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What Pro Computing Could Be

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Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#51

Post by fzzzy »

allenbrunson wrote: post #28
jwr wrote: post #4

> Pros don’t quit because their tools are suboptimal. That’s practically the definition of “professional” – a pro gets the damn thing done. A pro user might gripe about the new MacBook Pro, but the next time she needs a new machine, she’s going to buy one anyway because that’s the path of least resistance and she needs to get back to work. This sums up perfectly my thoughts about Apple hardware right now. I am annoye…

> I also agree that the pro market is ripe for disruption (again). I kind of hope so. I am not happy with Apple's latest moves with their Mac lineup. I have been using my current Macbook Pro for six years. I expected to buy one of the newly-announced Macs, but they really aren't speaking my language anymore. So I ordered a refurb Macbook Pro from 2015. It's still not what I would prefer, because the battery is glued…

Uhh, the 2015 retina has a haptic touchpad.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#52

Post by Eridrus »

dfabulich wrote: post #31

> We wrote the beginnings of an operating system I want better hardware, but as a pro software developer, I can't really adopt a fundamentally different operating system, even if it is "better." I don't care how nice your hand-crafted kernel is; if I can't run a JVM, Node.js, and the Android toolchain on it, I can't do my professional work on it.

And that's not even getting to the tricky parts like virtualization or CUDA drivers.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#53

Post by rbanffy »

moftz wrote: post #17
jwr wrote: post #4

> Pros don’t quit because their tools are suboptimal. That’s practically the definition of “professional” – a pro gets the damn thing done. A pro user might gripe about the new MacBook Pro, but the next time she needs a new machine, she’s going to buy one anyway because that’s the path of least resistance and she needs to get back to work. This sums up perfectly my thoughts about Apple hardware right now. I am annoye…

There are plenty of MacBook Pro alternatives that have identical hardware but have a wider range of ports: Microsoft Surface Book Razor Stealth Dell XPS 13 Unless you are sticking with the macOS ecosystem for old time's sake, it's trivial to switch to a Windows workflow.

And, with the Windows workflow, you'll have extra breaks whenever the computer decides it has to reboot because Microsoft wants to install something.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#54

Post by rbanffy »

kluck wrote: post #10

Here is an easy alternative to a MacBook Pro (easy for a professional anyway): Buy a standard Laptop with matte display. Install Arch Linux (learn one thing or another on the way). Use Gnome 3 (maybe install some software from Pantheon as well, like the file manager pantheon-files). Get work done.

Genuinely curious here: why Arch and not Ubuntu or Fedora, considering the workloads will probably run on either Ubuntu or Red Hat/CentOS?

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#55

Post by matt4077 »

captainmuon wrote: post #48

So, what would a pro laptop look like in my opinion? Not too different from todays top laptops, but a few things would be improved: - Easier to repair / upgrade. Dont glue or solder in parts if it is not absolutely neccessary. If the device gets a few mm thicker, its not the end of the world. - Specifically, make the battery switchable. There is a battery capacity limit for flights in the US, and I've heard this is o…

The reason for glued-down batteries is not planned obsolesces. You can get the battery replaced for 150$, which is about as much as Lenovo's batteries cost.

The reason is that a removable battery needs twice as much enclosures as a non-removable one, adding something like 1/5 of an inch to the thickness. The second reason is that Apple has switched to shaped batteries basically filling any available space, which makes removability as good as impossible.

A third reason is that nobody actually wants removable batteries. An MBP gets 10 hours of battery life, 13 if you're on a plane and turn off the wireless. Add an hour of food service to it and you're good to go around the world.

If that's not enough, you can just get an external battery.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#56

Post by stuaxo »

kluck wrote: post #10

Here is an easy alternative to a MacBook Pro (easy for a professional anyway): Buy a standard Laptop with matte display. Install Arch Linux (learn one thing or another on the way). Use Gnome 3 (maybe install some software from Pantheon as well, like the file manager pantheon-files). Get work done.

Gnome 3 still isn't stable for mrle. Admittedly I am on Ubuntu, but it will freeze every few days.

The sure fire way I can think of right now is trying to drag a window from one desktop to another in the overview.

I'm quite good at breaking software, considering doing a semi regular video on favourite things that break.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#57

Post by matt4077 »

mping wrote: post #40
kluck wrote: post #10

Here is an easy alternative to a MacBook Pro (easy for a professional anyway): Buy a standard Laptop with matte display. Install Arch Linux (learn one thing or another on the way). Use Gnome 3 (maybe install some software from Pantheon as well, like the file manager pantheon-files). Get work done.

Agreed. Everyone calls themselves pros, but nobody wants to get their hands dirty with Linux. Basically everyone's a pro-sumer. When I go to the mechanic he doesn't care if the tools get him dirty, he uses the best tools for the job, not for his clothes. I get that some people want to look at gorgeous UIs but nobody told me how that gets the work done. I want to use the best tool, and I try to define best as objectiv…

That's quite a romanticized stereotype of a mechanic. It's also the wrong analogy. The computer, in that analogy, is his tool. It may be the "best for the job", but the mechanic isn't usually mucking around in its internals. When the hydraulic ramp is broken, he calls someone.

There is absolutely no need for someone writing software to ever open up his computer, or to compile the kernel they're running natively (if you're actually working at kernel-level, you'll do most of it in VMs). All that stuff can be fun, no doubt. But it's your hobby, and really no reason to feel like a superior "professional" vs. the lower classes of "prosumers".

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#58

Post by matt4077 »

kluck wrote: post #25
moftz wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I love running Arch on my school laptop, I'd never run it on a laptop I would use for making money. I'd probably be using something like Fedora, a stable distro that doesn't break whenever I update en masse. I usually don't have too many huge bombs go off in my face but the most recent round of updates I applied totally killed my sound and some NetworkManager features. Annoying, not totally disasterous, bu…

If updates in Arch frequently "destroy" some features, you could do this: have two partitions, each with Arch on it and bootable from the boot manager. The first is minimal (rescue system) and the second is the one you use. Then before you make an update, boot into the rescue Arch, backup the second Arch partition's data, try the update and see how it goes ;)

Yeah... Or use basically any other OS and get shit done without every update degenerating into a day's worth fiddling.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#59

Post by mark_l_watson »

Everyone has different needs. My 95 year old father is really into videography and 3D animation so he uses a max-out Mac Pro desktop. For me, I sometimes need large memory and a lot of cores, so I keep a beefy VPS handy. The actual computer I use is less important.

Re: What Pro Computing Could Be

#60

Post by endemic »

rbanffy wrote: post #53
moftz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of MacBook Pro alternatives that have identical hardware but have a wider range of ports: Microsoft Surface Book Razor Stealth Dell XPS 13 Unless you are sticking with the macOS ecosystem for old time's sake, it's trivial to switch to a Windows workflow.

And, with the Windows workflow, you'll have extra breaks whenever the computer decides it has to reboot because Microsoft wants to install something.

IIRC if you pay for the "Pro" version of Windows, you can defer updates.
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