Web Developers - Why macs are cheaper! Monday evening, 10 April 2006

In one sentence? Because time is money. If you are anything but a full time freelance web developer then this doesn’t necessarily count. E.g. students, you do with what you’re given, those employed - often the same. As someone who used to diss macs I used to think they were poncy computers for graphic designers. My colleague assured me my right hand would turn into a flipper if I got a Mac and i’d never be able to double click a file again. (Side note: it seems double clicking even the name opens the file by default in Tiger) But now, for anyone that would like persuading, or is interested in some of the pros of using a Mac for web development, here are my reasons.

One. Maintenance not required. Forget downloading the latest spyware definitions or updating your anti-virus. There is no adware rubbish to swap the picture on your desktop with Macs. There are no virus scans to schedule. Even if you are Windows savvy and have all this stuff update and run automatically it is still easier on a Mac because you don't do anything.

Two. Working with files is faster. Unlike windows you can setup folders in the sidebar of ‘finder’ (think windows explorer) that actually stay exactly where they are and appear in every save file dialogue. Even cooler, you can drag any file from anywhere into the save file dialogue and it updates the path to the directory that contains that file - simple! Spring loaded folders make dragging and dropping the easiest way to move files around.

Three. Tools for the job. Mac software is awesome. So i’m working in my file in TextMate, i want to upload it to my open FTP session in Transmit. All you do is drag the file from TextMate to the Transmit doc icon and done. Transmit figures out the rest and puts it in the right place. It doesn't break up my workflow because i'm still in TextMate, no window switching necessary. As an aside, getting a Mac and having to learn to use a proper text editor made me realise what a waste of time Dreamweaver is. That's another story though.

Four. Talk to the server. This assumes your server is unix based, if you're using IIS, well then bad luck! No terminal emulation required: SSH, rsync, curl, scp etc all work out of the box. By the way, learning to use the shell and SVN has been one of the biggest productivity boosters i've had this year.

Five. All the best browsers live on OSX. Firefox? Check, Safari? Check, Opera? Check. It’s nice to be able to forget about Internet Explorer except when it comes to testing your code. Great way to improve your XHTML/CSS, I can now write most web pages and 95% of it works cross browser before i've even opened IE.

Six. Where do you want to go today? Would you like to clean up your desktop? You REALLY mean that? You have disabled your firewall. Connected to wifiXYZ. ... Are you tired of being treated like a moron when all you want to do is get on and work? Nothing in OSX grabs the focus, nothing pops with annoying messages and stays there until you click on it. OSX gets out of your way and lets you work without distracting you, you're in control.

What all this amounts to is a lot of time and frustration saved. You can work with your computer instead of inspite of it. As a web developer and having owned a Mac for one year now, I can't ever imagine going back to Windows.

 

Comments

Arty

Well, well, well...

*smiles some* What a pleasant thing to hear you praising a Mac so. I'd like to hear who it is that got you interested in such a sexy little machine. Not that everyone else needs to hear what wonderful person got you hooked, but I'd like to know for my own gratification.

On 11 April

Matt Turner

Well, i only played with your iBook a couple of times. It was mostly playing with the designer's macs at Halesway for a year. I thought the PowerBook looked so cool I decided to get one as my work computer when I left my job to go freelance.

Having said which, if there was just one person to turn me to the dark side, then it was you.

On 11 April

Arty

*beso* Just because.

On 17 April

autopia500

Matt,

I use a Windows based machine at the office all day long...then I get to go home to my iBook. I don't mind working on either platform because I'm not the one doing the coding and such. I never thought I'd ever own an Apple.

Then I bought my first iPod shortly after their original introduction a few years back. I had to use the same iTunes Library as my brother because he had a Macintosh and I didn't. At the time iPods only ran with Apples. But they Apple got smart and released an iPod that could update with a Windows-based machine, yet iTunes wasn't available yet for Windows. I dove in and bought my second iPod...a 20 gig.

I wasn't pleased with the default music organizing software I was forced to use on my machine so I finally fell and bought my iBook. This was almost 3 years ago now and I've never looked back.

I really do wish my machine at the office was an Apple, but you do what you have to do with what you're given at the office.

On 19 April

 

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