
Many of my friends and acquaintances asked lately why I moved from PC to Mac.
I explained to the first two people who asked, but the rest of the forces were not enough :-)
So I promised everyone else to write an extended note on the blog and discuss it in the comments.
First, a little history. This will largely explain my view of things in the computer world.
I have been familiar with computers since 10 years old, my first computer was the
ZX Spectrum with programs on tapes
and built-in basic interpreter. By the end of school I already had a normal
PC , and
WindowsFor me, nothing new or interesting. Then in search of a sphere for
studying I decided to dig into the
unix-system . Therefore, in the first year I already got a practice
to the local internet site as admin assistant. Where in three years I mastered all the main techniques of
unix-fu .
Since then, for me, the command line has become indispensable and necessary for comfortable and fast work on the computer.
Over the next few years, I gradually changed the scope of work from admin to programmer,
or rather became a web developer. For full-fledged work, I then needed
Adobe products -
Photoshop and Illustrator. Therefore it was necessary to change to Windows. But the development itself is all the same to me
it was more convenient to conduct using the command line and terminal editor (vim). At that time, I was already knowledgeable about
MacOSX and software for this
the platform. So my hands itch more and more to try to get my favorite
unix from the command line and with a set of graphics programs from
Adobe .
And now, after
Steve Jobs announced the release of a
Mac on the Intel platform , rumors of hack versions sprang up.
MacOSX , which run
on ordinary PC . Of course, I did not stand aside and decided to “try my luck” :-)
Finding a MacOSX hack was easy on the network, and finding a working hardware for it too. So literally
a few weeks after the news, I was already the owner of a self-made
hackintosh !
I worked for more than a year in Hakintosh, studying the software and the system itself. Then the course “
Na Mac! ” Was adopted
. "
The rest was a matter of time and money, of course.
Now I am writing this post in
TextMate on a
MacBookPro 15 ” .
And now from the lyrics to the practice. What is so good and unique in the platform from Apple.
I will not sing Deferamba about Mac and will not spit in the direction of PC and M $ in particular.
Everything has its purpose and place. Therefore, first about the tasks.
- As a web developer, I need server software (for example: php / python / ruby ​​/ apache / mysql ),
text editor and image editor. In principle, only Windows would be enough for me to practice layout.
but it is too inconvenient to work with server programming (who needs points, write in the comments).
Linux solves the issue of server programming well in this case, but it’s almost impossible to typeset it from PSD or AI.
On the Mac, there are Adobe graphics packages and easy installation of software for server programming. So it turns out
universal soldier for web development is Mac. I can say that almost the entire arsenal of programs (usually OpenSource )
for Linux, works like a bang and on a Mac. It is easy to install and update via the MacPorts package system. - I have more hobbies and activities besides work :-). The first of which is music .
I play guitar and keyboards. Composing music. Therefore, the availability of good software for recording
music for me necessarily. As well as support for professional audio devices.
On Windows, it's all there. Under Mac, no fewer devices work and Mac software is also provided.
And its big plus is the availability of free GarageBand , which is enough for
for the accumulation of musical material and amateur recording. Special attention
It is worth the usability of the latest version of Apple's Logic Studio / Express . - My second hobby is photography . Here, in principle, products for working with graphics
in cases with Windows and Mac are almost identical, therefore, the weight of this item, I think, is zero.
Linux is also good at handling photo processing, albeit with other software.
So we can conclude that Mac really wins only on the first point -
web development .
Another important point. Which in many cases probably outweighs the bowl towards the Mac platform
for professionals. This is the MacOSX operating system itself and a lot of attention to the convenience (ergonomics) of Apple products.
More details. So, I think any programmer (oh, how I “love” this word) faced a problem
when, after several hours of active work, he began to sink in an abundance of windows and application dialogs.
I will not argue for a long time, but just give my example. By lunchtime, I usually already had a critical mass
of these “windows and dialogs” and I started actively closing / collapsing everything, which led to an additional loss of time
and to a little annoyance at the end of the day ... Many Windows users are just used to this process.
On Linux, this problem is solved quite effectively. Large selection of
window managers plus their great flexibility
allows you to very effectively manipulate application windows. The most effective way is to create
virtual desktops . By the way, this solution migrated to Windows / Mac.
And now a little “puzomerok”, of course subjective.
- Mac and Linux wins over windows application management.
- Linux wins Mac and Windows on budget solutions.
- Mac and Linux outperform Windows for system stability.
- Mac and Linux benefit from Windows task processing in multiprocessor (multi-core) configurations.
- Windows wins Mac and Linux with an abundance of software and experts.
My findings and advice.
- I repeat. In the computer world there is no panacea . There are tasks and their solutions.
- Windows is suitable for almost all tasks. But it most likely will not suit lovers of comfort and aesthetics.
- Linux is a great environment for web programming. You can successfully use to work with photos.
- Mac will be of interest to professionals in the field of web, audio / video production, design and photography.
On the last point I want to write a little expanded. I can judge professionally on the following areas: web development,
audio production and photography. I have less experience in video production and design, but I can judge fairly objectively.
And one more sphere is working with 3D, which is difficult for me to judge. So, I strongly advise anyone to try Mac:
- web developers;
- designers;
- musicians;
- video editing specialists and specials. effects;
- photographers.
I can also add that Mac is very popular among journalists and scholars. I cannot give exact facts.
If anyone has - write. I will say that the photo and video materials of various journalistic and scientific conferences
I can simply state a fact.
In the article I deliberately did not provide a list of software products (software) for the Mac platform. Because this is a whole series of articles
for future issues of
appleworms.ru