4 ms·

Every HN thread has to have a comment like this... Look at me, my ancient machine can (barely) get stuff done. But I can't wrap my head around this... why torme

Every HN thread has to have a comment like this... Look at me, my ancient machine can (barely) get stuff done. But I can't wrap my head around this... why torment yourself like this. Who pays for the lost productivity with these shenanigans? Do you value your time so little? If freelance, do you pass it on to your customers? If job, does nobody notice that you're taking ages getting stuff done? My hourly rate is nearly minimum wage but I have a $5K PC build and the latest MBP. I can't imagine even using a web browser with 4GB RAM. Virtual machines? Android Emulator?? Compiling a Java application?? How...

fladrif 5y ago
Personally I've ordered a new thinkpad but it's slated to come in 3 months, with the delivery date extended once already. I went to Target and bought some lowend (slightly higher than chromebook) laptop and ubuntu is running fine on it. Of course I can't do anything too memory intensive, but regular dev work is decent for a <500 dollar machine.
amachefe 5y ago
What makes you assume there is a lost productivity? I couldn't find any reference from the post. Besides, it is also stated that it serves as mobile option as the main computer is a desktop. I am also amused that you feel that $5k build is more productive. Productivity is not mostly a function of the system but the user
- Shikadi 5y ago
  Often depends on the workload. My work requires compiling the kernel regularly (among other things) and 5 minutes saved over 12 compilations in one day is an entire hour saved. Made up numbers, and in the case of a lot of other code I touch it makes even more of a difference. On the other hand, I ssh into a work desktop from a work laptop, so a Chromebook with an SSD would probably still be useful if I could get over the lost screen real estate and low quality keyboards
nickjj 5y ago
I primarily have a desktop where I do most of my work (that was mentioned in the post you're replying to), but I'll bite just so folks who might be on the fence about the Chromebook have something to reference. I primarily work with Flask, Rails and Phoenix and most apps I build use Webpack too. I don't have to run an Android simulator or Java apps because I don't use those technologies. With this Chromebook, any multi-service Docker app (web + worker + db + cache + Webpack) can go from not running to accepting web requests in about 5-7 seconds after running a docker-compose up. Every time I make a code change, the code base reloads in 100ms or less so the dev loop is extremely fast. With Tailwind's JIT and Webpack caching to disk even asset changes are fast (100-300ms in most projects). The machine is great for certain types of programming and browsing the internet. My main workstation is an i5 3.2ghz with 16GB of memory and an SSD with a 2560x1440 monitor. It's approaching 7 years old and I paid around $850 for it at the time of building it (+$350 for the monitor at a later time). I still use it today and while it has more resources available it's not that much faster than the Chromebook, I can just run more things at once. Starting up my web apps with Docker happen in 3-5 seconds but I still get the same < 100ms reloads for code changes. I also happen to run WSL 2 within Windows which is where I spend 99% of my time. I also do video recording and editing on this machine and there's no skipping or slowdowns for editing 1080p video. I can also run OBS to record everything while developing normally and it's a non-issue. The reality of the situation is nowadays unless you're doing something very CPU bound, a mid-grade machine with an SSD can be quite efficient for lots of types of web development. I choose not to upgrade because there's no practical incentive. With 16GB of memory I can run my usual dev workload with a 2 node Kubernetes cluster and a separate VM and not feel any slowdowns while developing. This is all while having a bunch of tabs open, image editors, mp3 player and everything else you'd expect while working -- even while screen recording my desktop to make tech videos. I made a video about this once around the topic of "is 16GB of memory enough for web development?" at: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/for-the-time-being-16gb-of-ram-for-web-development-works-really-well https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/for-the-time-being-16gb-of-ra...
vimacs2 5y ago
If your hourly rate is nearly minimum wage but you have a $5K PC build and the latest MBP, something tells me you have put the cart before the horse.

fladrif 5y ago

Personally I've ordered a new thinkpad but it's slated to come in 3 months, with the delivery date extended once already. I went to Target and bought some lowend (slightly higher than chromebook) laptop and ubuntu is running fine on it. Of course I can't do anything too memory intensive, but regular dev work is decent for a <500 dollar machine.

amachefe 5y ago

What makes you assume there is a lost productivity? I couldn't find any reference from the post. Besides, it is also stated that it serves as mobile option as the main computer is a desktop. I am also amused that you feel that $5k build is more productive. Productivity is not mostly a function of the system but the user

Shikadi 5y ago
Often depends on the workload. My work requires compiling the kernel regularly (among other things) and 5 minutes saved over 12 compilations in one day is an entire hour saved. Made up numbers, and in the case of a lot of other code I touch it makes even more of a difference. On the other hand, I ssh into a work desktop from a work laptop, so a Chromebook with an SSD would probably still be useful if I could get over the lost screen real estate and low quality keyboards

nickjj 5y ago

I primarily have a desktop where I do most of my work (that was mentioned in the post you're replying to), but I'll bite just so folks who might be on the fence about the Chromebook have something to reference. I primarily work with Flask, Rails and Phoenix and most apps I build use Webpack too. I don't have to run an Android simulator or Java apps because I don't use those technologies. With this Chromebook, any multi-service Docker app (web + worker + db + cache + Webpack) can go from not running to accepting web requests in about 5-7 seconds after running a docker-compose up. Every time I make a code change, the code base reloads in 100ms or less so the dev loop is extremely fast. With Tailwind's JIT and Webpack caching to disk even asset changes are fast (100-300ms in most projects). The machine is great for certain types of programming and browsing the internet. My main workstation is an i5 3.2ghz with 16GB of memory and an SSD with a 2560x1440 monitor. It's approaching 7 years old and I paid around $850 for it at the time of building it (+$350 for the monitor at a later time). I still use it today and while it has more resources available it's not that much faster than the Chromebook, I can just run more things at once. Starting up my web apps with Docker happen in 3-5 seconds but I still get the same < 100ms reloads for code changes. I also happen to run WSL 2 within Windows which is where I spend 99% of my time. I also do video recording and editing on this machine and there's no skipping or slowdowns for editing 1080p video. I can also run OBS to record everything while developing normally and it's a non-issue. The reality of the situation is nowadays unless you're doing something very CPU bound, a mid-grade machine with an SSD can be quite efficient for lots of types of web development. I choose not to upgrade because there's no practical incentive. With 16GB of memory I can run my usual dev workload with a 2 node Kubernetes cluster and a separate VM and not feel any slowdowns while developing. This is all while having a bunch of tabs open, image editors, mp3 player and everything else you'd expect while working -- even while screen recording my desktop to make tech videos. I made a video about this once around the topic of "is 16GB of memory enough for web development?" at: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/for-the-time-being-16gb-of-ram-for-web-development-works-really-well https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/for-the-time-being-16gb-of-ra...

vimacs2 5y ago

If your hourly rate is nearly minimum wage but you have a $5K PC build and the latest MBP, something tells me you have put the cart before the horse.