Macbook air 13" for programing?

[Da321123niel]

Hey Guys!

Starting School this fall, and need a new computer! unfortunately most of the programing will have to be done in .net C# enviorment. That menas Win7 best option will be to dualboot? and my question is: Which Macbook air will be the best for this? is the 128ssd 8gb of ram best? or the 256ssd 4gb ram best?

I whould rather take the 128ssd and get the 8gb of ram (cheaper), but I'm unsure about the space... Will it be enough for both osx and Win7? and the needed programming software. Use Spotify so won't be needing space for music, and barley use the computer for movies.

 

[Beau10]

I'd recommend the 8/128 mb and run windows in a VM. For just programming work you won't really need more than 30 gb or so for the Win7 VM. I've programmed in .NET several times before on a lowly 2k10 11" MBA this way and it was fine (former .NET dev now doing Rails work).

I actually prefer using VMs for Windows work as they're easy to backup and are portable. Even at my old job I did much development work on VMWare Workstation VMs.

 

[Da321123niel]

I'd recommend the 8/128 mb and run windows in a VM. I've .NET several times before on a low 2k10 11" MBA and it was fine (former .NET dev now doing Rails work).

Thanks for your answer!

Maybe should have mentioned that this will be my main computer, but I already have a 500gb usd 3 external hd.

 

[Beau10]

Maybe should have mentioned that this will be my main computer, but I already have a 500gb usd 3 external hd.

No prob. This is my main computer as well

I got thru college with a Powerbook Duo 280c. It had an 8.4" 640x480 screen, ran at 33Mhz 030 proc I believe. Although I didn't really use it for more than C dev.

These current Airs are extremely powerful, for what you need to do it will hardly break a sweat.

 

[LeGacY X]

I use a 2011 Air for a variety of programming and it has been a joy to use.

 

[Da321123niel]

You guys don't think it's to small? the 11". I thought you would need a bigger screen while programing and what not.

But if it's gonna be a main computer I think 13" is a good size

 

[Beau10]

You guys don't think it's to small? the 11". I thought you would need a bigger screen while programing and what not.

But if it's gonna be a main computer I think 13" is a good size

It depends. For .NET work it is a bit small due to the real estate VS requires.

To be perfectly honest, if I had to do .NET day in and day out I would strongly consider the retina MBP and pump it up to 1920 x 1200 most of the time. For web work a minimalist text editor like VIM or Sublime and tabbed browser window is all I need. I also get crafty with visor popups for finder/terminal and divvy as a tiling tool to quickly rearrange windows. The form factor of the machine that allows me to kickback with it on my lap for hours while kicking out code outweighs the extra real estate the 13" affords, which isn't enough for me to go that route. It wouldn't really do much to improve my workflow.

Sometimes I also use my iPad as a secondary monitor.

 

[Da321123niel]

It depends. For .NET work it is a bit small due to the real estate VS requires.

To be perfectly honest, if I had to do .NET day in and day out I would strongly consider the retina MBP and pump it up to 1920 x 1200 most of the time. For web work a minimalist text editor like VIM or Sublime and tabbed browser window is all I need. I also get crafty with visor popups for finder/terminal and divvy as a tiling tool to quickly rearrange windows. The form factor of the machine that allows me to kickback with it on my lap for hours while kicking out code outweighs the extra real estate the 13" affords, which isn't enough for me to go that route. It wouldn't really do much to improve my workflow.

Sometimes I also use my iPad as a secondary monitor.

Yea, think you are right! but the basemodel retina MBP in Sweden is 21495 Sek which is = 3 144 USD = no go haha