Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer • Hacker News Board

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#81

Post by llgrrl_ » Wed, May 15, 2013, 5:49 AM UTC

workbench wrote: post #73

llgrrl_ wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need my balls not to be cooked by the power-hungry processors. I need a light shit because I walk with my backpack a lot. I need the key layout on the keyboard not a pain in the ass. I need my palm to be like little Fonzie. What Fonzie like? It's cool. I need standard linux, because I don't care enough to learn about all the quirks of Apple. I need to have a thing that is light, 3G-capable, has good key layout, coo…

To be fair a Macbook is going to support Linux much better and longer term than the Chromebook. Seen as it's an actual computer and all not a locked down Google product that needs to be rooted to install an OS in the first place.

Last time I tried installing Linux (/Ubuntu) on a Macbook it was a balls cooking experience with the combination of NVidia and Intel. Pure intel HD might be better, but why do I want to solve those problems in the first place?

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#82

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 18, 2013, 7:01 PM UTC

tacticus wrote: post #53

fishtoaster wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, that one is more than twice the weight of a chromebook (5.5 lbs vs 2.5).

and a much worse battery life and significantly larger. That's not a laptop that's a luggable

[deleted]

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#83

Post by greggman » Sat, May 18, 2013, 7:03 PM UTC

fishtoaster wrote: post #48

greggman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Went to Best Buy, typed "laptop", first result Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 320GB Hard Drive - Satin Black Model: C855D/S5103 • SKU: 8119044 62 Ratings $279.99 That's 2x the ram and I get 320 HD which even if you don't want to use it for storage it's pretty awesome when running any OS that supports virtual memory. Have you looked at how much virtual memory your average Linux distro ends up using? T…

To be fair, that one is more than twice the weight of a chromebook (5.5 lbs vs 2.5).

And arguably more than twice as powerful. You can run nearly every Windows app including games like Call of Duty, Portal, Farcry etc. You can run Photoshop, Lightroom, Office etc.. You can run VC++, gcc and even have room to store your project. All things you can't do on the same priced Chromebook.

Only 1 year ago before the Retina MBP every MBP being carried by the majority of geeks around Silicon Valley weighed 5.6lbs yet that did not stopped them from carrying them as laptops

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#84

Post by greggman » Sun, May 19, 2013, 5:59 PM UTC

seabrookmx wrote: post #59

greggman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Went to Best Buy, typed "laptop", first result Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 320GB Hard Drive - Satin Black Model: C855D/S5103 • SKU: 8119044 62 Ratings $279.99 That's 2x the ram and I get 320 HD which even if you don't want to use it for storage it's pretty awesome when running any OS that supports virtual memory. Have you looked at how much virtual memory your average Linux distro ends up using? T…

Why would you want to use virtual memory? I bet that laptop has a 5400 rpm hard drive - there is no way I want it to be swapping on and off of it at every opportunity. The OS would grind to a halt. For most developers' usage, you'd be better off with a 32gb SSD than with the 320gb slow-as-hell spinner drive. Not to mention a cheap 15.6" laptop gets terrible battery life. My $250 Chromebook gets 6.5-7hours, even when…

All the standard macbooks that have HDs come with 5400rpm HDs. Apparently the majority of Silicon Valley has no problems getting work done on a 5400rpm HD.

As for battery life I'd personally rather have a machine I can get real work done with shitty battery life than one with great battery life on which I can't get real work done. There's a huge list of things I can do on the machine with an HD, virtual memory, and a real OS that I can't do on the Chromebook. In fact Chrome will even run better on the machine with the HD as it won't kill off tabs when it gets low on memory. It also won't get low on memory as quick as it has twice the memory.