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May 5th, 2020 06:00
Laptop decision grids
Hello! I'm planning to get a new laptop this year, and I was wondering what all y'all did about structuring your purchase decisions. Do you have any grids to share?
I'm a Scala and a Python developer; machine learning mostly, but I'm thinking I'll go with a USB stick GPU instead of trying to max out my graphics card. I've been on my MacBook Pro since 2013, before that I had a ZaReason BigLap with Ubuntu (which was a configuration adventure at every 6-month upgrade) and then Corel and other Linuxes back to the 90s, when I was on Windows. I switched back to commercial OSs mostly because I was frustrated I couldn't use MagicJack on Linux, but I never actually used MagicJack anyway.
I'm pretty content with Darwin/Cocoa, but I'm thinking of going back to Linux. I use a Windows machine for my desktop at work and IBM RedHat on the servers. I use Sublime Text a lot, but otherwise it's all JetBrains (IntelliJ and PyCharm) all the time. A little R-Studio, a little Atom, but everything I really need to run runs on Linux, Windows and MacOS.
My wife would get upset were I to say money weren't an object, but I'll amortize the thing over 7 years.
So, you know, enough about me. How about you? Dude, you bought a Dell! Why?
Gilbou92
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May 15th, 2020 03:00
no grid.
Wanted a machine to write code on. So I wanted a qwerty keyboard. Decent quality
And a machine that would come directly with Linux. 16 gb ram is enough for me
So I ended up choosing between a Dell XPS 13 on Ubuntu and a MacBook 13.
Dell is cheaper, thinner, faster, and 4K screen is better quality.
Comes with Ubuntu, everything works and it's great. The Macbook Pro got negative points for not yet having the replacement for the Butterfly "pray until it breaks" keyboard and the stupid touchbar which is a stupid gimmick.
I wondered between a XPS 13 and gaming model like a G5 but the code I work doesnt require that much power and cooling systems
If you want autonomy go for a 1080P. The 4K screen is amazing but it halves basically the amount of battery hours