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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?

#201

Post by maccard »

juicypt wrote: post #199

This is tangential to the discussion, but are there any laptops that won't heat up your legs/groin when used on your lap? I remember owning an Asus UL30VT [1] 10 or 15 years ago, and I could have it on my lap for hours without feeling any heat regardless of the CPU load. It was a bit crappy in other ways, but a joy to use on the go! It seems like nowadays all manufacturers try to keep the components cool, but don't c…

I know the topic of this thread is not-apple, but the M1 Macbook is lap friendly even under most loads (except for extended gaming I found).

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

#202

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

tymm wrote: post #186
jgb1984 wrote: post #162

Laptops are all together awful. I can't imagine working on one for more than a few hours. My self built desktop blows any laptop out of the water in speed, comfort, reliability, upgrade / repair potential and ergonomics (obviously ignoring portability).

In terms of speed, at least when we look at mostly single-threaded work load (like most dev work is), a M2 Macbook Air is faster than every Desktop PC. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I suspect that if I crank my I/O subsystem to do flushes no more often than once in 40 seconds and lie to fsync/fdatasync, my Threadripper setup is also going to run circles around my M2 Air. (Heck, I suspect my XPS13 will be almost on par.)

But then again, the M2 Air has this bulky UPS called „laptop battery”, so they can afford such little lies as long as the OS itself won’t shit itself and die randomly. Granted, it happens rarely, but nevertheless.

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

#203

Post by lerela »

NorwegianDude wrote: post #174

You don't say where you are located, but unless you are in one of the few places where Dell doesn't offer on-site next business day support then XPS 13 is a great laptop. Their support is amazing: "We're not sure what is causing it, but we'll send someone to replace the whole motherboard tomorrow." "OH, your currently halfway across the world on a island? No problem, we'll be there tomorrow" I really don't understand…

Latest models have suspend issues with Linux though, so keep that in mind if you do not plan to use Windows.

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

#205

Post by throw__away7391 »

juicypt wrote: post #199

This is tangential to the discussion, but are there any laptops that won't heat up your legs/groin when used on your lap? I remember owning an Asus UL30VT [1] 10 or 15 years ago, and I could have it on my lap for hours without feeling any heat regardless of the CPU load. It was a bit crappy in other ways, but a joy to use on the go! It seems like nowadays all manufacturers try to keep the components cool, but don't c…

The new MacBook Pro M1 is by far the very best I've ever used in this regard. It feels like my body heat contributes more to chassis temperature than the CPU does.

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

#206

Post by newaccount74 »

kkielhofner wrote: post #107
kzrdude wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the problems with it in practice? I'd have ordered one if it was shipping to my country

It’s a non-stop parade of weirdness. Fixes from recent BIOS release notes include things like “Fix battery not charging when system is off.” https://knowledgebase.frame.work/en_us/framework-laptop-bios ... Again, part of me is glad I supported them. I just wish I wasn’t reminded of it several times a week when I’m dealing with one random issue or another with it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I regret it…

To be fair, the widely praised 16" Macbook Pro had a very similar issue. The battery did not charge via USB-C when computer is off and lid is closed, if I recall correctly. I don't know if they fixed it, in practise my computer is almost never off.

There is also an issue where the built-in webcam stops working and you need to restart the computer to get it to work again.

Considering how much I spent on the machine I was hoping not to be bothered by issues like this...

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

#207

Post by stonith »

tymm wrote: post #186
jgb1984 wrote: post #162

Laptops are all together awful. I can't imagine working on one for more than a few hours. My self built desktop blows any laptop out of the water in speed, comfort, reliability, upgrade / repair potential and ergonomics (obviously ignoring portability).

In terms of speed, at least when we look at mostly single-threaded work load (like most dev work is), a M2 Macbook Air is faster than every Desktop PC. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Not sure most dev work is single threaded. Test suites can be multithreaded/multiprocess and so can compiling, just for two examples.

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

#208

Post by djbusby »

blurrybird wrote: post #184
NorwegianDude wrote: post #174

You don't say where you are located, but unless you are in one of the few places where Dell doesn't offer on-site next business day support then XPS 13 is a great laptop. Their support is amazing: "We're not sure what is causing it, but we'll send someone to replace the whole motherboard tomorrow." "OH, your currently halfway across the world on a island? No problem, we'll be there tomorrow" I really don't understand…

You should see their 4 hour 24x7 ProSupport option. We managed to bundle it in with a 1600-device order one year and I was (un)fortunate enough to get to experience it. “So if I understand correctly, You’ve just spilt a red bull on your work laptop at a LAN party you’re facilitating just now, and it’s 1AM, and you need your laptop tomorrow morning for bump out…? Ok does 3:30am work for you?”

In 2000 I spilled grape juice on my Dell Inspiron laptop, while 1000 miles from home. They were out fixing it the next day.

It's not a new play for Dell.

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

#209

Post by Lio »

NorwegianDude wrote: post #179
jgb1984 wrote: post #162

Laptops are all together awful. I can't imagine working on one for more than a few hours. My self built desktop blows any laptop out of the water in speed, comfort, reliability, upgrade / repair potential and ergonomics (obviously ignoring portability).

I personally hate traveling with my desktop setup... Everyone can probably agree that a desktop is better if you have the space, don't need to move it and doesn't mind a bit higer power consumption. A laptop has some clear usecases to. Desktop for work, laptop for when I travel and might have to work.

This is all personal but I prefer the compact layout and low travel of a laptop keyboard.

That plus having a trackpad centrally located and a second screen below my main monitor really works for me.

I haven’t used a desktop in 20 years. Horses for courses I guess.

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

#210

Post by feet »

zivkovicp wrote: post #137

Please excuse the long-winded answer... I have also given up on Apple, but mostly because I can't see the value in it anymore, otherwise my experience with them has been satisfactory (Intel CPU models). For the past few years I used a Microsoft Surface Pro because it seemed to have good build quality and high screen resolution, but despite this I have had to replace it as part of a recall due to a graphics hardware i…

Seconding this.

Eluktronics has some well spec'ed machines

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