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How easy is it to install Linux on a new Mac?
Asahi exists but is not yet fully featured.
Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
171–180 of 813 posts
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cant agree more. I've stopped buying new laptops and now I use refurbished Thinkpad P50 with i7, 64GB RAM, 512 SSD for ~1100 USD. If I need to do something really computing intensive, I rent a cloud VM ;-) Actually, I've one for each project I'm working on, and I scale them as/if needed.
Who do you use for the cloud VM? I'm in the market
Hetzner Cloud, cheap and solid
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#173Earlier 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.
Do they? With the default configuration my MBP M1 doesn't sleep properly ( or at all, clicking Sleep just does a screen flicker and nothing further, i have to disconnect power for it to actually go to sleep), draining the battery to ~10% after a weekend.
Crazy, that's what I have always had with my windows laptops. My 2013 MBP 13 and M1 MBA work perfectly.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#174I would get a System76 Lemur Pro with whatever upgrades for your budget, or whatever other form factor that suits your tastes really.
Lemur Pro owner here. I personally have super-mixed feelings about the machine.
Pros: Battery life is excellent. Used it for 12 hours while walking around a factory doing an IT system install, never had to charge it. Slim form factor is nice. With an upgrade to an i7, additional RAM, SSD, etc., performance is good for any task not requiring a GPU. It would easily be the best laptop I've ever owned, except for...
Cons: WiFi chipset died within months of purchase and had to be replaced. Battery swelled by year 2 to the point that the mouse was unusable, so battery had to be replaced as well. The machine shipped with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which had a Linux kernel bug that caused the machine to freeze when trying to throttle up/down the i7 CPU for power management purposes. I contacted System76 about the problem, and they didn't know anything about it... I ended up having to troubleshoot it myself, at which point I told them the issue, and they sent out an email about the fix to (what I assume was) all Lemur Pro owners. I thought buying a Linux laptop from a company that specializes in making Linux laptops would let me avoid these kinds of nagging issues around things like drivers and power management bugs, but alas it did not. More startlingly, I would have expected a company that specializes in Linux laptops to at least be AWARE of such an issue on their machines, but it seems they had no idea... I feel like I would have been just as well off going with a Thinkpad.
Related final pro: It was frustrating to have to replace multiple parts in this machine (especially so early in its life), but I have to give credit to System76's self-install policy. They sent me the parts and detailed instructions for doing the repairs myself. Saved so much headache.
Overall, I really want to love my System76, but I'd have to think really hard before buying another one.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#175Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#176Asus TUF Dash Gaming 15 user here: I cannot recommend it enough.
- Intel i7 H series processor (best mobile Intel chips)
- Upgradeable RAM (currently at 24GB) - Intel Wifi 6
- Nvidia RTX 3060
- FullHD Screen with 144Hz
- Comfortable keyboard with backlight
- Two M.2 slots, laptop came with 500GB but added an extra 2TB.
- Good connecticity: HDMI, Ethernet, 3 full-size USBA 3.1 ports, 1 Thunderbolt port.
- Laptop runs on a 200W brick with a barrel connector, but on the go I plug it to a USBC 100W charger, works flawlessly.
- Good build quality: back of screen is aluminum, laptop itself is made with plastic with no deck flex or other problems.
- Only deal-breaker, not for me though, is the lack of webcam. I have a small USB one that attaches to the screen when needed.
Battery life is around 9h for me doing Node.js backend development with VSCode, Firefox with +40tabs, PostgreSQL and Docker running the server running locally. It lasts longer with the screen set to 60Hz and tinkering with the power settings to disable the Nvidia card when only doing CPU-intensive jobs.
Best of all: I only paid €999 ($1,081 taxes included) for it on Amazon Spain. Plus the SSD and extra RAM.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Sounds like the poster is having power management issues. Could be a dirty fan or a bad chip. I’ve dealt with the latter and it was fixed under warranty.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you find lacking in the m1 to make it your dev machine? The battery on the m1 was to enticing. I went back and forth between a ThinkPad x1 with Linux and this MacBook air. It's impressive and I have no regrets. When there's an arm laptop released with similar performance and battery life I can run Linux on, I'll definitely be picking one up
> What do you find lacking in the m1 to make it your dev machine? For me, the 16GB RAM limit on the MacBook Air is the principal reason not to get one, otherwise I would have already. As soon as you go to 32GB or more with M1, it's a big price jump to the Pro range, not sub $2000 any more. I have been looking at the M1 MBPs, but the price makes it need justification, and the 2.5 months lead time even at Apple stores…
67GB won't help your 32GB machine either. The problem is that many websites are full of memory leaks.
I had similar issues about 5-7 years ago. I then installed "the great suspender" to suspend tabs that weren't really used. That became spyware or something.. But chrome is pretty good at handling all the tabs.
I'm on M1 since it came out and couldn't be happier
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#179Lenovo T14s here (AMD version). Stuff works out of the box on Debian, except for the LTE modem which works after a bit of a struggle. Battery life is better under Windows but I haven't bothered working out why, probably need to set up some power management stuff. Associated dock drives three 1920x1200 screens at the same time as the built-in one.
If you have issues with sleep mode draining like crazy: Update the bios and enable "Linux" ACPI mode, which they claim will destroy windows beyond belief but I haven't noticed anything. Since otherwise s3 (aka deep sleep) is disabled and s2idle might be broken prior to the 5.15 kernel.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#180Quoted 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…
Does your workplace use MDM (mobile device management) or other security software? Do they use aftermarket AV?
Is it old enough to be a hybrid HDD?