[wolfaaron]

Hello all,

My late 2011 Macbook pro 15" just died. I mainly used it to compile apps on iOS. I have a PC so I use the PC to do the coding and the mac for the compiling and my iPhone to do the testing.

I was looking to get a new mac but it looks like 15 inch Macbook Pros now go for $1999.00+, which is a lot compared to the $1200 that I paid for my Macbook Pro 15 inch in 2011. I only develop for iOS in my spare time and don't publish any myself but work for small businesses and it only nets me $150-$800 a month so it doesn't make sense to me to throw $1999-$2799 at a new Macbook Pro 15".

For any of you that develop (or even if you don't develop give me your opinion), what mac would you recommend? The regular macbook? The air? The imac? Mac mini? An older mac? I wanted something portable like a laptop if possible but the more I look at the prices the less I want one.

Give me your opinions. I haven't gone Mac shopping since 2011 so I'm lost and disgusted with the higher prices.

[lmorra]

You could try and see if your current PC can become an hackintosh, all depends on your hardware. If that's the case, you could dual boot windows and macOS on it, for free.

The best site to start is tonymacx86.com (you can ask in the forum if your hardware is compatible)

[Shoe]

Like lmorra said, there's a lot of guides on Tonymacx86 that'll help you out in building a hackintosh. The caveat is that sometimes the hardware on laptops isn't fully compatible, which sucks. For example, my laptop (Inspiron 7559) doesn't have a supported wifi card, so I have to buy a new one OR deal with Ethernet. I'd recommend finding a laptop guide that works (most people include a "features working" and "features not working" list) or works most of the way/for your needs, then buy that laptop. If it doesn't come with an SSD, shell out $100 for an EVO or something, provided it's compatible, and you'll be ready to rock.

[wolfaaron]

I will look into the hackintosh suggestion. It will have to do and hopefully I don't run into any compiling or testing issues.

Thank you

[Rolex⠀]

Hackintosh mainly depends on your mobo. If you know your motherboard info, post it and I'll let you know if it's compatible.

[DevNet]

If you decided not to get a laptop, build a hackintosh. I built one recently and it is an absolute beast. PM me if you have any questions about it.

[ElasticWeed]

I'm in the same boat as you right now.
I loved the refreshes around 2009-2014, but ever since Steve's three year plan ended, I really feel like Apple has just stumbled around in the dark, regarding everything from price to hardware and software.

I decided to build my own desktop PC instead, and since my macbook pro still runs pretty well (have changed pretty much everything from the fans to drives) I can still use it for when I absolutely need to use OS X.

Other than that, I must say that Mac has really sort of lost it's charm recently. As more and more languages become easier to handle over several platforms (.NET Core could potentially be awesome), together with the web apps starting to actually be efficient enough for serious applications (back-end development has gotten much better and easier, especially for medium size software, since just a few years ago with everything from NodeJS to Firebase).

This, together with apps starting to go downhill (it never managed to outgrow the novelty of it, it's still just a fancy way of doing the same thing as before.) made me not care all too much about OS X.


So all-in-all, I'm really just waiting for the next NeXT to come along and start shaking things up.
Until then, Linux and to some extent Windows does just fine.

[wolfaaron]

Hackintosh mainly depends on your mobo. If you know your motherboard info, post it and I'll let you know if it's compatible.

This is the motherboard that I purchased:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...6813128863