

Ask HN: What computer do you develop on? - holograham


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achompas
2011 13" MBP. I'll be doubling the RAM (to 8GB) and adding a 160GB Intel 320
in the next few months. Really wanted a 15" but I decided to be responsible
before starting grad school. :)

Systems: Lion. Ubuntu 11.04 through VirtualBox (for patch contribution).
Windows 7 via Boot Camp (for Deus Ex and Fallout 2). Used TextMate for a
while, now I'm back to Emacs in Terminal.

There are some obvious drawbacks (glossy screen, poor GPU) but I dig the mix
of portability and expandability lacking in both a MBA and a 15" MBP.

~~~
holograham
I was debating getting a MBP for my next machine. I currently have a dell
laptop (middle tier performance) and a customer desktop rig that is several
years old now. I was debating the high end laptop route with a nice docking
station setup. Vs cheaper laptop and custom rig at home.

~~~
achompas
I really like Macs, but it's ultimately about your preferences. I was very
focused on getting a *nix machine (have coded on Unix since starting 2 years
ago), but didn't want to spend time setting up drivers and solving hardware
issues. So I went with a Mac.

What do you develop for? Are your tasks memory- or CPU-intensive? How often do
you work away from home? Do you prefer to replace your computer often, or do
you run your laptops into the ground? I ran my last Macbook into the ground
(and use it as a media server now), and I expect to do the same for this MBP.

For what its worth, if I wanted to roll my own Linux laptop I would've bought
a Lenovo. I hear they're engineered very well and weigh almost nothing.

------
Macshot
Custom built desktop - 27" apple led screen, I7 860 processor over clocked to
3.53GH (water cooled), 16GB ram which dual boots Ubuntu 11.4, Windows 7, OS X
Snow Leopard (was originally just a hack-n-tosh)

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revorad
2006 Dell Inspiron 9400 with broken screen, using some old Samsung Monitor.

 _It's not what you own, it's what you make of it._

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holograham
Curious what you hackers are using to develop on now-a-days? Laptop w/ docking
station? Desktop? Brands? Specs?

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jamesbritt
Lenovo ThinkPad W500 with 1920x1200 screen, 8 GB memory, running Trinity's KDE
3.5 on Ubuntu 10.10.

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pauljonas
at the office: 2010 Mac Pro, 8G

desktop at home: 27in iMac

on the go: 11in Macbook Air

