Laptop: Windows vs iOS.

Okay thanks :). What do you mean by more likely in Linux? :).

You CAN develop Android on Macs. but you can't develop iOS on Windows yet, Apple did make it an open source but it's only available for Linux systems for now, should be available for Windows in the near future though.

Hmm 2000 which is about £1500 where I'm from sounds a bit steep for me but I'm sure I could find a MacBook with specs I like that's suits my needs for development.

The reason I ask about portability with Windows is that I've had bad experiences with losing memory sticks and external drives because I've put a Windows formatted drive into a Linux or iOS machine, particularly Linux. I've always been a preferred Windows's user and my iPad is my main outlet for iOS but obviously I can't do much if any development of that. :)

Very kind Michael, but I'm sorry, in the last 5 minutes I've already bought it. :D

I checked, double checked and rechecked the specs and I'm very happy with that I've got,. The only downsides are the graphics card and battery life not as much as I would like but this one was always the one I kept coming back to. :-) I don't game as much as I can because I'm always browsing and coding haha

No worries about HD either, by which i think you mean Hard Disk? More than enough space to be another backup for my work.

These comments got a bit messy :P not sure how to move your comment to the proper "answer" it's actually my first day being a MOD :)

Yes by HD I meant Hard Disk. SSD's perform much faster and combine it with a powerful CPU..ahh...the flow... :) Another thing that made me cringe is that battery life, but if it works for you then, wonderful!

As long as you are happy with your purchase and you know that the hardware/software will perform best for YOU, then nothing else matters.

Hi there Luke, thanks for your reply. Is bootcamp a kind of emulator for Windows on iOS? :-)

Jonathan, Bootcamp is a utility within the OSX that makes a special partition for your Windows OS - Every time you will boot your computer it will ask you which OS you'd like, Windows or OSX :)

But still, for flawless workflow and even better performance (IMO) use the VM Parallels, you'll have to pay a bit extra for a license but assuming you REALLY need Windows, it will totally worth it!

Jonathan, I'm uploading you a really small 50 seconds clip I created for you to see what Parallels is all about. I will post it here once it's done uploading.

Cheers, I look forward to seeing it :)

Here you go: http://adobe.ly/1JbeKFS :)

Thanks just seen it. You seem to be able to switch from Mac to windows at will :)

Here's another piece of advise elsewhere I found about formatting the external harddrive about switching the File format from NTFS to exFAT.

http://www.mactip.net/guide-how-to-format-an-external-drive-to-work-seamlessly-with-macs-and-pcs-without-third-party-software/

Might be a handy guide to keep till such a time as a get a MAC laptop

What if I told you, you can EASILY read NTFS on Mac using Tuxera ? :)

Then I'd go to this page http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/ and check it out :)

Seems quite affordable.

But it seems easy enough to switch to exFAT and still have my files available on both Windows and MAC. Unless I'be read this wrong I've had a sleep deprived night haha

I have tried reformatting when I switched to Mac about 4 years ago, but I had some drive issues so I just kept it NTFS and found this baby. (Tuxera) :D

IF you get a Mac, check it out. You have 15 days trial. And if you will need any other productivity stuff, I have more recommendations!

Hmm, according to the link reformatting on exFAT should be okay for Mac OS X 10.6.5 Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 or newer for each. But I wonder now how even that updated intel is :)

Well it's something you can try and see if it works best for you :)

Personally I'll stick with the NTFS format. Also, check out this article.

I think at the moment I'm feeling closer to sticking with Windows rather than a Mac but not made any decision yet. The only thing stopping me at the moment is the idea that if I go windows I'll set myself back in terms of being in a position to learn to develop iOS and OS for some time.

Decisions.

With all these comments it takes me few minutes to find the proper "Add Comment" button, jeez...

Jonathan, if you really need OSX but can sacrafice portability, you can go with the Mac Mini, hook your desktop perefirals and you're good to go.

Also, if you want to try out OSX first, there are ways to boot it inside a VM on Windows - but that my friend, lays in the dark corners (or not so dark) of the internet :)

Parallels is an interesting piece of software but for ease-of-use and also, in my opinion, increased performance I would recommend just using bootcamp. It is very very easy to set up and the wizard will walk you right through it all no problem.

The only situation in which I would recommend Parallels is if you would want to be switching between the two a lot or you aren't confident working with partitions.

I think I'm going to stick with Windows for now. Purely because I come from a family that has Windows for everything basically since the days of Windows 3.1 and I've no immediate plans to look into iOS anyway. My hang up was simply what I'd do if I ever decided to go into Apple Development in the future.

I appreciate everyones thoughts and ideas though.

In case anyones interested this is the one I've got my heart set on. :) http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-500-15-6-laptop-white-10137915-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR

Jonathan, that's awesome! :D

That Lenovo machine looks great! Although I'm not sure about that HD, I would get an SSD instead (even if it's smaller capacity).

If you're not tied to a specific brand, tell me your budget and I can help you find a great machine for it's price. :) If you want more specific advice, contact me via email at afanasiev.mike@outlook.com

Well, I DO go back sometimes (with VM :P), but yes it has amazing piece of software combined with excellent hardware.