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Much of this logic is why I stopped buying new computers or phones. I'd rather use a $70 T440 that I've upgraded and know how to repair most everything on than

Much of this logic is why I stopped buying new computers or phones. I'd rather use a $70 T440 that I've upgraded and know how to repair most everything on than haul a MBP that I'll need to get a pro to service, that also happens to have terrible ventilation. I mean, my last MBP literally cooked itself, comparatively this T440 has a giant grill that it rapidly removes heat through (though its 15w i5 doesn't make much).

pilsetnieks 9y ago
You make it sound like the MBP is a weighty piece of burden compared to a dainty T440 (use a T440 vs. haul a MBP.) And the part about cooking itself sounds like a manufacturing defect for which you should have gotten a replacement - in normal conditions it should just shut down, if temperatures get high enough that ventilation and throttling don't help.
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  My old MBP is heavier than my T440 by half a pound. I also never said that it shut itself down, just that it was consistently uncomfortably hot to be using, and I couldn't imagine attempting to use it to run a bunch of VMs like I use my T440 for. I'm happy to have sold that MBP and put Apple far behind me, with the inflatable battery and high temps, it was on par with the $20 x100e I picked up last year (though that x100e was much lighter/smaller).
- nebabyte 9y ago
  > You make it sound like the MBP is a weighty piece of burden compared to a dainty T440 (use a T440 vs. haul a MBP.) I made the mistake of buying a MBP to see what all the fuss was about and fantasize regularly about destroying it Office-Space style, "weighty piece of burden" is just about the nicest way you could put it
comstock 9y ago
I do exactly the same but with X220s. With an SSD and Debian they make a great coding laptop. I buy stacks of them and just move the SSD across when the break. Also means I can leave one in the office and have one at home then just move the SSDs between them.
- mosselman 9y ago
  That sounds so much easier than what I am doing with my laptop (macbook): I have to put it in my bag somewhere and take it out somewhere else and continue exactly where I left off every time. It is such a burden...
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  A friend of mine takes that approach, but the T440 has a whole unibody panel that takes a minute or so to remove. The T430 and T410s comparatively have nice little hatches where a single screw will let you pull the drive. How do you like the X220s? I nabbed one for a friend a while back, seemed like a nice smaller form factor laptop, she rather liked it iirc. Good price too, think I paid $65 for it.
  - lucaspiller 9y ago
    What sort of battery life do you get with these? My 4 year old MBA now gets around 6 hours while coding vs 10 when new.
    - StudentStuff 9y ago
      I'm just passing the 6 hour 30 min mark, though my battery is a few years old. Its reporting as 75.8% capacity with 4% left, so another 20 minutes perhaps, gonna throw it on the dock here though. I've got Atom open, Signal Desktop, Tor Browser Bundle (Youtube), Firefox with a few dozen tabs (Soundcloud, HN, etc). Couple spreadsheets too in LibreOffice, and Thunderbird & Transmission too. With a few of those closed, should be able to get some more battery life, but I don't feel in need of it.
  - KozmoNau7 9y ago
    The X220 is a great laptop, especially if you find one with the IPS screen (and no bright/dark spot defects).
glogla 9y ago
I kind of wanted to do that, for the hipster geek cred, but after retina screens, actually usable touchpads and operating system that just works and also is unix at the same time ... I just can't go back.
- rootw0rm 9y ago
  unix my ass. i have an easier time compiling stuff on ubuntu for windows than i do macs.
- matwood 9y ago
  I have also looked at switching to Linux over OS X and the retina/hidpi alone stops any attempt. I actually had someone on here argue that no one needs retina, and that it didn’t make any difference visually!
  - aeroevan 9y ago
    GNOME works just fine on hidpi screens. I use it on my (2013) mbp and (2015) chromebook pixel and it looks great. You do have to use wayland to get scaling across a low dpi external monitor to work, but that has been fairly painless these days (if your GPU is supported by the open source drivers).
brightball 9y ago
This is exactly the reason I switched to Linux laptops on cases that I can open up and easily switch out any parts of need be.

pilsetnieks 9y ago

You make it sound like the MBP is a weighty piece of burden compared to a dainty T440 (use a T440 vs. haul a MBP.) And the part about cooking itself sounds like a manufacturing defect for which you should have gotten a replacement - in normal conditions it should just shut down, if temperatures get high enough that ventilation and throttling don't help.

StudentStuff 9y ago
My old MBP is heavier than my T440 by half a pound. I also never said that it shut itself down, just that it was consistently uncomfortably hot to be using, and I couldn't imagine attempting to use it to run a bunch of VMs like I use my T440 for. I'm happy to have sold that MBP and put Apple far behind me, with the inflatable battery and high temps, it was on par with the $20 x100e I picked up last year (though that x100e was much lighter/smaller).
nebabyte 9y ago
> You make it sound like the MBP is a weighty piece of burden compared to a dainty T440 (use a T440 vs. haul a MBP.) I made the mistake of buying a MBP to see what all the fuss was about and fantasize regularly about destroying it Office-Space style, "weighty piece of burden" is just about the nicest way you could put it

comstock 9y ago

I do exactly the same but with X220s. With an SSD and Debian they make a great coding laptop. I buy stacks of them and just move the SSD across when the break. Also means I can leave one in the office and have one at home then just move the SSDs between them.

mosselman 9y ago
That sounds so much easier than what I am doing with my laptop (macbook): I have to put it in my bag somewhere and take it out somewhere else and continue exactly where I left off every time. It is such a burden...
StudentStuff 9y ago
A friend of mine takes that approach, but the T440 has a whole unibody panel that takes a minute or so to remove. The T430 and T410s comparatively have nice little hatches where a single screw will let you pull the drive. How do you like the X220s? I nabbed one for a friend a while back, seemed like a nice smaller form factor laptop, she rather liked it iirc. Good price too, think I paid $65 for it.
- lucaspiller 9y ago
  What sort of battery life do you get with these? My 4 year old MBA now gets around 6 hours while coding vs 10 when new.
  - StudentStuff 9y ago
    I'm just passing the 6 hour 30 min mark, though my battery is a few years old. Its reporting as 75.8% capacity with 4% left, so another 20 minutes perhaps, gonna throw it on the dock here though. I've got Atom open, Signal Desktop, Tor Browser Bundle (Youtube), Firefox with a few dozen tabs (Soundcloud, HN, etc). Couple spreadsheets too in LibreOffice, and Thunderbird & Transmission too. With a few of those closed, should be able to get some more battery life, but I don't feel in need of it.
- KozmoNau7 9y ago
  The X220 is a great laptop, especially if you find one with the IPS screen (and no bright/dark spot defects).

glogla 9y ago

I kind of wanted to do that, for the hipster geek cred, but after retina screens, actually usable touchpads and operating system that just works and also is unix at the same time ... I just can't go back.

rootw0rm 9y ago
unix my ass. i have an easier time compiling stuff on ubuntu for windows than i do macs.
matwood 9y ago
I have also looked at switching to Linux over OS X and the retina/hidpi alone stops any attempt. I actually had someone on here argue that no one needs retina, and that it didn’t make any difference visually!
- aeroevan 9y ago
  GNOME works just fine on hidpi screens. I use it on my (2013) mbp and (2015) chromebook pixel and it looks great. You do have to use wayland to get scaling across a low dpi external monitor to work, but that has been fairly painless these days (if your GPU is supported by the open source drivers).

brightball 9y ago

This is exactly the reason I switched to Linux laptops on cases that I can open up and easily switch out any parts of need be.