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There are lots of good options for sub-$200 laptops at Wal Mart right now. ChromeBooks or little Windows machines. Every web dev should use one. I am fascinat

There are lots of good options for sub-$200 laptops at Wal Mart right now. ChromeBooks or little Windows machines. Every web dev should use one. I am fascinated by the low end options, you learn a lot about a system when it's pushed to its limits. Or maybe you learn even more about your pain threshold... I've heard it said that it's more difficult to make a $10,000 car than it is to make a $1,000,000 car. I don't recall the source, via Horace Dedieu maybe. My first job out of college was at a spaceship company. One of the most senior engineers told me of the footrest he had designed for early 747 airliners. First Class. He considered it his greatest work. That foot stool was quite literally more difficult than rocket science.

DennisAleynikov 5y ago
I have been fascinated by this question ever since seeing an all apple school employ macbooks as a minimum bar. using Samsung dex, and now budget arm chromebooks I have found most websites do work on even mediatek and qualcomm chips, and design my own experiences to work there accordingly. The lenovo Duet is an incredible device, its sad how poorly optimized some of the heavier websites are and you can't do anything about it. I find the bias towards powerful desktops as the only place any apps are written and tested ridiculous and something we can work to correct long term with progressive web.
- kiwijamo 5y ago
  I work in Education and I have to admit things are just easier in the Apple ecosystem. Things like AirPlay and AirDrop etc are lifesavers for many of the less tech-inclined staff in schools who can actually manage to use these (and other) tools. It's not just about websites and apps--there are accessible QOL features macOS offers that simply aren't present or are packaged up in a non-obvious way in ChromeOS or Windows.
LeonM 5y ago
> I've heard it said that it's more difficult to make a $10,000 car than it is to make a $1,000,000 car. It is, but probably for a different reason than you'd think. In automotive, the difficulty is not designing the car, but the facility to mass produce them. Elon found out the hard way. In his words: "it's trivial to design the machine, but it's hard to design the machine, that builds the machine". He is currently facing the same challenge with the production of the raptor engines for starship. A million dollar low volume "hand made" car can be build by a small team, with relatively few resources. Operating a factory that produces thousands of affordable cars per day takes tens of thousands of people through the entire supply chain.
- kazen44 5y ago
  producing something in a very high volume consistently is difficult. my SO's father works in plastics manufacturing. they make tiny plastic housings used in cable connectors and tiny plastic balls for machine bearing seals. both of these products have surprisingly high specification, and producing hundreds of thousands of them each day is a serious challenge.
- jeabays 5y ago
  Elon (and other shareholder) didn't do shit, he just owns the facilities and the rights to reap the profits.
FearlessNebula 5y ago
Often the trade off on those sub $200 laptops is a really poor screen and speakers and other things that make for a crappy experience.

DennisAleynikov 5y ago

I have been fascinated by this question ever since seeing an all apple school employ macbooks as a minimum bar. using Samsung dex, and now budget arm chromebooks I have found most websites do work on even mediatek and qualcomm chips, and design my own experiences to work there accordingly. The lenovo Duet is an incredible device, its sad how poorly optimized some of the heavier websites are and you can't do anything about it. I find the bias towards powerful desktops as the only place any apps are written and tested ridiculous and something we can work to correct long term with progressive web.

kiwijamo 5y ago
I work in Education and I have to admit things are just easier in the Apple ecosystem. Things like AirPlay and AirDrop etc are lifesavers for many of the less tech-inclined staff in schools who can actually manage to use these (and other) tools. It's not just about websites and apps--there are accessible QOL features macOS offers that simply aren't present or are packaged up in a non-obvious way in ChromeOS or Windows.

LeonM 5y ago

> I've heard it said that it's more difficult to make a $10,000 car than it is to make a $1,000,000 car. It is, but probably for a different reason than you'd think. In automotive, the difficulty is not designing the car, but the facility to mass produce them. Elon found out the hard way. In his words: "it's trivial to design the machine, but it's hard to design the machine, that builds the machine". He is currently facing the same challenge with the production of the raptor engines for starship. A million dollar low volume "hand made" car can be build by a small team, with relatively few resources. Operating a factory that produces thousands of affordable cars per day takes tens of thousands of people through the entire supply chain.

kazen44 5y ago
producing something in a very high volume consistently is difficult. my SO's father works in plastics manufacturing. they make tiny plastic housings used in cable connectors and tiny plastic balls for machine bearing seals. both of these products have surprisingly high specification, and producing hundreds of thousands of them each day is a serious challenge.
jeabays 5y ago
Elon (and other shareholder) didn't do shit, he just owns the facilities and the rights to reap the profits.

FearlessNebula 5y ago

Often the trade off on those sub $200 laptops is a really poor screen and speakers and other things that make for a crappy experience.