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Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#101

Post by dannyw »

shazow wrote: post #89

I switched from a 2014 13" Retina MBP to a 2018 Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th gen) and I'm extremely happy with it. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2018... is the most objective/detailed review I've seen. One of my biggest anxieties was the fear of "upgrading" to an inferior device after a decade of being on Apple devices. Thankfully, that has not been the case. - The 14" WQHD HDR screen is remarkab…

Thanks for your detailed recommendations. I also have anxieties about buying something “inferior”, but your comment has convinced me that Apple devices are not the best on the market.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#102

Post by lardo »

bhouston wrote: post #72
chongli wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did they fix the coil whine on the Dell machines?

As someone who has had one for a year, it never affected me. It always seemed like FUD to me, but maybe it affected someone.

Most of the developers at my office are using the 9360. Every single one of those machines is subject to coil whine at load.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#103

Post by anotheryou »

contingencies wrote: post #94
anotheryou wrote: post #93

A warning about Dell XPS (13") screens: if you take the matte display and like coding with dark color schemes it's horrible (but there might be a fix). It does loose all contrast on dark images. Saving battery they brighten the displayed image and lower the back light. This lowers 100% white to maybe a 80% white and makes for horrible contrast. For those affected: - you can test if you have this issue here: http://ty…

Dunno which era that one is, my XPS15 9560 never dims at all, it's always bright, maybe that's because I'm missing some sort of userland or kernel driver, but frankly I like it this way.

It's an issue across generations (and even across manufacturers, it's the displays firmware after all). I think it's the 13" FHD version affected. My 15" is also fine.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#105

Post by philsnow »

tootie wrote: post #87

Not a hardware req, but I've recently become quite enamored with Win 10 + WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) after years of using a Mac. WSL lets you run a lightweight Linux shell (Ubuntu, SUSE, Kali are supported atm) without a VM. It's purely for command-line purposes, no X, but that's fine for me. Windows for UI, then I can run all my bash in the Ubuntu shell almost seamlessly. You can run the shell directly from s…

Years and years ago I used an X server on Windows named Hummingbird I think, could you use a native x server for Windows and run e.g. xterms under WsL?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#107

Post by Rjevski »

anon1253 wrote: post #55

I recently wondered the same thing to replace my 15" 2014 Macbook Pro Retina. I went with the 2018 Lenovo Carbon X1 (16GB, WQHD, i7) and ... it's awful. Linux doesn't work due to a bug in the trackpad drivers, for which there is no reliable fix yet. And, I personally just can't stand Windows (that's a whole different rant). Hardware wise: the sound quality is so horrendous that even watching youtube is a no-go (think…

Sounds like a nightmare, but I wonder if you can do a chargeback on your payment card, at least for the extended warranty.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#108

Post by Rjevski »

epmaybe wrote: post #82
andy_ppp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, having upgraded from one I fully regret this decision, mostly because of the keyboard and the £2000 after trade in. I’m actually a big fan of USB-C, it’s much better.

Not to bring this up in every usb-c comment, but what do you do for backwards compatibility? I consistently (nearly daily) find myself having to connect older USB devices into my laptop, but end up grabbing an adapter/dongle to connect the device. Flash drives, external hard drives, and SD card readers are my main issues.

I guess it depends on what work you do, personally I only rarely (if ever) use USB devices, but for the single one I have (a document scanner) I just leave the dongle plugged into it so it's basically part of the device - if I ever grab the device it's got the proper dongle with it already.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#109

Post by shazow »

dannyw wrote: post #101
shazow wrote: post #89

I switched from a 2014 13" Retina MBP to a 2018 Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th gen) and I'm extremely happy with it. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2018... is the most objective/detailed review I've seen. One of my biggest anxieties was the fear of "upgrading" to an inferior device after a decade of being on Apple devices. Thankfully, that has not been the case. - The 14" WQHD HDR screen is remarkab…

Thanks for your detailed recommendations. I also have anxieties about buying something “inferior”, but your comment has convinced me that Apple devices are not the best on the market.

You're very welcome!

Re: Ask HN: Are there any reasonable alternatives to MacBook Pro for developer?

#110

Post by Rjevski »

hungerstrike wrote: post #88

Absolutely. Just about any Windows laptop with Windows 10 will be faster, cheaper and give you a better user experience in my opinion. I vastly prefer it over a Mac or a Linux desktop because I find the Mac UI to be sorely lacking and I've never had a desktop Linux machine that didn't break itself over time. I've done Node.js based development on Windows since Node very new (~ v0.4 or so). I build Android apps with R…

> any [...] laptop with Windows 10 will [...] give you a better user experience in my opinion

Sorry but no, how can you call Windows 10 a good user experience? It's pure garbage, full of annoyances, inconsistencies (they still can't have a consistent right click menu UI between the one on the taskbar, the one on window titlebars and the one on files/folders in Explorer), dark patterns to try to get as much data out of you, etc.

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