How and why I stopped buying new laptops
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How and why I stopped buying new laptops
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Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#2As someone coming from the other direction of this "hack", I agree with the author's point to match needs to hardware.
Since being introduced to Linux in high school in the early 2000s, I have had a penchant for bringing old computers back from the dead. As a result, every laptop I have ever owned has been one that a friend or partner throws away when Windows gets slow. Every 3-5 year old laptop I have found can be brought back to life with a new Ubuntu/Mint install and Fluxbox. Case in point: I'm typing this on a 2011 Pavillion, my main workstation.
Finally, in the last few months, I realized my up-to-decade-old computers have been holding me back. Professionally, I do AI work on cloud resources and my personal projects have naturally ventured towards the same technologies. Docker, Scikit, NLP. My symmetric gigabit internet is bottlenecked by the ethernet card on my main workstation which maxes at 1% of that.
So I finally ordered a new laptop: 64 GB RAM, latest processor, dedicated graphics card to try my hand at CUDA locally, which is being assembled now. I'm not sure if this is the "start of buying new laptops" for me, or if this one is going to last 10+ years, but I think it underlines the author's point of identifying and aligning hardware with laptop requirements, especially as those things change.
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#3As someone coming from the other direction of this "hack", I agree with the author's point to match needs to hardware. Since being introduced to Linux in high school in the early 2000s, I have had a penchant for bringing old computers back from the dead. As a result, every laptop I have ever owned has been one that a friend or partner throws away when Windows gets slow. Every 3-5 year old laptop I have found can be b…
I"ll second that experience. I've actually started to come to love using the lowest spec computer capable of reasonably doing the job I need it too.
Right now I'm on a quest to actually break out of the computing models I"m used to (generally glorified ETL) and to break into other models of computation and process modelling. I've got a hunch there is a direct parallel of applicability between keeping disparate people effectively working together, and writing programs which can smoothly do the same. The trick is breaking out of old modes of thinking, which I think a radical discontinuity in hardware capability for me will help accomplish. At least that's what I keep telling myself.
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#4I’m a software engineer doing mostly iOS work these days. I recently purchased a 2015 MacBook Pro for $750 on eBay. It’s fine. I’m in Xcode, the browser, or a terminal most of the day. I’m sure a newer computer would seem faster, but I couldn’t imagine spending 3x for a newer version of this thing that’s working just fine for my needs.
Some people reading this probably have processor-intensive tasks they routinely perform. But most of us don’t, even developers.
There’s a limit to this, but it’s further back than you might think. I also have a 2012 quad-core Mac Mini that’s still in regular use. It’s also fine!
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#5It’s unfortunate that the author has disavowed Apple for its charger practices from the 20th century. While still far from perfect, Apple has progressed on its chargers, and with USB-C now, a durable charger is no longer a necessity (I charge my laptop by plugging it in my display).
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#6> If you do graphical or audiovisual work, it’s more complicated, because in that case, you’re probably an Apple user and unwilling to listen.
Well that’s too bad. Sounds like the author just didn’t have the experience or energy to give advice to windows/ Linux users like myself that do audio/ graphical work. I was really interested in seeing what he had to offer.
I personally use an NEC Lavie Hybrid Zero to make my YouTube and Instagram content for my real estate practice. I’ve resigned to stating away from 4K as the render times on an i5 with integrated graphics are just too long for the marginal quality bump from 1089p. Most of my audience seems to be watching on their smartphone anyway, so 4K doesn’t matter to me.
This opens up lots of older laptops for the apps that I use (Davinci Resolve, GIMP, any office suite), but I want to be future proof enough to be able to do 4K when it becomes the norm. For me this means a thunderbolt port so I can use an external GPU.
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#7> If you do graphical or audiovisual work, it’s more complicated, because in that case, you’re probably an Apple user and unwilling to listen. Well that’s too bad. Sounds like the author just didn’t have the experience or energy to give advice to windows/ Linux users like myself that do audio/ graphical work. I was really interested in seeing what he had to offer. I personally use an NEC Lavie Hybrid Zero to make my…
I only use OSS for my entire workflow. KDENLive is the best video editor imo but OSS video editors are still pretty bad. Shortcut is stable but it's basically iMovie circa 2011.
Audacity is great. No qualms there. Krita is the king of photoshop clones. Makes gimp look like garbage.
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#8As someone coming from the other direction of this "hack", I agree with the author's point to match needs to hardware. Since being introduced to Linux in high school in the early 2000s, I have had a penchant for bringing old computers back from the dead. As a result, every laptop I have ever owned has been one that a friend or partner throws away when Windows gets slow. Every 3-5 year old laptop I have found can be b…
Have you considered a desktop? They are much faster than laptops, who are constrained by thermal issues. It’s hard to dissipate 500W+ of heat from a laptop-sized thing, they simply don’t have enough available surface for air intakes and exhausts.
If you want a smaller one to be occasionally portable, there’s Mini-ITX. I currently use a PC I built in this case: https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/node/node-202/...
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#9The 11" Macbook Air solved the laptop form factor.
Thin, light, very portable, USB ports on each side, headphone jack and an external monitor port (in this case, thunderbolt).
Could there be some refinements to my 2015 MBA ? Certainly - the two type-A USB ports could remain type A but be upgraded to USB3 ... you could add a USB-C port on each side in place of the magsafe and lightning ports and gain the ability to charge on either side.
But that's it. Great job, apple - you solved this form factor.
However, for reasons other than functionality or user-experience, Apple continues to fiddle and fuddle and muck around with laptops - making them weird and unwieldy in the best case, and totally unusable in the worst cases. In the case of USB ports exclusively on one side of the laptop, the only response can be merciless ridicule.
We need to actually coin a word to describe "company solved their use-case wonderfully and can't resist fiddling around with it for reasons that don't align with their user-base*.
"Special Edition-ed"[1] comes to mind ...
[1] https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Star_Wars_Trilogy_Speci...
Re: How and why I stopped buying new laptops
#10Here's a list of laptops that I would recommend:
Gaming / Software Dev ($399):
Dell Precision m4800/m6800
Supports docking station
Field work ($199):
HP Folio 9480m
Supports Docking Station
Offline Laptop($149):
IBM Thinkpad x220/x230
Supports Docking Station
Supports Pixel QI display (Direct Sunlight Viewable).