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Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

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Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#81

Post by tannhaeuser »

smhg wrote: post #75
tannhaeuser wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got a Dell XPS 13", and I'm absoluting loving it; especially the keyboard works great for me as a touch typist/vi user, which I didn't expect since the keyboard is what ThinkPads are acclaimed for. That said, battery mileage is no match to Apple notebooks in my experience. I can get 3 to 4 hours max, though I'm occasionally doing CPU-intense stuff which will reduce this to 1-2 hours. If Apple actually would prod…

My XPS 13 (second gen) had much better battery life with (what sounds) similar usage. - you have a recent kernel? Also, 4.17 should bring battery-related improvements - did you install TLP[0]? [0] http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-linux-advanced-power-man...

Thanks, I'll be checking it out. I've bought my XPS early in 2016 when the Skylake CPUs were new and kernel support/power management was flaky, so I had to install custom kernels and do BIOS patching, etc. I've upgraded to 16.10 since but I guess I need to check out if my kernel is up to date.

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#82

Post by rianmcguire »

namanyayg wrote: post #43
tannhaeuser wrote: post #42

I don't understand the authors choice to limit himself to Apple or Google. You've been able to do development on Linux notebooks (and Windows notebooks, of course) since decades. I can absolutely recommend Dell (and ThinkPad, though not from personal experience) notebooks with Ubuntu preinstalled/officially supported. Or is the question if a Chromebook is en vogue to use this season at Starbucks?

How has your experience been with battery and portability? I'm leaning towards buying a new laptop that I can carry around comfortably. I'm comfortable with remotely working on a more powerful PC if needed. Any models you'd recommend? I much rather would pick anything else over a MacBook.

I've got an X270 with the extended battery. Running Linux, it lasts over 20 hours with light use. It weighs less than the 15" MBP I had previously.

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#83

Post by lettergram »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #42

I don't understand the authors choice to limit himself to Apple or Google. You've been able to do development on Linux notebooks (and Windows notebooks, of course) since decades. I can absolutely recommend Dell (and ThinkPad, though not from personal experience) notebooks with Ubuntu preinstalled/officially supported. Or is the question if a Chromebook is en vogue to use this season at Starbucks?

I use my Arch Linux T450 Lenovo laptopand it's a beast. $500 on eBay + $180 for SSD + $150 for RAM.

My laptop has 20Gb of RAM, 2x 1Tb SSDs, and 10 hours battery life, with 1 hot swap batteries pushing me to 18 hours battery life if I want it. Total cost: ~$900 with tax and shipping

IMO best track pad outside of Apple + best laptop keyboard

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#84

Post by mcny »

I am typing this on a Chromebook that will soon get the ax. It is a Lenovo Thinkpad X131E. It came with a 16GB eMMC solid storage and a free SATA port. I had to open the computer and disassemble it down to the board (thankfully the documentation is very extensive) to flip the switch that allows me to install a real BIOS (or the coreboot EFI, that thing with the rabbit logo). I installed Fedora on it and now I can do everything on a Chromebook. I added a 500GB hard disk I had lying around but with SSD prices no longer climbing up, I am thinking about getting a 500GB SSD for this computer. Maybe I could even keep using the SSD after this chromebook dies.

So in this sense, yes I am comfortable doing development on a chromebook but it really isn't chromebook anymore. It is a Linux machine at this point. The keyboard is a close approximation of a real Thinkpad and the computer was cheap enough that I don't mind throwing it in my backpack and using it on the train.

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#85

Post by jonhendry18 »

tedmiston wrote: post #58
jonhendry18 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you remove the Siri button from the touch bar, or disable Siri altogether? Maybe try doing both.

I removed it once. I may be mistaken here, but if I recall, removing it slightly shifted the layout of the other keys throwing off my muscle memory for the f keys. I'm interested in a solution. I probably hit that key unintentionally 10 times a day.

Perhaps you could replace the Siri button with a similar sized button if one is available, in order to keep the spacing. (I don't have a touchbar Macbook, so I don't really know what's available.)

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#86

Post by pahool »

lettergram wrote: post #83
tannhaeuser wrote: post #42

I don't understand the authors choice to limit himself to Apple or Google. You've been able to do development on Linux notebooks (and Windows notebooks, of course) since decades. I can absolutely recommend Dell (and ThinkPad, though not from personal experience) notebooks with Ubuntu preinstalled/officially supported. Or is the question if a Chromebook is en vogue to use this season at Starbucks?

I use my Arch Linux T450 Lenovo laptopand it's a beast. $500 on eBay + $180 for SSD + $150 for RAM. My laptop has 20Gb of RAM, 2x 1Tb SSDs, and 10 hours battery life, with 1 hot swap batteries pushing me to 18 hours battery life if I want it. Total cost: ~$900 with tax and shipping IMO best track pad outside of Apple + best laptop keyboard

this looks like my dream machine. Two questions: how is the fan noise, and where did you find 1tb ssd drives so cheap?

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#87

Post by some_account »

IanCal wrote: post #63
mhluongo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XPS 13 user here, big fan

Counterpoint here, XPS 13 user, hate it. Worst coil whine I've heard on anything, fan sounds like it's catching, WiFi on Ubuntu very unreliable. Trackpad is atrocious. I think it varies a lot between models.

The noise complaints is why I'm not getting it.

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#88

Post by ianai »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #42

I don't understand the authors choice to limit himself to Apple or Google. You've been able to do development on Linux notebooks (and Windows notebooks, of course) since decades. I can absolutely recommend Dell (and ThinkPad, though not from personal experience) notebooks with Ubuntu preinstalled/officially supported. Or is the question if a Chromebook is en vogue to use this season at Starbucks?

Ad an XPS owner (9350), I will never own a dell again.

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#89

Post by vuln »

lettergram wrote: post #83
tannhaeuser wrote: post #42

I don't understand the authors choice to limit himself to Apple or Google. You've been able to do development on Linux notebooks (and Windows notebooks, of course) since decades. I can absolutely recommend Dell (and ThinkPad, though not from personal experience) notebooks with Ubuntu preinstalled/officially supported. Or is the question if a Chromebook is en vogue to use this season at Starbucks?

I use my Arch Linux T450 Lenovo laptopand it's a beast. $500 on eBay + $180 for SSD + $150 for RAM. My laptop has 20Gb of RAM, 2x 1Tb SSDs, and 10 hours battery life, with 1 hot swap batteries pushing me to 18 hours battery life if I want it. Total cost: ~$900 with tax and shipping IMO best track pad outside of Apple + best laptop keyboard

I love my x220 came with an i7 upgraded the RAM to 16GB, slapped in a 256GB SSD. The last modification I have to complete is the Full HD screen conversion, I am really excited about this. I have a few of the extended and regular batteries. I tend to just use the extended battery. I daily carry my x220 and I am not sure what I'll replace it with. I also have a mid 2014 MacBook air but the specs are mediocre. The only real benefit the air has is it's slimmer and lighter.

Re: Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

#90

Post by ianai »

IanCal wrote: post #63
mhluongo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XPS 13 user here, big fan

Counterpoint here, XPS 13 user, hate it. Worst coil whine I've heard on anything, fan sounds like it's catching, WiFi on Ubuntu very unreliable. Trackpad is atrocious. I think it varies a lot between models.

Seconding how horrible the trackpad is.
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