10 ms·

Why would you waste precious start-up budget on overpriced hardware?

by Double_a_92 8y ago

etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
For most the main reason is probably that they like macOS.
- cmroanirgo 8y ago
  yeah. If I could purchase macOS and run it on another laptop (eg ThinkPad) I would. I'm loving my MBA 2013 (8gb ram, 256ssd)... but it is 6 years old and nothing from Apple makes me want to a hw upgrade.
  - headmelted 8y ago
    I gotta be honest here, I get pretty good mileage out of Docker on Hyper-V inside Windows. I don't bother much with Linux sub-system anymore as I'm almost always pulling in containers anyway these days so I might as well just run real Linux in Docker. Obviously there's a bunch of reasons why you'd use OSX outside of being Posix-y, but just wanted to share that it's not the same picture as it was (if you've got Hyper-V on your laptop).
    - y4mi 8y ago
      > so I might as well just run real Linux in Docker you mean you'd rather run a HyperV VM which hosts a docker daemon and configure your local docker client to use that VM. (all done automatically with docker for windows/mac) the downside of that is higher power consumption.
      - headmelted 8y ago
        I should clarify - I am using Docker for Windows, which in turn requires and is using Hyper-V, in preference to using WSL.
- jfoutz 8y ago
  i have a mid-2015. i just like it. aluminum body, good screen, i don't mind the keyboard, the trackpad is fantastic. I really want a physical escape key. I've thought about, and can readily afford, a newer model. the 32g memory would be nice. It has been a long time since i felt like i need to start searching for a linux capable laptop. i've felt like that for a long while though. i consciously know it's not that hard to find quality hardware. I still have some subconscious apprehension. Trying to find a pcmcia network card to work with my thinkpad was such a pain back in the day. i have not so fond memories of trying to compile tulip.c into a kernel module. MacOS was a breath of fresh air. everything just worked, and i had a real unix to work with. darwin isn't the greatest thing ever, but the hardware was nice. The air is getting kinda stale though. i need to find some hardware and make it right. the apple heyday made me complacent.
  - acomjean 8y ago
    I’m transitioning from Mac->Linux laptop. I bit the bullet and bought one with Linux pre installed (statem 76). The hardware is not as good as the Mac book pro but it’s decent. And I was happily surprised that everything just works out of the box. Battery life isn’t great (3 hours with the intel graphics half that with ). The jetbrains ides work and with so many tools being web based. I miss sequel pro and transmit but not that much(the alternatives aren’t that great). The thing I find is there are fewer options to buy software on Linux which means using the free slightly sub optimal solutions. I think you can happily do software development on a Linux notebook these day (provided you have a power outlet)
simonh 8y ago
Arguably the hardware is still worth it. But then there’s the software...
soylentgraham 8y ago
Probably cheaper than staff spending time moving, or rewriting code, tools to a new OS, as wages, ie. time, is going to far more expensive than a laptop.
richardknop 8y ago
Probably because software engineers who themselves are expensive are used to developing on Mac OS.

Why would you waste precious start-up budget on overpriced hardware?

etaioinshrdlu 8y ago

For most the main reason is probably that they like macOS.

cmroanirgo 8y ago
yeah. If I could purchase macOS and run it on another laptop (eg ThinkPad) I would. I'm loving my MBA 2013 (8gb ram, 256ssd)... but it is 6 years old and nothing from Apple makes me want to a hw upgrade.
- headmelted 8y ago
  I gotta be honest here, I get pretty good mileage out of Docker on Hyper-V inside Windows. I don't bother much with Linux sub-system anymore as I'm almost always pulling in containers anyway these days so I might as well just run real Linux in Docker. Obviously there's a bunch of reasons why you'd use OSX outside of being Posix-y, but just wanted to share that it's not the same picture as it was (if you've got Hyper-V on your laptop).
  - y4mi 8y ago
    > so I might as well just run real Linux in Docker you mean you'd rather run a HyperV VM which hosts a docker daemon and configure your local docker client to use that VM. (all done automatically with docker for windows/mac) the downside of that is higher power consumption.
    - headmelted 8y ago
      I should clarify - I am using Docker for Windows, which in turn requires and is using Hyper-V, in preference to using WSL.
jfoutz 8y ago
i have a mid-2015. i just like it. aluminum body, good screen, i don't mind the keyboard, the trackpad is fantastic. I really want a physical escape key. I've thought about, and can readily afford, a newer model. the 32g memory would be nice. It has been a long time since i felt like i need to start searching for a linux capable laptop. i've felt like that for a long while though. i consciously know it's not that hard to find quality hardware. I still have some subconscious apprehension. Trying to find a pcmcia network card to work with my thinkpad was such a pain back in the day. i have not so fond memories of trying to compile tulip.c into a kernel module. MacOS was a breath of fresh air. everything just worked, and i had a real unix to work with. darwin isn't the greatest thing ever, but the hardware was nice. The air is getting kinda stale though. i need to find some hardware and make it right. the apple heyday made me complacent.
- acomjean 8y ago
  I’m transitioning from Mac->Linux laptop. I bit the bullet and bought one with Linux pre installed (statem 76). The hardware is not as good as the Mac book pro but it’s decent. And I was happily surprised that everything just works out of the box. Battery life isn’t great (3 hours with the intel graphics half that with ). The jetbrains ides work and with so many tools being web based. I miss sequel pro and transmit but not that much(the alternatives aren’t that great). The thing I find is there are fewer options to buy software on Linux which means using the free slightly sub optimal solutions. I think you can happily do software development on a Linux notebook these day (provided you have a power outlet)

simonh 8y ago

Arguably the hardware is still worth it. But then there’s the software...

soylentgraham 8y ago

Probably cheaper than staff spending time moving, or rewriting code, tools to a new OS, as wages, ie. time, is going to far more expensive than a laptop.

richardknop 8y ago

Probably because software engineers who themselves are expensive are used to developing on Mac OS.