orestesdd said:
I am planning to build a "hack" to learn Web Dev on this platform. I was a web app dev for the last 11 years, but now since I am laid off after 22 of IT, I want to see what a Mac or a "Hack" can do. I was in a team developing a huge web app with Struts and Apache Tomcat on Unix. However, most of my individual development was done on a PC using Eclipse and running the web app server on the Unix box, but debugging on Eclipse on my PC. I hope I can do the same on the "Hack" or Mac. Let me know if all these things are possible on a "Hack" or Mac. Thanks.
All the cool kids (in web/dev) are using Macs these days, so you'll have no shortage of enjoyment using all the latest tech on Macs far more easily than you can on Windows.
Mac OS X, being unix-based means it is super easy to develop in Ruby(-on-rails), Python/Django, Node.js and more with a few keystrokes. Heck even GitHub has a Mac OS tool for managing GitHub repos. (and I haven't seen one for the PC yet ( but I haven't looked that hard )).
And, it is perhaps a bit easier to test for mobile devices on Macs too, considering the ease to install and use the iOS Simulator on a Mac and its pretty easy to run Android simulators here too.
If Eclipse is still your thing, no problem, but there are nicer tools these days. Certainly better than any sort of Visual Studio crap! Ugh! Coda 2 is beautiful, if that provides enough for you, I personally favor Sublime Text 2 (beta) as my general workhorse editor.
Also, have you seen this:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ibdknox/light-table
CAN NOT WAIT!
How sweet would that be on a 27" Retina Display @ 4K resolution for development? (I'm hoping these will be available next year, perhaps? Maybe 2014?)
Anyway, I don't want to start a holy war, but I think you'll truly enjoy dev-ing on a Mac!