The trackpoint is like Vim. At first you find it inconvenient and you try to avoid it.
Once you learn it and start being proficient in using the trackpoint you start noticing how efficient it becomes, no need to move you hands of the keyboard in order to quickly navigate the cursor, after which you quickly return to typing.
Now you have gotten used to the trackpoint and using another machine without a trackpoint gives you that 'I want to navigate the red cap' feeling, which is the same as being in a non Vim text editor and stopping yourself from using the hjkl keys from navigating.
The $80 web development workstation
41–50 of 172 posts
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hence the reason for your need to put quotes around "full control over the system." Or maybe I put quotes around it because I don't agree with that assertion and it's a quote from the article... > And problems I've solved in the past on Linux are still problems to this day on OS X. Can you give me an example? I'm genuinely curious... > This ignores people starting out, or in different locations. Yet the author cert…
>Can you give me an example? I'm genuinely curious... Try getting connectors to MSSQL working properly (in various languages) on either OS. It's annoying as hell on Linux, damn near impossible on OSX (without cheating using ODBC instead of native drivers).
ODBC doesn't seems like cheating to me.
I can understand why you'd use Windows if you're using a Microsoft stack. At that point, there's no saving you.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#43Really? Are we still talking about how OS X doesn't give you "full control over the system?" Given the popularity of Macs in the developer community, it's pretty clear that you have as much control as you desire—Unix has incredible power. And if you still somehow feel that OS X is actually constricting you (rather than just hiding advanced settings in the command line), you'd never be able to run Linux on a Mac. No,…
I really liked the overall point of the article—that one can get a lot done with a relatively old / under-spec'ed machine—but this: "system that was designed for the casual computer user, with little thought given to power users" is outright idiotic, and I very rarely use terms like "outright idiotic." And while Ostrega is right that a new MacBook costs more than $1000, it's probably not uncommon to use one for years…
How is the statement idiotic? I'm a Mac user, and ever since Snow Leopard, Apple has been continually removing features for power users such as true two-dimensional workspaces support and excellent window management in favor of a Frankensteinian nightmare called Mission Control. Changing the OS' appearance requires hacking and reverse-engineering, and Apple has continued to put in consumer-friendly features that are useless for a power user. Launchpad is ridiculous. The iOS apps ported over are unnecessary bloat. The removal of Save As in favor of automatic versioning for those who don't know how to use Command-S drives many mad. The removal of scrollbars as default should be heresy.
Most of these things can be solved with preferences and a bunch of "defaults write"s, but it just solidifies the reasoning behind that statement.
Let's not even start with the hardware. Apple's decision to remove antiglare and high-res, 1:1 pixel panels (non-Retina) is egregious. The removal of upgradeability for the sake of 2mm in thickness has to be one of the most short-sighted and absurd decisions I've ever seen a company make.
So, he's right. With Mavericks, the trend seems to be changing, and I hope it does, but for now, I'll reserve my judgment until it releases officially.
What's also more depressing is that in an attempt to chase consumers, pro manufacturers are making the same awful hardware decisions Apple made, while alienating their true markets.
Don't believe me? Search Lenovo T440s. I won't bother calling it a ThinkPad, because it isn't one.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#44This article leaves out a key factor of why I've never committed to Linux full time, and why I wouldn't buy an $80 laptop to run linux. I have 1 laptop, and I don't just use it for development. I've tried over and over to use Linux as my primary OS, but every time the sheer jaggedness of the GUI experience, when I'm doing non-development (I guess normal consumer) things, bugs me non-stop until I switch back. It's lik…
It's popular to hate on Ubuntu, but I personally love it and its UI. I've used Ubuntu since 11.04 and run 13.04 on my personal laptop (for development and day-to-day stuff). I'm a sucker for pretty things like translucent title bars and snapping windows to full-screen, but I also love how easy it is to develop with Linux (as opposed to Windows). Everything is usually a single command away on the command line (sudo ap…
I agree the hardcore linux folk all seem to hate on Ubuntu, but it does just work.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#45Honest 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,…
Though I agree with the idea of your post, in case you weren't aware, pressing Shift while clicking the maximize button causes a Windows-style maximize that fills the screen.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#46I agree with the price concern around Macs. That's why I let my employer buy one for me and take it home for night/weekend hacking. A $3000 investment by my employer pays for itself in terms of my productivity increase in what, two months? Win-win. One feature I'll never go without again? SSD.
Using an employer-issued laptop makes it murkier who owns the code you might hack up on nights and weekends.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#47This article leaves out a key factor of why I've never committed to Linux full time, and why I wouldn't buy an $80 laptop to run linux. I have 1 laptop, and I don't just use it for development. I've tried over and over to use Linux as my primary OS, but every time the sheer jaggedness of the GUI experience, when I'm doing non-development (I guess normal consumer) things, bugs me non-stop until I switch back. It's lik…
Having a very affordable Linux laptop that only works well for development could be seen as an advantage: you use one machine for work, and the other one for play and personal stuff.
I had a big personal battle over this idea, but decided it would be silly to physically switch between two laptops based on what I was doing. Sometimes the activities are mixed together too: I'll finish a class and decide to check email or some other program for a couple minutes, then get back to development.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#48I think the greater point here is the CLI first philosophy - it's faster, and more flexible, even on "lesser" hardware. For example, I treat my Mac nearly the same way with a few pertinent replacements - Vim for editing, Slate for window management, etc. You could likely do the same in Cygwin on a Windows box.
To me the most important factor for developing on a laptop mentioned in the article is the use of a tiling window manager.
For me an incredibly common task in web development is to have a web browser and 1 or more terminal windows tiled horizontally, side by side, in an [ A | B ] or [ A | [ B | C ]] configuration, where A is a web browser, and B and C are terminals.
In order for this to work for me on a screen resolution 1. the web browser window is too narrow, causing wide documents to be clipped and a horizontal scroll bar to appear.
2. A terminal window is wider than 80 characters, causing unnecessary screen area to be consumed which could be better allocated toward the web browser.
3. A terminal window is less than 80 characters in width, preventing the entire line of code from being displayed.
To me Linux is the ideal laptop OS because it's the easiest OS to install a tiling window manager on, and a tiling window manager is what maximizes the platform's primary constraint: small screen area.
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#49Come on, we can do better than that. This is not to besmirch Apple or any silliness like that, my comment here is about this view point.
The "de facto standard?" This view is probably common among programming hipsters but its hard to take seriously. There is a world out there besides Apple and RoR that is not just enterprise slog ...
As far as the $80 machine ... I mean ok ... If you are on a serious budget but ... If you are a technologist, I don't see the point. But it is cool to note that for those of us that need it, there are good machines at economical prices.
But if we all want to be serious programmers, can we move on from this hipster phase? The funny thing is the Apple is 100% not in line with supposed precepts taken as "de facto" in the hipster community (open source, over preoccupation with github, standards, open, portable, etc)
Re: The $80 web development workstation
#50Honest 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,…
> while literally not having an "up one level" button
kind of. it has the path button, does the same thing, though with two clicks :(