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I've been disappointed in Apple's hardware offerings for developers over the past few years and almost swore them off, but have a renewed interest in this machi
by __jem 6y ago
I've been disappointed in Apple's hardware offerings for developers over the past few years and almost swore them off, but have a renewed interest in this machine. However, it's not because of anything Apple's done in particular, but because I'm in the process of fully transitioning my workflow to the cloud, and using a laptop only as a thin client.
Of course, there will always be a need for running dev toolchains locally, but I wonder how many other people are like me who would rather use Linux over an internet connection, and really only need a terminal emulator and an IDE.
- neurostimulant 6y agoThere is probably plenty of people like us that do this. VS Code remote development feature is quite popular which indicates many people are going with this setup.
- rbrtl 6y agoWhy don't you buy an iPad and run a terminal/VNC app?
- __jem 6y agoI’ve thought about it! The keyboard is too important for me, and still being able to checkout source code locally and run a local ide tips it in the favor of laptops.
- rbrtl 6y agoI have heard really good things about the keyboards for the iPads. I’m still using an iPad Air 2 with a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard which works wonders. There are code editing apps for iOS, but I don’t know what they're capable of these days. Some use cloud servers, but as soon as you know you want the option then the laptop is probably the way to go. Happy hunting!
- pfranz 6y agoAssuming you prefer Apple's keyboards, I'm pretty sure the Magic Keyboard with Bluetooth works with iPads. The downside is you'd have to manage charging the keyboard and the iPad, but on the bright side you could choose to get the keyboard with the numeric keypad.
- ultronism 6y agograb ipad with bluetooth mechanical keyboard
- nsm 6y agoThis seems like a great use case for a chromebook. Have you looked into that? It seems like the Apple premium may not be worth it. You get long battery life, a very slimmed down machine that can run a browser and a terminal, and they are just as slim as a Air + much cheaper.
- sally1620 6y agoChromebooks would be a perfect machine. Except that most chromebooks don't have premium features: dim screens, capped at 1080p, cheap Intel CPUs, plastic chassis, ... I am still waiting for a premium chromebook with ARM CPU and great battery life to hit the market.
- thomasjudge 6y agoAre you using SAAS tools, or remote desktop to a cloud VM?