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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

No software, just cost overall.

The cheapest way to buy into Mac is a Mini, but even the "top" $999 one has no SSD, only 8GB of RAM, and a older i5. Compare that with a $500 PC, you can get a legitimately high end developer machine including [basic] monitors and the whole works for that.

Then you need to buy Parallels at $99/year and a bunch of Mac/Apple specific accessories which add up fast. This is particularly important since Bootcamp is garbage, Parallels is the only good way to run Windows or Linux side by side (which in our multi-device world is important).

I could likely even afford to spend $1K on a Mac. I just don't feel like if I did so I'd wind up with a good developer machine that will last me three or four years. Seems like $2400 is about the minimum buy-in.

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No way... I bought a Macbook Air for $700-$800 that runs extremely well as a development machine. Most of my long term storage is online anyways. As long as you get a decent HDD, there's no issues. You don't have to buy Parallels unless you plan on running Windows concurrently for some reason.

I own a Macbook Air, a Macbook Pro, and I have a custom PC that I built for gaming. After looking at all the ins-and-outs of what you get with a Mac and using them for a while now, it's well worth any extra cost. To suggest that that cost is $2400 minimum is nonsense, though.

That really depends on what you're developing. A Macbook Air, for instance, definitely doesn't do what I need. I have a top of the line MBP from Fall 2014 (~$2500), and I'm always running into resource constraints.

A Macbook Air goes up to 8GB of RAM per Apple. On the machine I'm currently sitting at my utilisation is 6.7 GB and that isn't running Parallels or two operating systems. The Air is has all of the same issues the $999 Mac Mini does.

> You don't have to buy Parallels unless you plan on running Windows concurrently for some reason.

Most developers cannot avoid Windows or Linux entirely. I am talking about development as a job, not my Ruby side projects. Business customers utilise Windows and Linux regularly. It cannot be ignored simply because it isn't as fashionable.

> To suggest that that cost is $2400 minimum is nonsense, though.

I said development machine, not minimum. You might be able to do it cheaper, but you'll either wind up with a HDD instead of an SSD, or an SSD so tiny (128 GB) that you'll soon regret it.

In 2015 I'm looking at 16 GB of RAM, i7, some kind of graphics acceleration, minimum 512 GB SSD (or a 256 GB SSD + internal HDD). That's what my desktop and Windows based laptop offer, to get it on Mac I am looking at $2K+ easy.

The top end 15" MBP meets all of my requirements but it costs $2,499 + tax.

> I just don't feel like if I did so I'd wind up with a good developer machine that will last me three or four years.

What kind of a PC can you get for $1K that will be a "Good development machine" in the next 4 years? I had a top of the line Sony laptop about 6 years ago, it became obsolete in the third year of usage, at the same time I still have my 2012 rMBP which is still running insanely good (same 3 years of use) for my tasks ( I do heavy photoshop web design work and code frontend)

I bought a second hand Macbook late 2008 around 2012 I think. It was ~470 USD. No need for accessories. Still rocking this laptop today.

Sure it is not a super speedy machine today but it works very well for me, running xcode/photoshop and the whole kit.

$2400 sounds ridiculous.

edit: you seem to have super hight requirements, so my comment is more of a: if someone wants to dip their toes into it, it is not so expensive and it will work pretty well if you have some patience with the occasional slowness.

Curious, why do you say bootcamp is "garbage"? It works just fine.

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