Is Mac really better for web development?
One of the biggest debates among members of the web development community is whether it’s better to use a Mac or should you stick with your PC. There are, of course, many arguments in support of each of these decisions, but the pride of the debate has caused many people to begin to question whether they have made the right decision. While the Mac seems to be winning the debate right now, you have to wonder if it really is better.
advantages
Anyone who uses a Mac for their web development work will be able to write you a list of all the things they love:
- Pre-Installed Languages - Many people find that having many of the languages they use every day (including Ruby, Python, Pearl, and Java) already installed makes their lives easier.
- Units on the desktop – The fact that any drive you’ve connected to your Mac (such as a CD-ROM or USB) instantly appears on your desktop makes it much easier to navigate.
- Time Machine- If you hated doing backups and restores on your PC, you’ll love doing it on your Mac. The Time Machine program comes in handy because it works effortlessly every time.
cons
If you were to try really hard, anyone who uses a Mac for their web development work is likely to have a number of complaints about it as well:
- USB ports- Sometimes developers will need to have a number of additional items connected to their computers. Unfortunately, Macs seem to have far fewer USB ports than PCs, making this goal difficult to achieve.
- Keyboard shortcuts – While simply pressing ‘enter’ on a PC will open a file and pressing ‘home’ will bring the cursor to the front of the current line, doing this on a Mac requires a much more complex process.
- Trash – Once you’ve sent an unwanted item to the Trash, you won’t be able to go in and delete individual files permanently; you must permanently empty the entire Trash or leave everything in limbo.
While there are a number of pros and cons to choosing a Mac for web development work, it’s important to remember that you’ll run into the same issue when comparing a PC. So which one is better? Essentially, the answer to this question lies with you: are you currently using a Mac for your web development work and loving it, or are you still using your trusty old PC and can’t imagine changing for anyone?