Reasons Why .NET Developers Love Their MacBook Pros

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Reasons Why .NET Developers Love Their MacBook Pros

17. September 2009

Initial Questionnaire

I recently posted an informal survey asking .NET Developers why they love their MacBook Pros and I want to thanks the 51 individuals who responded to my survey.

Objective Results

The first four questions (other than name, twitter, etc…) were general questions about their MacBook Pro hardware. Those types of questions are easy and quick to graph.

Note: If you see some discrepancies of the numbers please note that shortly after I first submitted the questionnaire I added the hardware questions. So, the first several people who answered the survey didn’t have those questions.

As to summarize the above charts, it seems that most of the people who responded to the survey were .NET developers using a MacBook Pro with a 2.66MHz Processor, 4 GB RAM, and a 15 inch monitor.

Subjective Results

Well, objectively that is all I can really graph. The rest of the questions allowed free form text, which is difficult to chart :) however, I did attempt to summarize each question into common answers so that I can graph them. So, here are my findings…

So it seems that the majority of those that switched did so because they had the opportunity to run both OSX and Windows, they felt the hardware was better (faster & quality), and they thought it was more stylish :)

Of those that have switched from a PC to a Mac the vast majority (64%) said that they would not switch back to the PC and only a handful were adamant about moving back to the PC.

Mac users feel that their OS is more usable and simple compared to Windows, they feel the software for OSX is better, is more stable, and it was mentioned over and over that the multitouch trackpad on the Mac is a plus!

An overwhelming majority of Mac users feel that they are no sacrificing any performance by using the Mac. Of those that did feel they were lacking some performance, they attibuted it to using a VM (VMWare or Parallels) and recommending using Bootcamp instead.

As a last ditch effort to glean any useful information, I asked if there was anything else I needed to know before I made the change to a Mac. A large portion of the responses encouraged me to purchase VM software (VMWare or Parrallels), reprogram my keyboard for the PC, and to buy as much of RAM as possible.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very pleased with the responses of the questionnaire. I am even more inclined to make the switch myself. Only time will tell if this will actually take place, but I do appreciate you humoring me in this research and I’m sure you will know when and/or if I do take the Mac plunge for .NET development :)

c9558115-97b2-4401-bb9b-75c5cdbb0e34|2|5.0

Blog survey, macbook pro, .net

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Comments

DotNetKicks.com

9/17/2009 1:16:19 PM #

Reasons Why .NET Developers Love Their MacBook Pros

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Craig

9/18/2009 1:10:27 AM #

Parallels di a great video which truely shows just how interoperable Windows is on a Mac. I highly watching it, it is really a great video http://bit.ly/EIpkd

Bron Squire

9/19/2009 9:34:28 AM #

I'm considering making this switch as well, so I'll be really interested to see the results.

One thing that still puts me off Macs in general is the price tag -- knowing that I could build a better spec'd machine for half the price (and still be able to use it as an awesome gaming machine as well), makes it difficult... so I guess we'll see if people's experiences and reasons for switching might outweigh that additional cost!

Bob

9/19/2009 4:39:10 PM #

I do something similar with Ubuntu + Windows Virtual Box for my .net development.

Rosoft

9/19/2009 6:41:23 PM #

I was always under the impression that PC are cheaper and they are: if you don't care about quality, if you change them often, if you spend time searching for the right drivers... You can also fix all the problems as they appear, and they will. But if you want an already great computer, just start to build applications and keep it for years...

BingoSpooner

9/21/2009 12:46:28 PM #

Well, here's the way I look at it. VMWare Fusion and Parallels have an easy job of providing a wrapper to windows. Drivers are easy - since they can be confident of the hardware sitting on the Mac side.

I've found that because of this, my virtual windows pc's boot up in a flash, and are very robust once running. I can also test my apps across multiple windows versions at the drop of a hat.

When I'm not doing core .Net development I get my work done quickly under osx: the laptop awaits from sleep in seconds, I do my project/personal management in Firefox, then put it to sleep again.

And I avoid update hell - I don't worry about updates all that much because the Win VM is sitting hidden 'inside' the Mac.

David Watson

9/22/2009 1:44:47 AM #

I found your blog surfing around for information about Nashville. Planning a vacation there shortly and might consider moving there if I could find a job.

I'm not a mac fanboy though I worked with macs as far back as 1984. I recently made the switch from mostly Linux-based wintel laptops to a 17" MBP running Snow Leopard. I do mostly python/linux work now but have done .net development in the past. Regardless of your OS choice, my views on the MBP are simple: hardware, hardware, hardware.

1) Best keyboard experience on any laptop. Mine has the backlit chiclet keys.
2) Best screen experience on any laptop. Mine has the 1920x1080 anti-glare screen (highly recommended)
3) Best trackpad experience on any laptop. Mine has the big buttonless model.

That pretty much covers the I/O on a laptop - at least the parts that matter most to humans. Put those three together and you've a great experience no matter the OS. It's a joy to use. Note: I've worked jobs where I had macs as my primary desktop/laptop machines in the past and was never fully satisfied. In the last 2-3 years though, both the hardware and software have improved to a point where I can't imagine doing it any other way now.

Yes, I've worked on a thinkpad before, and would consider it a close second, though there's a certain fit/finish to the unibody macs that Lenovo just can't touch.

I love it, and while I agree that the price is high, it's worth the price of admission if you have the budget.

HTH!

ahmet

10/1/2009 1:35:29 AM #

I would like to see the results as soon as possible since i am thinking of such a change. I already bought my mac book pro and loved the way it is performing. Mac OS X is by far the greatest OS I have ever used. I am undecided about using the bootcamp or using the parallels (or VMWare). What is your opinion about this.

Elijah Manor

10/1/2009 1:41:48 AM #

Ahmet,

I am in the middle of going through the results. Instead of just summarizing it, I thought I would try to take the subjective questions and come up with a set of standard responses so that I can graph them. I figure people would take away more value from graphed results. So, all that to say that I am close

Bruno Pires

10/2/2009 2:46:24 AM #

They run great, their OS is just works when you need and you cant have it all, run virtualized environments in a great way (coherence mode) and smoothly and the hardware and style are priceless

Ian Muir

10/2/2009 10:29:00 AM #

I guess I'm bucking the trend.

Since 2003, I've used one PC desktop. I spent about $2k to get a decent one and the only upgrade I've done is RAM and adding a second hard drive.

In the same amount of time, I've had an iBook and a MacBook Pro fail due to hardware issues (fortunately, Apple provided a 2nd MacBook after repeated issues with the first).

The problem is that people frequently move from a mid-grade PC to a good Mac. If you compare a $1,700 Mac to a $800 PC, the Mac will be better. Spring for a $1,500 PC and you've got a much better comparison. It's also been my experience that opinion surveys like this seem to favor Macs much more than surveys based on actual performance data.

Stephen

10/2/2009 10:36:49 AM #

don't people get sick of having to reformat their pc every few months? i'm so glad i switched a few years ago. friends always ask me to troubleshoot their PCs and i cringe every time.

Joe

10/2/2009 2:11:12 PM #

As a Windows developer and OSX user one thing I do miss when using virtualization is direct access to the video card. The VMWare video drivers aren't very good. And the last update disabled hardware acceleration for ATI cards. This isn't a problem for visual studio but it has made me reluctant to crack open Expression Blend.

What I do enjoy is the backup functions of VMWare. autoprotect is way ahead of System Restore in that regard.

@Ian, I think performance numbers are mattering less these days unless you are doing a performance dependent task. And you can also see the difference in how manufacturers use that data. The packaging on a Mac is quite basic, this is a picture of the Mac that's inside this box. The packaging on a PC is quite the opposite; company logo, a lot of bullet points, and some comparison charts. The popularity of netbooks has proven that performance doesn't matter that much to the normal user.

Web Dev .NET

10/2/2009 10:37:00 PM #

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David Edmiston

10/3/2009 1:12:11 AM #

Interesting... I have a unibody MacBook that I sometimes use for .NET dev (using VMware) but I'm seriously thinking of selling it and going back to an all-Windows environment... I'm really conflicted about it, though. I love the hardware and especially the trackpad, but even with 4GB of RAM and my VM running with 2GB, it feels a bit sluggish and... I don't know, fish-out-of-water-ish.

The downside of switching back will be that I lose the Mac's awesome Ruby on Rails support, but in all honesty, it's not that hard to set up an Ubuntu VM to achieve the same thing.

My big problem is just that running stuff in VMware annoys me, so I feel like I end up spending too much time just goofing off in OS X instead of digging in, working on projects, and improve my skills as a .NET developer.

Free Blackberry Applications

10/14/2009 12:19:24 PM #

I would consider buying a mac for my next computer. thanks

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10/31/2009 11:35:41 AM #

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sean

11/7/2009 3:20:11 PM #

Am a designer turned developer that convinced my employer to let me dev on a mac over a year ago and have very few issues other than going from photoshop or fireworks to windows and resource forks. blue harvest product will stop network forks but not on vm's

I find parallels (that I use at work) integration to be more fluid but fusion (I use at home) seems to run a bit faster.