Comments on: Why Every Developer’s Next PC Will be a Mac

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:11:18 +0000

This blurb has me convinced.

All my future database and server apps will no longer be coded for Unix but for the iPhone.
I’m buying a Mac laptop right now.
Wait I already have a Mac. Oh, I haven’t used it in a year, I wonder why… Maybe because it’s just like Windows and I use neither for work.

Apple is just as bad as Microsoft or any other large corporation. They’re in it for the money. Certainly not for you.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:23:14 +0000

Except the mobile platform for biz users is Blackberry. The iPhone has the trendy market covered but sales person has Blackberry in their pocket.

By: Some Coder

Some Coder — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:55:50 +0000

Yeah, right. Windows has 90% market share so obviously my next development machine is going to be a Mac. What an idiot.

By: Symbian Blogger

Symbian Blogger — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:28:26 +0000

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.

By: How Axosoft Built 5 iPhone Apps in 30 Days « Ship Software OnTime!

How Axosoft Built 5 iPhone Apps in 30 Days « Ship Software OnTime! — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:07:14 +0000

[...] .NET developers with zero Mac development experience. Prior to my awakening, which I detailed in Every Developer’s Next Machine Should be a Mac, none of our developers had much exposure to Macs or OS [...]

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:51:21 +0000

Axosoft devs – I happen to agree with you… now create a native Mac front-end to OnTime.
There are loads of creative shops that would use your software if you did this

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:24:03 +0000

For an example of a successful software company that’s using MACs for Windows development, look at: http://www.devexpress.com
They use Macbook Pros for their Windows and .NET development. When they started showing up on their demo videos, viewers asked about the Macbooks and were told they were used because they were the best Windows development machines.

I don’t think a Macbook Pro is the best machine for development (my Core-2 Quad will run circles around a Macbook Pro), but I do think they’re the most versatile machines for development: With a Mac, I can boot into Windows, boot into OSX, run a Linux VM in either Windows or OSX and run a Windows VM in OSX (I’m not sure if you can boot into Linux and use that as a host, but I wouldn’t be surprised). This means you have almost all possibilities. On a Windows Machine, you only have Windows and Linux.

Mobile development will be in my future, be it iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, or the next big thing. Mac development might be in my future. Windows development will not be going away. Why not just buy a Mac and be prepared for the future? My next development machine will probably be a Mac.

By: Manuel

Manuel — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:30:58 +0000

I come from the mobile manufacturing business.
iPhone was just a GUI revolution, not a platform revolution. I’m not betting on Android either: it has not proved itself yet.
In mobiles, nothing is settled; not now, and not for a good while. And when something is settled, it will be on something that allows everyone to develop for it. Watch Symbian moves in that direction. Mobile manufacturing companies are measuring their options on platforms that do not tie them down; they will go earlier for something that can run on any chipset, rather than something closed and restricted to overpriced silicon.I’m not saying linux is the future, but because it is open, free, and portable, all manufacturers have tried it out. They’ll continue in that trial-error until they find something that works out marvels… but they’ll not try out the expensive-to-start-up.
The forecast about the millions of iPhones to be sold is just a forecast. And as every forecast in the mobile busines is just the random number that comes to your mind when you are about to open your mouth. You’ll never guess right. And in this case, let’s face it: those buying the iPhone are iFans, noise-listeners, or don’t know about their options. Out of the I-have-an-iPod hype, you’ll be better off with a hdc iDressed: I mean it, you’ll get the good conectivity, applications that matter, and productivity on the move, with the ease of use of the iPhone.

And finally, deciding what developing machine to use based on an hypothetical future development is just the joke of the day. I’m now in a small company developing hardware-specific SW. Not likely I’m porting any of this video-intensive hardware drivers to the iPhone any century soon. Now it is your turn to laugh at me: get me a good graphic environment and a powerful server to back it up. I don’t need top of the game desktop to develop.

By: Johan Cyprich

Johan Cyprich — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:49:06 +0000

100+ million iPhones? Not likely or least not for a very long time. Most people can’t afford to buy one or pay the monthly usage rates. For what it costs to run an iPhone, your better off upgrading your home DSL/Cable connection to a higher tier as opposed to surfing at T1 speeds on a tiny monitor.

As for developing iPhone apps on Macs only, you can create them on a PC with iPhone Binary Toolchain Installer for Windows (http://wiki.iphonegameover.com/Windows_Cygwin_Binary_Toolchain_Installation). The iPhone is going to be competing against Android. Do you want to put your money on Apple’s closed architecture, or Google’s open one?

There’s a lot of hype around cell phone apps, but so far very little money has been made with them (see http://www.cyprich.com/2008/06/13/is-there-gold-in-them-there-cell-phone-hills/).

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:54:40 +0000

Our product are web-based, which will still work on an iPhone unless Apple figures out a way to block all websites that are not served from another Mac. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they were actually working on a solution for that.

Fact is, in the IT world it is still PC dominated, and that will never change to Macs.

Buy a Mac? Never. iPhone users? Who cares.