I am loving my Surface Pro. Great build quality, extremely portable, 8+ hours of battery life, detachable, writable screen, Windows 10 is pretty good, especially with Ubuntu built in (or VirtualBox if you need Docker).
Ask HN: Best development laptop?
61–69 of 69 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#62Happy Dell XPS 13 user here. I have been using it for the past 3 years without any issue. In the same timespan many of my coworkers had to replace/return macbooks (kb glitches, screen issues, battery problems etc). I was a thinkpad only person before that, but the quality went downhill. I am tempted to buy a pixelbook and use linux on it next, the specs/price/quality seem just right.
Out of curiosity which version do you have?
I've got the 9343 and am happy with it as well.
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
After MBP retina screen, MBA 1440×900 will be like nightmare.
Just one opposing data point -- I frequently switch between a 13" MBP running at 1920×1200 and a 13" MBA running at 1440×900 and I can't really feel a difference, let alone feel it's a nightmare. I wouldn't enjoy squeezing back my IDE to the MBA screen, but that's about it.
This is true, but the parent specified the retina MBP, and that does make a difference (in my experience, and others I know who’ve tried). Retina displays will spoil you quickly.
I live with HD/HD-ish laptops for battery longevity, but even the retina tablet display can be jarring.
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#64If you can live with 8GB RAM and a dual-core i5 at 1.8Ghz, I'd argue that the MBA is one of the best laptops to work with. The selling points for me are: * OSX - still the best all around OS to work with. * Lightweight, it is a laptop that weights ~ 3 pounds * Battery life is decent * Build quality is above average I believe that it's an excellent choice for web development.
OSX is the worst OS to work with. Besides the fact that it severely limits your hardware choices, it's got terrible window management, terrible file management and trying to operate it with just a keyboard is an exercise in futility. I'll take Windows or Linux any day over OSX, thanks very much.
I suspect that you haven’t tried very hard to get by on macos using primarily the keyboard. It used to be troublesome, but I’ve been doing it for years with very few issues. Of course, if you have an OS that works for you, keep using it, by all means! For file management, I find it superior, but I prefer cli tools for file management anyway.
I myself got into Mac OS X (as it was called at the time) because I needed both ready access to tools like MS Office, and a usable cli.
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#65Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#66If you can live with 8GB RAM and a dual-core i5 at 1.8Ghz, I'd argue that the MBA is one of the best laptops to work with. The selling points for me are: * OSX - still the best all around OS to work with. * Lightweight, it is a laptop that weights ~ 3 pounds * Battery life is decent * Build quality is above average I believe that it's an excellent choice for web development.
I got the mid 2013 13" i7 as soon as it was released. I had to replace the battery just over a year ago but it's still my main development machine. I feel like buying another Apple machine in the current line up wouldn't even be an upgrade
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
OSX is the worst OS to work with. Besides the fact that it severely limits your hardware choices, it's got terrible window management, terrible file management and trying to operate it with just a keyboard is an exercise in futility. I'll take Windows or Linux any day over OSX, thanks very much.
I suspect that you haven’t tried very hard to get by on macos using primarily the keyboard. It used to be troublesome, but I’ve been doing it for years with very few issues. Of course, if you have an OS that works for you, keep using it, by all means! For file management, I find it superior, but I prefer cli tools for file management anyway. I myself got into Mac OS X (as it was called at the time) because I needed b…
Open up some window from the Mac OS menu bar. Now use the keyboard to switch away from it. Try to switch back with it to it with the keyboard. It doesn't work unless you have some third-party window management tool to fix the problem.
I have tried and I can give you a whole catalog of features that don't work with the keyboard.
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't recommend XPS. I have version 9350 and it constantly have one problem after another. In no particular order: slow boot time (it can take 7 seconds to see dell logo after pressing power button), coil whine, a firmware update killed the laptop once. I don't know how much of these problems can be attributed to Intel but I fear hardware manufacturers have adopted "release early fix later through firmware" mind…
I have a 2017 XPS 15 (9560) and it has been pretty good with the exception of a 1-2 second pause about once a day. I use it for Windows development.
Could it be some SSD firmware issue? I could live with a few second pause a day.
Re: Ask HN: Best development laptop?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a 2017 XPS 15 (9560) and it has been pretty good with the exception of a 1-2 second pause about once a day. I use it for Windows development.
Could it be some SSD firmware issue? I could live with a few second pause a day.
I’d heard that some had fixed the problem by updating the intel graphics driver.
I did a Dell “update everything including the BIOS” and it made my QT development IDE and my application have bad rendering problems so I did a system restore.
The “pause” is a complete lock up, mouse and keyboard stop responding.