I've lived in Austin for the last 13 years or so and worked on 6 startups. I love it and can't see myself anywhere else. I've spent a bit of time in SF over the years, and love it there, but just can't imagine living there.

* Heat: It's hot in the summer. Really hot. Over 100 most days. After some time, you just accept it and move on with life. You stay inside. You live later in the evening when it's dark and cooler. The flip side of this is that for 8 months out of the year, the weather is pretty incredible :)

* Startups: There are lots of startups here. But you'll find that Austin tends to not focus as much on the consumer oriented startups. So many of them you'll never really have heard of. Some success stories are Spiceworks, Indeed, HomeAway, BazaarVoice, and Mass Relevance. There are also lots of agencies based here that are always looking to hire. There's also a big VC here (Austin Ventures) and an incubator that's had some success (Capital Factory).

* Tech Community: The Javascript and Ruby/Rails communities are very active. Each hosts a conference each year that are well attended and respected. Again, SXSW is here each March which is also pretty incredible.

* City: Austin is awesome. Live Music, Lakes, Pools, Great Food, SXSW, ACL, F1... I could go on... seriously, it's pretty sweet.

* Restaurants: Yes. Awesome. In the last 5 years, it's really exploded. I'm constantly amazed by the amount of great food that's available now. A lot of it stems from the rise of trailers a few years back. The best ones have gone on to open brick and morder locations. Notable standouts: Uchi, Barley Swine, Perla's, Franklin BBQ, Homeslice Pizza, La Condessa, Sway, Torchy's Tacos. So much good food. And if you're willing to drive an hour outside of Austin, there are probably 50 authentic Texas BBQ places in the surrounding area. Also beer. A few incredible breweries have started over the last few years.

* $$: Definitely cheaper to live here than SF or NY :)