Interesting that this has become a difficult choice now. Does apple have too many options? Would Steve have let that happen?
On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Robert Evans <[email protected]>wrote: > I just purchased a 15" NON-retina. I bought it stock, except for the CPU > and screen (matte high-res) which I upgraded. I then replaced the hard > drive a 480gb SSD and put in 16GB ram. The machine is wicked fast and in > total (with SSD, RAM) cost less than a comparable 15" retina. > > I don't see the retina as necessary, but more as "cool". I'd either > suggest getting the Air or get a non-retina 15" knowing you can upgrade it > yourself to what you need/want. > > ========= > Robert Evans > Code Wranglers, Inc > > http://www.codewranglers.org > http://www.github.com/revans > http://www.linkedin/in/rrevans > > On Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Robert Kaufman wrote: > > I used to swear by the 15" display, but a few years ago I traded for the > 13" mbp and later the 13" air. I have to say that as long as you are doing > one thing per screen (I'm kind of a spaces addict) the 13" is plenty > sufficient. Pair that with a large display at your desk for the times you > need it and you have a really capable set up. The 13" air can be a little > light on power for virtual machines, but for day to day dev it works like a > charm. The biggest plus to me is the shear lightness. Passing it to > someone, using it on the couch, making the choice to wander around with > with it, those are all easy things to do with the Air. One thing I know > many of you do, but simply doesn't work for me is multi-machine dev. I > like having a single box and having a backup machine that does something > else (usually media) that I can roll back to if I need it, but trying to > keep to boxes in perfect sync makes me crazy. > > Best, > Rob > > > On Jul 19, 2012, at 12:51 AM, Dave Deriso wrote: > > I've been coding on an air for the past 4 years and, although its old, it > still works great. I just bought the new MBP retina with 16gb ram upgrade > because of the GPU, which i use for data modeling and simulation. IMHO, if > you aren't trying to do lots of heavy number crunching, stick with the air. > In terms of ROR, they both will do the job very well. Just make sure you > get the SSD, its a huge leap for performance and heat. Maybe with the > savings you can pick up a quad core mini server, which is even better for > ROR development :) > > Dave > > On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 12:38 AM, Guyren Howe <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jul 19, 2012, at 12:23 AM, Chris McCann wrote: > > I'm debating getting a new MacBook for Rails/Ruby development and can't > decide between a 13" Air or a 15" Retina. Anyone care to chime in with > their own experiences or analyses? > > > I have the previous-generation 13” Air, which was my secondary machine (I > do dev on a 27” iMac with an external 27” display, and I’ve no idea why > more developers don’t have such a setup; anyway), but which from time to > time I did dev on. By the time I loaded up postgres, text editor, web > browser with a bunch of tabs, PGAdmin, terminal, … it was all out of puff. > Mostly because it only had 4GB of RAM. > > So no doubt whatever, you need 8GB RAM. > > I just got an 11” Air maxed out. It’s running Migration Assistant right > now (which is going to take over 24 hours because it has to go via Wifi…). > I’d be happy to let you know what I make of it in a few days. > > Note that it can hook up to up to 2x27” displays. A very nice option would > be to get an Air (maybe even an 11”), and when you’re at your desk, hook it > up to Apple’s gorgeous 27” display (or even 2 of them). > > Notes on the displays: Apple’s is the best and close to the cheapest > (really!). And if you’re being rational about it, the fabulous display will > last you between 5 and 10 years, whereas the laptop might last you 3. That > makes spending on the great display to work on a much cheaper investment > than a computer. Which also brings up the point: perhaps you should buy an > external display and keep your existing laptop for a bit longer. That might > be a better investment in your productivity. > > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby > > > > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby > > > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby > > > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby > -- SD Ruby mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby
