Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 179 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#21

Post by alexandernst »

cheriot wrote: post #17
unstablevacuum wrote: post #15

The attraction of programmers to macOS née OS X has always been its UNIX foundations. Programmers love UNIX. Programmers made UNIX for programmers. Unfortunately, from the epoch until very recently, UNIX has had GUIs ranging in quality from absolute shit to mediocre. That's finally changing with Free Desktop (Wayland + GNOME/KDE, and support libraries). OS X gave programmers a UNIX core with a beautiful user interfac…

Then the difference became battery life. It's been a few years since I ran linux on a laptop; has that improved?

No. Linux can’t match Mac OS on battery life.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#22

Post by xor1 »

I paid $1200 for a maxed-out 2015 13" MBP at the beginning of this year, and I would recommend that in place of a new MBP for most people. It was unopened/brand new, from a certified seller. The one I bought it from is out of stock, hopefully other certified sellers still have some.

I have a 2013 15" MBP (barebones spec), previously had a maxed-out 2016 15" MBP (with touchbar) for work, and currently have a maxed-out 2017 (also with touchbar) for work. I really dislike the new keyboard, and the USB-C ports are still a pain point. I never use the touchbar, in fact I wish I didn't have it at all.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#23

Post by indymike »

I just bought a Dell XPS after eight years of Mac use. Zero productivity loss, now I can test pen and touch GUI on the laptop. Can run Linux, can run windows. Honestly, the 4k display is even better than my last Macbook's retina display. Oh, and the Dell's keyboard is much better. The big win: function keys.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#24

Post by en4bz »

barkingcat wrote: post #19

You don't need to buy new. I find this "new everything" by default to be very sad. As a developer, you'd be well served by a 2015 (if you like the old keyboard), 2016 or 2017 MacBook Pro. Why do you want to spend so much money to pay for Apple Corporate to get even wealthier? Even something like a certified refurbish machine will get you what you need (with full Apple warranty), AND leave you enough money for periphe…

Old laptops have old batteries that need to be replaced. Since it's Apple this will likely cost enough to justify buying new.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#25

Post by om42 »

cheriot wrote: post #17
unstablevacuum wrote: post #15

The attraction of programmers to macOS née OS X has always been its UNIX foundations. Programmers love UNIX. Programmers made UNIX for programmers. Unfortunately, from the epoch until very recently, UNIX has had GUIs ranging in quality from absolute shit to mediocre. That's finally changing with Free Desktop (Wayland + GNOME/KDE, and support libraries). OS X gave programmers a UNIX core with a beautiful user interfac…

Then the difference became battery life. It's been a few years since I ran linux on a laptop; has that improved?

It has! I've been using Ubuntu on a thinkpad x1 carbon (2017) for almost a year. Battery life is between 6-8 hours everyday use including work. Probably see between 8-10 if I'm not doing any programming

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#26

Post by whitepoplar »

barkingcat wrote: post #19

You don't need to buy new. I find this "new everything" by default to be very sad. As a developer, you'd be well served by a 2015 (if you like the old keyboard), 2016 or 2017 MacBook Pro. Why do you want to spend so much money to pay for Apple Corporate to get even wealthier? Even something like a certified refurbish machine will get you what you need (with full Apple warranty), AND leave you enough money for periphe…

I've owned a 2016/17 MacBook Pro. Don't do it, OP. The '16/17 models feature the defective keyboard that will eventually break. Plus, they don't have the T2 chip.

I currently own a 2018 MacBook Pro which I like very much, but don't love. I paid $1,599 for it (13" 8GB/256GB w/ Touch Bar) here: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1423729-REG/apple_mr9...

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#27

Post by Razengan »

NOTE: New low-end MacBooks may be announced in 2 weeks or next month.

Have you identified how much RAM and disk space you actually need for your workflow?

If you just want something “good enough” you might be able to make do with even the $1300 Core m3, 8GB, 256GB, 12” MacBook [0], or even a PC running macOS in a VM.

Otherwise the answer is “as much as you can afford.”

I haven’t compared markets lately, but I think that although you’ll find PC laptops that exceed MacBooks in a couple specs here and there, you may be hard pressed to find something that betters a MacBook across the board in many areas (including Thunderbolt 3, SSD performance, trackpad, color gamut and battery time) and still beats it at price. Then of course there’s the value of the OS.

The Touch Bar can also be surprisingly handy if you give it an honest chance. Search for third-party tools that let you customize it, like BetterTouchTool [1].

[0] https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook

[1] https://lifehacker.com/customize-your-macs-touch-bar-with-be...

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#29

Post by Razengan »

hluska wrote: post #3

I recently went through the new laptop experience. When it came down to it, I couldn't justify spending the money on an MBP that would meet my needs. My decision came down to a few things: 1.) I hate the touch bar and you can pry the function keys out of my cold, dead hands. (I like saying that.) 2.) To get an MBP that will provide enough power for me, I'd need to upgrade to a touch bar only model. 3.) MBPs are serio…

> To get an MBP with similar performance to those other machines, I would have to pay approximately $1,000 more.

Examples?

MBPs have been reported to have the fastest SSDs on the market since 2016 [0], and I doubt you can get laptops with the same resolution and wide color gamut for much cheaper.

[0] https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/01/2016-macbook-pro-ssd/

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#30

Post by robertp »

coldtea wrote: post #9

It's value is in (1) combing a no-fuss GUI and the ability to run most major proprietary apps with a UNIX underpinning. If you also want to combine that with multimedia work (serious photo and video editing, graphic and print design, DAW work, Linux is a no-player, you need either Windows or OS X. Yes, there's Inscape and a few other tools, but only outliers use them and you'll be missing on almost all major tools an…

Also the lightweight and tight form factor.

I have travelled a ton with it and its help up the whole way for 14 months and 36+ flights domestic and international.

Post reply on HN