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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?

#441

Post by legitster »

throwaway23236 wrote: post #343

I love my Lenovo ThinkPad. For a laptop, the keyboard is amazing and I have been using it for 4 years now without any major issue. I did have the CPU fan die on me, but with Lenovo's practically 10/10 repairability score for 40 bucks I overnighted another CPU fan, just unscrewed the back and replaced it myself.

My 8 year old Thinkpad is still my daily driver!

I think the X1 is a bit overrated - I prefer their T-series laptops for repairability and durability. You can generally pick some coming off of a corporate lease for a screaming deal.

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

#442

Post by jraph »

nirimda wrote: post #404
jraph wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this comment. I'm a programmer and my X1 Carbon is the finest computer I've ever used. I don't have any noise issue with it. I can hear the CPU in a very quiet room but I've never used a computer that didn't have it, and I'm quite sensitive to noises too. Many people in my company have Lenovo X machines. And why marketing types should not care about comfort / noise? Is this a "Real men [...]" thing…

Do CPUs make a noise? I thought they were dead silent and any noise is the fan or a rotating disk.

Not sure if this is the CPU, or something in the motherboard, or the integrated GPU, but yes, you can somehow hear activity outside the fan and the rotating disks. I clearly hear some quiet clicks when hovering messages or folders in Thunderbird both on my X1 Carbon Gen 9 and my HP Elitebook 640 G6. It's more obvious on the HP. It sounds like a silent HDD writing something, except I don't have HDDs in these computers. Possible related bug: [1]

I remember hearing activity on a Pentium II laptop (which had a Silicon Graphics graphics card) and I think on a Pentium II tower with a Voodoo 2 card too, years ago. The noise was quite obvious to me, it was more similar to the Coil Whine noise from a GPU recorded by LTT [2]

I hope I'm not cursing you if you hadn't noticed until now.

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1730423

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP73edpQwgc

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

#443

Post by camgunz »

shp0ngle wrote: post #340
ktpsns wrote: post #318

Thinkpad X1 (Yoga/Carbon) do great for heavy use developer laptops. I use them since the first generation, with Linux as operating system. Never had serious issues with drivers, even wacom, digitizer and auto display rotation are working nowadays, not to speak of USB-3, fingerprint sensors, etc. The whole device is a no-brainer and just works.

I have looked at Thinkpad x1 carbon, and they are so expensive! People complain about Apple Tax, but the x1 Carbon is so much more expensive for what it does.

Yeah there's a premium. For me the T14 is still thin/light enough, and it has an Ethernet jack (!), and it's a lot cheaper.

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

#444

Post by omniglottal »

fragmede wrote: post #430
ss108 wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also SF :smirk:

0C/32F? In SF? Even in the dead of winter it hardly ever actually hits freezing. Average is 2.5C / 36 F.

With an average of 36, how unreasonable does 32 really sound at night?

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

#445

Post by z9znz »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #301
z9znz wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a tradeoff for reduced laptop size (portability). If you're at home and need to connect to many things, you usually have a dock or expansion dongle. On the road, you often only need 2 ports - one for charging and one for whatever momentary things you need to plug in briefly. My Macbook Air M1 with only two USB-C ports has been just fine. I have a small but effective Anker "hub" which adds SD, HDMI, USB, and USB-…

> On the road, you often only need 2 ports - one for charging and one for whatever momentary things you need to plug in briefly. perhaps that's all you often need, it's a little presumptuous to say so about others

With the hub, you have many more ports - when you need them.

My little Anker has two USB-A, two USB-C (one may be thunderbolt I think), HDMI, and SD card slot.

You're not going to find a laptop with more than those ports. So I stand by my comment that 2 ports (and the optional little hub in your bag) are all you need.

If you somehow need more, then you probably aren't traveling with all that gear... or at least not using it while in transit.

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

#447

Post by jscheel »

mort96 wrote: post #181
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…

I've had a couple XPS laptops over the years, one XPS 13 and one XPS 15. Both have had issues with their trackpads getting wonky. They would just increasingly ignore inputs and react incorrectly to my finger. The XPS 15 (the 2-in-1 model) would also sometimes just not go to sleep and cook itself in my bag, and its keyboard has keys which just break over time under normal use, and that's not covered under warranty. Yo…

My 2019 16" mbp will randomly try to cook itself in my bag too. Apple never has any answers for any of the bullcrap power management that happens.

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

#448

Post by tinus_hn »

tchaffee wrote: post #216
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…

My last Dell XPS sucked and the support sucked. I bought a top of the line XPS and within less than a year the battery was swollen. Same exact battery model they were still replacing for free on the previous laptop model, but when I called support I was out of luck. So I bought a new battery. And then within a few more months I started getting common the sticky key problem with several keys on my keyboard requiring a…

It just depends on what kind of support you order. Got the basic support? You get to listen to outsourced tech support telling you you have to reinstall Windows first. Got the premium support? They’ll typically replace the motherboard with everything on it the next day.

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

#449

Post by travismorton »

I see no one has mentioned Razer, but I'm on my second Razer Blade and I really like them as a Linux dev laptop which I can occasionally use for CUDA tasks. My first was a 13" Blade Stealth and now on a rebranded 15" Blade Advanced (Lambda Tensorbook). If you (or your company) can stomach the cost, it's a very well built machine with about the same amount of quirks as any other "Linux supported" laptop out there.

I ran 17" and 15" System76 Oryx Pros before switching to a Razer and was not impressed by the hardware nor the Linux support considering it was a "Linux supported" laptop from the start.

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