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Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#431

Post by MatthiasP »

bhouston wrote: post #370
yolobey wrote: post #368

Just in the process of outfitting the office with Thinkpad T480s's. Why not X1 Carbon? At first it was the MX150 option for deep learning on the go, but we decided to drop that because it was going to be a pain the ass in Linux and it's not a very good GPU anyway - better to ssh to the server (The variant in T480s is 25% slower even though it has the same model name). Now it's just the price... Not quite worth the up…

The mx150 is a piece of crap GPU. It performs at less than half the performance of a GeForce 1050 and a third of a 1050 ti (which are in the Dell XPS 15 series.) https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

You need to compare it to its predecessor the 940MX. Its a huge step up from that.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#432

Post by dlsniper »

jonathanfoster wrote: post #343
theflagbug wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a late-2016 Razer Blade and every time I compile something the fans spin up to aircraft-turbine levels of noise, it's ridiculous. I'm currently thinking of throwing the whole thing out and getting a Macbook Pro instead, because it's basically the loudest thing in our office.

Same here with the fan. I use Goland as my main IDE and man does it kick up a fuss whenever indexing occurs.

You can disable the indexing of the whole GOPATH as of 2018.1 and it will finish indexing a whole lot faster. See Settings | Go | GOPATH | Index entire GOPATH.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#434

Post by tbyehl »

jasonvorhe wrote: post #164

I've been working on Chromebooks since the 2013 Chromebook Pixel, though the laptop itself is almost irrelevant, because I've just moved everything into the cloud and work from a couple of VMs with tmux/vim/mosh. Of course that's not on option if you require a complete IDE, but it seems that support for local GUI apps is coming with a native ChromeOS feature called Crostini. People runing the Development channel alre…

Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster, those are exciting developments! I've been messing around with Crouton to run VS Code / .NET Core / PowerShell Core, but I'm not very comfortable with how that negates many of the security benefits of Chrome OS.

Crostini will be a game-changer.

I hope that stuff isn't limited to Intel -- I just bought an Acer R 13 and quite like it.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#435

Post by xab9 »

MrMorden wrote: post #168
robotmay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it was only really noticeable when moving between the browser and my terminal (dark theme). I think they cheaped out a bit on the panel used in it, which is a shame as otherwise it's a cracking little laptop.

Is yours an IPS or TN screen? From what I've read the fleet buyers will do anything to save a few dollars a unit so Lenovo offers TN as a base model for that market.

Yep, there are two version, but mine is IPS, clearly visible from the viewing angle and the bios ID, yet the burnin is there. But again, the used laptop cost me around 1/7th of a Macbook Pro :)

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#436

Post by latch »

pentium166 wrote: post #144
latch wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the info. They must have added that more recently. I noticed the same thing in Hong Kong where the 16GB 1080p option only became available after my last trip there. Just checked the Japan website, it still only has 16GB and/or 512GB with 4K touch. Sucks to hear about the Envy.

I don't believe Envy vs XPS is apples to apples, HP's Spectre laptops probably compare more favorably in terms of build quality. Have you looked into that line at all?

Thanks, that's what I meant. Their product names really don't stick with me. For the last month I've been calling it the "Edge".

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#437

Post by flamtap »

anotheryou wrote: post #103
contingencies wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno which era that one is, my XPS15 9560 never dims at all, it's always bright, maybe that's because I'm missing some sort of userland or kernel driver, but frankly I like it this way.

It's an issue across generations (and even across manufacturers, it's the displays firmware after all). I think it's the 13" FHD version affected. My 15" is also fine.

+1 to this, currently typing from a two-weeks new XPS15 9560. Manually installed Windows and graphics drivers, I have tinkered with the Intel HD Graphics settings a fair bit previously, however. Would not be surprised if that were the culprit to some extent.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#438

Post by flamtap »

stefantheard wrote: post #179
sametmax wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own a dell xps 15. Same, i don't recommand it. Autonomy is abysmal, usbc support very poor, the bios took a year to be stable and the sound died after some months. Not worth the price tag. Mind you, the xps 13 doesn't seem to have the same problems. I still love my old samsung 9 serie and wish the brand would have worked out the quirks and made a new one. My next try will be a thinkpad carbon since every owner arou…

This was also my experience with the XPS15. Took a lot of struggle just for really basic hardware to start working properly on the ubuntu side, also extremely painful to install ubuntu itself and to have it recognize the XPS15's touchpad. I would not spend 1400$ and 10-20 hours to configure the damn thing again, do not recommend.

I had enough hiccups getting a clean install of Windows 10 Pro to function fully featured on my XPS15 (6 individual drivers to get full support from the Thunderbolt dock), I couldn't imagine getting a Linux environment going.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#439

Post by sametmax »

caleblloyd wrote: post #418
Thriptic wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, so everything works on the xps 15 w/ Ubuntu 17.10? I want to pull the trigger on buying one but I am concerned about the Linux support. Also, do you know if the new XPS 15 support a two hard drive configuration?

I have the Dell Precision M5520 developer edition which is the Linux version of the XPS 15 with Intel WiFi and I opted for only integrated graphics to avoid graphics drivers on Linux. It works flawlessly with Ubuntu 17.10. I have the UHD screen which looks great with 2x scaling. I do a lot of work with Docker and can work much faster on Linux than before when I was on a MBP and had to run a VM.

Do you manage to get the 11h hours of battery they promised when they first marketed the laptop ? Because I get 4h on a good day.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#440

Post by willtim »

gst wrote: post #413
shazow wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it. I feel it's about the right size and the texture/precision is good. It's a bit smaller than my 2014 rMBP which I thought was fine too. On the other hand, the new MBPs have these comically massive trackpads which also scared me away. Less room to rest your palm, lots of accidental clicks, etc. Overall, I don't think about it which probably means it's good. There's also the optional trackpoint/nub. I use it…

Palm detection on the new MBPs is extremely good. You can rest your palm on the touchpad without any accidental clicks. It's far ahead of any other touchpad I used so far.

I've read posts stating the exact opposite here on HN. So clearly it is subjective.
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