Regardless of price, what is the best portable machine that you have ever done programming/development on?<p>I'm going to be looking into purchasing a new machine for development soon and I'm curious what other HNewsers think is best. I've been looking at the Lenovo T4xx series and they seem promising so far.
The best Laptop I ever used for development was one with a keyboard, monitor, trackpad, and internet connection.<p>I would VNC into my work machine (using a two-factor authentication), and do development on my work machine.<p>It had all of my work already saved on it, it could compile faster than any laptop of similar price, and if my laptop was stolen from me, I would not lose any of my work - and none of my intellectual property (trade secret, or otherwise) was compromised.<p>Every now and then, internet connectivity was an issue, and that sucked.<p>I can't imagine losing full control over my intellectual property, though, so that's a trade I was totally comfortable with.<p>It had a small SSD so it would boot quickly, because that's all it really needed to do.
I'm on a Lenovo T420s, it's a pretty solid machine. This is my first ThinkPad and I really love the screen resolution and the feeling with the keyboard, the keys are just amazing and if you are a developer I think this is one of the most important features. I oned a MacBook (the white and cheap one) and an iBook, but the "physicity" of this laptop is really good.
Moreover you have 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 that you cannot find on an Apple product.<p>I'm using it with Fedora 17, everything works pretty well but you need some tweaking to optimize the power consumption while on battery.
My current one -- a 2010 Lenovo ThinkPad T510. A high-end, rock-solid machine with an insanely durable battery (they claim up to 8 hours on a charge, realistically I can pull about 5 or 6). Compared to a MacBook, it looks like the Tumbler Batmobile from <i>Batman Begins</i>, but it was about $1000 cheaper than a similarly specced Mac at the time of purchase; the keyboard is much better (not full travel, but good tactile action and nice concavities on the top that make them feel like real keys); and it runs Linux absolutely beautifully.
I am quite partial to my current 2012 15" MacBook Pro. Only Apple-supplied upgrades are the 2.5GHz i7 and the high-res screen.<p>Replaced default hard drive with Corsair Force3 SSD, purchased from Amazon (iirc).<p>Removed optical drive & placed default hard drive in its place with aftermarket drive bay kit.<p>Ignored Apple's RAM upgrade & bought 16GB RAM from third party (Apple only sells 8GB, even though 16GB is supported). Love the RAM.<p>It is a dream. Development has never felt better.
I'm currently using a 13" MBA. It's a little bit tight on ram (only 4gig) but it runs plenty fast for rails development.<p>The real joy for me is that the size and sturdiness of it means I dont think twice about throwing it into my bag before I bike off . . . anywhere. It's always with me so it gets a lot more use than older chunkier laptops that I've owned in the past.
Another vote for the 17" MacBook Pro (for mostly Windows development, no less), in particular, Sandy Bridge 17" with SSD (of course) and BTO matte display. For the home office, Apple's Thunderbolt "docking station"[1] is a convenient accessory.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html</a>
I'm on a ~5 year old macbook(black) running ubuntu 11.10/gnome3. With the exception of mine being one of the last 32-bit models they sold, I couldn't be much happier. Only other complaint is that it get SUPER hot, and the fan can be pretty loud.
I'm absolutely in love with my 2011 11" MBA. 1.8Ghz i7, 4 GB RAM, 256 SSD. The screen size is very conducive to focusing on one task at a time, periodically I will connect to a Thunderbolt display for added screen real estate.
I have a 13" 2.4ghz c2d MacBook Pro with 8GB of ram and a 256gb solid state and a 15" 2.2ghz quad core i7 with 16gb of ram, soon to have 256gb SSD and 500gb 7200rpm storage drive.<p>Best laptops I've ever owned and developed on.
My 4 year old 15" MacBook Pro is still working great; though I can't deny I'm yearning for something with more power at this point. If the rumors are true then next week I'll be able to lust after a new model.
2011 MacBook Pro 15" w/ Vertex3 SSD.<p>Runs Mac software<p>Runs Windows software<p>Only downside is the heat, which they may address with the update coming next week. Aside from that, it's a phenomenal machine.
2009 17" Macbook Pro would be the winner for me if not for the keyboard.<p>Second favorite is a 17" Dell XPS M1730. Great screen, decent keyboard but... Heavy as hell.