Visual studio on a MacBookPro?![Macbookpro with vs 2013]
So I needed a new laptop for doing work while at FireBootCamp. I decided to go with a MacBook Pro.
Am I happy with it? well yes I would buy it again but it isnot perfect.
The good
- Battery life rocks
- In visual studio its business as usual and once I got the keyboard short cuts right it jugs along like on a pc !
- The retina display is nice to have
- 15inch is great for dev vs my 13inch air
- It is fast
- Swipe track pad with a pc and IOS cool!
- Fast yup its fast for a laptop I7 16GB !
- It looks professional when presenting
- Its just small enough to jog for the train with it in your bag
- I had a mac air so it was nice to have the same confidence and familiar keyboard
- Apple support and solid build
- hdmi out for the display
The bad
- Keyboard short cut hell for a week! that silly function key on a mac is a nightmare but learning to live with it. I hijacked the F keys and after some hassles its all good
- Set up time with the display in Parallels and all the retina things/settings
- The hdmi out put let me down several times in the first week trying to present on a projector and then to a nice big tv? why unsure but worked great with my 37inch dell at home?
- Its a mac and sometimes I get over Apple and the stigma it brings, but that’s just me and the love hate relationship continues
Some tips forParallels
PS i had bootcamp in my mac air and it sucked due to the track pad never quite being native functioning. Would not recommend it. For this reason I got a more powerful Macso the vm inParallels had enough juice.
- Turn off all the key board short cuts and F keys in apple preferences see image below
- Do not run confluence its a pain
- Allocate lots of dynamic storage inParallels before you load it up with software
If you run VS on a Mac I would love to hear your thoughts on tweaking the settings.