[PLUG] deep philosophical question

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Kurt Sussman wrote:
> I spent a few days at RailsConf, and learned a ton. But it was a little
> frustrating watching the Mac users... Macs just work. Sleep, hibernate,
> wifi, Textmate, Quicksilver, it all just works.
>
> I'm planning to buy a new laptop around the end of the year even though
> my 4 year old Dell runs Ubuntu just fine. Because sometimes the wifi just
> won't hook up, and sleep has never worked under any distro, and the
> display blows out every year like clockwork (warrantees are great!).
> But there's nothing like Textmate on any platform. Except the Mac.
>
> So there's the freedom issue; Linux is free and OSX isn't. I like
> freedom, and I'm willing to do my part to keep it, but at what point do
> I just use the best tool for the job and assuage my guilt by working on
> free server apps?
>
> Yes, Macs cost more than the basic Linux-capable PC. But if it saves me
> 30 minutes per day (which is pretty conservative, I think), it will take
> me 20 days of paid work to make up the difference. So is it really more
> expensive?
>
> I'm used to Linux, my servers run Linux, it will save space in my brain
> to use only one OS, I don't like the 'one menubar to rule them all'
> thing, etc. Or are those excuses to keep doing the same sub-optimal
> thing?
>
> Your thoughts, please?
>
> --Kurt
>   
Well, for openers, one thing nobody in this thread has mentioned is that 
the overwhelming majority of Rubyists love Macs. And that's mostly 
because their muscle memory is tied into TextMate. Rails folk picked it 
up from them, or maybe it's the other way around. Had you gone to some 
other conference, you probably would have found a different breakdown.

So ... if you're "serious about Ruby and Rails professionally", whatever 
that means, join the crowd and get a Mac. For me, Ruby isn't a 
professional thing yet, and I don't know if I'll ever get around to 
Rails, and I enjoy hacking, etc., etc., etc., so I will stick with 
Gentoo and Windows as needed.

One other note: I'm sure I'll get banned to PLUG-TALK for saying this, 
but there is absolutely nothing wrong in my opinion with paying money to 
buy a quality non-free software product! There's no need for guilt. 
OpenOffice.org won't do what Microsoft Office does. Firefox is no more 
secure than Internet Explorer. And in the Ruby/Rails world, there's 
TextMate and there's "everything else".

What *is* wrong, in my opinion, is paying for non-free junkware, or 
defending and using free junkware. If a piece of software sucks, 
regardless of origin, junk it and buy or download something that doesn't!