The $80 web development workstation • Hacker News Board

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#81

Post by programminggeek » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:13 AM UTC

A Thinkpad T42 is not in the same realm as a Macbook Air. That being said, a working dev setup for $80 is pretty cool. Even still, I've gone from doing full gentoo installs from scratch to Ubuntu, Windows, Mac, and lots inbetween and for my time and my effort, I'd rather just use a Mac.

I'll pay for a well designed, reliable computer, so that I can do my job and get paid very well for it. Not having to muck around with Linux settings, drivers, config, etc. means I spend more time writing code and billing time (if it's client work).

If your time is worth anything, you probably aren't saving anything by going super cheap with your tools.

That being said, to each their own.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#82

Post by kyzyl » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:16 AM UTC

fsckin wrote: post #77

SpacemanSpiff wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"all useful things no doubt, but things you don't change on a per-folder basis that often- while literally not having an "up one level" button. At all." Add the "path" menu to your Finder window toolbar. You now have access to all parent folders of the current directory in two clicks. It's one of the first tweaks I make setting up a new OSX install. Along with dumping "all my files" from the sidebar and as the new wi…

Go Up One Level = Command + Up Arrow

Both of you guys seem to have missed GP say:

"You either have to know the keyboard shortcut, or you have to go to the Go menu."

As in, yes you can go up a level, but not in the way that many expect, and/or not without switching to the keyboard. Neither of which are marks of amazing interface design... which I think is his point.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#83

Post by kyzyl » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:26 AM UTC

cytzol wrote: post #64

quaunaut wrote: post #21

Honest question here: Why would anyone ever think OS X has "world-class interface design"? It's missing basic interface features that have been bog standard in Ubuntu/Windows for years, like any sort of proper window management. Hell, the maximize button actually doesn't work - it has such inconsistent use that you have almost no hope of actually getting what you want out of it. To get even decent window management,…

Apple's thoughts on the matter (and on many other matters) is that the user shouldn't ever have to learn to do anything complicated, and rather than risk them not knowing how to do something, they'd rather remove the feature entirely. This is reflected in their window and file management: you get the bare minimum you need to do the job done. The worst example of where this doesn't help is the Zoom button. Not the max…

This is true, and after much frustration I did finally deduce the intended behavior. However, it still isn't quite consistent (or rather, wasn't the last time I worked on a mac, circa 2008) and still seems to be lacking in functionality that the user actually wants.

In all my years of working with text editors, I don't think I've ever found myself thinking "This viewport is too small. I wish I could quickly resize it to just the width of the text, and maybe the height of the screen, or maybe something else, depending on what I'm doing." When my window is too narrow or whatever, I usually just (a) maximize it (which you can't to on osx), (b) dock it to half the screen (windows+left or windows+right on Win7+/*buntu, but not on osx) or (c) just quickly drag it over. So Apple effectively forced us to use only option (c), which is probably the least useful of the three sane options. The only other option is to use a feature that doesn't really do what we (or I, anyhow) want.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#84

Post by tammer » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:27 AM UTC

This is very true - I just returned a new macbook air because its overall speed and display quality paled to my x31 running Arch. Not to say the same is true for the Macbook Pros, although again, you're looking at a pretty major price difference.

Battery life is where the real improvement has been over the past few years.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#85

Post by rbanffy » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:28 AM UTC

quaunaut wrote: post #21

Honest question here: Why would anyone ever think OS X has "world-class interface design"? It's missing basic interface features that have been bog standard in Ubuntu/Windows for years, like any sort of proper window management. Hell, the maximize button actually doesn't work - it has such inconsistent use that you have almost no hope of actually getting what you want out of it. To get even decent window management,…

> Windows Vista had better interface design than this. That's just sad.

Let's just not get that far.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#86

Post by cgag » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:30 AM UTC

programminggeek wrote: post #81

A Thinkpad T42 is not in the same realm as a Macbook Air. That being said, a working dev setup for $80 is pretty cool. Even still, I've gone from doing full gentoo installs from scratch to Ubuntu, Windows, Mac, and lots inbetween and for my time and my effort, I'd rather just use a Mac. I'll pay for a well designed, reliable computer, so that I can do my job and get paid very well for it. Not having to muck around wi…

I haven't ever had to mess with drivers with Mint and my x230. I did spend time to set up i3 and configure it to suit my workflow. I view these as "sharpening the axe" types of activites, and don't really understand why I see so many people saying they don't want to spend any time at all customizing the device they regularly use for 10+ hours a day.

The only thing to miss about osx over linux is the font rendering, but I'll trade that for a tiling window manager and a proper package manager any day.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#87

Post by pessimizer » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:31 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #11

pessimizer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Given the popularity of Macs in the developer community I haven't noticed this. I've noticed that popularity in the web developer community, but almost every non-web developer I've seen with a Mac has torn out OS X and put Linux or BSD on it.

That's not a counter to my point. Even if they're running Linux, it's more and more on a Mac. (And yes, I do see plenty of those.) And let's be honest here: more and more developers are web/app developers.

I meant it to be a counter to your point; web developers don't really need access to their own systems, so the fact that they have a monoculture of Macs doesn't speak to the access that OS X allows you to have.

edit: and to be really frank, what web developers do for a living is write software that they eventually intend to deploy on Linux.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#88

Post by cgag » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:32 AM UTC

tsm wrote: post #79

I wrote Rails for a startup this summer, and had access to my own T60 and a MBP they gave me (I also did iOS, so it was necessary). I worked on both, but definitely preferred the Thinkpad. I run Crunchbang, so everything ran perfectly fast (even Chrome), and there are a ton of things I preferred: * Using a 2D grid of workspaces (as described in the OP) * The 1400x1050 screen--my Vim fits much better in a 4:3 screen t…

Tiling window managers (i3) and the trackpoint are two things I don't think I can ever give up. I think I'm basically going to be on thinkpads for life, or at least until other companies start adding trackpoints to their laptops.

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#89

Post by quaunaut » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:39 AM UTC

enra wrote: post #53

quaunaut wrote: post #21

Honest question here: Why would anyone ever think OS X has "world-class interface design"? It's missing basic interface features that have been bog standard in Ubuntu/Windows for years, like any sort of proper window management. Hell, the maximize button actually doesn't work - it has such inconsistent use that you have almost no hope of actually getting what you want out of it. To get even decent window management,…

I guess it because, quite many people can rely on Mac or Windows for their daily work. All required things have pretty polished interface where as Linux distros have getting better, but there are still lot of unpolished, or missing interfaces. With Windows there is too much and ugly chrome around everything, slow and buggy views. Apple's view on the maximize button is that it should maximize the window to the width o…

So what's the excuse for no decent window management, then? That even despite making 27" displays, and not letting us maximize a program, they want us to only use one program at a time?

Re: The $80 web development workstation

#90

Post by AsymetricCom » Sun, Aug 25, 2013, 2:41 AM UTC

jonbaer wrote: post #19

The Thinkpad 701 series needs to be brought back somehow. It was ahead of it's time, including the butterfly keyboard. The T42 was my next step and probably most productive during it's time. The only thing we need to do is apply today's battery technology to those older laptops and call it a day ...

But then you might code up a cruise missle, or even worse a industry killing app. we cant have that. its best if you let all major corporations vet your content from now on. you can Trust them.