18 ms·

When you can get an 11" MB AIR for $1000, using an iPad in this way feels "forced". I like his thoughts on Win 8 Surface tablet, though: side-by-side apps, bet

by taude 14y ago

When you can get an 11" MB AIR for $1000, using an iPad in this way feels "forced". I like his thoughts on Win 8 Surface tablet, though: side-by-side apps, better integrated keyboard, likely better multitasking (or at least a simpler way of switching between apps....

sp332 14y ago
When you can get an iPad for half that price, it doesn't seem "forced".
- untog 14y ago
  How much is $500 worth to you in terms of productivity, though? Depends on how much you earn per hour, but for a lot of people, $500 isn't much in the big scheme of things.
  - sp332 14y ago
    For $500 I could put up with some level of annoyance... $500 buys a lot of Linode 512 time.
    - arbitrarywords 14y ago
      $500 / (10 hrs/week * 50 weeks) = $1/hr. I'd only worry about it if your hourly rate approaches this.
      - freehunter 14y ago
        Alternatively, since we're drawing arbitrary amounts of time from the air, $500 / (10 hrs/week * 1 wk) = $50/hr. Meanwhile I'm paying two months of rent with the money I saved not buying a Macbook. How much time/money do you save when you don't have to wait for your code to compile before you can leave, or when you don't have to worry about making sure you save before your battery dies? I can spend $1000 on a laptop and work on it with the same constraints as any workstation, or I can put that $500 to several years of Linode and have money left over to type "go build massive_project" then meet my girl for a coffee while it chugs away in the background without a worry.
untog 14y ago
I think the Surface point raises a larger issue that ought to have Apple and MS worried- when you're doing everything remotely like the author is, your actual device doesn't matter much. As long as he has competent SSH, and a suite of basic apps, he's good to go.
- david_shaw 14y ago
  > As long as he has competent SSH, and a suite of basic apps, he's good to go. Totally agreed. There's a nice little conversation going on here about a Macbook Air vs. an iPad, but shouldn't this raise the point that a $300 netbook can do all this and more? If all you're using is SSH and a web browser, why spring for the high-end (and high-priced) Apple hardware?
  - malyk 14y ago
    Because its nicer to work on and use than a cramped and cheap net book. But, if that works for you it would be fine. Me? I'm going with the nicer hardware even if I'm just using vi and terminal.
  - malyk 14y ago
    Because its nicer to work on and use than a cramped and cheap net book. But, if that works for you it would be fine. Me? I'm going with the nicer hardware even if I'm just using vi and terminal.
  - dhimes 14y ago
    That is exactly my travel rig. I don't use it full-time, however-- I would spring for a lenovo ultra probably if I was going to do that. But I have the advantage of the dev environment I like (even mimics the full rig), I can work on a plane without wifi (my netbook runs servers just fine), and I can boot Win if I need to. It also fits easily onto even a small airplane tray/table. The only drawback is that unity isn't quite as good as the netbook remix ubuntu used to have. And some progs like mysql workbench don't respect monitor size and make their windows too large (thank god for virtual desktops). I will probably do this for my next 'round' of tech investment again rather than go ipad.

by taude 14y ago

sp332 14y ago

When you can get an iPad for half that price, it doesn't seem "forced".

untog 14y ago
How much is $500 worth to you in terms of productivity, though? Depends on how much you earn per hour, but for a lot of people, $500 isn't much in the big scheme of things.
- sp332 14y ago
  For $500 I could put up with some level of annoyance... $500 buys a lot of Linode 512 time.
  - arbitrarywords 14y ago
    $500 / (10 hrs/week * 50 weeks) = $1/hr. I'd only worry about it if your hourly rate approaches this.
    - freehunter 14y ago
      Alternatively, since we're drawing arbitrary amounts of time from the air, $500 / (10 hrs/week * 1 wk) = $50/hr. Meanwhile I'm paying two months of rent with the money I saved not buying a Macbook. How much time/money do you save when you don't have to wait for your code to compile before you can leave, or when you don't have to worry about making sure you save before your battery dies? I can spend $1000 on a laptop and work on it with the same constraints as any workstation, or I can put that $500 to several years of Linode and have money left over to type "go build massive_project" then meet my girl for a coffee while it chugs away in the background without a worry.

untog 14y ago

I think the Surface point raises a larger issue that ought to have Apple and MS worried- when you're doing everything remotely like the author is, your actual device doesn't matter much. As long as he has competent SSH, and a suite of basic apps, he's good to go.

david_shaw 14y ago
> As long as he has competent SSH, and a suite of basic apps, he's good to go. Totally agreed. There's a nice little conversation going on here about a Macbook Air vs. an iPad, but shouldn't this raise the point that a $300 netbook can do all this and more? If all you're using is SSH and a web browser, why spring for the high-end (and high-priced) Apple hardware?
- malyk 14y ago
  Because its nicer to work on and use than a cramped and cheap net book. But, if that works for you it would be fine. Me? I'm going with the nicer hardware even if I'm just using vi and terminal.
- malyk 14y ago
  Because its nicer to work on and use than a cramped and cheap net book. But, if that works for you it would be fine. Me? I'm going with the nicer hardware even if I'm just using vi and terminal.
- dhimes 14y ago
  That is exactly my travel rig. I don't use it full-time, however-- I would spring for a lenovo ultra probably if I was going to do that. But I have the advantage of the dev environment I like (even mimics the full rig), I can work on a plane without wifi (my netbook runs servers just fine), and I can boot Win if I need to. It also fits easily onto even a small airplane tray/table. The only drawback is that unity isn't quite as good as the netbook remix ubuntu used to have. And some progs like mysql workbench don't respect monitor size and make their windows too large (thank god for virtual desktops). I will probably do this for my next 'round' of tech investment again rather than go ipad.