51–60 of 84 posts
The hardware is definitely solid, whether you go for macbook pro, which has faster cpu but needs aftermarket SSD, or macbook air that is slower but has SSD integrated and has better resolution. The OS ... depends on what are you developing. Mac OS is about as good for consuming stuff as windows 7, i.e. pretty good. For developing web apps, with textmate and github you're golden. But for full scale unix coding, you ca…
I lean toward the 13" Air. My current work laptop is a 15" Macbook Pro, but I have an Air at home. If you don't need the larger screen, which I don't because I plug into at least one extra monitor most of the time, the Air is a nicer package. Less to lug to and from work. The other caveat is that, if you need to run multiple development virtual machines for testing, the 4GB memory max for the Air is somewhat limiting…
My current work laptop is a 13" air. For non-compiled development (e.g. JS or other interpreted languages) I find the slower CPU of the Air and limited memory (4GB) plenty sufficient.
I've also got a new Mac mini with a considerably faster processor and twice as much RAM, but the little hard drive in it makes the mini seem slow as molasses after getting accustomed to the SSD in the Air.
I can't go back to hard drives as my booting device.
I've recently switched from a MBP to a System76 laptop, after about 5 years of running MacOS X, and I couldn't be much happier. The new MBPs are extremely harsh to type on between the sharp edge and the keyboard. I ultimately had to buy a Kinesis just to use it because the MBP destroyed my fingers. Most people don't have that problem, but it's nice to be able to actually use my laptop as a portable device again. I al…
>I also really don't like the direction Apple is taking MacOS. Lion chugs resources and does odd things like disable my second monitor when apps go into fullscreen mode. So, you come to the bizarro conclusion that Apple's direction includes Lion "chugging resources" and having a fullscreen mode bug? Truth is, OS X always had bugs, as did every OS release ever, be it Linux/Gnome, to Windows, to whatever... Some get sq…
Re: multi-monitor & fullscreen -- based on the animation, it looks pretty deliberate. If it's a bug, I'd never know because of how Apple treats bugs. It hasn't been addressed at all in any of the follow-on updates. But, I can't wait around until the next OS on the off-chance it is a bug they fix.
Re: the Mac app store it's almost nothing like any of the software repositories you've listed. But, you already knew that and just wanted to pick a ridiculous argument. If you're happy with Lion, great. It was a question about what people are using to develop with and I shared my opinion.
Personally I would pick Thinkpad or Dell - you can check "compatibility" of specific model with drivers shipped in linux kernel - so you don't have to mess with drivers at all. At least that's what I always do - never had an issue with compatiblity with linux nowdays, just buy what you know will be supported best. I think it more depends what you want to develop, i've often heard that it's less hassle to play with py…
I've recently switched from a MBP to a System76 laptop, after about 5 years of running MacOS X, and I couldn't be much happier. The new MBPs are extremely harsh to type on between the sharp edge and the keyboard. I ultimately had to buy a Kinesis just to use it because the MBP destroyed my fingers. Most people don't have that problem, but it's nice to be able to actually use my laptop as a portable device again. I al…
(I don't mean to turn this into a review, but just wanted a developers experienced opinion on the issues that nagged me most)
Personally I would pick Thinkpad or Dell - you can check "compatibility" of specific model with drivers shipped in linux kernel - so you don't have to mess with drivers at all. At least that's what I always do - never had an issue with compatiblity with linux nowdays, just buy what you know will be supported best. I think it more depends what you want to develop, i've often heard that it's less hassle to play with py…
This would be even more attractive if vendors consistently refunded the $130 if you refuse the Windows TOS (and license). Anyone had any luck with that? [1] http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/08/lenovo-wont-... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_refund
We're a startup based in the UK, soon going to start selling Thinkpads (X121e, possibly X220) with Linux pre-installed and fully tested (Ubuntu/Debian/Arch). We'll ship to anywhere in Europe and are also looking at shipping to the USA and other places. If you're interested, please sign up here - http://giniji.com/ubuntu_laptops.html . I know most developers (at least on HN) now prefer Macbooks, but we want to push ha…
I've recently switched from a MBP to a System76 laptop, after about 5 years of running MacOS X, and I couldn't be much happier. The new MBPs are extremely harsh to type on between the sharp edge and the keyboard. I ultimately had to buy a Kinesis just to use it because the MBP destroyed my fingers. Most people don't have that problem, but it's nice to be able to actually use my laptop as a portable device again. I al…
I've always wanted to buy a system76 laptop; can you please elaborate on the model that you bought? The only things I was unsure of: 1) Is it very heavy (as in weight) compared to MBP? 2) Display quality? 3) Trackpad quality? (I don't mean to turn this into a review, but just wanted a developers experienced opinion on the issues that nagged me most)
I had the hi-res matte 17" MBP. No doubt about it, that screen was nicer. But, I really don't have any complaints about my new 15" screen. I've been using it actively for about 2 months now and have gotten used to it.
The other two areas the MBP clearly win out are battery life and power supply. I couldn't really use my MBP without a Kinesis, so long battery didn't mean much. But the System76 gets about 2.5 hours like most other brands. The power supply is a beast though and adds another 4 lbs or so when traveling. It also lacks the awesome mag-safe connector.
Bonuses: comfortable keyboard, nice rubber finish, no sharp edges, integrated keypad, plenty of ports and no need for dongles, replaceable battery, easy hardware upgrades, up to 32 GB RAM (I went with 16 GB), and well-supported hardware.
The trackpad is nice. It took some getting used to since I had used a clickpad for so long.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I dual-boot Win 7 for dev work and set it up such that I can access that partition as a raw disk in VMWare. While it works pretty well out of the box, it's a Linux laptop so I would expect to do some tinkering. And while it's a pretty attractive system, it has nowhere near the sex appeal of a MBP or MBA. That matters little to me. I treat it as a portable workstation and really just want to get work done. But, just be aware of what you're buying.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could be right here, but he will be developing code on his pc, so for majority of us who don't deal with audio/video this is a non-issue. Still, for simple non-professional video editing http://www.openshotvideo.com/ - should be more than enough. I have no idea about audio, but http://ardour.org/ looks good. Also when we are at professional tools, things like Autodesk Flare, Flame etc. all run EXCLUSIVELY on linu…
> Also when we are at professional tools, things like Autodesk Flare, Flame etc. all run EXCLUSIVELY on linux - so thats not true that you are only left with mac or windows for "real work". Although I admit that most cheap tools will not often have no native versions for linux. That, and also Flare et co still leave a huge hole in the overall toolset and workflow --you can't get by with these alone.
Personally I would pick Thinkpad or Dell - you can check "compatibility" of specific model with drivers shipped in linux kernel - so you don't have to mess with drivers at all. At least that's what I always do - never had an issue with compatiblity with linux nowdays, just buy what you know will be supported best. I think it more depends what you want to develop, i've often heard that it's less hassle to play with py…
> i've often heard that it's less hassle to > play with python etc. on linux than on a bsd. Why is that so? I've switched my server OS from Linux to FreeBSD, and I think I won't ever go back. Apart from the binary distribution channel, I haven't observed the slightest difference when it comes to programming stacks.