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Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

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Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#51

Post by marcinw »

aconbere wrote: post #20
wyclif wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second the ThinkPad recommendation. Do some research on different models. The X301 is a lightweight option. ThinkPads are the best laptops for Linux by far. Another great thing about them is that they seem to me to be tougher and more reliable than other PC laptops like Dell or HP. I've dropped them before w/o incident, and they take a beating better than any laptop I've ever used. Also, the keyboard on a ThinkPad…

The 301 is pretty far out of date now, and with the X201 and X201s options doesn't make a whole lot of sense in my opinion.

I love my x301 but I do agree.. it is out of date unfortunately. It was the perfect balance between the 12" and the 14" ThinkPads. My only gripe is that it's limited to 4GB. Anyone know if it's possible to exceed this limit?

A coworker of mine just got the T410s and I've gotta say I'm jealous. If I was buying a new laptop, I would go with the T410.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#53

Post by c1sc0 »

trevelyan wrote: post #18
kls wrote: post #6

Yes 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"…

I've been using Macs as my development machines since before Darwin became OSX and that's the only thing that frustrates me sometimes: decent package/library management like on Linux. I've resorted to isolating these issues in VMs running Linux. Anyone else has a better approach? Do you --PREFIX everything you compile? This can be particularly painful for academic software: this type of soft has the annoying tendency to become abandonware the second the Phd thesis is written or publication has been accepted.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#54

Post by pocoloco »

samstokes wrote: post #7
Symmetry wrote: post #5

Pretty much everyone I know who runs Linux on their laptop uses a Thinkpad. They don't come with Linux installed but they tend to have good driver support and pretty good quality. You might also consider system76, but I don't have experience with those. EDIT: I'm currently running Linux on my T410. Suspend was broken with Ubuntu 10.4, but everything works perfectly now with 10.10.

Got a T510 here (with the extra-high-res 1920x1080 display) and it's great. Everything works in Ubuntu 10.04 (I don't have any problems with suspend-to-RAM or -to-disk). I spent a while looking into MBPs and it seems the Linux support is still fairly laughable - the latest models won't even boot it, and even the older ones require a kernel recompile to get sound working. I'd buy an MBP without hesitation if I wanted…

Same here. I got mine about two months ago. I also installed 10.04. I love the trackpoint (the red pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard) and the mouse buttons just below the space bar (don't have to leave the keyboard to use the mouse). The only major issue that I have now is the inability to control the backlight. This seems to be due to a bad driver by nvidia [1]. The backlight controls work if you use non-nvidia drivers. This will shorten your battery charge considerably. Other than that, everything works out of the box. I use the 64-bit version.

[1] http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=150069

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#55

Post by joezydeco »

khandelwal wrote: post #32
joezydeco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a Dell Latitude E6500 and it's pretty solid. Lots of metal.

If I install Ubuntu on it, does pretty much everything work? I don't care too much about suspend/resume, but I do need the wireless to work.

I'm using ubuntu with the fw43-cutter wifi and it's working great. Suspend/resume hasn't been a problem either.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#56

Post by megamark16 »

I use a MBP at work and I'm not really a huge fan. I find the interface requires that I use the mouse way to often, and I have to know all Apple's special key combinations to get anything done. I spend most of my time in my Ubuntu virtual machine, and I wish I were booting Ubuntu natively, but I just haven't had time get it working correctly. I am also in the market for a new dev machine for personal use, and I'm leaning heavily towards a Thinkpad, just based on what I've heard around the Linux community.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#59

Post by mironathetin »

mahmud wrote: post #47
mironathetin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Actually, it is the power management. Most likely it can be configured. But that is one of the points (admin time): you have to configure it. On Macs, it works.

Re: Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop?

#60

Post by bradleyland »

megamark16 wrote: post #56

I use a MBP at work and I'm not really a huge fan. I find the interface requires that I use the mouse way to often, and I have to know all Apple's special key combinations to get anything done. I spend most of my time in my Ubuntu virtual machine, and I wish I were booting Ubuntu natively, but I just haven't had time get it working correctly. I am also in the market for a new dev machine for personal use, and I'm lea…

> I find the interface requires that I use the mouse way to often, and I have to know all Apple's special key combinations to get anything done

If you expect to get anything done without using the mouse, knowing all the "special key combinations" is a pre-requisite for any OS. I hate to be the kool-aid drinker that jumps to Apple's defense, but I hear a lot of complaints about OS X keyboard accessibility that simply aren't true. A single checkbox enables access to "all controls" through your keyboard. It's turned of by default because, frankly, most people don't use the keyboard. I do, but my computer is my instrument.

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