I just went through this process, and landed on a Thinkpad T480.
Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
461–470 of 502 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#462Consider asuspro notebook (https://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Asus-AsusPro-B9440UA-Core... - it is in german, so you might want to run it through google translate). ASUS never disappointed me with a lack of support for Ubuntu. So does this Asuspro. It is incredibly light and durable. You can easily hold it in one hand and type with the other. The battery runs for at least 4 hours of continuous work in my setup. If I turn off the screen, it can survive the whole night on the battery.
Supports 2 core/4 threads Intel Core i7 up to 16GB RAM. Works everything except maybe for the fingerprint reader, which I never tried/tested.
To get best battery performance use tlp and throttle the perfomance on the batteries to e.g. 30% (use CPU_MAX_PERF_ON_BAT setting)
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love how the Windows haters never really sell you on their choice by telling you how good their favorite OS is, instead they only talk up their bullshit negative views on Windows. If you just say that your opinion is that Windows is the best desktop, you’ll be attacked here on HN. It’s fucking amazing how people just cannot stand another person having an opinion. Then, once you bring up how widely used Windows is c…
You've been "attacking" way more here than being attacked. Yes, the reply to you wasn't perfect, but brought arguments for their opinion... which you just dismissed as "weak arguments", and now you are the one lashing out against everyone disagreeing with you as a "fanboy". You are doing your case not any favor and please try to stay civil. Sent from my Windows 10 Thinkpad.
Incorrect. My original post had no attack in it. At all.
Then look at how I was replied to... "Sorry, but no." - Sorry, but no what? I can't have an opinion that differs than yours?
Gimme a fuckin break.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#464Absolutely. Just about any Windows laptop with Windows 10 will be faster, cheaper and give you a better user experience in my opinion. I vastly prefer it over a Mac or a Linux desktop because I find the Mac UI to be sorely lacking and I've never had a desktop Linux machine that didn't break itself over time. I've done Node.js based development on Windows since Node very new (~ v0.4 or so). I build Android apps with R…
This comment has no attack in it. Then look at how I was responded to.
Such cheap bullshit.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#465Absolutely. Just about any Windows laptop with Windows 10 will be faster, cheaper and give you a better user experience in my opinion. I vastly prefer it over a Mac or a Linux desktop because I find the Mac UI to be sorely lacking and I've never had a desktop Linux machine that didn't break itself over time. I've done Node.js based development on Windows since Node very new (~ v0.4 or so). I build Android apps with R…
The windows hate on HN is real.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#466Not 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 couldn’t find a terminal I liked on windows. Got any suggestions?
MobaXterm: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#467Earlier quoted context omitted.
technically it does not "work" but after some amount of hours of googling specific issues that pop up you can get it going. it's painful though.
Any pointers on specific issues to look out for? I'm thinking of upgrading from 16.04 on my XPS 15
I use the precision. my biggest issue was with getting encrypted drive setup. the trick was to use the dell recovery image to install with encryption. this works but leaves the machine with an older kernel that doesn't have all the tweeks around usbc and wifi and such. You have to switch to the Hardware Enablement Stack to get it running well.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#468I went through this last year. I looked at Macbook Pro, Dell XPS15 and Thinkpad T470P. In the end I went for the T470P (i7-7700HQ (4 core/8 thread) w/ 2560x1440 screen, 16GB of RAM (upgraded myself to 32GB)) and the bigger battery (pretty much no optional with a 35W TDP processor). I tried the XPS15 but the keyboard was bad and the fit and finish wasn't awesome. I've had zero issues with linux support or the machine…
> I ruled out the Macbook Pro on price and the fact I couldn't put 32GB of RAM into it. Just curious, how has 32 GB ram on it affected battery life?
I think power consumption by RAM is more affected by the number of sticks rather than their capacity. As long as they're only 2 slots (most laptops are except ultra-high-end machines), the power difference between 16GB and 32GB should be negligible.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#469My company (British) runs Ubuntu and MacOS. On the Ubuntu front, we mostly use Dell XPS 13s (9360s), which are okay, except the trackpad is quite poor - many use external mice even in meeting rooms. We've tried dropping X11 configs in to improve it, but the results are very mixed. I personally am not that impressed by the keyboard or the webcam location choice. On the positives, the performance is good, and they're very light yet sturdy.
The other machines we have are Dell Precision M3520s - I found one unclaimed and swapped my XPS for it, and have found it to be great. Again, all the hardware works out of the box. The keyboard and trackpad are both much better than the XPS, and the 1920x1080 15" screen is crisp and sharp. It's a bit of a brick, especially compared to our MBPs, but it has a healthy complement of ports. I run a 4k 32" external screen via Thunderbolt/USB-C, while also having USB-As and onboard ethernet. Disk speeds are awesome, and it has nVidia hybrid graphics should I need them (although I keep them disabled and use the Intel onboard during the day). Battery life varies considerably since it packs a quad-i7 (7820HQ) but a full workday is probably practical. The RAM and SSD are also upgradeable.
I would definitely look at the Precision series over the XPS.
Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?
#470I’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…
Proposed alternatives?