Macbook or Thinkpad for Java Development

murphaph

Hi all,
have a new job starting soon and it's java front end web development (so eclipse, tomcat, maven, maybe jrebel, ssh, browers to test on all require support). The company offers either macbooks (don't know what model but they're high end with solid state drives) or high end Think pad laptops. I've only ever used Windows and Linux for work and have never really had any interaction with Apple as they always seemed over priced to me, but I won't be paying for this one, so should I take the opportunity to get to know Apple? I know 1 developer that uses a Macbook Air for development and is perfectly happy. Any downsides to a Mac for development?

jester77

I develop on mac at work and find it much better than windows. Homebrew and ohmyzsh will give you a powerful setup that is as good as anything linux can provide and far superior to anything windows can provide unless you like messing around with putty! The only thing you would be missing is testing on IE, but if you are doing serious testing then you would most likely have a host of VMs that would cover that.

murphaph

Cheers Jester <waves over to Hamburg>, putty is annoying which is the main reason I now wipe Windows off my laptops and install a *nix variant. The better support for ssh on a Mac is certainly appealing.

Any hardware downsides? The guy I know with the Macbook Air can only seem to connect one large external monitor to it, is that par for the course?

jester77

murphaph wrote: »

Cheers Jester <waves over to Hamburg>, putty is annoying which is the main reason I now wipe Windows off my laptops and install a *nix variant. The better support for ssh on a Mac is certainly appealing.

Any hardware downsides? The guy I know with the Macbook Air can only seem to connect one large external monitor to it, is that par for the course?

<waves over to Berlin>

No real hardware downsides, apart from the lack of a proper docking station. It's bloody annoying having to pull out a power cable, network cable, usb cable, monitor cable, headphone cable and kensington lock everytime you want to take it with you to a meeting & then having to reattach them again Plus the new guys here get retina macbooks which have no kensington lock, so I think they have to lock them in their drawer everytime they leave their desk which would be even more annoying!

Not sure about the monitor, I only have 1 monitor hooked up and use it alongside the macbook. Works ok for me as the macbook has 1680x1050 resolution which is fine for working on. It's possible to daisy chain thunderbolt displays, but very few monitors support that.

murphaph

Ah, the lack of a docking station might be enough to alienate me. I've grown very fond of my lenovo one, which even works well under Linux. Will have to carefully consider this one!

Ant

Go for the Macbook for something new and different - and to add another string to your bow.

I'm a Linux user myself (used to be what they called a "power user" on Windows) and I use the command line a lot. I recently started using Mac OS X in college (learning Java, web and mobile development) and I've come to really like the GUI for its features, aesthetics and level of configurability. There are some small differences between the BSD commands compared to what I was used to but the overall learning curve isn't steep. It also took a while to get used to the keyboard short-cuts but it's still a very enjoyable learning experience.

lemon_remon

Linux user and I find Eclipse on Linux kinda ****ty, although it's not as bad as before. Imo if you're going to splash out on a expensive laptop you might as well get a Mac. If you hate OSX you can always install Linux on it as Macs have great Linux support. Linus uses one himself.

dalta5billion

lemon_remon wrote: »

Linux user and I find Eclipse on Linux kinda ****ty, although it's not as bad as before. Imo if you're going to splash out on a expensive laptop you might as well get a Mac. If you hate OSX you can always install Linux on it as Macs have great Linux support. Linus uses one himself.

+1 on this.

Linux is so great on command line stuff and I love it but when it comes to stuff where you need a great GUI to be productive it lacks a little IMHO.

I alternate between OSX, Linux VM's and an old laptop which runs Ubuntu just to keep me sane. I'd say I use them equally thanks to Synergy letting me use the Macs mouse & keyboard.

croo

I've used eclipse on various versions of linux for years and I never noticed any issues in the GUI. Now, I never used it on a mac so perhaps I am just ignorant of an even better working env.

I'm not doing as much java/linux dev these days and when I do I'm mostly using Springs STS rather than vanilla eclipse. I am working on a Thinkpad W520 which I love... I more than halved my project compile times when I moved to this laptop.

After saying that I suspect that mac pro or hi-spec'd thinkpad ... either will prove to be a capable workhorse.