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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?

#61

Post by afarrell »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #57

serious question: what is the practical difference between MacOS and Linux? Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source? I am big on open source but have never felt my life was improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install ... I have never had a satisfactory battery + sleep/standby experience on a linux machine, vs a Mac I can leave unplugged for weeks and it wakes back up where…

The thing I miss most from Linux is strace. This is far outweighed by

1. The much frequency with which stuff just works on OSX.

2. The opportunities to spend $30 on an app instead of $300-$800 worth of time on software that is Free as in Puppy.

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

#62

Post by mrslave »

Avalaxy wrote: post #34
daenney wrote: post #18

The problem I run into with a lot of these is that their screens aren’t great. 1080p@60Hz and usually pretty terrible brightness makes them a bad fit for me as a travel companion, or even just working from my garden. It’s also annoying that some keep insisting on a barrel connector for charging instead of leveraging the USB-C port. As much as I appreciate the privacy and freedom enhancing aspects of some of these dev…

> Dell XPSes are good too Be very careful. They are very good laptops, and Dell's customer support for businesses is stellar, but the XPS machines play VERY bad with Linux. There are some XPS machines that are shipped with linux, so they should be fine. But most of them have wifi/bluetooth chips that have no support at all, or very bad support.

XPS 13 usually has good Linux compatibility. But XPS with 15" screen can be a bit of trouble to get all the hardware working under Linux.

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

#63

Post by funklute »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #57

serious question: what is the practical difference between MacOS and Linux? Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source? I am big on open source but have never felt my life was improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install ... I have never had a satisfactory battery + sleep/standby experience on a linux machine, vs a Mac I can leave unplugged for weeks and it wakes back up where…

For a start, the hardware. I hate working on glossy screens, and it's not possible these days to get macs with matte screens (I know I can install a diffuser, but for the price point apple operates at, I shouldn't need to spend extra money on adapting the hardware).

Also, bugs in the OS where you're completely at the mercy of Apple. I like to do custom re-mappings on my keyboard, and the last time I tried a mac (around 2016), the keyboard reverted to the default layout every time I viewed a pdf. At the time, there was no way of fixing this issue. Along with the glossy screen, this issue convinced me that MacOS was not at the time a viable platform for me.

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

#64

Post by sirwitti »

Avalaxy wrote: post #34
daenney wrote: post #18

The problem I run into with a lot of these is that their screens aren’t great. 1080p@60Hz and usually pretty terrible brightness makes them a bad fit for me as a travel companion, or even just working from my garden. It’s also annoying that some keep insisting on a barrel connector for charging instead of leveraging the USB-C port. As much as I appreciate the privacy and freedom enhancing aspects of some of these dev…

> Dell XPSes are good too Be very careful. They are very good laptops, and Dell's customer support for businesses is stellar, but the XPS machines play VERY bad with Linux. There are some XPS machines that are shipped with linux, so they should be fine. But most of them have wifi/bluetooth chips that have no support at all, or very bad support.

Having used 2 XPS13 (9343 and 9370) as my daily driver for years, this is simply not true in my experience.

On my 9343 bluetooth did not work initially, and on the 9370 the fingerprint reader is not available (no driver available), but apart from that linux is just working - and I'm not particular fond of spending time on setting things up.

Much more of an issue is that the xps, as every non apple computer does not support s3 sleep anymore. So just closing the lid and putting it in a bag can lead to overheating and battery drain.

Honestly I don't get, why we can't have decent power management unless you buy a mac.

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

#66

Post by ta4948474637272 »

jll29 wrote: post #24

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 or X1 Nano are my favorites. Small, light, but powerful. Before I used the ThinkPad X230 and DELL Latitude 7270, each for many years and bought second hand. The DELL was particularly sturdy. All of these are Ubuntu LTS friendly boxes. Avoid Microsoft Surface Laptops, which require patches to run Linux, Microsoft doesn't offer an Image ready to burn on a stick. And although I'm writing this on an M1…

How are the keyboards on recent X1 Carbons and X1 Nanos? I have a 6th gen X1 Carbon (bought 2017) and I am in love with it. It just survived nasty a 4ft drop with only cosmetic damage.

However, I've heard that the keyboards on the recent models are not as good. It's the only thing stopping me from getting a Nano...

Edit: Linux support is stellar on the X1 Carbon, which is no surprise since RedHat issues its employees with business Lenovo laptops.

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

#67

Post by bodge5000 »

watersb wrote: post #5
secperkinsstan wrote: post #3

If the intensive computing is GPU use a lambda machine might be a good choice.

A quick announcement on Ars Technica -- the Lambda is nVidia CUDA, Linux beast laptop with very nice Razer design. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/razer-designed-linux...

The Razer design is nice, but as someone with a blade who's battery bulged within only a year of moderate use because cooling was clearly an after-thought to looking good, I wouldnt be quick to trust it.

Then again, maybe they've improved since then. Mine was a 2019 model after all.

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

#68

Post by zhdc1 »

bodge5000 wrote: post #59

These threads always surprise me with the number of people who buy new thinkpads. Nothing wrong with them I'm sure (well, maybe a few things wrong with them), I just never even considered it as an option. I recently picked up an old 2005-ish (edit: 2011 actually) x220 for a few hundred quid off ebay which seems to be running nicely. Specs aren't anything to shout about but it works fine for what it is. Durability wis…

> I recently picked up an old 2005-ish x220 for a few hundred quid off ebay which seems to be running nicely.

The x220 launched in 2011. It's an old machine, but not that old.

That said, I ran one myself for years and highly recommend it if you need a barebones, durable laptop for under 200ish.

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

#70

Post by culopatin »

bodge5000 wrote: post #59

These threads always surprise me with the number of people who buy new thinkpads. Nothing wrong with them I'm sure (well, maybe a few things wrong with them), I just never even considered it as an option. I recently picked up an old 2005-ish (edit: 2011 actually) x220 for a few hundred quid off ebay which seems to be running nicely. Specs aren't anything to shout about but it works fine for what it is. Durability wis…

Someone bought that laptop new at some point.
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