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General Discussion

Posted by Derek Vha
Derek Vha
10,452 Points

New laptop - MacBook vs Traditional Windows laptop

I am a full stack developer in C#, using primarily Visual Studio, creating MVC / ASP.net applications.

Developing mobile apps is something I intend to learn in the near future, as is perhaps desktop applications using WPF.

I am looking to buy a new laptop, and after having used Windows all my life, I am not sure whether to stick to a traditional Windows based laptop or buy Apple MacBook Pro.

I know its possible to run Windows on the Mac using BootCamp (and thus install Visual Studio), but generally as a windows based developer, should I stick to a traditional Windows Laptop?

I don't want to start a Windows vs OSX debate, but more so from the point of view of a c# developer.

Thanks

1 Answer

Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points
Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points

If you want to develop iOS applications; you'll need a Mac.

You can get VS for Mac which I am sure has some compromises but you'd know better than I do on that front.

In general Macbooks have better battery life, last longer and are all-round better built. Windows laptops tend to be feature-driven but lack the quality of a Mac, but cost way less!!

Personally, i wouldn't be without my Mac but I tend to use the Windows laptop for day-to-day stuff. I often use Cloud 9 for development work as it is useful for me. There's a C++ workspace capability in there - but I'm off-topic here.

So, if you're price-driven have a look at the Dell Inspiron. Mine's excellent and with 10 hour battery life, it is mega portable. If you want to develop iOS apps; Mac all the way, unless you are happy with non-native code.

I hope that helps a little.

Steve.

Derek Vha
Derek Vha
10,452 Points

Hi Steve,

I think the quality of Macs is what appeals to me. However I primarily deal with back end development (hence me learning front end technologies on Team Treehouse!) so I'm not sure the ease of products such as SQL Server for example, running on a mac.

Installing Windows on a Mac seems a bit like...why don't you just buy a windows laptop!! Developing apps is something I do want to get into in the near future, so perhaps a Mac is a better option.

Steve Hunter
Steve Hunter
57,712 Points

I run MySQL on my Mac. OSX is primarily Linux based - SQL servers run fine on Linux so they're easy to set up on Mac. I run Rails applications on the Mac with no problems at all.