Flutter Developer Switching to Mac 2021: My experience and thoughts as a developer
A bit about me
I am 37 years old and have switched my profession from Environmental science to Software developer 4 years ago. In all my life I have been loyal to the PC and I have been an android guy through and through. As an 80’s kid who saw the personal computer revolution, I would get called to neighbors' homes to fix their desktops.
Today I see myself switching to the Mac environment because, as a developer, it is very important to be versatile. Launching an app in the Google play store by myself was an achievement I am proud of. However I was stuck there, I had no idea about the iOS ecosystem and found it quite difficult to set up a Mac virtual box. Setting up a virtual box is one thing, but running android studio on a virtual box was a whole new story and a frustrating one at that.
Buying into the Mac ecosystem
Enter the M1 chip, Apple’s new pride and glory and it had the specs and reviews to boot. So I finally caved in and ordered my MacBook Pro. I mean, why go for air, or lower spec when a little bit more can get you a much better machine. The initial price started off on 1600 CAD, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, M1chip 13 inch. I wanted a bit better config, and they had an educational bundle for Final Cut Pro and some other tools which I thought would come in handy for my content creation and the fact that I am still a student. So I shelled out 200 bucks for that, another 200 for upgrading my SSD to 512GB, and another 200 for upgrading my RAM to 16GB.
In retrospect I could have done with 256GB as a 1TB USB could easily suffice to hold all my large files, I really didn’t need to have 512GB at my beck and call. Also, the 8GB RAM would also be able to provide me ample amount of space to run my emulators and compile my programs as well as edit videos every now and then. Unless you are a professional and already earning loads, then you could do with saving 400 bucks without any significant loss to performance.
First Week First Impressions
Using a Mac or any Apple product always seemed daunting to me, almost like having to do everything with one arm tied behind my back. However, as I am using this machine for the past week, as a first-time Mac user, I am getting used to the touchpad. I realized that A LOT of thought goes into making each of the features on the Mac. The touchpad, for instance, supports only one type of click, no right-click, no left click, no special edge space to scroll, and the sides of the touchpad do not conduct weirdly with my palms on them as I type and use the pad. It’s all gestures and long presses and single types of unique unmistakable movements that allow you to do all the stuff you did with the bells and whistles. Just disciplined, which results in you have to go through a bit of a learning curve, but in the end, a better product where not too many things are there to break.
There are many shortcuts and things that are neatly packed into the laptop (I am thoroughly enjoying the feel of a laptop after years of using ACERs and Lenovos and Compass because you really can’t put them on your lap without cooking ur privates/thighs with all that heat, or worrying about suffocating the air intake, or if there is a lot of dust clogging it up, because eventually those fins will need to get cleaned out and your laptop will get slower because of the heat. MacBook Pro so far is stellar in this regard as it is fanless and did not heat up as badly even as I was really pushing it to the limits for the past few days.
A Choice for Devs?
As a flutter Developer, I still find my dual monitor windows PC for development (but less and less every day), but I am regularly coding on my Mac and its performance is a lot better than my Desktop PC. Using git to pull the code onto the Mac and running it on the iPhone is a great asset. Once I publish to the Apple Store, I will surely be writing here to talk about the whole experience. So in short, if you are a flutter developer starting out, then start using a Mac, because as much as you may think that you will burn that bridge when it comes to it, or figure out a way, eventually, it would make your life a lot easier to shift and develop on the Mac.
Setting up my development environment was a nightmare. As a developer, I should not complain because solving problems is the name of the game. But when an android studio decides to not let AVD (Android Virtual Device) run, it just won’t run. After two whole days of troubleshooting flutter doctor and stack overflow, and YouTube for possible solutions I have decided to take a break from it, and use the iOS simulator as the primary virtual device to test my apps on, and a physical android device for testing. Who needs AVD anyway! I will however keep you posted on my solution to this issue. UPDATE: it’s all sorted out, I need to take a break and start afresh after a day.
Concluding thoughts
Switching to a Mac for the first time in my life was daunting, but that was mostly because I didn’t want to jump into the unknown and was a bit reluctant to get out of my comfort space. But as the saying goes, you can only grow when you push yourself out of that comfort zone into the bit-uncomfortable space. I have so far been able to write several articles on the MacBook, cleaned out my 23,000 emails, and focused more on my goals. Getting out of that comfort zone and using Mac has been beneficial to me and I can assure you that if you chose to go forward with buying a MacBook you will be better for it.
