321–330 of 502 posts
If I was buying a new laptop now, it would be a Surface, no question. Even better than a ThinkPad in my reckoning. Great hinges too. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/surface
Consider your use cases - how often do you really need the computer to be portable? Do you work in more than 2 locations? Would a powerful (and cheap) desktop and a skinny (and cheap) laptop, perhaps with a great screen, work for when not at your desk? Laptops command a premium price for portability and desirability, so if you can reduce your need for those then you can get a lot more value for your hard-earned money…
If you need to work in 2+ locations, a mini PC that goes in your backpack might also do the trick. Slightly cheaper than a laptop, more ports, more likely to have great Linux support. I used to carry a Mac Mini around for client work, wasn't bad at all.
I will argue that its nearly impossible for a developer to pay too much for their computer system. When you spend close to 2,000 hours a year using it, every moment saved by faster processor/memory IP, everything that was easier to read, write and do thanks to the best keyboard, input device and best monitors, pays for the extra investment many times over.
Of course, I have to admit at some point when I have to travel, I will need to use the built in keyboard and at that point I will be very sad.
I’m on my 4th Thinkpad T-series - T520, T530, T450s, T460s - each one was a a winner. I ditched the T5XX series when they borked the keyboard layout by adding a numpad. Used to run Ubuntu, now I run Debian, stable or testing depending on point in release cycle at install time. I plan to take another look at Ubuntu now that they gave up on Unity. A coworker is happily on the T470s (first USB-C in the series). I always…
Friendly reminder that Lenovo made a deliberate choice to ship malware payloads to its customers from the factory [0] by preinstalling an SSL MITM proxy configuration from an adware vendor. This is not some suspicious technology with legitimate uses like Intel Management Engine. This is not concerns about the second-order implications of your voluntary uploads to Facebook and Google. It's not even an agency with a re…
Not a hardware req, but I've recently become quite enamored with Win 10 + WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) after years of using a Mac. WSL lets you run a lightweight Linux shell (Ubuntu, SUSE, Kali are supported atm) without a VM. It's purely for command-line purposes, no X, but that's fine for me. Windows for UI, then I can run all my bash in the Ubuntu shell almost seamlessly. You can run the shell directly from s…
I just thought of another question. What's everybody's workflow like on windows with WSL? If I use an editor like vscode then wouldn't I need the packages for linting, etc. on windows when I'm editing code in the WSL filesystem?
On the Rails side, I am using RubyMine from JetBrains and it has WSL support baked in. I am able to use chrome-driver to test.
For me, the weirdest part has been using git from the editor instead of the command line.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do your co-workers not have issues with HiDPI support on Linux? I've heard it's not the best experience and can require quite some fiddling to get working correctly.
HiDPI on Linux is pretty much non existent. I am telling from experience. I have booth a decent 4K external monitor and a HiDPI IPS internal display. The only setup which is ok in the sense of least horrible is Gnome mutter Wayland with experimental per monitor fractional scaling enabled. And this one is only ok if you can restrict yourself to the few ported pure GTK3 Gnome apps. Which means not that much. No Firefox…
I have a top of line new MBP and love it. I don’t use the keyboard, the touchbar, the screen or the hinge. Instead it drives two 17 inch monitor and bluetooth keyboard and track pad (yes i paid extra for slate gray trackpad). I will argue that its nearly impossible for a developer to pay too much for their computer system. When you spend close to 2,000 hours a year using it, every moment saved by faster processor/mem…
As somebody who got later into macbooks, and begrudingly had to admit they were objectively superior, here's what I'd like to know about a competitor. 1. Does the screen ever flicker? 2. Has a key ever come off? 3. Does it ever fail to sleep when you close the lid 4. Would you worry if you drop it from waste height 5 times (closed, but running, onto a hard-wood floor) ? 5. Have you had any driver problems, have you e…
I run Fedora on an XPS 13. I've never run into #1 or #2. I hit super+L by habit before closing the screen so I don't know about #3, but closing it while typing this comment put it to sleep. I've only reinstalled the OS once to get rid of the built in Ubuntu in favor of Fedora for #5. For #6 I haven't had it crash on me, but I have been RAM-swapped to death after having too many Firefox tabs and Docker builds at once. The only audio/network/charging problem I've run into is that Spotify doesn't bind to the keyboard Play/Pause events.
Haven't seen these two suggested: The Razer Blade is a pretty excellent machine. Its gaming focused, which surfaces a little bit in their design language, but all that really means is more beefy specs. The Stealth model in particular might be a great choice, or you can up-market. I've heard nothing but great things about it. The Surface devices are also an expensive but excellent choice. They do suffer in that I don'…