Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#1

Post by educating » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 4:20 AM UTC

Curious as to what the "new hotness" is for development. What laptop/computer do you have and love/want to have, which OS, and which IDE/text editor?

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#2

Post by alecsmart1 » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 4:26 AM UTC

Maybe I don't follow the trends exactly, but I use-

Windows 8 EditPlus

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#3

Post by gcb0 » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 4:30 AM UTC

Anything cheap from Asus or hp.

Debian. Check online if the model you want run Linux fine.

Vim and then a bunch of scripts to suit your project. Build. Collaboration. Etc.

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#4

Post by wunki » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 4:34 AM UTC

I love my Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Arch Linux. I think I have a pretty optimized work environment thanks to the following software: Emacs (Editor, Email, IRC, Org-mode), XMonad (Window manager) and Conkeror (Browser).

You can find all my dotfiles online: https://github.com/wunki/wunki-dotfiles

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#5

Post by threeseed » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 5:04 AM UTC

Most developers you see around will be using OSX. It just works and many UNIX apps have nice GUI wrappers/installers. You can pickup the older 17inch MacBook Pro off eBay which are fantastic, cheap developer machines. Plus if you are doing any web development then at some point you will need Photoshop/Illustrator.

As for IDE I personally use Sublime or Vim.

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#6

Post by hbien » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 10:10 AM UTC

I picked up a slightly used Thinkpad x220 on craigslist for $500 about 1.5 years ago. Running Arch Linux + Vim.

To be honest, I'm very tempted to switch to a Macbook Air/Pro for iOS development (I prefer to own just one laptop)

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#7

Post by jfoster » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 11:32 AM UTC

I have a Samsung New Series 9. It's like a Macbook Air, but the hardware plays a lot nicer with Linux. Very happy with it.

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#8

Post by DLion » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 1:01 PM UTC

I use Slackware Linux on my acer aspire 5745G Vim or Sublime Text with useful plugins are the best for me.

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#9

Post by breuderink » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 2:11 PM UTC

I would like to add a different perspective. I used to work on a Thinkpad, and loved the machine. Last year I changed to a MacBook Air (MBA). I also like this machine. But one of the biggest changes was that people seemed to be much more easily convinced when I showed them results on the MBA. This is a major point to consider IMHO.

Re: Ask HN: Best laptop/computer, OS, IDE/text editor for development?

#10

Post by S4M » Sun, Sep 15, 2013, 3:19 PM UTC

wunki wrote: post #4

I love my Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Arch Linux. I think I have a pretty optimized work environment thanks to the following software: Emacs (Editor, Email, IRC, Org-mode), XMonad (Window manager) and Conkeror (Browser). You can find all my dotfiles online: https://github.com/wunki/wunki-dotfiles

May I ask, what do you find special with Arch? Since it's the Window manager that you use mostly, you could use any other distro. On the other hand, I remember having many issues with Arch when they changed some settings, and since I switched to Debian, which I find more stable.