Setting up a Mac machine

For quite some time I was thinking about getting a Mac based machine. My interest was primarily for learning the Mac and the iOS platform. I had made quite a lot of investment on Win and Linux based platforms so wanted to keep the cost to as minimum as possible

There are quite a few devices available for Mac

1) iMac : All in one desktop costing around Rs 70-90k

2) Macbook Pro: Sturdy and sleek laptops. If you have the cash for the same go for it. It starts from Rs 70k and goes till Rs 125k

3) Macbook Air : Sleek and stylish. I found it too fragile for my use

4) Macbook: It’s basically one notch below the pro and costed close to Rs 60k. Not worth it.

5) Mac Mini. Just the core of a Mac machine with no display/keyboards/tracking device. Incredibly small box. Costs around Rs 34k

After spending close to 2 hours at the shop I finally decided to go with Mac Mini. I persuaded myself by promising that with the extra Rs 40k I saved ( by not going for a Macbook pro) I can gift myself a iPad2 J

While a simple USB keyboards and mouse will do I will recommend an apple keyboard and magic trackpad.

The experience on Mac so far has been satisfying. I was able to setup the internet connection connect to a monitor using the bundled HDM to DVI adaptor. I was also able to hook up the internet connection using photon+. I had to get the dashboard software from Huawei site.

Xcode is a huge software ( almost 3 gigs). However my primary objective in getting a mac was to get the hang of Objective C and iOS platform so I did not have a choice.

I have a Viewsonic monitor ( VA2226w) and it has both DVI and VGA pins. So I have hooked my mac and win based machine to the same display and can swich from one to other at a click of a button.

Win7 is not all that bad but there is no clean option to try out iOS development and entire java setup with all app servers db’s ide’s are in Win environment. Additionally I have a host of virtual machines within windows ( Solaris, Slackware, Ubuntu etc.) which are handy