« Home | Ruby + Microsoft.NET= IronRuby » | Spec'ing out the Ultimate Developer Rig » | T-mobile BlackBerry Curve SIM unlock, part II » | How to Launch a Business without Spending a Dime » | git: Tralining whitespace error during commit » | Export your Outlook Calendar to Google Calendar » | T-mobile BlackBerry Curve SIM unlock, part 1 » | MicroISV on a Shoestring » | Looking Back and Looking Forward » | GrandCentral Web Call Button »

Mac Pro for Windows/Linux Development

Last week I blogged about specing out my next computing purchase (hopefully this will be the last for a very long time) -- a dual processor system complete, with two Intel Xeon Quad-Core processors for a total of eight (8) cores.

After crunching the numbers and evaluating the offerings from Dell, HP, Apple, I quickly learned something that surprised me -- the Apple Mac Pro was considerably cheaper when compared to the other workstations, even when the RAID card was added.

But, purchase a Mac? After evaluating the Mac Pro, I figured out that I could de-Mac-ify it:

  • VMWare Fusion (review to follow) will allow me to run windows applications which appear to be native under OS X.
  • Better yet, with basecamp, you can install Windows or Linux to run natively in a multiple-boot scenario.

Further, Apple offers a 14 day return/refund period; I could return the box for any reason within 14 days and get a refund (minus a 10% restocking fee). So I took a deep breath and plopped my new corporate credit card down. I can still return it and get most of my money back.

So I took a deep breath and purchased the default configuration offered at the nearest Apple Store – 2x2.8GHz Intel Xeon Quad Cores, 2GB memory, 320 GB SATA drive.

First Impressions

Hands down, this workstation is the quietest computer I have ever owned. In rearranging the cables and power strips to plug in the Mac Pro, when I powered on it was eerily quiet. If it wasn’t for the start-up “Gong”, I would have thought it wasn’t working.

The mouse is retarded. Period.

The keyboard is nice design, but unusable. For someone who spends 8-12 hours a day typing, this would be the last keyboard I would want to use. I donated it to my wife and am now using my wireless comfort keyboard 4000.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that on Microsoft keyboards don’t have a “Media Eject Key”. There is no button to tell the CDROM to eject on the case. I think you can see where I am going with this. There was no method I could find that I could eject the empty CDROM tray except by going into iTunes and selecting Eject in the menu.

Setting up For Development

To install the gcc compilers you have to install XCode from the installation Disk #2. Next I installed VMWare Fusion, followed by several VMs: Microsoft Vista x64 for testing, Microsoft XP Professional with Visual Studio 2005 for development, and Gentoo. Fedora 8 is next.

At one point I was watching a DVD, installing Visual Studio 2005 inside a VM, and compiling the boost libraries under a term. CPU utilization averaged 80% idle. The only problem is that 2GB is simply not enough memory. The system started paging out memory and performance started to suffer.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Posted by Joe Turner on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 2:20 PM |

Hello,

I'm right where you are. A software developer.. Do a lot of different things some Java, some C#. So I need windows.. I am thinking about going for a Mac Pro too as my workstation. I also need windows to run things like Quickbooks, etc.

I have a macbook and like it.. Run Parallels on it without any problems.

Now that you have had your mac pro for a few weeks now any complaints? Anything you would have done differently? more CPU? more Memory?

-jr

Posted by Blogger James Russo | February 12, 2008 9:29 AM  

I just posted the update:

http://www.agavemountain.com/2008/02/update-mac-pro-for-windowslinux.html

Posted by Blogger Joe Turner | February 13, 2008 9:23 AM  

Post a Comment