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

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

#461

Post by mekster » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:26 PM UTC

brimble wrote: post #320

selfmodruntime wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still install Linux on a mac (which is what I did) and still get a powerful and beautiful machine, if you so desire.

The OS and first-party software are at least 50% of the reason I buy Mac hardware, personally. Safari (+20% battery life), Notes (missing a couple features I'd like, but has also never crashed or glitched on me in a decade of use, so...), Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Digital Color Meter, Preview (I love Preview), the excellent and remarkably low-latency Terminal, Mail, et c. Take those away and I'd just go back to buying…

Safari is only good for Netflix for me.

It's inspector is just so different from the rest and you can't even have a custom font to be used! because, security...

Terminal is almost good but somehow it doesn't vertically stretch to 100% height when I automatically hide my dock.

Pages and Numbers are decent but no one else uses it, so I have to keep my Office 365 subscription to use Office in the browser.

Preview surely is a godsend when other OS can't somehow make the same basic app for almost 2 decades? Mail is great too unlike Windows' very poor default one.

Windows now looks 10 years behind with no ability to catch up to the ARM standard and Linux, well, never.

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

#462

Post by kaladin-jasnah » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:26 PM UTC

mekster wrote: post #452

c0mptonFP wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, operating system is one of the most fundamental things to consider when getting a dev machine. MacOS is literally useless for me, because I depend on the Linux kernel.

Doesn't feel right. Any OS can virtualize Linux, so the host doesn't really matter. Besides, it's usually the software that matters and not the OS.

Is this satire?

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

#463

Post by chociej » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:26 PM UTC

selfmodruntime wrote: post #258

c0mptonFP wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, operating system is one of the most fundamental things to consider when getting a dev machine. MacOS is literally useless for me, because I depend on the Linux kernel.

You can still install Linux on a mac (which is what I did) and still get a powerful and beautiful machine, if you so desire.

YMMV. Linux on the 2019 16" MBP has a lot of issues that make it irritating. It works, but not perfectly by any stretch. And yes the machine is nice, except for the keyboard, which is probably one of the most important parts!

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

#464

Post by tmh88j » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:27 PM UTC

lazyier wrote: post #441

raxxorraxor wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Mac Book from time to time and the keyboard alone is special... I don't think Mac is a good universal machine for development to be honest. The devices overall are nice, out of the question, but a Linux machine is ultimately more powerful.

Apple keyboards are miserable. I don't know why people keep saying that it's so wonderful. I have a Macbook pro I get from work and the keyboard on that thing is borderline unusable. With it's weird flat keys, no travel, and the elimination of function keys for this terrible GUI thing. As an Emacs user I find the whole concept of a "touch screen esc key" as deplorable and regressive. And this is on top of the poor re…

>Apple keyboards are miserable

> I have a Macbook pro I get from work and the keyboard on that thing is borderline unusable. With it's weird flat keys, no travel, and the elimination of function keys for this terrible GUI thing.

You have an older version made sometime between 2016-2019. They got rid of the butterfly keyboard for the 2020 models.

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

#465

Post by hinkley » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:27 PM UTC

ramblerman wrote: post #361

JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

Your comment is currently on top, so instead of laptop recommendations, we have yet another navel gazing meta discussion about HN and it's tendencies.

And hardly any mention of Mac in the next twenty top comments…

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

#466

Post by kellogs_aran » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:27 PM UTC

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…

Hi. OP here. Thanks. Will look into this since this laptop was looking like a strong contender for me.

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

#467

Post by chociej » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:28 PM UTC

lazyier wrote: post #441

raxxorraxor wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Mac Book from time to time and the keyboard alone is special... I don't think Mac is a good universal machine for development to be honest. The devices overall are nice, out of the question, but a Linux machine is ultimately more powerful.

Apple keyboards are miserable. I don't know why people keep saying that it's so wonderful. I have a Macbook pro I get from work and the keyboard on that thing is borderline unusable. With it's weird flat keys, no travel, and the elimination of function keys for this terrible GUI thing. As an Emacs user I find the whole concept of a "touch screen esc key" as deplorable and regressive. And this is on top of the poor re…

Agreed. I can't stand the feel of the MBP (16" 2019) keyboard. For one thing, it's too far to the right. But I also agree with you on the weird flat keys and soft F keys. At least mine has a real esc key. And this is purely habit & preference, but the control/option/command nonsense is infuriating. Everybody else does this the right way, get with the program Apple.

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

#468

Post by kellogs_aran » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:28 PM UTC

allisdust wrote: post #352

akvadrako wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the options with AMD dGPUs are very limited, I'd guess about 5% of what's out there with Nvidia. The new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 looks like a good option; my only concern is poor black levels.

+1 for zephyrus (though I'm using last year's model). Thanks to the hard working asus-linux community, most of the hardware features are controllable seamlessly through GUI software (fan profiles, switching between gpus, keyboard lights etc). Goes well with Fedora because they have the latest kernels with stable releases.

Will check this out too. Thanks!

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

#469

Post by ecf » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:28 PM UTC

JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

> Reasonable response

I scrolled down pretty far and didn’t see a single top-level comment anywhere close to what you’re describing about people blindly advocating Macs.

Maybe you joined early, but comments like yours bringing up a problem that doesn’t exist is PART of the problem you’re complaining about.

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

#470

Post by chociej » Wed, Apr 20, 2022, 3:29 PM UTC

brimble wrote: post #320

selfmodruntime wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still install Linux on a mac (which is what I did) and still get a powerful and beautiful machine, if you so desire.

The OS and first-party software are at least 50% of the reason I buy Mac hardware, personally. Safari (+20% battery life), Notes (missing a couple features I'd like, but has also never crashed or glitched on me in a decade of use, so...), Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Digital Color Meter, Preview (I love Preview), the excellent and remarkably low-latency Terminal, Mail, et c. Take those away and I'd just go back to buying…

I get and respect that this is true for some people, but goodness, I am exactly the opposite. I find all of their builtin software to be irritating and unobvious.