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

Ask HN: What is your primary development machine?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 60 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is your primary development machine?

#32

Post by athst »

benologist wrote: post #4

Macbook Air. Really hoping the rumors of core i7 versions come true in the next couple weeks, and hopefully with more ram. That would make it a really killer machine, especially if something like that new Vaio's power dock came out to bolster it. http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/28/sonys-new-vaio-z-ultrapor...

I can't wait to see what the new ones look like. I've been on the fence between going with Macbook Pro w/SSD or going with Macbook Air, and it feels like they're taking forever to get the new ones out.

Re: Ask HN: What is your primary development machine?

#33

Post by athst »

simonsarris wrote: post #20

I'm always really surprised to see the large representation of Macs in the hacker community. Apple seems to be loved by consumers, which no doubt makes people want to target things like the iPhone. But I admit I haven't bought anything from them because from my perspective their policies seem to be generally hostile to developers, and they seem to advocate the most-walled garden that they can get away with. I'm guess…

If you walk around any gathering of hackers/tech people in Silicon Valley, a vast majority of people will have Mac notebooks. It's gotta be like 95%+.

Robert Scoble noted this phenomenon recently: http://scobleizer.com/2011/04/12/does-anyone-in-silicon-vall...

Re: Ask HN: What is your primary development machine?

#34

Post by bhousel »

berntb wrote: post #29
Pewpewarrows wrote: post #5

Currently using a netbook with Ubuntu 11.04 on it. Absolutely hating that I updated, because Unity is just barely able to run on it. I'm in the middle of a few projects, otherwise I'd take the time to either try out Unity 2D or go for something like Arch or Fedora. But, I've already decided to pick-up a Macbook Air as soon as the product line is refreshed. I _want_ to like Linux on the "desktop" and continue using it…

>>The applications just aren't even close to being where I'd need them to be I am a Mac/Linux user. My application problem is the opposite -- apt on Ubuntu is much less pain than port on the Mac.

Use homebrew instead of macports for Mac.

I think it took me less time to completely uninstall everything that macports did and reinstall as homebrew packages, than it would have taken to just 'port update' a typical macports package.

Re: Ask HN: What is your primary development machine?

#36

Post by LukeShu »

I wasn't exactly sure if to answer [GNU/]Linux Laptop or Desktop. I spend most the most physical time on the laptop, but more CPU time is spent on a desktop/server via ssh. (I voted laptop)

FWIW, the laptop is running Parabola (a derivative of Arch), and the desktop is running a modified Ubuntu (It was once Ubuntu 9.04, but I've kept it up to date via source, since 9.04 stopped receiving updates).

Re: Ask HN: What is your primary development machine?

#38

Post by proxwell »

Maxed out MacBook Air 11" (1.6Ghz, 4G RAM). It works great for my development workflow. I do mostly Python, Plone, and Django apps and a lot of sysadmin work.

I use TextMate for my editor so I don't have the crazy RAM requirements of working with the java-based editing tools like Eclipse.

Looking forward to picking up the new MacBook Air version as soon as it's released.

Post reply on HN