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Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#141

Post by neverminder »

zamalek wrote: post #128

Just some general advice: > https://kfocus.org/order/order-m2.html NVIDIA gets really old, really fast. My personal laptop has an NVIDIA GPU and AMD iGPU, my desktop is AMD. For my laptop, a zen2 build of the kernel nets me about 15% more battery life and a snappier system. Unfortunately NVIDIA makes installing that kernel tedious, so I just run the regular kernel. I also have to install the proprietary drivers becau…

Nvidia is also better for HiDPI because they use faster RAM. I have dual 4K 144Hz screens, so unfortunately for the time being I have to stick with Nvidia.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#142

Post by idontwantthis »

teva wrote: post #83
jazzyjackson wrote: post #57

serious question: what is the practical difference between MacOS and Linux? Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source? I am big on open source but have never felt my life was improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install ... I have never had a satisfactory battery + sleep/standby experience on a linux machine, vs a Mac I can leave unplugged for weeks and it wakes back up where…

Docker is very slow on MacOS

How slow? Using it every day here on MacOS with no difficulties. Using Rancher Desktop as well.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#143

Post by resonious »

OJFord wrote: post #119
radicalbyte wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended That's a killer - it's 2022 and Apple are still the only company who can get that right. I'd switch over to a Framework in an instant (for dual-boot Linux/Windows) if they could fix that.

I didn't mention it because I don't think it's a Framework issue (GP obviously doesn't have it) but rather my somehow messed up configuration of it, but the one problem I have with mine at the moment is that ten seconds or so after resuming (but not before) everything starts segfaulting, literally any command. And consequently logs don't get written to disk, so there's no record of it after I reboot it (with the phys…

Oh wow. Indeed I haven't experienced this. How's the battery drain while suspended? I can't help but wonder if you get better suspend in exchange for...everything segfaulting.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#144

Post by Atreiden »

rpdillon wrote: post #116
jazzyjackson wrote: post #57

serious question: what is the practical difference between MacOS and Linux? Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source? I am big on open source but have never felt my life was improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install ... I have never had a satisfactory battery + sleep/standby experience on a linux machine, vs a Mac I can leave unplugged for weeks and it wakes back up where…

Not OP, but MacOS has very different ergonomics than Linux. My latest frustration on MacOS is switching between desktops/workspaces quickly. In any Linux distro, I can use both alt-tab and desktops to manage windows and switch instantly between programs. On MacOS, even when I disable animations using accessibility settings ("Reduce Motion"), switching workspaces comes with a delay during which the workspace appears s…

Yabai + SKHD will totally change your workflow for the better. Sometimes I forget most people don't have it set up by default so I get confused when I read comments like these.

Tiling is snappy, workspace switching is instant. And I'm on a pre-m1 machine with 16GB RAM.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#145

Post by lexicality »

resonious wrote: post #86
OJFord wrote: post #47

> I looked into the Framework laptops and so far it looks like they are still a bit beta. I'm not sure that's fair, (and it's pedantically wrong - they're in production - but I know what you mean) the hardware is the nicest I've seen besides Macbooks (I agree with you about macOS, but I do like the hardware, keen for Asahi one day but that is very much beta ( alpha actually I think)) and Linux is Linux? It works fine…

I use a Framework and it's been fantastic. Even the fingerprint works "out of the box" (in quotes because in Arch Linux nothing is really out of the box... I just had to install the right package). The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended. This is something I might be able to tinker away, of course. And for what it's worth, non-functional suspend is basically par…

> The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended

Not particularly helpful to you necessarily, but I was able to solve the battery drain on windows by tweaking the deep sleep and hibernation settings and I'm now reasonably confident that if I close the lid on the laptop for the night it'll have a similar level of battery left when I open it in the morning.

I think everything defaults to intel's "not actually sleep" sleep mode which destroys the battery like nobody's business

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#146

Post by ezfe »

usr1106 wrote: post #136
icharters wrote: post #127

Quoted post unavailable.

Motivation is important for your work. I would not be motivated by using some closed source, walled garden product from a company with business practices I don't like. Linux is absolutely good enough to get most development work done without issue. Even if Macs might be a slightly smoother experience in some areas. I used to spend a lot of time to fiddle with Linux and my desktop in the past. You can do that if you w…

>I would not be motivated by using some closed source, walled garden product from a company with business practices I don't like.

Most of the Development flow (and even most of the non-dev flow) happens in Open Source areas:

- Safari - Apps you download, like VSCode - Command line tools

The areas that aren't open source (The Calendar app, file browser) can be replaced as you choose.

I won't tell you to use a Mac, I just want to make it clear that the areas a developer works in are open. And, for anyone worried about things like SIP, that has a fully functional off switch

Oh, and you can run Linux (albeit with some work-in-progress features) - I've done it myself.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#147

Post by xvello »

radicalbyte wrote: post #106
resonious wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Framework and it's been fantastic. Even the fingerprint works "out of the box" (in quotes because in Arch Linux nothing is really out of the box... I just had to install the right package). The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended. This is something I might be able to tinker away, of course. And for what it's worth, non-functional suspend is basically par…

> The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended That's a killer - it's 2022 and Apple are still the only company who can get that right. I'd switch over to a Framework in an instant (for dual-boot Linux/Windows) if they could fix that.

Intel has removed support for S3 sleep from their platform, so every laptop with 11th+ generation Intel is plagued with this issue. Dell even put out an advisory that a sleeping laptop is not safe to store in a backpack anymore!

AMD still supports S3 sleep on their Ryzen processors, but you'll need to check user feedback to make sure that the vendor did their job implementing it properly. In S3 sleep, the UEFI/BIOS is responsible for suspending and resuming hardware state. If not implemented correctly, you'll have high battery drain (components not suspended) or bugs on resume. Lenovo had dropped the ball on that front repeatedly, with the last two gens of T14 requiring BIOS updates to fix issues.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#148

Post by rla3rd »

You can pick up a Lenovo P1 Gen 2 with decent specs for about 1000 to 1500 on ebay. Max ram is 64MB and usually comes with an i7. The battery life isnt great if it has a built in Nvidia quadro card, I get about 4 hours. I bought it to be able to do ML with it. My only regret is getting one with the nvidia card built in. I believe it gets about 8 hours without it. I ended up buying a RTX 3080 Aorus Gaming Box to do ML instead via the laptops thunderbolt port. No matter what you get, if you want to do ML on it. I highly suggest just getting a laptop with at least a thunderbolt 3 port, and just skip on having an nvidia card built in.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#150

Post by icharters »

rhamzeh wrote: post #133
icharters wrote: post #127

Quoted post unavailable.

True, but it is not a tool that works for everyone. In my case, I consider the Mac one of the cons of working at my current place of work. My days are filled with minor hassles that I could really do without. Doing simple things takes longer, and I have to deal with random freezes, slowdowns and even crashes that I did not have to deal with when using my own laptop for similar needs over the past couple of years (mos…

Random freezes, slowdowns and crashes? Care to elaborate? What languages and tooling are you using that is giving that sort of grief? That is completely counter my experience.
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