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I don’t know if I can convince anybody of going with a Mac vs. a PC, but here are the issues as I see them. This is mainly from the perspective of being a software developer, but it also applies to just about anybody considering the switch.  So sit back and grab your coffee…

The first question you want to ask yourself is this: what’s the value in doing my development work within a Virtual Machine (VM)? On a Windows box, it’s optional, but relatively more dangerous without it — you risk getting your work infected or polluted by uninvited vermin. On a Mac, it’s required, so it’s arguably safer. But you could also use Parallels or VMWare on a Windows box. Parallels is much cheaper than VMWare, although VMWare has some advantages in certain respects (which are probably meaningless for you as a developer).

As far as costs go, consider this:

CompUSA periodically offers “xx months 0% interest” deals that include Apple products. This week I see they’re offering 18 months 0% interest on all purchases over $599. I got a 24″ iMac with some extra goodies at 0% interest for 24 months. That’s about $100/mo. I never got such a deal from Dell when I bought my Inspiron a couple of years ago. (But I did put it on a credit card that offered 0% interest for 9 months.)

Personally, I’m hesitant to get “bleeding edge” hardware any more. The incremental cost to go from a 2.16GHz CPU to a 2.4GHz (or faster) CPU far exceeds any possible benefit you’ll derive from the extra speed in the time it takes the cost of the latter to drop to the former — less than 6 months in most cases.

Example: the 24″ iMac and the 17″ Mac notebook are very similarly configured from a hardware standpoint. The notebook comes with 2GB of RAM and a 2.4GHz CPU, while the 24″ iMac comes with a 2.16GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM. And there’s the difference in screen size — obviously a MUCH bigger cost of the iMac. So, why is the notebook $800 more? Mostly because of the CPU. It has a 160GB HD vs. a 250GB HD in the iMac, but that’s a wash. The iMacs are basically notebook computers with a fixed LCD display wrapped in the same package. It wouldn’t surprize me if they had the same motherboards inside. (The iMacs even take standard notebook SODIMM memory chips, which the guys at the store didn’t know when they sold me desktop DIMMs for mine.)

Hard drives are cheap and steadily getting cheaper. Notebook drives (2.5″) are around $1/gig while desktop drives are all over the map. I’ve seen 500gig external drives that are cheaper than bare 500gig internal drives lately. Fry’s is advertising a 250 gig drive this weekend for $69. PATA drives are a little cheaper than SATA drives right now, but I’m noticing that the cheaper ones tend to be ATA/100 rather than the faster ATA/133. SATAs typically go even faster.

RAM is about $99/gig for the current generation of hardware.

Video cards are where you’re going to take the biggest hit. Anybody doing software development doesn’t need more than a $59 video card, unless you want something to handle multiple monitors better. I’m running both a 1280×1024 and a 1600×1050 monitor off of a $39 PCI video card. Some folks would rather pay $599 for a top-end card that can let you play graphic-intensive online games.

Anyway, all of these factors apply equally today, regardless wether you’re going with a Mac or a PC. The same products are involved and your options are the same.

Your only real choice today is between the base chassis — are you a Ford or Chevy kinda guy? Or maybe it’s more like BMW vs. Lexus. Who knows.

For software development, I can run everything I need inside of my Windows / Parallels VM on my iMac. I’m shifting my email and web browsing to OS X because that way I don’t have to worry about virus infections, trojans, or other crap that gets into the system through the web and email channels. The Mac is immune. Which means I can feel much safer without virus protection that sucks the life out of my CPU.

Also, if you’re interested, all of the Mac development tools are free. For $500 you can join their Development Partner program and get regular updates of ALL their software, along with all sorts of other stuff, as well as a ~25% discount on one additional computer system purchase and discounts on other things. Unlike MSDN, these are not restricted licenses.

For me, it’s a strategic decision. I believe that doing Windows development in a VM is a safe bet either way. The fact that you can now have a Windows VM running inside of Mac’s OS X operating system environment just makes it safer. VMWare is working on something that runs in OS X, but currently Parallels is the only game in town. And you can also get a version that will let you move the same VM to Windows many Linux environments as well.

I upgraded my iMac to 2 GB of RAM, and I’ve allocated 1GB to my Windows VM under Parallels. When I’m running it, it’s difficult to get anything else to run on the machine. You really need 3GB or more if you want to do multiple things, which really isn’t an issue for me. But iMacs have a bit of a practical limitation there whereas their desktop machines don’t.

So if you think you need more than 2GB of RAM *today*, then get a desktop rather than an iMac or a notebook.

Ditto if you need a super-screaming bit-blt burning video card.

Regardless of your platform choice, be aware that you should probably run Windows XP SP2 Home Edition inside your VM, *NOT* Vista. That’s in part because MS has restricted the licensing on Vista Home Editions to prevent their use in virtual environments. The Business version are much more expensive and don’t buy you a thing over XP Home in a virtual enironment.

As you can see, from a developer’s perspective, it’s not really as much of an issue as people make it out to be. I *LOVE* how things “just work” inside the Mac, and I can’t wait to get the new OS in a month or so when it comes out.

In summary, “Where’s the Beef?”  Switching to a Virtual Machine environment for your Windows tasks gives you a safer work environment for your existing efforts.  It also makes the question of Mac vs. PC vs. Linux irrelevant.  Switch to a VM and you can move around at will!

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