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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?

#441

Post by tischler »

kenning wrote: post #390
closeparen wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One might boycott a restaurant because they don't like its political activism, labor and sourcing practices, etc. This is much simpler than that. Lenovo served poisoned food. Not as a food-safety oversight, but as a matter of policy. The fact that they only did it for some menu items is irrelevant.

A better comparison might be that they stole your credit card number. Lenovo did not kill anyone or endanger their lives

Stolen personal information which is later exposed in a data leak can certainly kill someone. In expectation it is less likely than food poisoning, but it still seems ridiculous to downplay the gravity of all of it.

That has got to be the most fucked up thing about capitalism: Correction signals are painfully slow, delayed and weak. You can mostly only penalize a company by boycotting their products (unless they seriously break a law), but for the individual, there is often more utility in continuing buying their products than in sending a corrective signal, so the overall signal mostly vanishes except for a small, intellectual minority that can afford extremely high moral standards.

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

#442

Post by cmcginty »

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…

Can we talk about how terrible the config/ordering experience for an X1 is compared to Apple?

Why does Lenovo (and Dell) make it so difficult to actually buy an X1 without being a product expert? The shop page has 6 or 7 base configurations that all can be customized. To me, this is a really good sign they are not consumer focused, but instead catering to the direct enterprise buyer. Someone who is more willing to spend hours deciphering the subtle difference between every configurations and go through multiple customization flows to find some ideal configuration for a large multi-unit order.

Can someone explain why it's so hard for PC companies to move away from this purchasing model when the simplified Apple flow is generating 10x or more sales directly to consumers.

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

#443

Post by cmcginty »

valuearb wrote: post #323

I have a top of line new MBP and love it. I don’t use the keyboard, the touchbar, the screen or the hinge. Instead it drives two 17 inch monitor and bluetooth keyboard and track pad (yes i paid extra for slate gray trackpad). I will argue that its nearly impossible for a developer to pay too much for their computer system. When you spend close to 2,000 hours a year using it, every moment saved by faster processor/mem…

Spot on regarding price comparisons between brands. The cost difference is really not significant over life of the device, and in historical context of computing power per $. I get that maybe the MBP is not bleeding tech right now, but fit and finish is well above all others, and the larger user base and local support stores means the consumer experience is hard to beat.

BTW, I must be one of the few that actually like the new (non-touchbar) keyboard. The only thing I would change are the arrow keys.

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

#444

Post by mikojan »

saltcured wrote: post #184
mikojan wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a thinkpad. Why not use the track point? I guess it's down to personal taste but that phrasing was weird.

That's actually where it is worst. That generation of Thinkpads omits the physical buttons you normally use with the trackpoint, instead using soft buttons on the "click" style trackpad. It makes both functions much less usable.

Oh wow you're right. I didn't know that.

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

#445

Post by Inversechi »

I own an XPS 15 and have had to have it replaced 3 times during the past 4 years. Thankfully the latest one hasn't had any issues.

Running Antegros (Arch based) at the moment but was using Ubuntu before without much in the way of issues. I do a mix of mobile and web development more so the later and the machine definitely feels powerful enough for this workload.

My work laptop is a T550 which is pretty solid running also Ubuntu and doing purely web development. I'll probably get it replaced soon as the CPU feels somewhat limited running VM's and multiple docker images.... topped with multiple PHPStorm IDE instances.

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

#446

Post by ende42 »

I just moved from a late 2014 MBP running Arch to a Precision 5520 (more or less the business variant of the XPS15) running Alpine. Both feature an i7 HQ, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD. Both where about 2200€.

The Precision is a good laptop but it's my first that isn't better in every way than the one I had before.

On Par:

* Fast (for a laptop) processor.

* Fast SSD. 900MB/sec on the MPB, 400MB/sec on the Precision. Anyway fast enough.

* 16GB RAM. Just enough for me.

Good:

* Linux support. Very important for me. Suspend to RAM on lidclose works reliably. WLAN works. (Display dimming just works (as with the MBP), no coil whining here).

* Display. Native HD (had to use Linux' crappy scaling on the MBP). Non-glare. (And the MBP had the display stain issue)

* 3 years on site guaranty, if on site isn't possible, I can keep the SSD.

* Can change RAM, SSH, battery without voiding guaranty.

Bad:

* Display. I'd prefer 16:10.

* Sound is slightly worse when laptop is used on a table. Sound is dismal when laptop is used... on the lap.

* Keyboard on the new Precision is worse than the one on the 3 years old MBP. Will use the UHK in the office anyway.

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

#447

Post by merb »

nitrogen wrote: post #381
merb wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem in linux is not directly HiDPI. HiDPI works (mostly). However if you can't use wayland you will have a problem when you need the following: Multiple monitors with different screen resultions. Lets say your laptop has 4k and you use two external monitors with 1080p than it gets tricky with older wayland or x.org. However on later stable/edge channels most things are probably better than when I test…

If you have a good GPU you can use the xrandr commandline tool to set up display scaling, so your secondary low-DPI screen is rendered at high DPI and scaled down. Then you only need one DPI setting for your DE.

Well, it‘s good that it „could“ work, however i expect it to work without searching the Internet for xrandr configs. (And as said newer Weston/Wayland work way better)

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

#448

Post by bigmanwalter »

jasonvorhe wrote: post #164

I've been working on Chromebooks since the 2013 Chromebook Pixel, though the laptop itself is almost irrelevant, because I've just moved everything into the cloud and work from a couple of VMs with tmux/vim/mosh. Of course that's not on option if you require a complete IDE, but it seems that support for local GUI apps is coming with a native ChromeOS feature called Crostini. People runing the Development channel alre…

Mosh looks amazing! I will set it up on my Chromebook as soon as I get home. Thanks for the tip :) have any other Chromebook tips?

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

#449

Post by O_H_E »

linkmotif wrote: post #264
CoffeeOnWrite wrote: post #194

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…

I don’t really understand how people overlook the whole Chinese government thing with regard to Lenovo. Can someone shed light on this? I would be very uncomfortable using Lenovo, and I’m not even a huge privacy person. But Lenovos must be bugged by the Chinese. How could they not be?

Thinkpads are used in the ISS (International Space Station)

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

#450

Post by crispinb »

jwatte wrote: post #332

The touch bar was the death knell for me. Unusable. I had OK experience with Razer Blade 14 if you need high end GPU, and good experience with Dell XPS 15. The Razer and MacBook don't go higher than 16GB, the feel lets you put in 32GB RAM, which is useful for lots of tools or virtual machines. I run Windows 10 host and VMWare Workstation guests (Linux and docker.) Works for me, YMMV and so on. Just don't inflict the…

Of the developers using macs I know who have bought touchbar-equipped macs, a couple find it OK, most hate it. None are enthused. Only a self-worshipping Designaaah-darling could have entertained for more than a moment the absurd bad dream of replacing a whole keyboard row with a minuscule screen. For this same daft confection to make it to production is the apotheosis of .. well, I don't know. Something very, very broken.
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