I was thinking about getting a mac really just to have the option to do mac desktop application development. Would I be better off with a hackintosh setup instead?
- The trackpad. You won't be able to use gestures and multi-touch features. Especially if you use some software that lets you add custom multi-touch gestures, it's really nice to have a huge trackpad with gestures.
- Battery life (and longevity) will almost certainly be significantly better on a MacBook Pro.
- Apple's support is pretty great. If you have any hardware issues Apple will take good care of you. Sometimes you have to push for it, but I've had a 2 year old computer replaced with a new one because they couldn't fix a relatively minor WiFi issue.
- The MacBook Pro displays are really good and viewing angles are much better than most PC displays I've seen. You can optionally bump up the resolution of the 15" MBP to 1680x1050 for $100.
- Backlit keyboard — I thought I wouldn't really care about it, I type in Dvorak anyway so I don't need to see my QWERTY keyboard, but this is actually really nice in low-light situations.
- I've also read that there's a lot more that makes Mac hardware fast than just the tech specs. The hardware is well tuned.
A lot of these are little things, but they add up and make for a really good experience.
This is one of the most important usability features on my 13in. MBP. It's the first track pad I've used that I prefer to a mouse. I think it's mostly because you don't have to keep picking your finger up to scroll a long distance on the screen. Also, multi-touch gestures have become second nature, especially in Safari (3-finger swipe for forward/back is even better than keyboard shortcuts).
Adding to the list: - Magsafe - has certainly saved my computer at least 3 times now (that's the magnetic power connector) - Apple Stores: If you live near one you can drop in and get your computer looked at/fixed. If you're in desperate need they can usually turn a machine around very quickly, too...
I would consider the W510 to be a closer analogue, too.
Any pointers to good guides ? (Ubuntu, VirtualBox preferred. 8GB quad-core AMD PhenomII.)
It's all pretty much straight forward, but I found it most stable when I: use the darwin_snow.iso provided as your boot device (it emulates the bootloader used by Macs), use all SCSI devices, and in the config file, set guestOS = "darwin10-64"
The machine I'm running it on now is a i5 750 with 12 gb of mem; I have a single core and 2gb of mem dedicated to the VM. Feel free to email me if you need any help, I spent quite awhile playing with various methods of virtualizing Snow Leopard, so I can probably answer a majority of questions about issues that arise.
edit: As far as VirtualBox, I'm not aware of anyone getting 10.6.2 to run stable in it. I believe 10.4 will run okay. You may want to just use VMWare player, though. Also, you will have issues with the AMD processor, Apple was 'thoughtful' enough to include code to ensure Mac OS will only run on Intel processors. There are several distributions of 10.5 that have been modified to run on AMD processors, but I haven't really played with them - I think google can assist there, though.
I picked an AMD CPU partly because a sort-of-server box should have ECC RAM [1], which AMD does support 'for free' (and also toss in sufficient graphics in the chipset); it seems that with Intel CPUs one needs to go to very expensive MBs or the Xeon line for that.
[1] D.J.Bernstein, for one, explains why: http://cr.yp.to/hardware/ecc.html , http://cr.yp.to/hardware/build-20090123.html
P.S. Unfortunately, D.J.Bernstein refers to RAID-5 as "an easy-to-use automatic backup mechanism" (if a drive dies); he either didn't get the "RAID is not backup" memo, or does not believe it (until the day he accidentally wipes data ;-).
I had thought of a MacMini, since I'm using an external 24" screen, keyboard, etc. - but the little extra money buys occasional mobility and 'close-lid-to-suspend' ...
(Ouch for 30 euro mini-DisplayPort to DVI adapter)
mini-DisplayPort to DVI adapter $8.55 @ monoprice.com
Lots of small accessories are as little as 1/8th the Apple price there, you could batch together a big order.