Why most of the web developments are done in using Mac OS instead of Windows?

At my company, all of our servers are running linux and our designers are using OS X. So, as a web developer, it makes it easier for me to work with the designers and to work in a linux environment if I have a mac.

I think part of the reason is that out of the box the Mac OS has all the development tools one needs to build websites. For example, the latest version of Leopard comes installed with the web framework Ruby on Rails already installed. You also get Ruby, Python, Java, etc. So it makes it very easy to begin developing a website on. Plus you can install the Developer tools too. Need a Database install MySQl or Postgres, etc easily. And it has one of the best IDE available in Textmate, which you can purchase.

These types of tasks are not easy to accomplish on a Windows machine, since you have to download and install majority of the tools to do any serious development work

Good Luck!
R

A long time ago I asked a similar question, but regarding graphic design, to intensive professional users of Mac and PC, which may also apply here… the Mac users ultimately coincided that the main reason to work with a Mac instead of Windows is it’s stability… as they put it, Mac it’s just more productive, and so this translates in an economic gain, even if they’re more expensive

thanks for those responds!

I am on my way buying a macbook. Used mac during school time but it was {n} years ago. Just worry that it will affect my work as i am working on a project…it seems more advantages than using a pc(winxp)...so now bidding a gun on ebay and rob around once i got the bid.

I think it’s just not true that most web development happens on Macs. In fact, I think development happens most often on Linux – following several mailinglists regarding webdevelopment, a lot of the subscribers use one or another Linux distribution – the reason for which, I’d guess, is that Linux is historically most developer-friendly, you know, by and for developers.

I would agree, though, that designers like Macs most often. I guess Macs have been most designer-friendly with most designer-applications available (I dare say many copies of Photoshop sold are for the Mac) and also being quite good-looking itself. On the other hand, you can really change Mac OS X’s look that much, which would be a reason for designers not to use it, but well…

Mac OS X runs on BSD under the hood, which makes it a much more similar environment to the Linux, Solaris, or BSD servers that the applications are eventually hosted on than Windows would. If you also need Photoshop, you have no useful choice except the Mac: the Gimp is a fine program, but it doesn’t do professional-caliber color management, and until it does, it’s not useful for anyone who has to use Pantone colors or deal with prepress documents.

@Vincentt: most open-source development happens on Linux,but there are many more one- and two-man software shops actually making a living selling software for the Mac.

@cwilbur – yeah, but you’re talking desktop application development. And of course, if you develop an application for Mac OS X, you’d do best to develop it on Mac OS X with regard to testing. When it comes to web development, however, I’ve found that it most happens on Linux.
Though, of course, that might also be with regard to testing – most web servers run Linux and thus it’s much easier to set up a local Apache server and test on that.

@Vincentt: I’d be interested in your sources for saying that most web development happens on Linux. If that’s what you’ve seen, I’d counter by pointing out that you seem to be a Linux user, and so you’ve got some observer bias; I’m a long time Mac user, and of the companies I’m actually familiar with, one uses Windows, one uses FreeBSD, and the rest (about a dozen) use Macs. I have no doubt that this is observer bias on my part, but I also see no reason to believe your observer bias over my observer bias, and so if you’ve got hard statistics, I’d like to see them.

Our company develops on Macs, and one of the advantages is that when testing sites, we can easily test in all browsers – the Mac browsers natively, and the Windows browsers using Parallels. Windows users don’t really have the option of testing in Mac browsers without buying a second machine.

@cwilbur – yes, as I’ve said, it is based on what I’ve experienced myself. And yes, I am a Linux user, the type which would also like to see many people using Linux, so I’ll probably be biased. However, my observations come from a mailinglist aimed at PHP developers, not Linux users. But of course, there is no reason for my observations to be more accurate than yours.

Btw, those companies you talk about – were those webdevelopment companies?

They were a mix of web consulting companies (doing software development on behalf of other people), software-as-a-service companies (selling access to software on the web for a monthly fee), and companies that had to maintain a significant web presence and had more than 20 people dedicated to the task.

It’s a fair bet that as a long-time Mac user who does Perl and C development, I’m looking at a different set of companies than you are. It’s why “all” and “most” claims need to be backed up with objective data that don’t rely on the observer effect.

@CWilbur: A lot of Linux designers are using Pixel, and Photoshop up to 7 works flawlessly in WINE, some people can even get CS versions to work.

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FWIW; I’m a professional web developer/designer and I’m mainly Windows myself, I do dual-boot into Gentoo (Linux) as well but have found Windows to suit my needs.

The Apple clique of designers has always confused me, because in the long run: the user doesn’t care what a site was made with. They just want it to work. Nothing drives me crazier than seeing “Made on a Mac” – Nobody cares!

@llivejamie – with latest versions of wine, Photoshop versions up to CS/CS2 work :)

Most people use a mac for web development because it is easy to install all the tools that you need, it is a stable platform. Which is more than I can say for Windows, and probably the most major reason why people do web development on a mac, is because for application frameworks like Rails, the translation from mac development box to linux server is almost painless with the exception of the mysql connection info or something similar.