The lowest spec mac-book is a big step up from the highest spec mac-mini. I have heard a lot of bad things about mac minis being awfully slow and dying early etc.
At my school we have 13" mac books with windows on them and they work fine.
Mac suitable and best value for joint Windows & iOS dev PC?
The lowest spec mac-book is a big step up from the highest spec mac-mini.
No it isn't not by a very long margin. The highest spec mac mini has 16 GB of RAM the base macbook has 4, the mini has a 1 TB fusion drive whilst the macbook has a 500GB SATA, the mini has a 2.6Ghz i7 whilst the macbook has a 2.5Ghz i5.
Of course this is comparing the base macbook pro with the top spec mini. If you compare the base models of both then they have the same processor, same drive and same ram. The only thing is the mini costs £499 whilst the base mackbook pro is £999. Of course you could get the mackbook Air which starts at £799 but then this is less powerful than either the mini or the macbook pro.
Ive not heard of minis dying early either which is why apple no longer sells the Xserver anymore and instead sells the mini as a server.
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The MacBook range also presumably run the special mobile versions - an i5 in your laptop and an i5 in your desktop are different chips.
MacBooks are frighteningly expensive, and I think Minis are still (reasonably) easy to upgrade which means you can buy the least RAM possible for the chosen model and then buy some more elsewhere. I think the same with disks, but the Fusion drive is apparently pretty great?
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Parallels is frankly amazing these days. I can run a 3D (Ogre) project at the same FPS in parallels as the Mac version runs natively. My old MacBook is a bit slow but will still run W8 through Parallels 8. Conceivably on a more modern machine I really could virtualise Windows the whole time and not even notice... I know some people always work on a VM Windows-on-Windows after all. It feels wrong but if it works...
Parallels has come a long way
The advantage of a Mini over an iMac or desktop is that it's feasible to take it with you when you travel, as long as there is a monitor where you're going. Not quite as good as a laptop but close if you visit family for a week and want to work.
I say get a Mac and bootcamp Windows. If you build your own Hackintosh and install OS X there, it would violate Apple's EULA.
Macs are slower for more money. Only think about how outdated their graphics drivers are. 
I use Hands Off when I boot, maybe once a year, to recompile my stuff.
I'm surprised that there's no project to replace Apple's Gui on OSX with some fork of one of the many Linux desktops.
That would bring OSX back to where Apple stole it, to OpenSource.
The upper range Minis are nice to work with. Not sure if the latest models let you upgrade the ram yourself, so you would probably want to double check that before taking the plunge.
Might be worth refurbishing your current desktop system to use as a data/media server to go along with the mini's lack of expansion flexibility.
In a few years if you choose to upgrade to a beefier windows tower box, then you can keep the mini running and easily stash it somewhere. I've been using Synergy to merge systems into a 'single' computer interface, and enjoying the work flow for testing so far.
And I'm not a huge fan of the iMacs myself, simply because I don't like having a monitor as part of the system when it really doesn't need to be. If something goes wrong, then you have to ship the whole thing back. Backlight issue? Whole thing goes back, so you can't even use it with an older monitor. Mother board issue? You can't use your nice fancy large display with an older system while you wait for the computer to get back from servicing...
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Fair point. The only real reason for an iMac seems to be the gorgeous screen, but you can buy a gorgeous screen elsewhere - or if you really want to you can buy an iMac screen for your MacMini - at least I assume it's the same hi-res panel.
And I'm not a huge fan of the iMacs myself, simply because I don't like having a monitor as part of the system when it really doesn't need to be
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Pretty sure they are, but it seems like the latest MacMini is still the "late 2012" model, surely we're due an upgrade?
The upper range Minis are nice to work with. Not sure if the latest models let you upgrade the ram yourself, so you would probably want to double check that before taking the plunge
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