

Ask HN: What notebook is cool for development (hard/software)? - sippndipp

I&#x27;m tired of Apple and I refuse to buy a Retina MBP. What hardware is out there that is worth to buy? What OS do you install on it?
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paulftw
I don't think anything matches macbook's solid aluminium body and build
quality. After I've dumped my ubuntu laptop few years ago, I don't want to go
back to all that plastic rubbish.

Not all laptops created equal, so yes, you can probably find decent hardware.
It will inevitably be priced similarly or above the Mac alternatives. So no
gain in HW department.

Now consider OS. I have to use win7 desktop at work, and have to maintain my
wife's win7 laptop at home. Both are orders of magnitude worse than ubuntu or
osx.

And any decently built laptop comes with Windows preinstalled and
manufacturers rarely care about other platforms. Good luck fiddling with the
3d graphics and wifi drivers. I'm not saying it's impossible to set it up, and
maybe it's much easier today than last time I've tried 2-3 years ago. Maybe
it's not too bad.

But still, is it worth it?

And btw, please share your experience, if you try any of the alternatives
suggested here. I'd love to find a good alternative to my MBA. But for now I
just don't see a point in trying.

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mrlase
I love my Lenovo T430. The build quality is far beyond most other laptops that
I have come in contact with. Running Ubuntu 13.10 on my Samsung 840 SSD and
running Windows 8.1 on the HD that came with it for when I need to use Visual
Studio.

~~~
japhyr
I love my t430s. After using it for a few months my wife's aluminum MacBook
feels awkward and heavy.

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agibsonccc
I have a high end lenovo ideapad using linux. I liked the specs for the price.
(16GB ram, terabyte of space, high end i7) for 1200. Some would debate the RAM
or hard drive, but I personally needed the higher ram for the kind of work I
do (yes 8GB wasn't enough) For most web development work though, I couldn't
see it mattering that much. Actually having hard drive space is great too.

I definitely wouldn't get this thing for traveling though. It has terrible
battery life. If I had my way, I'd get an ultrabook like sputnik or something
else. The specs for the ultrabooks aren't quite there yet.

In general, I'll just suggest lenovo as the macbook alternative.

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laurenstill
If you want out of the box, dell makes an ubuntu xps (sputnik, I have one),
but the mouse sucks and there are some sound driver issues.

What sort of hardware dev are you doing? I end up running a VM for much of my
work.

------
mattkrea
Out of curiosity what made you leave Apple (or consider it)?

This is coming from a former die-hard MS guy turned Apple fan boy. It's like
Apple took what I love (*nix) and just made the best desktop experience for
it. Yeah, I hate the prices but even the hardware is unbeatable--what I've
seen so far that is.

However, I'll always still be searching for a true Linux desktop OS and
appropriate hardware for it that doesn't feel like it will break if I carry it
around with one hand while open.

~~~
sippndipp
I always had trouble with their hardware. Random crashes and they needed two
repairs until they changed it. Mavericks seems to be very buggy and I have to
consolidate my whole dev environment again. Would like to switch to a real
Linux (Ubuntu / Debian). I don't want the Retina stuff since for such a high
resolution the devices are underpowered.

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joshAg
thinkpad laptops are awesome, especially if you get a dock. they run linux
great, if that's what you'd prefer, but they can come with either windows 7 or
8 installed.

I'd stick to either the t-series or x-series but don't go buy anything tonight
since new models will be out by the end of this month or so with much improved
displays and haswell.

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uvtc
If you want it to run free software, have a look at
[https://www.thinkpenguin.com/](https://www.thinkpenguin.com/) . I've had good
experiences with them, but it was for a mini desktop, not a notebook.

------
mercnet
I been looking at laptops at System 76
([https://www.system76.com/](https://www.system76.com/)). Anyone have any
experience with them?

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meerita
I would go all the way for a Macbook Air. The new Macbook Pro Retina is a
beast also, if you can afford $1399.

------
2close4comfort
I am holding out for either a Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus or a lenovo T440s

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simlevesque
Sagers are nice.

~~~
sippndipp
They look really powerful. What OS do you run on it?

~~~
SamReidHughes
It's not like they're more powerful than other laptops.

