Ask HN: Best robust laptop for everyday software development

Post by sgt » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:17 AM UTC

croo wrote: post #89

sgt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I feel nothing beats a Mac for overall software development, especially if you are a full stack developer and you like to be able to use all kinds of tools if need be. I see a lot of people like the ThinkPads and I'm sure they are great, but the secret sauce is not just the machine, but the OS, and macOS is still glorious (it's a UNIX desktop OS!) I'm not going to tell anyone they must use a Mac, but gene…

"I'm not going to tell anyone they must use a Mac, but generally if I see a room full of developers, 90% of them will have Macs. Surely that says something" I did not use Mac yet and would like to try it someday. But I know a quite profane proverb for this thinking: "eat shit, ten million fly cannot be wrong" I have never seen a developer with Mac in my life - only managers. Developers use highest grade of ThinkPads…

Post by meguest » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 10:33 AM UTC

rotskoff wrote: post #7

I only used Apple products for about a decade, but last year I bought a Dell XPS which I run Ubuntu on. If you're looking to run linux, the XPS is a great choice. The hardware quality is extremely high---long battery life, ridiculous screen resolution (and it's a touchscreen), fast processor, and plenty of storage. My only complaints stem from the fact that, when using linux, there are inevitably things that don't wo…

Post by drawnwren » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 12:44 PM UTC

ummonk wrote: post #18

drawnwren wrote: post #9

The X220/30 is still a very viable Dev machine if you don't mind the screen. As a word of caution, I went down the MBP route myself and was recently caught with the dust under the keyboard membrane problem. You probably aren't accurately evaluating how annoying it is to randomly lose your laptop for a few weeks while they repair the keyboard. I certainly was not.

Compressed air duster didn't fix it?

Post by throwaway413 » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

drawnwren wrote: post #9

The X220/30 is still a very viable Dev machine if you don't mind the screen. As a word of caution, I went down the MBP route myself and was recently caught with the dust under the keyboard membrane problem. You probably aren't accurately evaluating how annoying it is to randomly lose your laptop for a few weeks while they repair the keyboard. I certainly was not.

Post by wink » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 6:35 PM UTC

Cau5tik wrote: post #68

k-ian wrote: post #38

If you want something dirt-cheap and easy to repair, go with one of the earlier thinkpad x-series, x200, x201, x220, x230... They're underpowered, but if you're just SSHing into a remote box it's a good choice.

> They're underpowered, but if you're just SSHing into a remote box it's a good choice. I feel like this concept doesn't get enough attention. You'll never get a laptop (that you actually want to carry) that has as much power as a server in a rack somewhere. Thinking of the laptop as an ephemeral mobile thin client rather than an entire workstation lets you focus on finding a laptop that's comfortable to type on and…