New MacBook Pro?

[rtomio]

I'm in the market to buy a laptop.

My dilemma is that I'm not sure if the agency I land with will supply one; and even if they do, do you guys recommend doing personal projects on company laptops?

If I do purchase one, do I just go with everyone else and buy a MacBook Pro? Sony Vaio has some nice laptops with the same specs; 2.4 ghz processor, 2 gb ram, for about half the price.

It seems like most of the developing community is migrating to macs, but am I right in thinking that either platform works just fine? Each platform has their respective coding software; FlashDevlop, Textmate, etc.

Your opinions?

[jsebrech]

If it's not explicitly stated in your employment contract, they can lay claim to anything you produce on company time or with company resources. I'd be careful of using a company laptop for personal projects.

Whether you should go with a mac mostly depends on your personal preference. You're right that functionally they are equally capable. If you haven't used a mac before, just go with what you know and go for the vaio, unless you are severely dissatisfied with windows (which was the driver that made me buy a mac originally).

[rtomio]

Thanks for the reply.

I use both platforms comfortably, so I'm leaning towards just getting a PC platform. But it seems like everything in creative/developing world is being tailored to Apple products.

What issues did you have with your windows?

[jsebrech]

Usability. I find the mac more tailored towards easily creating a workflow. The windows box required too much tweaking, and since I work with computers all day long, my home machine has to be effort-free.

That said, I do work with windows at work, for web development, and after some configuration I've managed to cobble together a capable system that gets out of my way when I need it to. So, really, it doesn't matter much other than personal taste.

[Ingenieurs]

Personally I adore my MAcs, I do have a shed load of PC's I use at work, but for my own stuff and for anything critical, I use the Macs.

Windows made me shift, it's constant need for new drivers, it's registry, the way it slows down so quickly after a fresh install and the fact that if you have no anti-virii it'll last an hour before it's got a cold, and with a box of tissues installed it's as slow as a PII 450.

I never wanted to use Macs until I tried one for a few days, then I never wanted to use Windows. I have found there to be little software for developing AS3 on Mac (apart from the Adobe collection), we have a couple but they are not as far along as the PC versions. But hey, you could do what I do and run Parallels on the second monitor, OSX on the left, Vista on the right, drag and drop between them. :)

[evride]

Windows made me shift, it's constant need for new drivers, it's registry, the way it slows down so quickly after a fresh install and the fact that if you have no anti-virii it'll last an hour before it's got a cold, and with a box of tissues installed it's as slow as a PII 450.


thats commonly said by people who don't know how to use a PC and those that download crapware.