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Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#41

Post by Justin_K »

skhameneh wrote: post #35

I'd look at the Xeon Lenovo machines (I think it was P series I was window shopping), Asus for design/gaming (their dual screen models are so nice in person, I found them to be slimmer than I expected), and Dell for something really solid/mass produced. Essentially... Xeon Lenovo for "ultra enterprise", Asus for speed/looks/features, Dell for a "good laptop".

Don't be tempted by the Lenovo X series laptops. I have had nothing but trouble with battery life, throttling and cooling. Stick with P.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#42

Post by idealmedtech »

lostdog wrote: post #37
edfletcher_t137 wrote: post #25

I will second the others who have recommended Lenovo: I have a Legion 5 I originally bought for gaming but the keyboard is so good I find myself using it for nearly all my development. Additionally, the Dell Precision line (the business workstation-replacement line) is exceptional for development, but those can be as expensive as equivalent MacBooks. Stay away from Dell's pure consumer line: the build quality is abso…

Any idea if Lenovo has fixed the coil whine issues on X1 Carbon's? The constant noise makes it really difficult to use these machines for any kind of focused work.

Anecdotally, I've found that coil whine is much less of an issue in their chunkier models, eg P53 (not P53s)

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#43

Post by schema »

lostdog wrote: post #37
edfletcher_t137 wrote: post #25

I will second the others who have recommended Lenovo: I have a Legion 5 I originally bought for gaming but the keyboard is so good I find myself using it for nearly all my development. Additionally, the Dell Precision line (the business workstation-replacement line) is exceptional for development, but those can be as expensive as equivalent MacBooks. Stay away from Dell's pure consumer line: the build quality is abso…

Any idea if Lenovo has fixed the coil whine issues on X1 Carbon's? The constant noise makes it really difficult to use these machines for any kind of focused work.

I'll vouch for multiple X1C gen 9's being super quiet. No whine; fans rarely kick on, but are almost unnoticeable. Can't say the same for the Extreme/P1 series...

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#45

Post by hattar »

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I think the Dell XPS line is fine.

My company is moving away from the Dell XPS. We’ve had nothing but problems with the devices, primarily the terrible “killer” Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters. The support has been abysmal which makes it worse.

I hear Lenovo is making good stuff though. We’ll see how that goes.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#46

Post by MerelyMortal »

endigma wrote: post #40

I had an xps 13 9300 and struggled with battery life on any Linux distro ( tried fedora, Ubuntu, pop, elementary, solus, Arch, void ) and I'm not a beginner or anything. Even with combinations of tlp, powertop, gnome power profiles, kernel shit to make it run lower speed. Framework is really nice from a hardware perspective, but the display res is wonky with scaling, 100% is small and 200% is big, which puts you in t…

I currently have a Dell XPS 13 9300 and have had no issues with it, including battery life running Ubuntu.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#47

Post by csunbird »

sieabahlpark wrote: post #22
uf00lme wrote: post #8

Depends on what you are working on, but don’t dismiss buying a cheap chromebook with a decent screen and using a cloud instance. A lot of IDE plugins make it an even better experience. Just make sure you are near the data centre and it’ll be better then you think.

Imagine paying a rental on your development environment.

an alternative is to just buy a second hand rack server and send it to a colocation hosting provider. they maintain a good internet connection and supply the power.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#48

Post by dijit »

sieabahlpark wrote: post #22
uf00lme wrote: post #8

Depends on what you are working on, but don’t dismiss buying a cheap chromebook with a decent screen and using a cloud instance. A lot of IDE plugins make it an even better experience. Just make sure you are near the data centre and it’ll be better then you think.

Imagine paying a rental on your development environment.

Yeah, but setting up a simple Debian machine with Tailscale and using vscode remote or intellij gateway is also possible; even easy.

You can even use the vscode-server thing made by gitpods that allows you to use vscode in a normal browser; but the environment feels weird because those localhost ports you're used to opening are not open of course.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#49

Post by samuell »

mtmail wrote: post #3

Related from 4 months ago "Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31094361 First comment-thread is about Apple but once collapsed the next 10 are non-Apple recommendations.

TIL one can collapse HN threads. With all the clear labels on HN, perhaps a [collapse] link would have been clearer.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?

#50

Post by dijit »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #46
endigma wrote: post #40

I had an xps 13 9300 and struggled with battery life on any Linux distro ( tried fedora, Ubuntu, pop, elementary, solus, Arch, void ) and I'm not a beginner or anything. Even with combinations of tlp, powertop, gnome power profiles, kernel shit to make it run lower speed. Framework is really nice from a hardware perspective, but the display res is wonky with scaling, 100% is small and 200% is big, which puts you in t…

I currently have a Dell XPS 13 9300 and have had no issues with it, including battery life running Ubuntu.

> no issues with it, including battery life

Depends on your definition of issues though, I prefer linux to be perfectly honest but the MacBook Air I have has changed my mentality about battery life.

I literally do not look for outlets anymore; I use the machine for the whole day and I charge it at night like my phone.

If that's what the competition is then the 5hrs I used to get with my 97Wh battery on my Precision 5520 is definitely "an issue", because 3.5hours in I start getting battery anxiety.

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