[andreadallera]

There's links to both a laptop PC and a MacBook with similar specs in the article, the laptop PC is 749€, the macbook 2149€.

EDIT : to reply to the comment below... I don't know about weight but battery time on my crappy current laptop (2 years old) is around 4 hours and a half, I think because I run linux (on windows it was around 2 hours). One of my colleagues recently changed the battery on his MacBook pro because it couldn't keep charge anymore, after one year.

About resolution, the MacBook pro I've selected goes at 1440x900, which is the same resolution my crappy laptop has.

[tzs]

Several problems here. First, you picked the wrong Mac for comparison. You should have compared to the next one down in the MacBook Pro line. That better matches the Acer, except the Acer has a bigger disk. You can configure the Mac to match.

That drops the Mac to 1849. At that point, the Mac has the following hardware advantages over the Acer:

1. 2.0 GHz i7 vs. 1.73 GHz i7 processor.

2. 2.54 kg weight vs. 3.3 kg

3. 1440x900 display vs. 1366x768. (For another 100 euros, you can make the Apple 1680x1050).

4. Dual graphics with automatic switching. The Acer does have faster graphics and more graphics RAM. It should get about twice the frame rate on high settings in many games. The Mac will use a lot less power on graphics, though, especially when you are doing stuff that doesn't make heavy GPU use--like most of the time when programming.

5. The Mac will get significantly better battery life.

6. The Mac likely has a much better trackpad and keyboard, and overall better build quality. In my experience, most programmers care about these things, for the same reason other craftsmen care about tool quality. I don't like to type all day on a poor keyboard, or do my mouse manipulation with a poor trackpad.

EDIT: also, git is not slow on Mac. Terminals do not take 30 seconds to open. I suspect you are getting flagged and the submission was deleted because it contains so many things that are contrary to fact.

[seb]

They do not have similar specs. They might have some of the same components but resolution, battery lifetime and weight are all better on the MacBook Pro. If you just look at the processor, ram and hard drive then every non apple computer will be cheaper.

[dhughes]

Apple doesn't make it very easy for the average Joe to compare Apple versus other manufacturers battery life, choosing the non-standard Watt-hour instead of mAh.

[jensnockert]

I doubt the 17" will ever be cheaper, but the 13"/15" can be a pretty good deal imho. Especially since the resale value is usually much higher than the PC.

[riobard]

as if build quality, aesthetics, user experience, happiness, etc are worthless

[andreadallera]

Build quality, aesthetics -> as long as it boots and doesn't fall into pieces, I couldn't care less. I'm a programmer.

User experience -> that's exactly what I'm complaining about. My user experience is severely impaired.

happiness -> ...