Unequivocally yes. As a developer having an identical setup on my local machine that I do on my server saves so much time. Besides none of the commercial OS's have a package manager that comes close to the package managers on linux / bsd.
Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
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Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#12There's always the Dell XPS 13.
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#13No. MacBook Pro 2009: Aluminium Unibody deforms if dropped. Glass trackpad can shatter. Stupid fucking magsafe connector is too weak - a connector cable that fails even though it's only held on with magnets is severely sub-optimal. Only two USB connectors. chicet keyboard. Sharp edges. No trackpad buttons or trackpoint. Gloss screen. Give me:- * A great keyboard. See Apple Powerbook for an example great keyboard. (Ob…
Its not just Macs that have soldered components-a lot of ultrabooks also have soldered RAM, at least.
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#14I, personally, want the T420 with a better (16:10) screen and speakers. The processor is also starting to get a bit long in the tooth for what I do.
I don't even need a 4:3. (I prefer two side-by-side columns for coding.)
Oh, and the system should wake from sleep properly 100% of the time rather than 96% of the time (as my t420 does) and I shouldn't have intermittent wi-fi problems (as my t420 does.) So, I think the bigger key is having the tech work perfectly rather than look pretty.
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#15No. But a lightweight (<1kg) passively cooled laptop with a great keyboard, an excellent e-ink screen with at least FullHD resolution, good battery life, and fully open source software and firmware would. Any arch (MIPS, ARM, SH4, whatever) is fine with me.
Recently I've read a bunch of people who want eink screens. I'm a bit confused: the refresh rate is terrible for eink. Typing text would be painful. Maybe the year 2020 will have great quality fast eink but today it'd be a pretty lousy experience.
Somebody has to be the first to try it and spend som R&D on trying to get it to work.
During the last summers I've been reading and commenting at HN and other forums at the beach with the lousy browser on my ultra-slow Sony PRS-T1 e-book reader.
It's a pretty terrible experince, agreed. Scrolling and waiting for eink refresh every now and then, text input is laggy. Still I do it since it is so easy to read in sunlight!
I'm sure with a faster CPU to render webpages quicker and some engineering ingenuity to perhaps allow quicker refreshes but lower contrast it could become a real product for early adopters.
I'd be willing to pay $500 for something that is just a step above the current terrible level, and if it works great and is hackable maybe $1000.
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#16Honestly no. The crowd who uses Linux primarily currently is well versed with installing it on a Mac, or any laptop really. Linux is built on the notion of self-reliance, self-development, do it yourself, laugh in the face of danger [1]. So marketing to people who hold these principles is challenging. On top of that MacOSX is a full Unix w/ Bash + GNU utils. So functionally from a developers perspective you don't gai…
My experience installing Linux on a recent macbook pro was not very good. It picks the nvidia card as the gpu and does not give me an option to switch to using the intel gpu.
It is true that OSX is a full unix, but it does not come with a package manager resulting in a subpar developer workstation experience out of the box. In practice I have never found homebrew / fink / macports to ever be as reliable as yum / apt / ports on Linux / BSD.
Also setting up gdb on mac currently is a bit of an exercise.
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#17No. MacBook Pro 2009: Aluminium Unibody deforms if dropped. Glass trackpad can shatter. Stupid fucking magsafe connector is too weak - a connector cable that fails even though it's only held on with magnets is severely sub-optimal. Only two USB connectors. chicet keyboard. Sharp edges. No trackpad buttons or trackpoint. Gloss screen. Give me:- * A great keyboard. See Apple Powerbook for an example great keyboard. (Ob…
Sounds like less a laptop, more a luggable. Definitely not the thing Apple's going for. Used to like Panasonic Toughbook for the Humvee of laptops.
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#18I don't mean to be critical, but it seems like kind of the wrong question to ask. Anyone who would answer yes to this question has already answered it in practice: I have a mac, and I could well install linux on it, but I don't. I used to use thinkpads when they didn't suck, and I tried linux but always had driver and media troubles (that was a decade ago and has absolutely gotten better, but definitely not perfect).
There are plenty of good computers out there, and anyone who would actually go full time linux has probably already made that decision.
So instead, ask who's put their money where their mouth is and purchased a personal computer to dedicate at least mostly to linux.
(Not me).
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#19What about System76? Aren't they in the exact market space/niche you're describing?
Re: Would you use a Linux based computer, better or equal to a mac in quality?
#20No. MacBook Pro 2009: Aluminium Unibody deforms if dropped. Glass trackpad can shatter. Stupid fucking magsafe connector is too weak - a connector cable that fails even though it's only held on with magnets is severely sub-optimal. Only two USB connectors. chicet keyboard. Sharp edges. No trackpad buttons or trackpoint. Gloss screen. Give me:- * A great keyboard. See Apple Powerbook for an example great keyboard. (Ob…
Sounds like less a laptop, more a luggable. Definitely not the thing Apple's going for. Used to like Panasonic Toughbook for the Humvee of laptops.
I've given the wrong impression if you think "toughbook" or "luggable".
There is the MacBook Air (an engineering marvel) and the MacBook Pro (a more sensible size). I want something like the MacbookPro but not aluminium (which is heavy and which bends and stays bent) but plastic (which is a bit lighter and absorbs impact better).