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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?

#781

Post by ho_schi »

lazyier wrote: post #439
ho_schi wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will come with a lot of problems and requires extra work. Apple Hardware is not intended by the manufacturer to be used as general purpose computer but to run MacOS.

No kidding. I can walk into any office store, plop down 350 dollars, and get a laptop that will probably work very well with Linux. Any problems I end up hardware-wise is probably going to be the same sort of problems I would run into if I was running Windows. With plenty of companies providing great support for Linux I don't know why anybody would want to deal with Evil Corp Apple and then spend day struggling to ge…

Not my words but yes. Giving a corporation money encourages them to keep going that direction further. I would spend more money on Linux certified computers from (e.g. Lenovo, Dell, Purism, System76, Tuxedo...) which hopefully encourages this companies to keep going and improving. A single customer of course doesn't change much but 10.000 do.

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

#782

Post by ozzythecat »

tshaddox wrote: post #684
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.

Consider the possibility that people can like Macs for reasons entirely unrelated to Apple's marketing tactics. Reasons can include things most people would agree are legitimate qualities to look for in computers, like build quality, display quality, keyboard quality, performance, battery life, etc. Those seem to me as more legitimate and less "fanatical" reasons to prefer computers from a particular manufacturer tha…

You hit the nail on the head. I love the physical build, performance, and overall quality. I also feel very comfortable in MacOS, I don’t like how Windows renders fonts, and I could just never get into Ubuntu.

In my case, I went from a 2015 to a 2019 MacBook Pro. I recognize there were significant keyboard issues in between those years, but my 2019 machine works very well. The only thing is it gets very hot when I’m compiling code. But for the most part I don’t use it on my lap, and this specific issue doesn’t bother me ad much as having a cheaper keyboard, lower quality display, etc.

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

#783

Post by cassepipe »

theferalrobot wrote: post #397
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…

Anyone else here have the annoying hinge issue where the laptop screen won’t stay up? I even got new hinges and the problem remains… maybe just bad luck. Between that and battery life though I would exercise some caution OP. I love the framework ethos and plan to continue supporting them but imo they do have kinks to work out.

Haha this is one of the thing I wanted to know about the framework, thanks for the feedback. All of my laptops were still running fine when they became unusable because of the broken plastic structure around the hinges. I managed to fix that on this one using small bolts. I was eyeing towards Framework for my next laptop after this one falls apart wondering how durable it could be. Maybe I'll still buy that if they ever allow us to buy just the plastic case but I am seriously considering the sturdiness of a M1 running Linux. I may have to start to donate to Asahi Linux now as MacOs is a big nono. Or maybe I can find an old intel MPB that runs Linux well ?

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

#785

Post by warrenm »

sokoloff wrote: post #696
warrenm wrote: post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better Ask HN title would've been "of these 4 Linux-based laptops, what are your experiences"

The current title gets way more eyeballs and engagement. I say that only one-quarter jokingly.

sadly ... you're probably right :|

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

#786

Post by grog454 »

dcastonguay wrote: post #664
rootusrootus wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I think there are actually two questions here: 1. Why do some people seem to be so fanatical about their love for Macs? 2. Why do some people seem to be so vocally fanatical online about their love for Macs? As far as #1 goes, I think it's just about finding something that you have to use every day that you are much happier with. I have found small pieces of software that have made me jump for joy simply because they…

>I've been using a Mac now for work and personal use for a little over a decade and I dread every time I need to use my Windows machine for certain work tasks.

For me it's the opposite. Maybe I'm missing something obvious or I've had back luck with peripherals, but when trying to do something as simple as disabling mouse acceleration involves nonsense like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/it420s/how_to_quickl... it's just baffling to me. I am noticeably less productive on Mac computers because of weird quirks like the mouse acceleration.

In that thread, you'll see people for whom that fix does work, and doesn't work, and other fixes that for some people do work, and don't work, and people that have no idea what's going on.

Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion, but when I switch from working on the Android version of my apps on Windows, to working on the iOS version of my apps on Mac, I feel like I'm using an aesthetically pleasing toy that just wasn't meant for productivity.

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

#787

Post by kellogs_aran »

pflanze wrote: post #527
kellogs_aran wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm happy for your post (I might be about to look into deciding for a laptop, too, and unlike general review sites the discussion here is centred on the use for a particular community we're part of), and honestly I find JabavuAdams' post pretty toxic (it does elicit more heated arguments). The annoying thing here in my view is this sub-thread, not your post.

Thanks stranger :)

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

#788

Post by gcthomas »

Delk wrote: post #722
flawi wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working for a pretty big corporation (20000ish employees), the reason for this I hear from our IT/Workplace Services team is that Apple laptops actually integrate with the existing Windows-centric IT infra reasonably well with regards to account management, hdd encryption, endpoint protection, etc. This is not true for really any flavor of Linux, or so I'm told. So it's either a HP ZBook or a Macbook, and a big chunk…

Things like Office 365 are also still pretty much a hard requirement at lots of offices. More enterprisey projects can definitely require working with all kinds of moderately complex technical or non-technical documents in Word or Excel. It may be possible to get it running on Wine or CrossOver Office, of course, but most generic Windows-centric corporations probably aren't going to buy Crossover, and "I can't send y…

O365 works cross platform in the browser well enough for most windows-centric corps. I've got by happily for years with Vivaldi and Libreoffice, without Windows installed.

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

#789

Post by kellogs_aran »

tomrod wrote: post #375
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…

+1 for Framework as well. With recently launching a company, I have been evaluating laptop builds for my soon-to-hire employees. Thinkpads were at the top followed by XPS builds (which have been terribly variable in quality in recent year, unfortunately). I am now using a Framework as a daily driver w/ Fedora and it is wonderful! Deep sleep needs work still, but everything else is working great. Plus Framework works…

Hi. OP here. ThinkPads have come up a lot generally in this and other threads. I am definitely considering them too.

The Framework Laptop still has some issues that need ironing out from what I could tell so cannot to commit to them this time round. Will definitely keep an eye on them though.

Thank you.

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

#790

Post by kellogs_aran »

qudat wrote: post #517
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…

I also have a framework laptop and love it. Article I wrote about it: https://erock.io/2021/11/01/framework-vs-mbp.html Battery life will be an issue for OP. Also, the speakers are by far the worst feature.

Hi. OP here. I also came across the battery issue but good to know about the speakers as well. Thank you.
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