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

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

#161

Post by reitanqild »

reitanqild wrote: post #131
haasisnoah wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the point of a user space to protect the kernel and keep the OS from crashing?

No. What userspace is is where you work happens. It has no universal obligation to protect the kernel. You could possibly say that the point of working in userspace (instead of in kernel space) is to protect the kernel.

Seems I'm either wrong or I'm punished for being rude.

In the latter case, sorry. I honestly agree I should have caught that.

In the first case my thought process goes as follows (hoping someone knowledgeable will correct me):

- user space may very well contain hostile processes (trojans, rootkits, - even intentionally in the case where a user inspects malware in some kind of container or chroot environment.

- user space may contain mechanisms that attempts to protect the kernel, but a typical kernel (linux, and I guess most other free kernels) cannot rely on it.

- I tried searching for userspace protect kernel and the closest thing I found was the act of separating userspace from kernel space protects the kernel which is what I tried to point out in my post above.

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

#162

Post by jsjohnst »

FabHK wrote: post #151
krob wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, did that. Nothing showed up :/

Neither here. Safari was chugging along, WindowServer, bla bla. Nothing suspicious. I should add that a "Service Battery" warning has popped up recently, so maybe it's just an issue with my machine. Will bring it in.

> I should add that a "Service Battery" warning has popped up recently, so maybe it's just an issue with my machine.

Yep, all 2016 MBPs have terrible battery life, when they have faulty batteries and are directly telling you that’s the issue!

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

#163

Post by FabHK »

jsjohnst wrote: post #162
FabHK wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither here. Safari was chugging along, WindowServer, bla bla. Nothing suspicious. I should add that a "Service Battery" warning has popped up recently, so maybe it's just an issue with my machine. Will bring it in.

> I should add that a "Service Battery" warning has popped up recently, so maybe it's just an issue with my machine. Yep, all 2016 MBPs have terrible battery life, when they have faulty batteries and are directly telling you that’s the issue!

That battery warning came only recently. Battery life has been terrible all along. Anecdata, anecdata. But again, the design capacity of the MBP battery is less than that of the MB Air. It’s a questionable trade-off for a “pro” machine.

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

#164

Post by [deleted] »

Rjevski wrote: post #97

Do you really need 16GB of RAM, more storage and a beefy CPU? For reference, I'm using a 12-inch MacBook with a dual-core M3 processor and 8 GB of RAM as my daily driver and it's more than enough; this thing somehow runs IntelliJ and around 5 Docker containers in the background (including Javascript stuff with 1000+ dependencies) and has plenty of resources to spare. Now I do agree the new MacBooks have a lot of draw…

[deleted]

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

#165

Post by theyinwhy »

modells wrote: post #68
tomcam wrote: post #7

No. I bought the $3,500 version on the advice of my partner and feel cruelly ripped off. The keyboard, which I dislike, has already been replaced. The Apple Store guy tried to accuse me of getting water on the keyboard, but that is incorrect. My partner’s identical machine also needed the keyboard and motherboard replaced. He got a loaner (I didn’t) and they tried to accuse him of the same thing. I would much rather…

Lenovo Thinkpad T series laptops are built like tanks, have proper keyboards, some have water-resistance, most have easily-removable batteries. The T480 has a 30 hour runtime with dual batteries, and starts at about $800 USD. I'd try to turn that into a hackintosh or find an A1278 because it has 2x drives (optical turns into second drive bay), works with 16 GiB of RAM and the battery isn't glued in. On the latter, I'…

Unfortunately, it also looks like a tank.

Can recommend the s series however (have the 420s and am still happy).

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

#166

Post by thorin »

Razengan wrote: post #116
Macha wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a Java developer, Eclipse and IntelliJ will happily eat over 8GB on a midsize project, especially if Spring + related plugins are involved. For a Javascript developer, a typical webpack based build chain in live reload mode + chrome debugger + app using a front end framework will also easily go over 8GB. So for the two most common classes of developer, I couldn't reccomend a 8GB MBP. At work I need to work on bot…

It’s pretty grim that you can develop, build and test native apps with more features (graphics, UI etc.) just fine in 8 GB but twice that is woefully inadequate for anything with Java in it.

It's the same with .Net. I wouldn't consider developing Java or C# without 16Gb really. It's mainly the IDE that needs it, but also the build time, starting up services etc.. I guess this is similar with a lot of use cases these days. Web browsing is pretty expensive once you've got a few tabs open. This seems to be less of an issue on my desktop than my laptop though so maybe there are a few factors in play. Slow PC is frustrating though and my apk build is currently taking over 20mins...

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

#167

Post by richrichardsson »

SheinhardtWigCo wrote: post #112
Someone1234 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't understand what it means it is confusing, if you do understand it is disrespectful. In either case they shouldn't be starting out posts to strangers with "Bruv, look..."

Disrespectful? It’s short for “brother” and is used the same way as “mate” in those parts.

Could have been worse with an Australian, then it might have been c... :)

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

#168

Post by richrichardsson »

scrumbledober wrote: post #117
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many people in the world outside the London UK area know what Bruv means.

I live in the US but I have seen kingsmen

Exactly! I wonder why it is some people are utterly clueless about popular culture from other countries, I find it fascinating. Probably the same people who are clueless about even their own popular culture.

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

#169

Post by nolok »

sieabahlpark wrote: post #145
some_account wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, really, you have to leave. If you don't switch, are you going to use only Apple products your entire life from now? Seriously? There are many, many devs right now who is switching from MacBooks to Linux machines because Linux on the desktop is really nice (just not perfect), and you suddenly feel very much alive again when you don't sit and wait for Apple to fix your problems. You fix them yourself, and you no lo…

I don't want to spend the time to fix them myself.

There is very little to fix anymore unless you go for exotic hardware. Granted I went very safe with an XPS and Xubuntu, but I don't think I've had a single "how do I make this work" moment.

Ah yes wait one, I had to activate the keyboard switch for the webcam to be detected, but that would have been the same on another os.

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

#170

Post by nolok »

akulbe wrote: post #147
georgebarnett wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you feel your laptop has made you a permanently angry person, why not sell it and cut your loses?

I would also say no, absolutely not. It's not worth it in the least. I have been a Mac user for less time (~16 years for me) than the previous commenter. I have lost confidence in Apple's ability to deliver: a. a quality laptop that can get the job done, and b. a quality OS that I can trust to just work. I am typing this to you from a Dell XPS 9560 because the 2016 MBP w/Touch Bar has been such a shitshow. It's been…

Windows 10 is a surprisingly awesome OS, once you remove the thin layer of crap they spray on it (Google "O&O ShutUp10" for a 20 second fix) and learn to ignore their store. The whole thing is clean, efficient, runs well and freaking works. And like you said, WSL moved it into actually usable territory for developers.
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