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Or, just get any laptop really. There's nothing special about a Mac unless you need to do native development for Apple devices, and I'd suggest a Mac Mini for t

Or, just get any laptop really. There's nothing special about a Mac unless you need to do native development for Apple devices, and I'd suggest a Mac Mini for that.

mmcnl 3y ago
That's what I did. I have a HP Elitebook that runs Linux + Windows 11 (really, Windows is not the Windows from 10 years ago, developer experience is pretty great these days, I much prefer it to macOS). For iOS app development I have a Mac Mini.
siddbudd 3y ago
Nothing special indeed about a Macbook Air M1. I need to hear my machine working, but this thing does not even have a cooling fan. I can always put on noise-cancelling headphones if my machine sounds like it's about to lift off. Not to mention Apple Silicon is a joke, the Threadripper in my almost mobile workstation beats it any time. Meanwhile the battery cannot even last a standard Earth day, so why not just stick to power outlets? All kidding aside, the (lack of) ports and the non-upgradability can be meaningfully criticized, but then again a lot of competitors are copying those anti-features. But to say there is nothing special about these machines... well, maybe not to you. Some people hate noisy laptop fans, and this total silence is a game changer.
speedgoose 3y ago
You haven’t used a Mac laptop recently I assume.
- DennisAleynikov 3y ago
  no I've just been using arm64 devices for like 6 years now and the advantages of the m1/m2 are present in any laptop or tablet that is arm64. endless battery, fanless design, excellent performance for the kinds of tasks a developer does. only downside is the m2 is probably faster in cpu/compilation times for certain things because of how fast it is
  - senttoschool 3y ago
    That's funny. It compiles so fast for a laptop that your break times are shorter. Bosses are happy. You're not.
    - DennisAleynikov 3y ago
      new kind of first world problem just dropped: code compiles too fast
  - speedgoose 3y ago
    I'm interested and not trying to be sarcastic. Which non Apple laptop is arm64 with endless battery, good build quality, and descent performances at a fair price?
    - wiseowise 3y ago
      Define fair price first.
      - kaba0 3y ago
        Comparable to the M1 Air.
      - speedgoose 3y ago
        Between $500 and $3000 perhaps, like most laptops.
        DennisAleynikov 3y ago
        my main computer is a Lenovo Duet 5 tablet/laptop hybrid. It gets more than 24 hours of battery life and is completely silent, runs cold and has an excellent OLED screen. I honestly don't know what more I could ask for. its $500 and includes the kickstand and keyboard I did mention in my previous comment that the m1/m2 are still faster than other arm64 devices but for the web development tasks that I'm doing a chromebook is better suited anyways due to the less locked down environment and the ability to run full linux apps. macos is okay for development but I'm not targeting iOS so its benefits are wasted on me. (I still got an m2 Pro mac mini with 32gb of ram to play with machine learning but its turned out to be too slow to compete with even a rtx3060)
stOneskull 3y ago
this article seems like a total ad
agnosticmantis 3y ago
I haven’t used a Linux laptop in a while. Is there any that’s competitive to MBP M2 in terms of processing power and battery life? I’ve been working on an MBP M1 for ~1 years now and I’ve yet to hear the fan working or feel the heat (to be fair, it’s a work laptop and most development happens in the cloud). If only for this reason I find it hard to buy anything other than MBPs for work, unfortunately.
- duped 3y ago
  Processing power: plenty. Battery life: not really but who cares? Just plug in. The real question is why you would want a $2,000 laptop to run as a terminal emulator.
- conductr 3y ago
  I got a surface a few months ago and have been impressed with build quality. I’ve actually never had problems with dell or Lenovo laptops either in terms of ruggedness however I don’t know that I’m actually properly testing that attribute. I don’t view any of my computer usage as rugged tbh. I just like using / writing code on macOS more than windows, not much else to it.
- JodieBenitez 3y ago
  > Is there any that’s competitive to MBP M2 in terms of processing power and battery life? Sadly, nope. And I'm not even on a MBP M2, just a maxed out MBA M1, The best laptop I ever had. Processing power is more than enough for what I develop, and after more than two years I can still easily work my day with a single charge. Meanwhile, coworkers suffer with Dell laptops running different Linux distros: power management problems, battery life is tiny, fans blowing like they're hoovers. Oh... and they all have more expensive laptops than me. But Apple bad. Not professional. Or so they say.
- piva00 3y ago
  My work laptop is a MBP M1 Max, all development is local and I've never heard the fan or feel the heat like my previous work MBP Intel (Core i9). That machine sucked, it had the power but I could never be work for more than 2-3h away from a power outlet. The M1 Max lasts 7-10h even when doing Google Meet video calls (the biggest power drain I experience, much more than development running multiple containers with Rancher Desktop).
VectorLock 3y ago
MacBookPros have been pretty much for the past decade+ the undisputed leader of rugged hardware design. Nobody else to my knowledge sells machined unibody laptops at a competitive price point. (Only half jokingly posting this hoping somebody can't help to attempt to prove me wrong)
- yread 3y ago
  Why do you want a unibody? Isn't it better to open it up and and stick a multi TB ssd and 64GB RAM in, lioe I did with my EliteBook 840?
  - bunga-bunga 3y ago
    Old unibody MacBooks could do that. The lack of choice now is due to a non-standard architecture, which the Mac Pro seems to confirm (not “unibody”, but still the RAM is not extensible)
- cpgxiii 3y ago
  Machined unibody laptops aren't rugged hardware. They look nice, and are reasonably robust to minor wear and tear, but they definitely aren't "rugged". Put enough force info the body to bend it, and it's never the same again. A machined unibody like a MacBook offers no damping or shock protection to the boards inside. Real ruggedized laptops, e.g. those sold by Panasonic or Dell, look very different. It's like the glass-versus-plastic question in phone screens. Glass looks nice, and withstands day-to-day abrasion better. But the stress necessary to shatter glass is way less than that of plastic.
  - cpach 3y ago
    You’re right in that they are not ruggedized. But for “normal” laptop use, it works very well and looks good too. However, if I were to do a geological survey or something like that, I might not use MacBook.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  > the undisputed leader of rugged hardware design. Glass and aluminum are ruggedized materials?
cpach 3y ago
I use MacBook Pro for these reasons: a) Availability of high-quality native applications. b) I like macOS. Good GUI with a Unix underneath. (Installing Homebrew and GNU Coreutils makes it much fresher.) c) The hardware is really nice. If I was a heavy gamer, perhaps I would consider Windows. There’s one thing I miss from Linux though: Native support for cgroups. I can live without it, but it sure would be convenient.
madeofpalk 3y ago
Some people have a preference for macOS and/or Macbook hardware.
scarface_74 3y ago
Or you want a 14 hour battery life, doesn’t sound like a 747 when you open a few Chrome tabs. Not to mention the fact that a Mac laptop won’t fry your nuts when you put it on your lap.
- iLoveOncall 3y ago
  Lol. My MacBook Pro loses battery even when plugged and is constantly at 100% fan speed no matter what it is doing (or not doing).
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    Are you talking about an ARM Mac or x86 Mac?
    - iLoveOncall 3y ago
      x86, a 2019 model (and I had this behavior from the start). I'm aware it's uncomparable to the ARM-based ones, but people were saying the same BS back when it was only Intel.
      - scarface_74 3y ago
        No one said ever that x86 based Mac laptops had great battery life or ran cool.
        iLoveOncall 3y ago
        Ok buddy lol
        scarface_74 3y ago
        So find one mainstream review that gushed about how cool an Intel i9 ran or how quiet it was. I couldn’t find one.

Or, just get any laptop really. There's nothing special about a Mac unless you need to do native development for Apple devices, and I'd suggest a Mac Mini for that.

mmcnl 3y ago

That's what I did. I have a HP Elitebook that runs Linux + Windows 11 (really, Windows is not the Windows from 10 years ago, developer experience is pretty great these days, I much prefer it to macOS). For iOS app development I have a Mac Mini.

siddbudd 3y ago

Nothing special indeed about a Macbook Air M1. I need to hear my machine working, but this thing does not even have a cooling fan. I can always put on noise-cancelling headphones if my machine sounds like it's about to lift off. Not to mention Apple Silicon is a joke, the Threadripper in my almost mobile workstation beats it any time. Meanwhile the battery cannot even last a standard Earth day, so why not just stick to power outlets? All kidding aside, the (lack of) ports and the non-upgradability can be meaningfully criticized, but then again a lot of competitors are copying those anti-features. But to say there is nothing special about these machines... well, maybe not to you. Some people hate noisy laptop fans, and this total silence is a game changer.

speedgoose 3y ago

You haven’t used a Mac laptop recently I assume.

DennisAleynikov 3y ago
no I've just been using arm64 devices for like 6 years now and the advantages of the m1/m2 are present in any laptop or tablet that is arm64. endless battery, fanless design, excellent performance for the kinds of tasks a developer does. only downside is the m2 is probably faster in cpu/compilation times for certain things because of how fast it is
- senttoschool 3y ago
  That's funny. It compiles so fast for a laptop that your break times are shorter. Bosses are happy. You're not.
  - DennisAleynikov 3y ago
    new kind of first world problem just dropped: code compiles too fast
- speedgoose 3y ago
  I'm interested and not trying to be sarcastic. Which non Apple laptop is arm64 with endless battery, good build quality, and descent performances at a fair price?
  - wiseowise 3y ago
    Define fair price first.
    - kaba0 3y ago
      Comparable to the M1 Air.
    - speedgoose 3y ago
      Between $500 and $3000 perhaps, like most laptops.
      - DennisAleynikov 3y ago
        my main computer is a Lenovo Duet 5 tablet/laptop hybrid. It gets more than 24 hours of battery life and is completely silent, runs cold and has an excellent OLED screen. I honestly don't know what more I could ask for. its $500 and includes the kickstand and keyboard I did mention in my previous comment that the m1/m2 are still faster than other arm64 devices but for the web development tasks that I'm doing a chromebook is better suited anyways due to the less locked down environment and the ability to run full linux apps. macos is okay for development but I'm not targeting iOS so its benefits are wasted on me. (I still got an m2 Pro mac mini with 32gb of ram to play with machine learning but its turned out to be too slow to compete with even a rtx3060)

stOneskull 3y ago

this article seems like a total ad

agnosticmantis 3y ago

I haven’t used a Linux laptop in a while. Is there any that’s competitive to MBP M2 in terms of processing power and battery life? I’ve been working on an MBP M1 for ~1 years now and I’ve yet to hear the fan working or feel the heat (to be fair, it’s a work laptop and most development happens in the cloud). If only for this reason I find it hard to buy anything other than MBPs for work, unfortunately.

duped 3y ago
Processing power: plenty. Battery life: not really but who cares? Just plug in. The real question is why you would want a $2,000 laptop to run as a terminal emulator.
conductr 3y ago
I got a surface a few months ago and have been impressed with build quality. I’ve actually never had problems with dell or Lenovo laptops either in terms of ruggedness however I don’t know that I’m actually properly testing that attribute. I don’t view any of my computer usage as rugged tbh. I just like using / writing code on macOS more than windows, not much else to it.
JodieBenitez 3y ago
> Is there any that’s competitive to MBP M2 in terms of processing power and battery life? Sadly, nope. And I'm not even on a MBP M2, just a maxed out MBA M1, The best laptop I ever had. Processing power is more than enough for what I develop, and after more than two years I can still easily work my day with a single charge. Meanwhile, coworkers suffer with Dell laptops running different Linux distros: power management problems, battery life is tiny, fans blowing like they're hoovers. Oh... and they all have more expensive laptops than me. But Apple bad. Not professional. Or so they say.
piva00 3y ago
My work laptop is a MBP M1 Max, all development is local and I've never heard the fan or feel the heat like my previous work MBP Intel (Core i9). That machine sucked, it had the power but I could never be work for more than 2-3h away from a power outlet. The M1 Max lasts 7-10h even when doing Google Meet video calls (the biggest power drain I experience, much more than development running multiple containers with Rancher Desktop).

VectorLock 3y ago

MacBookPros have been pretty much for the past decade+ the undisputed leader of rugged hardware design. Nobody else to my knowledge sells machined unibody laptops at a competitive price point. (Only half jokingly posting this hoping somebody can't help to attempt to prove me wrong)

yread 3y ago
Why do you want a unibody? Isn't it better to open it up and and stick a multi TB ssd and 64GB RAM in, lioe I did with my EliteBook 840?
- bunga-bunga 3y ago
  Old unibody MacBooks could do that. The lack of choice now is due to a non-standard architecture, which the Mac Pro seems to confirm (not “unibody”, but still the RAM is not extensible)
cpgxiii 3y ago
Machined unibody laptops aren't rugged hardware. They look nice, and are reasonably robust to minor wear and tear, but they definitely aren't "rugged". Put enough force info the body to bend it, and it's never the same again. A machined unibody like a MacBook offers no damping or shock protection to the boards inside. Real ruggedized laptops, e.g. those sold by Panasonic or Dell, look very different. It's like the glass-versus-plastic question in phone screens. Glass looks nice, and withstands day-to-day abrasion better. But the stress necessary to shatter glass is way less than that of plastic.
- cpach 3y ago
  You’re right in that they are not ruggedized. But for “normal” laptop use, it works very well and looks good too. However, if I were to do a geological survey or something like that, I might not use MacBook.
smoldesu 3y ago
> the undisputed leader of rugged hardware design. Glass and aluminum are ruggedized materials?

cpach 3y ago

I use MacBook Pro for these reasons: a) Availability of high-quality native applications. b) I like macOS. Good GUI with a Unix underneath. (Installing Homebrew and GNU Coreutils makes it much fresher.) c) The hardware is really nice. If I was a heavy gamer, perhaps I would consider Windows. There’s one thing I miss from Linux though: Native support for cgroups. I can live without it, but it sure would be convenient.

madeofpalk 3y ago

Some people have a preference for macOS and/or Macbook hardware.

scarface_74 3y ago

Or you want a 14 hour battery life, doesn’t sound like a 747 when you open a few Chrome tabs. Not to mention the fact that a Mac laptop won’t fry your nuts when you put it on your lap.

iLoveOncall 3y ago
Lol. My MacBook Pro loses battery even when plugged and is constantly at 100% fan speed no matter what it is doing (or not doing).
- scarface_74 3y ago
  Are you talking about an ARM Mac or x86 Mac?
  - iLoveOncall 3y ago
    x86, a 2019 model (and I had this behavior from the start). I'm aware it's uncomparable to the ARM-based ones, but people were saying the same BS back when it was only Intel.
    - scarface_74 3y ago
      No one said ever that x86 based Mac laptops had great battery life or ran cool.
      - iLoveOncall 3y ago
        Ok buddy lol
        scarface_74 3y ago
        So find one mainstream review that gushed about how cool an Intel i9 ran or how quiet it was. I couldn’t find one.