One of the biggest debates that members of the web development community go through is whether it is better to use a Mac or whether you should stick with your PC. Of course, there are many arguments in support of each of these decisions, but the ferocity of the debate has caused many people to begin to question whether they have made the right decision. While Mac seems to be winning the debate at the moment, you have to wonder if it really is better.

Pros

Anyone who uses a Mac for their web development work will be able to write you a list of all the things they love about it:

  • Pre-installed languages: Many people find that having many of the languages ​​they use every day (including Ruby, Python, Pearl, and Java) already installed makes their lives easier.
  • Drives on the desktop – The fact that whatever drive you’ve plugged into your Mac (like a CD-ROM or USB) instantly appears on the desktop makes it so much easier to navigate.
  • Time Machine – If you hated doing backups and restores on your PC, you will love doing them on your Mac. The Time Machine program is preferred because it works effortlessly at all times.

Cons

If you were to try too hard, anyone who uses a Mac for their web development work will likely have several complaints about it as well:

  • USB ports – Sometimes developers will need to have several additional items connected to their computers. Unfortunately, Macs seem to have far fewer USB ports than PCs, which makes this goal difficult to achieve.
  • Keyboard shortcuts – While simply pressing ‘Enter’ on a PC will open a file and pressing ‘Start’ will bring the cursor to the front of the current line, doing this on a Mac requires a much more complex process.
  • Trash – Once you have sent an unwanted item to the Trash, you will not be able to enter and permanently delete individual files; you must permanently empty the entire Trash or leave everything in limbo.

While there are a number of pros and cons to choosing a Mac for web development work, it is important to remember that you will encounter the same problem when comparing a PC. So which one is better? Basically, the answer to this question is up to you: are you currently using a Mac for your web development work and love it, or are you still using your trusty old PC and can’t imagine changing for anyone?