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There are plenty of options, but it really depends on your definition of good. Different people making the same complaint as you on HN have very different and s

There are plenty of options, but it really depends on your definition of good. Different people making the same complaint as you on HN have very different and sometimes very particular criteria. If you look at the systems overall the MBP's have good alternatives now. The X1 is actually really impressive. First gen had a short battery life and the display wasn't high resolution, but they addressed that pretty quickly.

innocentoldguy 10y ago
Perhaps from a hardware perspective this is true, but if you have to run commercial software (e.g. Adobe, DAWs, etc.) and do software development in a Unix environment, there really isn't a better option than macOS on a MacBook Pro. Windows sucks, and as much as I love Linux, it just doesn't cut it when I need Illustrator, Photoshop, Studio One, or Logic.
- collyw 10y ago
  My guess is that most software developers don't use the packages you mentioned as they are for designers primarily.
- munchbunny 10y ago
  If you're really a heavy user of DAWs and Adobe's media software, you already have a very different set of needs than most developers. I also fall into that category, except with game dev Windows is pretty much the only viable choice for a primary dev platform. If you're just using Adobe's software every now and then, you just need a dedicated GPU and enough RAM. Many alternatives to the MacBook Pro have that. And you'd probably want a desktop sized screen anyway. The most heavy duty stuff today's software devs would commonly use that their own laptops would need to power are VMs. By the time you get to really heavy duty stuff you'll get much closer to your hardware needs for cheaper with actual workstations anyway. This is the sort of stuff I meant when I was talking about very specific requirements. For most developers having either Linux or OS X is usually plenty for work purposes, but OS X is nicer designed.

innocentoldguy 10y ago

Perhaps from a hardware perspective this is true, but if you have to run commercial software (e.g. Adobe, DAWs, etc.) and do software development in a Unix environment, there really isn't a better option than macOS on a MacBook Pro. Windows sucks, and as much as I love Linux, it just doesn't cut it when I need Illustrator, Photoshop, Studio One, or Logic.

collyw 10y ago
My guess is that most software developers don't use the packages you mentioned as they are for designers primarily.
munchbunny 10y ago
If you're really a heavy user of DAWs and Adobe's media software, you already have a very different set of needs than most developers. I also fall into that category, except with game dev Windows is pretty much the only viable choice for a primary dev platform. If you're just using Adobe's software every now and then, you just need a dedicated GPU and enough RAM. Many alternatives to the MacBook Pro have that. And you'd probably want a desktop sized screen anyway. The most heavy duty stuff today's software devs would commonly use that their own laptops would need to power are VMs. By the time you get to really heavy duty stuff you'll get much closer to your hardware needs for cheaper with actual workstations anyway. This is the sort of stuff I meant when I was talking about very specific requirements. For most developers having either Linux or OS X is usually plenty for work purposes, but OS X is nicer designed.