[e4-dev] The ideal Eclipse developer computer

[Hallvard Trætteberg <hal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all and Happy New Year!

I hope it's not considered abuse of the list to ask a question of the proper 
equipment to do Eclipse development. If so, I apologize and you just ignore the 
rest.

I'm looking for a replacement for my 3 year old 14-inch (wide format) ThinkPad. 
I noticed that many of you had a ThinkPad (not strange considering IBM's 
dominance) at ESE, but I also noticed that many also had a MacBook (Pro I 
guess). I've read several comments that the MacBook has become one of the best 
Eclipse development machines:
- the usability is in general great
- SWT is becoming better on MacOSX
- the Unix foundation makes it a good server (SVN, Tomcat, Geronimo, Axis...) 
and allows old-fashioned scripting
- it handles memory-intensive applications better than Windows
- runs Windows programs well in BootCamp or using virtualization software like 
Fusion of Parallel.

While I don't hate Windows (although Vista has made it easier), it has served me 
well for many years, I've concluded that I'd rather have a Unix-based laptop due 
to better scaling, robustness, scripting etc. What I don't know is how MacOSX 
compares to Linux when it comes to hosting Eclipse and web server-based 
applications. After having seen the announcement of the new 17-inch MacBook Pro 
(I think I can afford it), I know what my heart wants, but the experience of 
others count a lot. E.g. how important is the screen size, how does MacOSX 
compare to Linux (Unix foundation, administration/installation and Window 
Management), Java support etc.

Hallvard