Always buy Business models of any brand. Lenovo? Buy Thinkpad. Dell? Latitude or Precision. HP? Probook or Elite.
Business models are made to last, since companies buys them in batches of about 5 years and when they fail, the brand has to replace them.
HP is a brand that usually sucks but my wife (then my gf) bought a HP from the business model and it lasted more than 10 years.
There’s a reason why consumer laptops cost less than $1,000
Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
531–538 of 538 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#532I love System76 laptops. They are definitely crafted for developers. And I love their keyboard as well.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#533Dell Precision 7530 i7-8750H 32gb ram ... on ebay for less than $950 tax and shipping included ... its super fast ... been running Ubuntu ... very happy
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Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
Due to Lenovo shortages I could pick an MSI gaming laptop (GS66 Stealth) to replace my broken work laptop. It's awesome. Happily been running Guix on it for the past six months. (As expected, since it is Linux on an unsupported machine, I had to put in some time to get it running smoothly but the person after me does not have to do that anymore.)
I'm super happy with it. The perf are great. 2 big drawbacks: the plastic is super fragile and you will need an external microphone (or your coworkers will complain about fan noises)
Have you tried this for fan noise?: https://github.com/TurboGraphxBeige/isw
Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 2001 I fried a Dell desktop motherboard and processor while toying with overclocking. They flown someone with brand new parts to my home, more than a 1000km away, and replaced it all no question asked. It's surreal.
In May 2020, my wife's Dell laptop blipped out during her morning coffee from an over-weekend break, and by noon there was a Dell technician sitting at a card table in our garage, 32F/0C degrees, socially isolating from any germs we could have, and he swapped motherboards inside of an hour. Incredible.
I had a Dell Precision laptop and a super long subway commute. Apparently the beast wasn't designed for use under those conditions and parts started failing. They replaced whatever it took to get it working again. I was so sad when the new parent company changed our hardware provider.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
Serious dev work is not done mostly on a small screen. Your laptop is a moveable computer that will be connected to your workstation monitor. I own a 14 inch macbook and rarely use it without a display.
Why drag around a laptop, if you have monitors everywhere anyway, and I assume you could easily add a full PC too?
Because I am disallowed from accessing company tools and network with my personal devices. This is exceptionally common and has been the policy at every company I ever worked for.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see why people idealistically want the device but mine is really not up to being a usable production device. The wonky design of the “modules” means they’re practically useless, the hardware has almost endlessly has stability and issues with bricking, it has never once given me confidence in almost any respect. I want to love the thing and there’s nice features about the product, but I’d hesitate to suggest any…
Even though I hear reports like this, I still want to buy one. Entering the hardware market is a hell of a thing to do at this point in time, and I have to applaud their chutzpah. I'm not surprised at all that there are several data points where they don't stack up against multi-billion-dollar companies, and I'm okay with it personally.
I think you need a little of that to make it worth it
Re: Ask HN: Is there a developer laptop that does not suck and is not a Mac in 2022?
#538I will vote Thinkpad X1C.