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Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#131

Post by cytzol »

jasonkester wrote: post #74
cytzol wrote: post #56

Before I list my setup, I'd like to ask: What's with all the laptops? I worked off a 15-inch laptop for several years, but after using a desktop, I've completely converted. Laptops give you less screen space and less computational power, and in general I've never liked their keyboards. They're also more expensive (I think?) and trickier to self-build. The only advantage I see is portability, which is understandable,…

This: http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/x/blogger/5478/1688/... and this: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/04/west-coast-mob... Granted, they sell desktops in France, and you could technically put one in a van, but the experience of taking off for a month-long road trip to get some work done is a definite perk.

Okay, you've just shown me how drab my working area is. Time to install some... trees.

If I went on a road trip, I'd take a laptop, yeah - but I couldn't take my main computer. To me, it's not worth the risk of losing all that kit when a low-powered netbook would probably do. Actually, the times when I need to be portable and the times when I need gobs of processing power are almost exclusive... That's just me, anyway.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#133

Post by RK »

Home: (Coming today) AMD 2.8 GHz 6 core, 4GB RAM, Ubuntu 10.04. 23" and 15" monitors

Mobile: Asus EeePC 900 with EasyPeasy

Work: some Intel quad core, 4GB RAM, Ubuntu 10.04, 21" monitor

On the way: AMD 48 core machine

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#134

Post by there »

technomancy wrote: post #117
there wrote: post #80

http://jcs.org/notaweblog/2010/03/28/the_setup/ i think it would be neat if _the setup_ ( http://usesthis.com/ ) had a version where anyone could submit their responses and people could vote them up. a lot of the people they "interview" are really uninteresting and i'm sure there's a lot more unique setups out there being used by people that aren't famous.

> i think it would be neat if _the setup_ ( http://usesthis.com/ ) had a version where anyone could submit their responses The nice thing about the Web is that it's distributed: http://technomancy.us/137 Spoiler: Thinkpad X200s, standing desk, vertical-orientation external display, custom keyboard setup attached to my pants.

i created a setups subreddit to post them to, but for some reason it got banned. i'm trying to get a reddit moderator to help.

http://reddit.com/r/setups/

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#136

Post by Portnull »

Trusty little white MacBook 2.1GHz/4GB running Snow Leopard and Ubuntu Lucid. I have an external full sized Apple keyboard, mighty mouse and Raindesign MStand, and I swapped out the 120GB drive for a faster 500GB one - and that's it. I'm looking for a good 1920x1200 screen, that's the most my MB will take, but there's no hurry.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#137

Post by postfuturist »

dan_sim wrote: post #24

a fast-enough computer with ubuntu 10.04... that's all I need.

Yeah, I've got a cheap-ass Compaq laptop, that cost like $400 a year ago with Ubuntu 10.04 on it. 2 GB ram and a dual-core 64 bit AMD processor is plenty to get work done efficiently, especially with Vim + Bash as my primary work environment. I can run Windows XP in a virtualbox instance without issue for IE testing.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#138

Post by billswift »

patrickk wrote: post #95
cytzol wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard some people say that only being able to see a small amount of code at a time forces good programming practices, compared to what you'd be able to do with a large monitor. Do you think that having such a small screen helps in this way?

I would say that's bullshit. Tried using a netbook to do some web development, and the small screen, keyboard and lethargic hardware made it very frustrating. Horrible compared to using a big monitor and powerful desktop.

I bought an Asus Eee several years ago for writing away from home, but discovered too late that the keyboard is much too small for me to type comfortably.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#139

Post by ElliotH »

Hardware:

- Core i7 920

- 6gb DDR3 RAM

- ATi 5970 for graphics - currently RMA'd

- 19" HP Display awaiting upgrade.

Software:

- Ubuntu for working (GNOME)

- Arch for hacking (GNOME)

- Windows 7 for games

Portable:

- Dell Mini 10v base model with Ubuntu

- College issue Core 2 laptop with Arch

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#140

Post by shade »

At home, I have a Core i5 desktop with 4GB of RAM and dual 22" monitors running Windows 7, and also a 13" unibody MacBook which I bought back in October 2008 -- on the day they were released, actually.

In the past I used the desktop for quite a bit of gaming as well as remoting in to my work PC with Remote Desktop. These days I find I don't really game very much anymore, and I can connect to my work VPN/RDP through the Mac anyway if I need to work from home. Consequently, I'm on the MacBook almost 100% of the time. I'm actually considering getting a Mac Mini, moving the big HDDs out of the desktop into external enclosures attached to that, then getting rid of the Windows box and the older 22" display. I suppose I could also just get a NAS, but I like knowing I have a spare machine around in case my MacBook dies.

Work is a Q6600 with 3GB of RAM running Vista Business, since I'm currently working with mostly with .NET.

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