Who here has a Mac?

[WILL]

Hey all, just wondering who here actually owns a Mac. I know a few people that I've talked to about Macs do, but of the entire PGD site, I don't really. So tell us what you've got! ;)

[DarkBow]

Don't have any Mac, but my brothers and me bought our mother a Mac, so I have played with it a bit.

Easy system for a new user, but can be weird for someone coming from the PC-Windows combination. :)

[JSoftware]

I haven't owned and will never own a Mac/Apple product ;)

They have become everything that the original Apple was against, in my eyes

[VilleK]

I work on a 21" iMac because I like the screen and compact design. However I'm not using OS X, instead I run Windows 7 on it using Bootcamp. Works great.

[de_jean_7777]

I originally wanted to get a Mac so I could do Mac development on it. I'm unsure if I want to anymore.

[WILL]

They have become everything that the original Apple was against, in my eyes

Sorry that statement is just too interesting to pass on. How do you feel they have done that? I personally feel that they seem to be the same old Apple, they are just making much much better stuff than they used to in recent years.


I originally wanted to get a Mac so I could do Mac development on it. I'm unsure if I want to anymore.

Why is that? I love my Mac and can't wait to get my development platform sorted out. If only I had the time these days.

[wagenheimer]

I have a IMac, but 98% of the time I use Windows 7 on it!

I'm far more productive in Windows!!! I can't get used to the Apple Keyboard and Mouse (I use a Microsoft set in replacement)! I hate the keyboard shortcuts on Mac, I can't get used to it also! I hate in "Finder" could not use "backspace" to back a folder, I have to press Command - Left.

I really only use MacOS because i need to port my games to Mac and I want to develop something to my Iphone!

The only thing that I really love on MACOS is the idea of Application Package, that I put all the library, graphics, sounds, sfx inside my application executable and it does not need to be installed!

Sorry the bad english! =)

[JSoftware]

They have become everything that the original Apple was against, in my eyes

Sorry that statement is just too interesting to pass on. How do you feel they have done that? I personally feel that they seem to be the same old Apple, they are just making much much better stuff than they used to in recent years.

Apple started out with the intention to make stuff that was open. Allow hobbyists to run their own stuff on their own computers. Not having specialized equipment where the manufacturers decided the final functionality of the device. Back then when the manufacturers put a typewriter application, a calculator and a calendar application in a computer and sold it, for example

I know I may sound like an ideologist here, but I'm a non-ideologist. I like my computer and software free of agendas. I don't need some CEOs assurance that the software that will run on my device will be of top quality, if that means I can't develop that software myself without buying the right to do that

Alot of the major software companies are guilty of this. That's why it's my goal to change it :)

Oh, that and I don't like the keyboards on iMac's ;)

[WILL]

They have become everything that the original Apple was against, in my eyes

Sorry that statement is just too interesting to pass on. How do you feel they have done that? I personally feel that they seem to be the same old Apple, they are just making much much better stuff than they used to in recent years.

Apple started out with the intention to make stuff that was open. Allow hobbyists to run their own stuff on their own computers. Not having specialized equipment where the manufacturers decided the final functionality of the device. Back then when the manufacturers put a typewriter application, a calculator and a calendar application in a computer and sold it, for example

I know I may sound like an ideologist here, but I'm a non-ideologist. I like my computer and software free of agendas. I don't need some CEOs assurance that the software that will run on my device will be of top quality, if that means I can't develop that software myself without buying the right to do that

Alot of the major software companies are guilty of this. That's why it's my goal to change it :)

I assume you are talking about Apple's TOS? That only applies to developing apps for the iPhone and iPad, not on the Mac. The Mac is still as free as ever to develop for, just availability is still kinda scarce, but growing thankfully.


Oh, that and I don't like the keyboards on iMac's ;)

Well yeah I've been having a few issues with that too. I miss my Home and End keys, but I can do the same with Fn+Left/Right Arrows or Command+Left/Right. And... the Delete key, not the Apple Delete key, which is actually the PC Backspace key. But again Fn+Delete and it performs just like the old Del key I love. I guess if I get fed up enough I could eventually get a new wireless keyboard. I already replaced my brand new Magic Mouse (which is actually pretty neat) with my older Logitech Laser mouse.

[de_jean_7777]

Why is that? I love my Mac and can't wait to get my development platform sorted out. If only I had the time these days.


Well, it's the TOS, and the price. I wanted to make OS X and iPhone apps some time in the future. But to get a Mac and an iPhone would cost me a lot of money (more than I make in half a year currently). A Mac alone would cost me a lot, and there is no cheap Mac computer (not an Intel based one anyway) around here. I can build a fully functional computer for about 400$ that can run Windows 7 and any Linux distribution (together with a monitor). I cannot find a fully functional intel-based Mac for 400$, not even a used one.

[WILL]

Well, it's the TOS, and the price. I wanted to make OS X and iPhone apps some time in the future. But to get a Mac and an iPhone would cost me a lot of money (more than I make in half a year currently). A Mac alone would cost me a lot, and there is no cheap Mac computer (not an Intel based one anyway) around here. I can build a fully functional computer for about 400$ that can run Windows 7 and any Linux distribution (together with a monitor). I cannot find a fully functional intel-based Mac for 400$, not even a used one.


Ah well like I mentioned before the TOS would only apply to iPhone and iPad. So everyone knows (because I downloaded the SDK myself recently for my system) there are actually 2 SDKs for Development, the Mobile and the Mac ones. I got the Mac one and there was no such TOS saying I couldn't use Pascal. The controversial one is for the Mobile systems only. But if you have your heart set on making mobile apps, I can see why you're a little put off.

And well the price, I can fully see. My Mac wasn't cheap at all, but that's only because I got top of the line, for a change. :p They don't have anything for $400 USD no, but they do have the new Mac mini for $749. Almost double, but it is what it is right?

[de_jean_7777]

749$ is quite a lot, but here and in the neighbouring countries the price is about 1000 - 1100$ (converted from local currencies including taxes). That's overpriced considering the specifications of the Mini. Well, I'll probably get a Mac in the future (probably when I get rich :D), unless they do decide to mess with the OS X TOS too.

[code_glitch]

dont own a mac, never intend to. have pc with vista, xp 7 and ubuntu 10.04 tls (i think, since its been updating like crazy lately with all the betas...). Can work with all of them quite well.

things i hate about mac: its all GUI. whatever hapened to the fun of getting down n dirty with the command line eh? Oh, and its all over-priced and proprietary.

[czar]

sounds like some one is jealous they can't afford it :)

MacOS is built on unix and yes it can do down and dirty.

[WILL]

Oh yes, I use my Terminal app from time to time. Not that I like doing it though, I personally prefer my IDEs and other RAD tools. (Yes, I went there! ;) )

[paul_nicholls]

I would love to get a Mac of some flavour - laptop, desktop, iPhone, iPad, etc. but I don't have the $$ for it :(

Oh well, perhaps after I win the Lotto! LOL

cheers,
Paul

[WILL]

Apple just recently updated/upgraded all their iProducts. iMacs have newer Graphics cards/processors, iPod Nano/Touch have been modified too. Might be your last opportunity to get an iPod Classic soon though. I heard that Steve Jobs didn't address it in his last big technology line-up. Of course it could just mean that other than size, they are leaving it alone because it serves it's purpose other than future capacity increases. (160GB currently)

[WILL]

For all you people that checked that you had a Mac, I've created a 'Mac Users' group for you to join and see who are the best people to ask Mac-related questions. http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/group.php?groupid=3

[noeska]

Last month i took the step towards mac. ipad and mac-mini. Windows more and more annoyed me, so i went to linux, but also linux is not much better, i almost spend more time maintaining and optimizing it as using it. I had been running a test with osx on virtualbox before and decided i liked its simplicity. The only thing i slowly get used to is, that closing a screen does not close the application.

The console of mac feels just like a linux console. Bad thing is that even seems to have perl pre-installed, but then again i do not have to use that. The feature i like most is the timemachine bringing instant backups all the time to my nas. (using a tutorial on the inet i made it behave like a timecapsule).

This weekend i made it to running my test ipad app on the real ipad. So i hope to publish it on the appstore within a month or so.

But for my server tasks i will stay to use linux. Linux just is not ready for day to day usage...

[WILL]

I'm starting to think that there needs to be a Mac development forum soon. It's starting to get more and more popular, yet there is still lacking good tutorials and information on it. For example how to install Lazarus on Mac OS X nicely. :P

[wagenheimer]

How to make basic Iphone/IPad games using Lazarus+SDL would be nice also! =)

[de_jean_7777]

Linux just is not ready for day to day usage...

I never understood this argument. I mean, what is it that you do day to day that makes Linux unsuitable? I can understand development and using professional tools (e.g. Photoshop CS5), but things like writing a paper, browsing and such do not make it unsuitable for day to day work. Ubuntu got that nicely working. Sure Linux is different, but that's just because most people spent a decade or two using Windows. I think anyone coming from Linux or Mac would find Windows unsuitable for day to day use, or any other combination. The only problem is that we're not used to it, not that it's unsuitable.

Sure there can be problems with Linux. But when I recall how many problems, often bizarre, people have with Windows, then it's not that different. Personally, I try to use Fedora as much as possible, and while it's somewhat more complicated than Ubuntu, I'm happy with it.

As far as OS X and Mac goes, it's a nice platform, which may have less problems than other platforms. But then again Macs don't have to deal with very diverse hardware, and their price excludes them from most people.

[Andru]

Linux just is not ready for day to day usage...
My main OS on PC is ArchLinux, what I'm doing wrong? :) Windows 7 installed on it only for playing games time to time. All other tasks I can do in ArchLinux with more pleasure(better font rendering for me, configurable interface, etc.)

[chronozphere]

I'm using a Win7/Ubuntu dual boot setup, and I must say that I boot Ubuntu way more often than windows. Especially because I'm doing web-development, which is easy in a linux enviroment. Whan I pick up my pascal projects, I will dive into lazarus a bit more. Overall, I'm using windows only for gaming and heavy applications like Photoshop, Reason and Genetica. :)

[noeska]

For day to day usage i mis some tools like sketchup and dont say i can use blender, and take music playing for instance sure there are linux tools for it, but that is not as stable or as easy to use as itunes (yes i used that under windows to) ... But the most anoying thing is that my wlan does not work out of the box and its driver needs to be compiled from source and becomes broken again with each kernel update forcing me to recompile it again and install it again. So that is why i say no day to day usage, for day to day usage i dont want to be bother with things like reinstalling drivers manualy, i just want to turn the system on use it and turn it off again.

[phibermon]

First up noeska, I can't even remember what code now but I'm fairly certain I've learned a lot from various bits of code you've written over the years, thank you!!! :)

I dual boot windows XP 64bit along with an Ubuntu based distro (32bit, Nvidia 64bit linux kernel modules are (shockingly) slower), I too find myself booting into Linux more often than windows. I develop in Freepascal using Lazarus as an IDE and my various OpenGL projects work across both systems (can't afford a mac). But more importantly XBMC works so much better as a Media Center with XBMCLive and VDPAU under linux.

My computer is woefully underpowered compared to most systems (Asrock ION330 HT) and I get much better multi-tasking performance under Linux.

(If the devices you want to use are supported in XP 64bit and you don't have a dual core xeon, then use that over Windows 7 64bit. It's faster in every respect)

Plus you should all be writing cross platform code anyway! even if you're a delphi fan, it will very soon be on linux too.

EDIT : (I do run OSX inside a virtual machine, but I hate it and it's only there for when I can be bothered to test my code. I personally, don't need computers to be simplified. There comes a point where all that user friendly crap becomes a hindrance, I abstract my objects, not my OS!)