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Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#121

Post by swah »

technomancy wrote: post #111
JarekS wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Macbook Pro 13". That is all.

I was really surprised by the weight of this machine. It's also very low-resolution. But the build quality is much-improved over precedessors. If Apple started to compete based on weight and resolution I might consider them, but who knows--maybe they're trying to avoid impinging on the lower-level ipad market.

2kg? Positively or negatively? My sister bought this dell (http://www1.la.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx...) and its 1.6kg. Everyone loves the weight.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#122

Post by jseliger »

cytzol wrote: post #56

Before I list my setup, I'd like to ask: What's with all the laptops? I worked off a 15-inch laptop for several years, but after using a desktop, I've completely converted. Laptops give you less screen space and less computational power, and in general I've never liked their keyboards. They're also more expensive (I think?) and trickier to self-build. The only advantage I see is portability, which is understandable,…

I agree: I actually wrote a post: http://jseliger.com/2008/12/26/computer-post-desktop-or-lapt... on this subject.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#123

Post by jseliger »

gprisament wrote: post #94
jseliger wrote: post #91

You can see my setup here: http://jseliger.com/2010/05/02/writing-space-2010 . You can see a 24" iMac (the screen space is, to my mind, more valuable than the processor speed) with an external monitor and a Kinesis Advantage). [EDIT: Note also the desk -- a Maxon 1000 series with a Humanscale keyboard tray. It's a good combination because you can adjust the tray to keep your arms at a 90 degree angle and the desk is…

+1 for the Kinesis, great keyboard, fixed my wrist pain!

I'm a fan too; you can see from this review: http://jseliger.com/2009/07/20/kinesis-advantage/ that I was initially somewhat ambivalent... until I switched back to a normal keyboard, at which point I realized just how nice the Advantage is.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#125

Post by buro9 »

HP Z800 with 2 x X5560 Quad core CPU, 24GB ECC RAM coupled with an NEC 2690WUXi2 26" monitor.

That's for home hacking.

The work one is a Mac Pro with similar spec.

The home system is dual-booted to Windows Server 2008 and Ubuntu. I do this so that I have a work mode and a play mode... play being Ubuntu. Firing up Windows means I only do SharePoint work and since rebooting isn't instant I keep working. I realise I could just install Ubuntu in a Hyper-V but I purposefully don't do that so that I get things done.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#126

Post by trustfundbaby »

cytzol wrote: post #56

Before I list my setup, I'd like to ask: What's with all the laptops? I worked off a 15-inch laptop for several years, but after using a desktop, I've completely converted. Laptops give you less screen space and less computational power, and in general I've never liked their keyboards. They're also more expensive (I think?) and trickier to self-build. The only advantage I see is portability, which is understandable,…

Worked on a desktop for years ... You're right, you can get monster cpu's, Ram, and Video cards to run 3 screen displays but what I hated was having to switch between the laptop and my desktop often (As a Rails freelancer, I work from a multitude of locations).

Often I'd get a file or install some software on my desktop and forget that I hadn't done so on my laptop, then I'd have to go find the file again or reinstall and setup the software.

It just got annoying after a while.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#127

Post by bch »

I'm surprised there are only two references to BSD so far.

NetBSD -current on ThinkPad T410, dwm, Xemacs, xterm

I probably could suffer to build a desktop for farming-out builds to, etc., but I haven't. Always want portability, though :)

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#129

Post by mahmud »

Thinkpad R51 with 1GB of RAM, 1.5GHz single-core processor and 40GB storage. It's running Windows XP.

An external WD disk and an external laptop mouse for when I am editing images.

I have the most spartan setup out among all the programmers that I know, but I have made wonderful things with it.

My fiancee jokes it's a piece of junk, but I tell her that we made $1020 for every dollar we spent on the laptop, used ;-)

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#130

Post by edanm »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #126
cytzol wrote: post #56

Before I list my setup, I'd like to ask: What's with all the laptops? I worked off a 15-inch laptop for several years, but after using a desktop, I've completely converted. Laptops give you less screen space and less computational power, and in general I've never liked their keyboards. They're also more expensive (I think?) and trickier to self-build. The only advantage I see is portability, which is understandable,…

Worked on a desktop for years ... You're right, you can get monster cpu's, Ram, and Video cards to run 3 screen displays but what I hated was having to switch between the laptop and my desktop often (As a Rails freelancer, I work from a multitude of locations). Often I'd get a file or install some software on my desktop and forget that I hadn't done so on my laptop, then I'd have to go find the file again or reinstal…

That's why I love Dropbox so much, makes it so easy to keep the important stuff in sync. I use it to have access to all my important stuff on my Desktop and Laptop (also why I tend to prefer portable apps nowadays, that I can just drop into the Dropbox folder to share with my laptop).
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