macOS Best Hardware for developing applications on Mac OS? Mac Mini still king?

[zeemac]

Working with a small group to develop a app on Mac OS, right now we are thinking of testing applications on Mac Minis? Yay or Nay? is there a better alternative readily available for testing?

We are looking to do this fairly professionally (startup fingers crossed), do professional app developers generally test their applications on Mac Minis/Pros on premise or is it commonplace to use mac hosting providers (of the handful that exist)?

 

[Senor Cuete]

Aren't you going to test on your development machine?

 

[960design]

Aren't you going to test on your development machine?

Right?!
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Working with a small group to develop a app on Mac OS, right now we are thinking of testing applications on Mac Minis? Yay or Nay? is there a better alternative readily available for testing?

We are looking to do this fairly professionally (startup fingers crossed), do professional app developers generally test their applications on Mac Minis/Pros on premise or is it commonplace to use mac hosting providers (of the handful that exist)?

What are you building the application on? I build applications for the Mac OS using electron.atom.io
I test on my go to build machine: MBP15(2016) and test on iMac27 and MacMini

 

[nanwang2016]

It really depend on what you are developing. As long as you can run latest Xcode, it should not be a problem.

 

[Graham Perks]

Are you asking about which machine to test on, or which for development? For development I'd ask for a more up to date spec than the mini has; though the minis are excellent.

 

[Qot]

I'm developing on Late 2012 i7 model for many years. Everything is smooth but it was a bit slow to start Xcode or simulator or other heavy apps. Then my HDD died, so I installed SSD instead and now it's great.

Still it's better to wait at least until autumn – I bet new ones are coming together with a new Pro.

 

[rich1812]

I develop on a late 2012 i7 mini with 16G Ram and a 500 G SSD. This is a little power house, perfectly for any iOS dev.

 

[0002378]

I developed for many years (at work) on a powerful Mac Pro, and it was boss !

I thought that Mac Mini is like the base model or Honda Civic of Macs - cheapest (least powerful) machine that gives you "Mac" bragging rights

 

[Qot]

I thought that Mac Mini is like the base model or Honda Civic of Macs - cheapest machine that gives you "Mac" bragging rights

Maybe but why spend more if the cheapest does everything well?

 

[0002378]

Maybe but why spend more if the cheapest does everything well?

Agreed. I just personally wouldn't use/recommend it for software development. I'm sure it's just fine for the average user.

 

[kage207]

I generally recommend developers test on their development machines. There's no harm there.

Then for actual user testing, get a group of users with a range of the devices you are seeking to hit with your product and distribute release candidate builds (RC) to them. Then have them do the testing as their systems will be more likely close to end user environments.