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Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

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Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#11

Post by b14ck »

I recently purchased my first ubuntu-linux laptop from system76 (http://www.system76.com/) --theyre a hardware company that ships exclusively ubuntu-linux laptops.

I've been meaning to try them for a while now, but just had the chance to purchase one a few weeks ago. So far, I'm loving it.

Among other things, here's what I enjoy presently:

* They sell large screen models (17.3", here). * The hardware is completely linux-compatible. I installed ubuntu fresh (just to check hardware compatibility out of the box), and had 0 issues getting __all__ hardware components working (primary SSD drive, wifi, nVidia card, webcam, mic, etc.) * Their laptop has a really sturdy feel to it and looks very 'clean'. They use beautiful metalic casing which makes it look really high-quality. * They have one of those really sturdy 'programmer' type keyboards that I love to type on. Big win. * Their hardware upgrade option are, in my opinion, excellent. I purchased a 120G SSD primary drive, and 8G of RAM, and this thing is insanely fast. I'm talking 2 second boot time, insta-opening of even large applications (K3B, I'm looking at you), and quiet operation.

Furthermore, their screens are absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure what distinguishes it from the $1,000 laptops you see around most stores, but the screen itself is top-notch.

As a side note, I use a laptop as my primary computing device--programming / movies / etc., and only run linux. I enjoy high-resolution laptops (like the one I purchased from system76), as I can have more vim-splits open :)

NOTE: I'm actually in the process of writing a full review on my blog about this laptop at some point in the near future.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#12

Post by petercooper »

I'm not sure I buy the hype of the i3-i5-i7 performance increases.

The hype about the performance of the i* line over the Core 2 Duos is rarely exaggerated, in my experience. The increase in performance is vast. Whether you need that performance boost is a different matter entirely, of course, but an i5 or i7 of the same clock speed is a huge leap over C2D.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#13

Post by markkat »

pedalpete wrote: post #8

Is the 'wipe down' comment related to the finish on macs? I've got a lenovo with a soft-touch finish (orange in my case), and it is great. The finish is durable, and I'm amazed how many mac owners look at my laptop and comment on how nice it is. It has a much warmer feel than the air or it's copycats. I never thought I would buy lenovo, but I'm sold. They do need to improve battery life. I thought I'd never run down…

I'm with you. I just recently got a U260 and I love it. My wife, who is a mac user, is even impressed.

http://i.imgur.com/R5aw8.jpg

It's a sexy beast. Performance is good. It is quiet and cool too. Battery life is fair, but I keep it plugged in most of the time.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#14

Post by _neil »

I got a Macbook Air a couple months ago and couldn't be happier with it. Traveling with it has been great. And the battery is awesome so I don't even carry a charger when I take it to the office/a cafe.

I should point out though that I'm strictly using it for development. I'm not putting Photoshop or anything on it. I haven't even loaded anything in iTunes yet.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#16

Post by exDM69 »

vgrichina wrote: post #6
thomas11 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit torn over the RAM limit of 4GB. It's ok now, but if I buy a machine in that price range I'd like it to be good a couple of years.

I've got myself MacBook Air (last year's model) with 4GB RAM and now I realize that I could even be fine with 2GB model. It works just damn smooth because of SSD, much better than my iMac with 4GB and faster CPU but regular HDD.

Memory requirements vary a lot depending on the task at hand. You may get away with 2 GiB, but I have 12 GiB and it's not quite enough. I compile huge pieces of software that require insane amounts of memory at compile time.

2 GiB is a ridiculously small amount these days, 4 GiB is not a lot on today's standards. A 4 GiB hard limit for max memory is definitely a minus for the computer in question.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#17

Post by OSButler »

I'm using a mid-2010 MBP 13", which was meant for iOS development only but just after a few weeks of using it I switched over to it as my main development machine.

I have modified it to 8GB RAM and removed the DVD ROM to make space for a SSD/HDD combo. Compared to my previous Windows based desktop PC, it is just so much more silent. The SSD makes up for the spec difference between my desktop and the MBP, so cannot complain there. Compared to my Asus Laptop the MBP provides less battery time (Asus ~8hs, MBP ~6hs) but it is much faster, so that it works out quite well for me.

The only regret I have is that I didn't buy a 15" or even the 17" MBP, since for development work the 13" just doesn't provide enough screen estate, so for me an external monitor is a must.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#18

Post by vgrichina »

exDM69 wrote: post #16
vgrichina wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got myself MacBook Air (last year's model) with 4GB RAM and now I realize that I could even be fine with 2GB model. It works just damn smooth because of SSD, much better than my iMac with 4GB and faster CPU but regular HDD.

Memory requirements vary a lot depending on the task at hand. You may get away with 2 GiB, but I have 12 GiB and it's not quite enough. I compile huge pieces of software that require insane amounts of memory at compile time. 2 GiB is a ridiculously small amount these days, 4 GiB is not a lot on today's standards. A 4 GiB hard limit for max memory is definitely a minus for the computer in question.

To tell the truth it looks to me that if something requires even 1 GB of memory during compilation than you have a bigger problem than lack of RAM on your laptop :) So I'd like to know about some real-world example when you need that much RAM for compiler.

For most cases when people claim they need more RAM the actual bottleneck is I/O rate which is kinda improved by having RAM to use as cache, but SSD usually works out even better.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#19

Post by alf »

I have a '10 MBA 13. It's really an almost ideal laptop.

Pros:

-It runs a Unix based OS, but one that I don't have to install and configure myself.

-It's thin and light

-Battery lasts 7 hours (although recently I've been getting ~5:30, which is not quite enough for "all day usage")

-The display is high res. Has the same res as many 15" displays.

Cons:

Limited storage and RAM with huge markups for upgrades.

edit: love is probably too strong a word for any machine, esp. one you didn't design & build yourself.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#20

Post by jwingy »

Lenovo w520 here. Running kubuntu 11.04. I have no issues with it now, but there was an issue until recently with Intel's speedstep and power management. They just released a new bios that seems to have fixed it. Here's a long thread on it: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/W520-S...

Other than that, it's a great dev laptop. Also keyboard and screen are great!

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