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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?

#791

Post by kellogs_aran »

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.

> I love the framework ethos and plan to continue supporting them but imo they do have kinks to work out.

kinks is the word :) True that's what a lot of users have mentioned also.

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

#792

Post by kellogs_aran »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #293
jwalton wrote: post #223

Lenovo has some pretty good sales on thinkpad X1s (at least they do in Canada - didn't check the US site). But, if you're in Canada, I just bought this: https://www.newegg.ca/p/N82E16834233446?Description=gigabyte... It's got a gorgeous 4K OLED screen, a quite decent CPU and GPU, and it's currently $350 off + a $300 mail in rebate (there was an additional $350 off over the easter weekend, too). The track pad is not m…

I have a Lenovo X13 Gen 2 with a 16 thread Ryzen 5850U and 32GB of RAM. It’s about the most powerful you can get while still having a power efficient CPU under load. I spend all day compiling with all cores and battery is still around 8-9 hours with a 90% charging cap set in the bios to preserve battery longevity. Linux works great on the AMD chipset but I had to replace the Wi-Fi card with an Intel AX220. After buyi…

Hi. OP here. Thanks for the thorough review

> Linux works great on the AMD chipset but I had to replace the Wi-Fi card with an Intel AX220.

Curious to know why you switched out the Wi-Fi card? How easy was it to do?

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

#793

Post by kellogs_aran »

hurflmurfl wrote: post #135
fy20 wrote: post #51

A few years ago I would have said ThinkPads but I think there are better options available now. At the end of last year I wanted to replace my T470, and wanted to upgrade to something with a more powerful (not U-series) CPU. The ThinkPad option that fitted my requirements was on back order for months, so I looked around... The ASUS ROG line of gaming laptops had exactly what I wanted, although they look a bit garish,…

Another happy user of G14 here. I'm running the 2021 version with Ryzen 5900HS, 32Gb of RAM and 1440p screen. The screen is good, the laptop is quite light at ~1.6kg, the keyboard is OK too, but I tend to use an external one when at my desk. I love the battery life, which is great when running on integrated graphics. The CPU is great too, I'm satisfied with autocomplete speed in my IDE. I think the 5900HS is also qui…

Hi. OP here. Shame about the lack of a webcam since I do a lot of video calls.

Otherwise the G14 would have made my list. The reviews I read on HN suggested it would be worth a look.

Edit: saw that the parent post says that that has been fixed in this year's model. Will take a look. Thanks both!

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

#794

Post by kellogs_aran »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #6

Second hand ThinkPad T series gets a lot of bang for the buck (maybe not as good as they used to be, but still good, repairable, generally upgradable and very available as ex-enterprise machines). Good matte displays, good hinges and great keyboards. Don't sweat the battery, they're removable, upgradeable to larger ones if you have to go a longer time on a charge and easy to replace. For the change left over from $20…

Hi. OP here. The Thinkpad T series seems to come highly recommended. Though it wasn't quite clear which ones to consider and those to avoid. Will review the thread to see which ones to pick :)

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

#795

Post by password4321 »

smoldesu wrote: post #631
password4321 wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fighting Homebrew I switched to MacPorts when Homebrew moved on from macOS Mojave... now I wish I had done so much sooner!

MacPorts is pretty unstable (in my experience). Felt like 2011-era Arch Linux all over again... Honestly, Nix is the only package manager I really like on Mac.

Appreciate the anecdata! Have they straightened out the issue(s) with a read-only root directory, and installation / uninstall?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30917354#30918593

> seems to be an issue of macOS and the root dir being read-only

> Took me a month to finally remove Nix from my macOS

https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/6206#issuecomment-105938...

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

#796

Post by smoldesu »

password4321 wrote: post #795
smoldesu wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacPorts is pretty unstable (in my experience). Felt like 2011-era Arch Linux all over again... Honestly, Nix is the only package manager I really like on Mac.

Appreciate the anecdata! Have they straightened out the issue(s) with a read-only root directory, and installation / uninstall? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30917354#30918593 > seems to be an issue of macOS and the root dir being read-only > Took me a month to finally remove Nix from my macOS https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/6206#issuecomment-105938...

I believe that's fixed upstream. Afaik, those issues stem from some strange FileVault/APFS inconsistencies, and have patches coming to fix it (in it's current incarnation). I don't dev on Macs unless I have to though, so I really couldn't say for sure.

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

#797

Post by bccdee »

marcosdumay wrote: post #735
bccdee wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people that are vehemently anti-Apple This is just it though! You're not describing "Apple fanatics versus Windows fanatics," you're describing "Apple fanatics versus people with an irrational and excessive hatred of Apple fanaticism." Why does this culture exist specifically around Apple?

> Why does this culture exist specifically around Apple? It doesn't. It also exists around Linux, in general and around each distro. It exists around Windows. It exists around FreeBSD (but you may not have heard from them recently)... It basically exists everywhere. If you look at a thread about ARM, you will see it there, and the corresponding x86 one too. (And if you are lucky, you will catch some actual x86, not a…

It exists to some extent around Linux, because "Linux user" is an identity that some people care about, but I dispute that there are "Windows fans" and "Windows anti-fans" the way that there are Apple fans and anti-fans. Using Windows just isn't core to anyone's identity.

The interesting difference between the identities of "Linux user" and "Apple customer" is that one came from grassroots hacker subculture and the other is the product of corporate marketing.

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

#798

Post by 0xabe »

krapp wrote: post #746
rmbyrro wrote: post #745

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm developing a Godot game and it's really ridiculous I need a Mac to compile it for the MacOS and iOS. I can compile for EVERY PLATFORM from my Arch Linux, just not for Apple stuff. It's ridículous... This kind of behavior reminds me of Ballmer's Microshit.

So just don't offer a version for Mac, and if anyone asks why, tell them you're not going to buy a 400 dollar Macbook just to use as a compiler.

You forgot a 0 ;)

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

#799

Post by crystoloxy »

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.

You do yourself a disservice whenever you imagine that folks that don’t agree with you are idiots.
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