
Ask HN: Mac or Linux based laptop for development - mraza007
I’m coming from linux world but after using macbook for 3 months I’m tempted to buy a macbook buy they are pricey and at the same time I don’t wanna leave the Linux ecosystem
======
dividedbyzero
It totally depends on what kind of development work you want to do. Windows
apps? Then get a Surface Pro or the like.

iOS or native macOS apps? Get a Macbook.

Web development? It doesn't matter as long as you're comfortable using the
respective OS (macOS or Linux).

Data science? If you plan on using the built-in GPU for machine learning,
don't get a Macbook. The 16" ones have AMD GPUs that aren't well-supported for
ML, everything below has Intel GPUs which, while plenty powerful for day-to-
day usage, aren't usable for ML. Get a Thinkpad or Dell with a Nvidia GPU and
an Intel GPU, so you can use the dedicated GPU for ML exclusively. If you plan
on running such workloads in the cloud (as many do) it doesn't matter.

Backend work? Depending on the backend, it won't matter. PHP, Ruby, Java,
Scala, Python, Go, Rust, ... can be done on macOS and Linux equally well.
ASP.net and the like will require Windows.

Devops-heavy work? If you expect to be running lots of VMs on your laptop, get
a Linux laptop with as much RAM as you can cram into it. A 16" MBP with lots
of RAM will do, too, but that's going to be pricey. If you can run such
workloads in the cloud, it doesn't matter.

If you want the most versatile, also get a Macbook. It'll run Linux and
Windows virtualized just fine, macOS natively, you can do Android development
and iOS development, all in a single machine. Depending on your needs a spec-
ed up Air may be powerful enough, still not exactly cheap though. That's what
I do, but with a 13" Macbook Pro (plus GCP instances for ML training).

If you want to stick with Linux in earnest, and don't see yourself developing
native macOS or iOS apps in the forseeable future, get a Dell or Thinkpad with
good Linux support for your distro of choice.

~~~
mraza007
I see I totally agree with what you said. I have always thought about buying a
macbook but i always remained hesitant due to it’s high price but what I
believe is it’s worth its price I don’t plan to do machine learning for that
you probably need a heavy machine such as a desktop with GPUs. But coming from
a Linux world I wanna settle on one stable os instead keep distro hopping i
might just go with macbook

~~~
dividedbyzero
For what it's worth, barring catastrophic failure, which seems to be rare,
these things tend to hold up quite well. My previous Macbook lasted me about 6
years, I had its battery replaced half a year ago without any issues; it's my
backup machine now, and if it weren't a tad too sluggish at some tasks, I
would have postponed the upgrade another year. Lots of people (on HN, too) run
even older Macbooks, apparently happily.

Just be sure to get the latest gen, especially for the 13" Pros ones – you
absolutely want the 2020 keyboard (physical ESC key, no failure-prone
butterfly mechanics, really nice feel, "old" arrow key arrangement that is
easier to find by feel) and the newest CPUs. I have both keyboards (my own
2020 one and my 2018 work laptop) and the difference is crazy. But as I
mentioned before, have a look at the current Air as well – cheaper and still
plenty powerful, depending on what you need.

~~~
kingkongjaffa
my 2012 16gb ssd macbookpro is running okay the only things lagging behind now
are graphics for light gaming and the battery is pretty shot.

------
cpach
It all comes down to a matter of taste really.

IMHO: If you can afford it, get a Macbook of some kind. For a laptop/desktop,
I would take macOS over Windows or Linux, any day. IMHO, macOS has the best
apps and the best desktop experience. With Homebrew, you can install ~99% of
all CLI utilities that you could run on Linux.

I switched from Linux to macOS seven years ago and so far there are no Linux
applications that I haven’t found a good alternative for.

But to each their own and YMMV.

~~~
mraza007
Totally agree I’m just waiting for the new one to come out with arm chip

------
rvz
You can still have it all on a Macbook plus with Windows and Linux installed
too.

Macbooks have the g̶o̶l̶d̶ diamond standard of trackpads from any other laptop
you can find. Triple boot Windows, macOS and Linux without any effort or need
of 'Hackintoshing' and in general, Touch ID and Apple Watch authentication in
macOS on a Macbook take the pain out of repeatedly typing in passwords for
SSH, PGP, password-managers etc.

macOS on a Macbook just adds the added extra convenience Apple gives you which
doesn't exist on any Linux laptop which makes development effortless and gets
out of my way.

~~~
mraza007
Agreed with what you mentioned after using macbook for three months I’m
getting used to the eco system and the smoothness

------
meretext
I'm typing this on my primary machine, a late 2012 MacBook Pro. That's 8 years
of full daily use, travel, downloads, compiling, running Docker, etc. And I
really do mean every single day, morning onwards. Not saying all MacBooks will
stand up that long, but my secondary laptop is a 2010 MacBook Air, and it's
still kicking, though OS upgrades aren't available anymore for it. Aside from
the keyboard problems of the past few years (one of the reasons I waited to
upgrade), I've found them to be very reliable. Even my PowerBook with the
Motorola CPU was still running up until a couple of years ago when I cleaned
house. And as they can run OSes in VMs (Linux, FreeBSD, Windows ...), I feel
the MacBook Pro is the best development platform, and really, best platform
for most things. I have mutt installed for email, so you can still run all
your CLI 'apps' if you like. Yeah, it is truly an awesome machine. And this
one, 2 months before Apple Care expired, I took it in for a 'checkup' \-- they
replaced over $1,100 worth of parts, including the logic board. I hadn't
noticed anything wrong about the machine, but apparently it didn't meet their
standards. If you're already leaning that way, buy one, use it for a while,
and if it's not what you want later, sell it and consider the loss as you
renting the laptop for that period of time. I could upgrade now the keyboards
are fixed, but, well, this still works. Now I think I'll wait for the ARM-
based MacBooks coming hopefully later this year.

------
rrao84
I have done codec development, heavy C++ programming, web development (front
end), worked with MS Office exclusively for a year when I was a "manager" and
now onto to blogging and copywriting. My trusty companion in all of this has
been my Macbook Pro 2015 (Early) and it has never once crashed or stopped
working.

I have seen so many Windows machines come and go and nothing can hold a candle
to a MacbookPro. This is my personal opinion - ymmv. But, if you are looking
for a 1-time purchase that will last you atleast 6 years, and you use your
machines carefully, then a Macbook Pro is worth the investment.

Fair warning: I have no idea how the ARM-based macs are going to turn out.

~~~
mraza007
I see your workflow seems heavy just curious should I wait for arm based
macbook or buy the one with intel

~~~
toyg
The first ARM laptops won’t appear for another few months at least, and
they’ll be “1.0 Apple products” anyway. You should not buy a 1.0 Apple
product. Apart from the traditional quality-control issues of such releases,
community and support resources for it won’t be there for some time. Unless
you can wait for 2-3 years, if you want a Mac you should probably buy it now.

------
varbhat
I am using Thinkpad E14 . I find it perfect for my usecase. It supports Linux
100℅ , built very well, has best keyboard, has flawless efi firmware.

------
codegladiator
Get Windows. WSL is great. And the machines powering windows are also great. I
recently deleted my Ubuntu 18 setup and using Win 10.

~~~
mraza007
I just switched my laptop to windows after being on linux for three years and
have used three different distros But now i just want to settle on one thing
that just runs out of the box i think I’m gonna go with macbook

------
chagaif
You need both and windows as well.

