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Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

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Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#61

Post by somecallitblues »

madaxe_again wrote: post #39

It depends. If you are doing something that doesn't require a fast machine (I.e. server side web development), then a late 90's/early 2000's laptop will do. I currently cart around a '95 Toshiba satellite pro 440cdt to use in low security areas, with the HDD swapped for a 2gb CF card. Linux, vim, nginx, several backend stacks. I wouldn't care if it broke or was stolen (like anyone would) - I can get another for £20.…

What? You lug around a laptop from 95 and you're a web developer? And you don't care if it gets stolen? You have to do a Reddit IAMA. Please.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#62

Post by mod »

comstock wrote: post #16

If your backend dev, maybe the laptops I use (IBM x220s) would work for you? I find they fly with Linux/an SSD. They're also pretty cheap (50 to 100USD). So I buy a few at a time so I can leave one at the office etc.

Where do you buy them? I can't find any for sale.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#63

Post by mod »

somecallitblues wrote: post #61
madaxe_again wrote: post #39

It depends. If you are doing something that doesn't require a fast machine (I.e. server side web development), then a late 90's/early 2000's laptop will do. I currently cart around a '95 Toshiba satellite pro 440cdt to use in low security areas, with the HDD swapped for a 2gb CF card. Linux, vim, nginx, several backend stacks. I wouldn't care if it broke or was stolen (like anyone would) - I can get another for £20.…

What? You lug around a laptop from 95 and you're a web developer? And you don't care if it gets stolen? You have to do a Reddit IAMA. Please.

It's not that weird or even interesting. I could work on that machine, as well.

Put briefly, I work in a terminal all day. Sometimes locally, but oftentimes I ssh to a machine in the cloud.

Virtually any machine would work well for me. I do like nice machines still, but I would give up a lot just to have a nice keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#64

Post by RikNieu »

I recently got a second-hand 2012 MacBook Pro for $340.

It's got 8g RAM, an upgraded 1TB SSD and 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU. That's more than enough power for most programmers, probably for another 3 years.

Only downside is it doesn't have a retina display, but that doesn't bother me too much.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#65

Post by jetti »

vijayr wrote: post #54
kk_cz wrote: post #3

It's hard to answer, unless you define the budget, but I'd say refurbished ThinkPad T420 (Last model to has decent keyboard). Put some RAM & SSD inside and you have nicely built and powerful machine.

Those who have experience buying used laptops - where do you buy from (other than Apple stores)? If not from standard stores, are there any standard tests you do to make sure of the specs etc?

I bought my current laptop from Overstock.com. It worked out because they sent me a better model than what was listed. It is a Haswell quad-core i7 with AMD Bonaire, a 17.3" screen and a 750 GB hard drive (not SSD). I paid about $400 for it and just spent $65 more to put in more memory and will have 24GB of memory in it.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#66

Post by madaxe_again »

mod wrote: post #63
somecallitblues wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? You lug around a laptop from 95 and you're a web developer? And you don't care if it gets stolen? You have to do a Reddit IAMA. Please.

It's not that weird or even interesting. I could work on that machine, as well. Put briefly, I work in a terminal all day. Sometimes locally, but oftentimes I ssh to a machine in the cloud. Virtually any machine would work well for me. I do like nice machines still, but I would give up a lot just to have a nice keyboard.

Ditto. Without the HDD or optical drive it's fairly light, and the battery lasts hours. Use a USB wifi dongle as needed. The keyboard and pointer nubbin work great.

To be clear I also have an MBP, but I usually use the junker. The MBP gets used for potatoshop and client side testing.

I also drive a '95 golf. Cost next to nothing to buy, parts laughably cheap. £500 for a convertible that goes like stink? Yes please. I could buy any car I wanted - but I prefer something cheap that I don't care too much about, that I can readily service myself.

Also, it's far more environmentally friendly to use old stuff 'til it dies than to buy new stuff.

Old doesn't mean bad - just old.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#67

Post by madaxe_again »

somecallitblues wrote: post #61
madaxe_again wrote: post #39

It depends. If you are doing something that doesn't require a fast machine (I.e. server side web development), then a late 90's/early 2000's laptop will do. I currently cart around a '95 Toshiba satellite pro 440cdt to use in low security areas, with the HDD swapped for a 2gb CF card. Linux, vim, nginx, several backend stacks. I wouldn't care if it broke or was stolen (like anyone would) - I can get another for £20.…

What? You lug around a laptop from 95 and you're a web developer? And you don't care if it gets stolen? You have to do a Reddit IAMA. Please.

See reply to child comment.

Re: theft, encrypted CF card, selinux, good passwords etc., and I rsync home dir over ssh nightly when I'm using it.

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#68

Post by brudgers »

vijayr wrote: post #54
kk_cz wrote: post #3

It's hard to answer, unless you define the budget, but I'd say refurbished ThinkPad T420 (Last model to has decent keyboard). Put some RAM & SSD inside and you have nicely built and powerful machine.

Those who have experience buying used laptops - where do you buy from (other than Apple stores)? If not from standard stores, are there any standard tests you do to make sure of the specs etc?

Ebay

Re: Ask HN: Which is the best laptop for programmers under budget?

#69

Post by b3b0p »

Every option has been mentioned. One note left out that might be important to some depending is resale value. If you buy a PC (Dell, Asus, Thinkpad, etc), the resale value is going to be substantially less after even a year. However, with something like the Apple MacBook (Pro, Air, Nil), you can probably keep it around a year, or even few and sell it for substantially more towards a new one later, of course it will cost more to replace it with the equivalent later on, so maybe it's not much a factor after all.

That said, I'd get what you need and start there. Do you need macOS? That narrows your choices by a magnitude or so. I'd get a refurbished MacBook or MacBook Pro from the Apple Store Online. If you want a PC every suggestion has been made. It's only a matter of where you end up sourcing it from.

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