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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?

#571

Post by monkmartinez »

gzer0 wrote: post #499
factorialboy wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part guilt. Doubting your expensive purchase, thus reinforcing it with this behavior. Apt comparison with religion, especially with recent converts. That's not to say all Apple products are bad.

> Doubting your expensive purchase Except, there is not a single Windows/Intel based laptop that can offer the same performance as say, for example, an M1 Macbook air ($750). There really is no comparison and there is nothing that comes close on the Windows side at that price point. If there is, please link me because I would love to know. M1 has made Macbooks not only superior in performance, but also more economica…

Fair point. You would need to spend quite a bit more on a comparable PC if buying new. However, the breath of applications and interchangeability of the PC may render the price point moot.

For example, I just changed the notebook graphics card on a refurbished HP ZBook... I paid $275 for a Gen 3 and upgraded the Graphics card for another $350. It was a lot easier than I thought and this computer is a beast.

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

#572

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

rootusrootus wrote: post #516
rmbyrro wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? They seem to want to push everyone to use Mac, like religious fanatics try to push everyone to their "truth". I think this is a result of some marketing tactics Apple employed for decades, and it only pushes me away from this brand.

> Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? That is a good question. But ... > They seem to want to push everyone to use Mac, like religious fanatics try to push everyone to their "truth". As soon as you can adequately explain why there are people that are vehemently anti-Apple, you will have the answer to this question. You make it sound like it's only pro-Apple people that are fanatics.

> As soon as you can adequately explain why there are people that are vehemently anti-Apple, you will have the answer to this question.

Oh, oh! I know this one.

Apple's devices are extremely closed. This is antithetical to the spirit of personal computing. But this is only one component: what ultimately pushes Apple to generate an anti-Apple crowd is the combination of them being a closed platform, them using every dirty trick in the book to suck users into their closed ecosystem, and them being extremely successful at it.

Want to make an iOS app? Buy a Mac. No, not an old Mac, a new one.

Want to send proper messages to an iPhone user? Get an iPhone. Or convince them to install Signal. (I'll wait! LOL.)

Want to make a video call to an iPhone user? Get an iPhone. (Or ask them to install Duo, haha!)

Want to install Mac OS? Buy our hardware.

None of this would matter so much if we were talking about coffee makers. But we're talking about personal computing, a very central component of our nerd lives. If you're a youngster you're probably happy with occasional hardware replacement and messes of dongles, but for many of us our computing experiences are rooted in opening up the box and switching the guts around, or booting different software on the box, and we don't especially appreciate having to constantly battle the hardware vendor to make this happen.

Apple products seem to be very high-quality. But that's not really the point.

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

#573

Post by k8sToGo »

Freaken wrote: post #276

I can vouch for the Framework. It doesn't feel beta at all. I'm running Xubuntu 21.10 on it an it rocks. Someone created a repo with salt scripts which works all the kinks of the laptop under Ubuntu. The only thing I needed it for was to fix the touchpad issue after resume from sleep (it would be at max acceleration) and to enable hibernate (just note that you must disable secure boot first). https://github.com/light…

Yes but Framework does not support selling to businesses yet and, thus, can't create an invoice. Maybe this is an important point to some.

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

#574

Post by tpush »

emptyfile wrote: post #409
kayodelycaon wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> result of some marketing tactics Apple employed for decades Or perhaps people really like macOS and their value system is different. I don't think a lot of developers are buying macs due to marketing. Also, Linux attracts the same fanatic behavior. If you like linux, you don't notice see how many people are pushing it. If you like macOS, you're more likely to notice the people pushing linux because you disagree wit…

>I don't think a lot of developers are buying macs due to marketing. I've never seen a developer with a macbook in my country. The idea sounds absurd. Unless you need Final Cut or whatever, Apple is considered a status brand in many parts of the world.

> I've never seen a developer with a macbook in my country. The idea sounds absurd.

What country is that?

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

#575

Post by buzzert »

Highly recommend the Librem 14 personally. Pureboot, great set of mainline Linux drivers in PureOS, plus a very easily hackable firmware (I hacked mine to change the keyboard layout/behavior).

The build quality is also surprisingly good, and you’re supporting a special purpose company that fights for the user!

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

#576

Post by schroeding »

ZuLuuuuuu wrote: post #524

IMO, Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen2 (Intel) and Gen3 (AMD) are hidden gems which are not much talked about. - 16:10 matte screen with no PWM - Very good port selection (1xUSB-C, HDMI, 2xUSB-A) - Good battery life (for a Windows laptop) - IMO, the best keyboard layout - Fingerprint reader - It is actually around 1100$ - A difference between Intel and AMD versions is that AMD version does not support full length M.2 SSDs, i…

Yeah, the ThinkBooks (both the 13" and the 16" models) are great! Linux Support is also good. The 16" models are also great if you need a laptop with a dedicated (consumer) GPU without any kind of "gamer aesthetic". :D

They don't support classic sleep (S3 standby) anymore, though. But I'm not sure if any modern laptop still does. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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

#577

Post by s3233323 »

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#578

Post by acomjean »

kellogs_aran wrote: post #449
banal00 wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These posts are annoying, IMO. Reviews and blogs posts about them are everywhere by like minded readers, and this is the discourse such posts bubble up every time here. Guys. I mean. Seriously. It’s a laptop. It’s not worth a request for comments every week.

Hi. OP here. I did do some reading before posting. Here are some of the threads I had read before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21302412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28861949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28216287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28023345 None of the threads seemed to have a consensus e.g. some swear by the Dell XPS 13, others say the laptop has been a crap experience more…

Reviews are hard. Nobody agrees on anything, and some people have very strong options about certain things (trackpads, keyboards g that little mouse nub between the g an h keys)..

I have a system76 oryx pro running pop os. It’s older now (8th gen intel). Works well, though I had a fan start grinding, it was an easy replacement. The machine is a clevo so replacement parts are easy to get. I like it. My previous home machine was a 2014 Mac book. Oryx is bigger, faster, heavier. The build quality isn’t as good as the Mac but it decent. It has nvidia graphics which even run games. Battery life isn’t great, especially when running the nvidia card (you can switch to intel graphics ). It upgrades the os easily unless like me you do so manual stuff.. system 76 support is good (part of what you pay a premium for)

I just got work to buy a new system 76 machine for me. The amd laptop model “pangolin”. I like it so far.

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

#579

Post by s3233323 »

rmbyrro wrote: post #326
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…

Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? They seem to want to push everyone to use Mac, like religious fanatics try to push everyone to their "truth". I think this is a result of some marketing tactics Apple employed for decades, and it only pushes me away from this brand.

No post body was provided.

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

#580

Post by sandGorgon »

uuyi wrote: post #428
rmbyrro wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? They seem to want to push everyone to use Mac, like religious fanatics try to push everyone to their "truth". I think this is a result of some marketing tactics Apple employed for decades, and it only pushes me away from this brand.

It's not fanaticism really. A lot of us find it's the only computer that actually does a half decent job of trying to work properly and doesn't kick you in the balls. Well it does but rarely. Honestly I'd rather be using Windows on a ThinkPad. I really really like windows, PuTTY, MS office etc and I even like spending time in Visual Studio. But the hardware quality has declined to near zero in the PC market and lets…

i would really recommend to try out wsl2. its become massively fantastic. you should try it if you havent.

Thinkpad with Windows 11 and WSL2 is mindblowing

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