am getting closer to the move...

I will get back to you with the anti-spam thing if and when I'll switch and as far as the last point goes I will accept donations that will make me buy a titanium

anyone?