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Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#191

Post by Thriptic »

013a wrote: post #167

Haven't seen these two suggested: The Razer Blade is a pretty excellent machine. Its gaming focused, which surfaces a little bit in their design language, but all that really means is more beefy specs. The Stealth model in particular might be a great choice, or you can up-market. I've heard nothing but great things about it. The Surface devices are also an expensive but excellent choice. They do suffer in that I don'…

I have a surface pro 4 and I really love it; however, it doesn't support Linux well. Ubuntu will not recognize the type cover or (iirc) the touch screen.

Currently I develop in a VM or with vagrant.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#192

Post by coredog64 »

tootie wrote: post #87

Not a hardware req, but I've recently become quite enamored with Win 10 + WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) after years of using a Mac. WSL lets you run a lightweight Linux shell (Ubuntu, SUSE, Kali are supported atm) without a VM. It's purely for command-line purposes, no X, but that's fine for me. Windows for UI, then I can run all my bash in the Ubuntu shell almost seamlessly. You can run the shell directly from s…

I tried this at work. IT doesn't use the latest Win10 build (:rolleyes:), so the WSL experience leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Docker for Windows is similarly disappointing. The private network docker uses for containers conflicts with our corporate network. I can set the bip for a Linux daemon, but DfW just hangs and then crashes when doing so.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#193

Post by roryisok »

ogig wrote: post #148
shazow wrote: post #89

I switched from a 2014 13" Retina MBP to a 2018 Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th gen) and I'm extremely happy with it. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2018... is the most objective/detailed review I've seen. One of my biggest anxieties was the fear of "upgrading" to an inferior device after a decade of being on Apple devices. Thankfully, that has not been the case. - The 14" WQHD HDR screen is remarkab…

2018 X1 Carbon user here. I fully agree with your review. Emphasize on the keyboard thing. I'm about to start a book catalyzed by the mechanical pleasure of pressing.

> the mechanical pleasure of pressing

And there's your title right there

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#194

Post by CoffeeOnWrite »

I’m on my 4th Thinkpad T-series - T520, T530, T450s, T460s - each one was a a winner. I ditched the T5XX series when they borked the keyboard layout by adding a numpad. Used to run Ubuntu, now I run Debian, stable or testing depending on point in release cycle at install time. I plan to take another look at Ubuntu now that they gave up on Unity. A coworker is happily on the T470s (first USB-C in the series). I always get 1920x1080 since my eyes are accustomed to it, but multiple coworkers are happy with 2560x1440. Used to get the Nvidia cards, now very happy with the integrated Intel graphics. In general, last year’s hardware requires almost zero messing with Linux to make everything work, whereas with the latest hardware, be prepared to solve a couple minor issues. Ubuntu’s font rendering or Infinality are both amazing and better than macOS or Win10 to my eyes.

I’m ridiculously excited to eventually upgrade to a T480s because it’s the first in the series to offer a quad-core CPU. They’re selling the quad-core with Intel graphics which is exactly what I want. I hope Lenovo did a good job with the thermal engineering...

Thanks to all the open source developers that deliver this totally rad experience on Linux, Debian, and Gnome <3

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#196

Post by Thriptic »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #187
stefantheard wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was also my experience with the XPS15. Took a lot of struggle just for really basic hardware to start working properly on the ubuntu side, also extremely painful to install ubuntu itself and to have it recognize the XPS15's touchpad. I would not spend 1400$ and 10-20 hours to configure the damn thing again, do not recommend.

Had the same experience with Dell XPS and ubuntu 17.02 and earlier versions. Upgrading 17.10 and everything is working perfectly. Still would rather use my MacBook though because of software incompatibilities.

Interesting, so everything works on the xps 15 w/ Ubuntu 17.10? I want to pull the trigger on buying one but I am concerned about the Linux support.

Also, do you know if the new XPS 15 support a two hard drive configuration?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#197

Post by stefantheard »

Thriptic wrote: post #196
nickthemagicman wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had the same experience with Dell XPS and ubuntu 17.02 and earlier versions. Upgrading 17.10 and everything is working perfectly. Still would rather use my MacBook though because of software incompatibilities.

Interesting, so everything works on the xps 15 w/ Ubuntu 17.10? I want to pull the trigger on buying one but I am concerned about the Linux support. Also, do you know if the new XPS 15 support a two hard drive configuration?

technically it does not "work" but after some amount of hours of googling specific issues that pop up you can get it going. it's painful though.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#198

Post by peatmoss »

ianai wrote: post #145
michaelangerman wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What version of Linux would people recommend for this machine ? 2018 Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th gen)

I read a review about running OpenBSD on them last night. It’s probably wide open to anything.

Yeah, OpenBSD is my litmus test for Linux compatibility. Linux distros like Ubuntu will often figure out how to get questionable hardware working for some value of “working.”

But if OpenBSD runs, it’s a good indicator that the hardware will be extremely well supported and work with the absolute minimum fuss, even if running Linux rather than OpenBSD.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#199

Post by joezydeco »

tootie wrote: post #87

Not a hardware req, but I've recently become quite enamored with Win 10 + WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) after years of using a Mac. WSL lets you run a lightweight Linux shell (Ubuntu, SUSE, Kali are supported atm) without a VM. It's purely for command-line purposes, no X, but that's fine for me. Windows for UI, then I can run all my bash in the Ubuntu shell almost seamlessly. You can run the shell directly from s…

Yocto-built crosstool chains crash in spectacular fashion on Win10/WSL. Would not recommend.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#200

Post by jonathanfoster »

013a wrote: post #167

Haven't seen these two suggested: The Razer Blade is a pretty excellent machine. Its gaming focused, which surfaces a little bit in their design language, but all that really means is more beefy specs. The Stealth model in particular might be a great choice, or you can up-market. I've heard nothing but great things about it. The Surface devices are also an expensive but excellent choice. They do suffer in that I don'…

I'm on a 2017 Razer Blade running Linux Mint. I would say it's functional if you're looking for a gaming/development machine, but less than ideal for 100% development. My work machine is a 2013 15" MacBook Pro for comparison purposes.

The screen size is 14", which compared to a 15" MBP is no where near enough screen real estate. That and the bezel is too damn big.

The touchpad is just awful. The buttons are way too slim to hit accurately (I think they're about 1/4") and I always inadvertently hit the touchpad with my thumbs moving the mouse to random locations. I could probably fix the later by toning down the sensitivity, but there's nothing I can do about the button sizes.

Finally, the unibody case as a very sharp edge and tends to cause discomfort when typing for an extended period of time.

As for the OS, Mint went on without any driver issues. This is my first experience with desktop Linux in a long time and I'm very impressed with how mature it's become. There's just no way I could go back to developing on Windows. In fact, I've become so accustomed to developing on Linux that it's a pain to go back to macOS.

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