
Ask HN: Laptop and OS setup for total web development coverage? - drunner
As a web developer I was handed a MacBook a couple years ago.  Its &#x27;ok&#x27;.  The keyboard is jank and not being able to span windows over multiple monitors is one of my many minor annoyances with MacOS.<p>However, I was recently given the chance to switch to a laptop+OS of my choosing.  I was eyeing up a thinkpad or xps, but I realized that I have no clue how I would facilitate the testing of Mac specific things like Safari and Apple Pay outside of a VM.  Likewise, currently I have a 2nd windows laptop just for the sake of Edge&#x2F;IE11 testing.<p>Folks who need to be able to test IE11&#x2F;Edge&#x2F;Edgium&#x2F;Chrome&#x2F;Firefox&#x2F;Safari are you using VM&#x27;s, juggling multiple physical machines, or have some other solution that works for you?
======
kmarc
On the project I'm currently working on right now we are installing a
MacMini...

...into the datacenter (facepalm).

Except for that, what I found is that nodejs (and also python) development
although seemed fast on a MacBook pro, but utterly sluggish compared to the
experience on Linux, specifically Arch. nvm, virtualenvs, terminal and window
navigation, file IO heavy stuff felt so much faster that eventually I gave the
MacBook back and stayed on a Lenovo X1 Carbon.

Right now I have to access restricted systems, so a Windows10 VM runs (on two
cores, 70% capped) 0-24h, but it doesn't seem to affect host performance and
battery life much.

