Should you get a Mac?
Entry posted by Josh ·
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A few people have asked me about this, so now seems like a good time to talk about my experience with Mac computers. My first computer was actually an old Macintosh SE30, but of course in the 1990's Windows took over and I forgot about Mac. When I started developing Leadwerks3D I invested in a 27" iMac. It includes a 3.2 ghz quad core i3 CPU and an ATI Radeon 5750.
At the most minimal, the computer needs one cord for power, and that's it. The keyboard and mouse are wireless, and a built-in wifi receiver is convenient before you string a cable over from your router.
It took a while for me to adjust to it, and I didn't have a big motivation to because it was just a dev machine. However, I started noticing the way it integrated really nicely with my iPhone and iPad (which I also only bought for development). Xcode 4 is a great IDE, and since it uses GCC build times are very quick. I think the build time for Leadwerks3D is about 1-2 minutes, compared to five on Windows. iOS provisioning profiles, which you need to run your app on a iOS device, are a pain but you can run the iOS simulator with no iOS dev account, and it does a good job.
OSX Lion supports OpenGL 3.2. I had some early problems getting it to work, but Apple actually analyzed my application and told me what I was doing wrong. In a situation where a lot of new developers are working with OpenGL in a way that wasn't previously supported on Mac, I think it's understandable that they would need to provide a little extra support. So with that resolved, I don't see any problems with rendering on Mac, EXCEPT:
-Even thought the hardware supports it, you can't do hardware tessellation, since OpenGL 4 isn't supported.
-Deferred rendering with MSAA isn't supported. Well, technically it is supported, but the maximum number of samples is one. So it isn't.
As for the OpenGL 2 renderer we use to match mobile device rendering, there's no disadvantage there.
iCloud is a new part of iOS 5, and it's great because my bookmarks are always synced. I know there are various plugins that do this for other browsers, but with Apple it just always works, without requiring any effort on your part.
Mail through me.com, which you can get a free account for, is always synced. I've tried setting up IMAP mail systems, and they just never really work properly. iCloud mail is by far the best email syncing I have ever seen. It's as instantaneous as GMail, but uses a local client so it is fast and responsive. The Mac Mail app itself is both simple and sophisticated. It doesn't have nearly the number of features as Outlook, yet somehow it does exactly what I want. Email search is near-instant, and it separates accounts so I can look at all mail, or easily select a single account and only view email for that address.
There's a lot of good third-party apps available in the Mac App Store. Transmit is a solid FTP client, and Cornerstone is a great SVN client. The iWork suite provides an adequate replacement for Office. You can even install Steam, although the only games I have that run on Mac are Valve's library and Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
iCal, the calendar app, syncs wirelessly through iCloud. This is the first time in my life I have ever actually used a calendar program for real life. It can send out alerts before an event, and everything is synced across my iPhone, iPad, and Mac. There does seem to be a bug right now where events created on my Mac don't go out to the mobile devices.
Mostly due to the strength of the Mail app and Xcode, I now consider the Mac my "main" machine. For me, Windows is just a platform to run Steam on and compile builds for Windows.
The purpose of this blog entry isn't to convince you one OS is better than any other. I would not be able to get by without my PC for some things. If you're thinking about getting into iOS or OSX development, Mac computers now have my seal of approval. Of course, you can install Windows with Boot Camp, so it doesn't have to be an either/or choice. The only reason I still have a physical PC is because mine has hardware that isn't available on Mac, like a Blu-Ray burner and a massive GEForce 480 GPU. I'd have a hard time giving up the infinite upgradability of a PC, but I do like my Mac.
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