I also find that Mac computers are horrible at large networking situations. Where I once worked they used Mac computers and you could hear people speaking of the “Spinning Wheel of Death” cubicles away.

I have unfortunately been unable to work on individual Mac computers a numerous amount of times, so I cannot speak of any large amount of lag.

I have used Virtual PC on Mac and I find that this is a slow and time consuming process. I would suggest getting a PC and downloading Ubuntu or another Linux distribution. They are free.

I have also found that it is pretty easy to emulate the advantages of Mac computers. I love the dock that allows quick access to applications, although I have one on my Windows Vista using laptop.

@Les – The stability and reliability is definitely true – but as I have said all along, if you a M$ developer, stick with your bread and butter. That being said, I hope M$ have learnt from Vista and when Windows 7 comes out, it will be the “next XP” ;-)

I wonder if there are any .Net / M$ developers out there using an Apple? Would be interesting to hear about how that actually works out.

As far as I know, a MacBook is not that much more expensive than a top of the line Dell / HP / etc. The point is, that is it way more reliable and stable. So, the only things you’d be running on your Windows VM would be Clarion and Visual Studio. For the rest, you work in a stable (and sexy ;-) ) environment! I don’t think the speed would be a problem.

Look, I’ve never owned a Mac, and have only ever put up with M$ / PC equipment, so I can’t do a valid comparison. I am not likely to get a Mac anytime soon either, but it would be interesting to try one, even for Windows development, and see what it’s really like.

Les.

We agree to disagree then. :)

As you say, if you use a computer to surf the internet and write emails, then I’m sure Apple is okay. But if you’re a grown up then you’ll probably need a real computer that runs Windows.

(Tongue very much in cheek…)

I know of one guy who did buy an Apple and then installed Windows onto it, and as Les says – you can run Windows as a VM. But what’s the point? It’s going to be slower and a lot more expensive. Granted, it will look pretty.

Gary.

I agree with most of what you say, though I have never had the opportunity to use a MacBook. :(

Thanks too for the Acceleration link! My team was just saying the other day how we want to trade in our HP Laptops for Apples, and run XP / Vista on a Virtual Machine for development! We reckon that would be far more stable! :)

Cheers,

Les.