I faced the same question a year ago. My solution was a MBP with Parallels running Ubuntu. I couldn't be happier. I'm still working more in Ubuntu than MacOS, but it's nice to have the fall back of the host operating system.
Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
41–50 of 279 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#42I personally find long-term use of X annoying and clunky, so the Mac interface wins out there. (Please don't try to convince me I'm wrong about X. If you don't have a problem with it, that's cool.)
If you're just doing basic run-of-the-mill web development, and it looks like you are, then a MBP will work just fine. If you're in Vim and Bash all day long, there isn't really much for you to learn. Some things are a little quirky, off the top of my head I think Apache2 is installed in a weird location, and command line app X may not be installed by default, but it's probably no more obscure than switching to a BSD or Solaris.
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#43Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm hoping to avoid Dell. Their laptops (at least the ones I've been familiar with) seem to have poor build quality.
Their business laptops (at least the latitudes) are really good. I'd even say that they are better than Thinkpads, but YMMV.
The Dell Outlet can provide substantial savings if you are a bit patient or lucky.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/notebooks/ct.aspx?refid=notebo...
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#45I'm in total awe of the MBP from a hardware point of view, yet just cannot get myself to spend that much money. I've ran 9.04, 9.10 & 10.04 with little to no problems on a Lenovo Y650 "consumer grade" laptop and have been very happy. 2.53GHz dual core Intel, 4GB RAM, HDMI, wifi, etc, all the same specs as last years MBP, but I paid ~$700 for what was normally a $1300 laptop. Lenovo had $500 off & 12% discount on top of that... for no reason (except to make me happy)
The only upgrade I made was an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. It screams. Get one, or whatever SSD in that bracket or above that suits your pocketbook.
Last thing: I'm working on a brand new iMac at my current gig and I don't like it. I'm not a fan of OSX. I've tried several times but I just prefer Linux. Debian based systems with apt are so easy. Ports & Fink for OSX suck, so if you do go with a MBP, look into http://j.mp/mxcl-homebrew.
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#46Dell occasionally has systems for sale without Windows, or with Linux preinstalled: http://www.dell.com/ubuntu
I'm hoping to avoid Dell. Their laptops (at least the ones I've been familiar with) seem to have poor build quality.
Dell's older laptops used to be pretty horrible, but they've made significant improvements and their latest line of higher end business laptops are pretty darn nice.
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#47You can't go wrong with a Thinkpad, in fact, I wouldn't use any other laptop if it came free. I ran thinkpads exclusively for the last 10 years. My last desktop machine had an AMD Duron and 256 megs, that's long ago it was. They're not the most good looking, but they're rugged and functional as hell. A Thinkpad looks the same after 5 years, most others peel and scratch. When I was backpacking, my road-mate had his ma…
You cannot go wrong with a Thinkpad, but you can do better, IMHO. I enjoyed my last Thinkpad (t40) a lot. Still have and use it after 6 years. But especially with linux, battery life wasn't very good (now the battery is completely dead of course). The fan never stopped. To answer the question of the OP: yes, it is totally worth to learn Mac OS. First, the effort is small. Second, you will save a lot of admin time. Th…
The battery part is actually true, but I thought it was only me because I use older TP models.
My girlfriend's HP gets at least half a day. I don't think she even bothers to charge it during the day.
But hers is a crap laptop with lousy, fragile keys; short screen (WTF IS THAT?) that's twice as wide than it's tall, and sucks for everything but listening to music.
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#48I can not rave enough about the Lenovo X201 small, fast, usable. I switched to the lenovo machine after using a MBP for the previous 4 years. But it really depends on what you need and want. I commute with my laptop, travel with my laptop, and generally like to carry it arround. I'm not willing to accept either of the choices that Apple has for me, excessive weight (MBP 15' or 17'), or last generation processors (MBP…
Heh, I'm not a suit but I do appreciate being able to connect to a projector. Since the X201 doesn't have a CD-ROM, a docking station is basically a prerequisite IMHO.
I love my X201. It's very light but has a full size keyboard. I tend to have problems with RSS so this was a major consideration.
I went for the SSD option which I think was completely worth it. Boot of a standard Linux distribution is extremely quick (around 10s).
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#49Yes the MBP is a good machine, and you can get all of the items you listed on OSX. It is a good development platform if you decide to go that route. I have worked exclusively on MBP for the last two generations of my machines. This is coming from a guy that got burnt really bad on the 68-PPC conversion a while back (had basically a brick within 6mo of buying a new 68). That is another story but sufficient to say, I s…
Ubuntu runs hot on the MBP and will chew through your battery power even if you aren't running it in a VM. So MacOS is Unix anyway, you say? Too bad the default libraries are a pain to upgrade, trivial applications like "locate" and "wget" are missing and you'll have to manually configure stuff like page up/page down if you want the terminal to be useful. I've had repeated issues compiling different "cross platform"…
So MacOS is Unix anyway, you say?
I don't recall saying that it is or is not in my post above. Please don't put words in my mouth.
but it is not nearly as good a platform for developers as Ubuntu by any means
you are painting a pretty broad stroke there.
I do web and mobile development, both require application like Photoshop, professional video editing tools while web specifically Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and IE, Flash and a few others. For me Linux is not a superior development platform because getting some of these running is just as hacky as getting libs to work correctly on OSX. I use Netbeans as my development IDE which is available on OSX and I have to run a virtual for IE so for me OSX offers a happy middle-ground because I get iOS development while only having to trade running IE in a virtual. So while Ubuntu may be a superior development platform for what you do, it may not be for other developers. The original poster specifically highlighted web development tools. And for web development OSX offers a good value proposition. It has its frustrations just as other OS's do.
Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?
#5001010100 00111101
The end.