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Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

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Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#101
post #42

I just picked up a Sager NP7350 a few weeks ago, in part because Sager resellers like PC Torque or Xotic PC will sell you a laptop without a Windows license (and I'm going to use it entirely with Linux). $1750 including 13" screen with LED backlight, and one of those Intel solid-state disks. Believe the hype, they are ridiculously fast. The machine is dead silent when the unfortunately loud fan isn't running. Ubuntu…

I just started poking around and checking out some of the Sager laptops. Oddly enough, taking from the reviews, they seem to be the only well built laptops anymore. I'm poking around the 12 and 13". If I do the SSD, I'll but it separately, they're way overpriced if you get them from a reseller. That and I'm holding out for the inevitable price-drop from SanDisk and their SSDs.

The reseller price for the Intel X-25M solid state disk seemed to be in line with what Newegg was charging, and there is a huge difference in write performance between the Intel MLC disks and everything else on the market right now. Some of the other MLC disks have such latency problems with random writes that they can cause your OS to panic.

You are right that there is going to be a big price drop, though. Samsung will have an Intel competitor with larger capacity on the market soon, and that's just the beginning.

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#102
Thinkpad T42p 14" with ubuntu 8.10 + 24" LCD with USB hub + keyboard + wireless logitech mouse, + 2 GB RAM

Laptops are like cars - they depreciate the most in the first year or two. Go for a corporate laptop just off the refresh cycle.

- IBM build quality - fast enough as a decent backup to a desktop - runs windows in vmware for testing, .net apps - Ubuntu just works - good size, weight - Costs approximately laptop: $350 + LCD $300

Alternately I bought my daughter an MSI Wind with Suse (switched to Ubuntu) and I find myself using it quite frequently. Very light, great build quality + great screen.(Also Mac Compatibility now with the Realtek 8187SE drivers).

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#103

I am impressed that you keep reviving yourself from electrocution. Anyway, I love my XPS m1330, and I picked up the 3GB RAM/250GB HDD/dedicated graphics version for $500 just over a year ago. If you get it on sale, it's excellent value.

I just explained that my Dell regularly shocks me because of the shoddy construction and you recommend another one? :( Also: yes the M1330 is okay, and if you get it refurb/on-sale the dedicated graphics model is respectable, but bleurgh. Dell's build-quality makes me sick to my stomach.

Electrocution by definition is death from being shocked.

And yes, I recommended another Dell because why judge every Dell by your one experience? I've had plenty of dodgy Macbook experiences but I still recommend them.

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#104

Thinkpad T42p 14" with ubuntu 8.10 + 24" LCD with USB hub + keyboard + wireless logitech mouse, + 2 GB RAM Laptops are like cars - they depreciate the most in the first year or two. Go for a corporate laptop just off the refresh cycle. - IBM build quality - fast enough as a decent backup to a desktop - runs windows in vmware for testing, .net apps - Ubuntu just works - good size, weight - Costs approximately laptop:…

Seriously considering a Thinkpad so that I can run BSD/Linux without hassle.

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#105

I've been a long time Linux user and recently got a macbook, partly because it just works and I don't have to read 1001 web forums trying to decide whether the specific NVidia chipset is compatible with the latest Xorg driver. So it's really easy to set up and easy to use, once you get used to the oddities (command Q...). It's basically a BSD, so you get Bash and Python and gcc and Vim etc. However, I'm starting to d…

I've been poking around a cheap Thinkpad on Craigslist.

I didn't know the situation was that hairy with the ports on mac os x. From the way others spoke of macports and fink, it had that same apple 'just works' going on.

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#106
Every passionate developer deserves an aluminum MacBook + an extremely big external screen with resolution at least 1920x1280.

No, don't go for the plastic refurbs, even it saves you some bucks. In the long run you'll be much much happier.

Dell 600m ... I used to live in the same dorm with a guy owning such a machine back in college. Things impressed me include:

- key caps kept falling out while typing

- hot enough to burn your hands in summer (turned out to be very useful in winter, though)

- extremely noisy fan

- battery recalled due to possibility to explode (Sony's fault, as I remember)

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#107
post #19

you obviously want a mac, so just get a mac. you aren't going to regret it.

Sure about that? I bought two (Macbook + MBP) and I do regret. Wasted $3.5K. LCDs on regular Macbooks are as cheap and healthy as $0.99 cheeseburgers and OSX/Finder can't hold a handle to Ghone/Compiz when to comes to window/file management. Font rendering isn't in the same league as what Linux/Freetype is capable of, especially in languages other than English. And lots of interesting software requires googling to in…

I'm quite fond of Apple's font rendering and font design, esp. the Monoco monospace font. The way it looks in both TextMate and VIM is astonishing to me.

No, the same font renders like a crap on Win/Linux/FreeType/Cairo/whatsoever ...

Considering I'm facing the code in the font most of the day, I'm willing to pay $100 to just have it.

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#108
post #19

you obviously want a mac, so just get a mac. you aren't going to regret it.

Sure about that? I bought two (Macbook + MBP) and I do regret. Wasted $3.5K. LCDs on regular Macbooks are as cheap and healthy as $0.99 cheeseburgers and OSX/Finder can't hold a handle to Ghone/Compiz when to comes to window/file management. Font rendering isn't in the same league as what Linux/Freetype is capable of, especially in languages other than English. And lots of interesting software requires googling to in…

Sorry, but this post is nonsense. Mac's font rending not in the same league as Linux/Freetype?? Nope, it's far above it.

Re: Laptop of choice for a Programmer, Need Help

#109

I've been a long time Linux user and recently got a macbook, partly because it just works and I don't have to read 1001 web forums trying to decide whether the specific NVidia chipset is compatible with the latest Xorg driver. So it's really easy to set up and easy to use, once you get used to the oddities (command Q...). It's basically a BSD, so you get Bash and Python and gcc and Vim etc. However, I'm starting to d…

I've been poking around a cheap Thinkpad on Craigslist. I didn't know the situation was that hairy with the ports on mac os x. From the way others spoke of macports and fink, it had that same apple 'just works' going on.

Fink/ports work enough, but like I said it doesn't integrate with the OS like on Debian/Ubuntu. I've already mentioned the issue of clashing versions (gcc from Fink vs from Apple, etc.)

But OS X is nice, if only Ubuntu and Linux in general had the drivers, the overall polish, better menus (System Preferences on OS X are nice, on gnome they are a dog's breakfast) and dropped the ugly brown theme...

I think I'll stick to Mac laptops and Linux desktops and enjoy the best of both worlds :)

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