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Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#351

Post by fulafel »

jotm wrote: post #257
JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

I mean, if the hardware runs Linux well, it's not that ridiculous to recommend it. Forget the Apple software part.

We know the current hw doesn't.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#352

Post by allisdust »

akvadrako wrote: post #250
zamalek wrote: post #128

Just some general advice: > https://kfocus.org/order/order-m2.html NVIDIA gets really old, really fast. My personal laptop has an NVIDIA GPU and AMD iGPU, my desktop is AMD. For my laptop, a zen2 build of the kernel nets me about 15% more battery life and a snappier system. Unfortunately NVIDIA makes installing that kernel tedious, so I just run the regular kernel. I also have to install the proprietary drivers becau…

Unfortunately, the options with AMD dGPUs are very limited, I'd guess about 5% of what's out there with Nvidia. The new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 looks like a good option; my only concern is poor black levels.

+1 for zephyrus (though I'm using last year's model). Thanks to the hard working asus-linux community, most of the hardware features are controllable seamlessly through GUI software (fan profiles, switching between gpus, keyboard lights etc). Goes well with Fedora because they have the latest kernels with stable releases.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#353

Post by chrisseaton »

akho wrote: post #292
chrisseaton wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't modify the hardware or the software. It’s a tool to get a job done - I don’t need to modify it.

I don’t know what kind of tool users you hang around, but there isn’t a profession that doesn’t modify or customize their tools (through making jigs, combining pieces from different toolkits, outright rebuilding, making your own tools, …).

That’s the great thing about software - it’s already able to do whatever I need.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#354

Post by ryukafalz »

bo1024 wrote: post #287

Purism Librem 14 Is my daily driver currently running Linux mint. - overall very happy with it for my uses. I don’t do a lot of intense workloads on the laptop, mostly stuff like text editing and latex compiling. - battery is great. With screen brightness reasonably low and working on low intensity tasks, I could get 8 hours I think pretty easily. Probably 3 hours of video calls. - durability is good so far. My libre…

Also using a Librem 14 as my daily driver but less happy with it.

The machine seems to lose track of its charge level pretty easily, so it tends to power off suddenly, especially if it’s been in sleep mode for a while.

The hinge feels a bit flimsy; I’m hoping it’ll hold up long-term but there’s some give to it that makes me a bit nervous about its longevity.

The keyboard has been disappointing; my experience with it has been that it doesn’t register key presses until just after the tactile bump. Suffice to say this has led to a lot of missing keystrokes and frustration.

Also, something (I think some wires) seems to catch on one of the fans on the underside, leading to a rather annoying noise (and I suspect reduced fan performance) when any pressure is placed on the bottom panel. I’ve cracked it open to see if I can shift things around a bit, but the cable routing is tight enough that I’m not confident I can without damaging something.

I really wanted to like the Librem 14, because it’s goals really resonate with me, but… it isn’t as polished as I’d hoped it would be.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#355

Post by thawaya3113 »

rmbyrro wrote: post #326
JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? They seem to want to push everyone to use Mac, like religious fanatics try to push everyone to their "truth". I think this is a result of some marketing tactics Apple employed for decades, and it only pushes me away from this brand.

Another part of it is that people have spent so much money buying into the Mac eco system and they find that its not the heavenly like existence they were led to believe it would be.

So they need external validation for their choice, which they get by seeing everyone else switching to the Mac ecosystem as well.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#356

Post by swozey »

raxxorraxor wrote: post #286
selfmodruntime wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still install Linux on a mac (which is what I did) and still get a powerful and beautiful machine, if you so desire.

I use a Mac Book from time to time and the keyboard alone is special... I don't think Mac is a good universal machine for development to be honest. The devices overall are nice, out of the question, but a Linux machine is ultimately more powerful.

"Ultimately more powerful"

As a previous BSD engineer please explain further, this entire thread is just horrendous and should be downvoted to oblivion.

Nobody cares what laptop you decide to use, nor are you incapable of doing your own research. My grandmother calls me for laptop recommendations.

My M1 Max 14" MBP has 64gb ram, mucho cores and is the fastest machine I've used. My gaming/dev desktop is a 12core ryzen with 64gb and I prefer to use the Macbook which can sit on my lap without even having a fan running.

Did I used to hate Apple? Yes. Do I have a $2500 Dell XPS 13z sitting in a closet that I never use because it throttles so horribly it's useless? Yes.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#357

Post by evilduck »

kibwen wrote: post #284
oauea wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how cult-like mac users are.

Apple is a luxury fashion company and Apple hardware is a way for people to express social status, which means convincing as many other people as possible that Apple is desirable in order to elevate the effectiveness of their social status signaling. It's the same as any other luxury fashion brand, e.g. Louis Vuitton. The value is not in the function of the product itself, but in the perception of status that it enge…

Could we get tech companies to step up and beat the fashion company then? Because on many, many, many comparisons the fashion company makes them look completely inept at making tech products. I know, they've only had 20 years, it seems like a ridiculous ask.

Besides raw specs of CPUs and GPUs, which the fashion company is encroaching on too, my non-fashion product's trackpads, screen color quality, sound quality, screen hinges, heat dissipation locations, power efficiency, keyboards, case flex, case materials, weight, size, storage speeds, and upgradability are just some of the things that all suck on my Lenovo, Microsoft and Asus laptops my household owns and that my fashion laptops consistently do better.

My non-fashion products manage to put better refresh rate screens in, and I can get gaming capable discrete GPUs, and one of them lets me upgrade the RAM aftermarket, but for the most part they're all worse products that have lower utility than the fashion products. The perception they engender with me is that they're the only company that builds a product they don't secretly loathe.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#358

Post by shultays »

ajennings wrote: post #339

I bought a Librem 15 before the 14 existed. I was very happy with it (including battery life/suspend) for about a year and used it with Linux as my daily driver. Then hardware started to fail and now it freezes randomly. (I've replaced the memory. Must be the mainboard?) Maybe I was unlucky. Also, the 14 may be more reliable. After that, I almost bought a Librem 14, but I took a chance on the Framework. The only real…

Why the number goes backward?

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#359

Post by thawaya3113 »

rileyphone wrote: post #337
bluefirebrand wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I mean, it's already kind of stupid to want to avoid something the whole industry uses, from big tech to startups Windows still owns the market to a substantial degree, Macos is still a niche OS. Maybe you've seen a trend of software companies moving to Macos, but it's definitely not the standard by any means.

That's not entirely true these days, Mac market share has gone up from 5% to ~15% in the last 10 years while Windows sits on its hands. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide...

Which still means that more than 5 out of 6 computers are not Macs.

Which is as diametrically opposite of the industry standard as you can get.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#360

Post by matwood »

oauea wrote: post #249
cruano wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should have put that on the title I mean, it's already kind of stupid to want to avoid something the whole industry uses, from big tech to startups. In particular, when you have a very hard set of requirements that historically no one gets right except for you know who.

It's interesting how cult-like mac users are.

Linux and Windows users are not much different. Just depends what website you happen to be on.
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