Hi fellow Hackers!
I am a grad student/wannabe-enterprenuer/hacker and I am really looking for advice in choosing a good work machine that would suit all three roles. Your advice is most welcome. I've been using company laptops and an old Dell Studio that worked well for last 7 years. Now I need one and the market is flooded with configurations and models. Maybe this discussion can help me and others in choosing something that is our livelihood :)
I'm using the new Dell XPS 13 Developer's Edition, without the touch screen. I've found build quality to be a step up for Dell, but still a bit flimsy especially around the cover of the monitor.<p>I like that it's pre-vetted hardware for running Ubuntu/Linux, has very long battery life, and the screen is really a joy to look at.<p>It's a 13-inch screen crammed into an 11-inch laptop body, so you get a lot of screen real-estated without the full bulkiness.<p>I also love the lightweight (close to MacBook light here), and the versatility in connectors (a detractor for the MacBook line for me).<p>In addition, out of the box things like 5GHz ac wifi just works under Linux.
Thinkpads. If you don't mind used and want something inexpensive and still decent, the T420s/X220s are pretty cheap ($250-400USD depending on configuration) and still very good machines.<p>Won't break (dropped mine on cement before and came back with just a few scratches and a small dent in the metal) and they're reasonably fast.
Macbook pro retina, 13"/15" dependend on your pockets. You won't get the same quality cheaper and the battery can easily last through the entire work day. It's a productive environment, though, so if you really want to tinker with the hardware pieces, this may not be the right choice for you.
Life is too short not to buy a Mac. I have an rMBP 15" and its awesome. After years of using Macs, I got a ThinkPad T450s because of the keyboard. It's now sitting on a shelf while I set it up for my dad.<p>It's <i>okay</i>. The screen is okay, pretty bad backlight bleed.[1] It's got a weird memory configuration--you can run dual channel only up to 8GB. The keyboard is fantastic, but the touchpad is awful. [2] Apple's touchpad is unmatched, and induces less cramping than the trackpoint.<p>Windows is getting better. I think Windows 10 is pretty good. But its not better than OS X, and Visual Studio is the only Windows app I miss. Even Office 2016 is just as good on the Mac (unless you have particular Excel-related needs). Retina support is still far better in OS X, and its 2015 and a non-retina screen isn't acceptable any more.<p>[1] I got the AUO screen, I hear the LG is better, but that's one thing you risk on the PC side--everyone has less tight sourcing tolerances than Apple.<p>[2] The touchpad on my work-issued T430 is better. That's another fact of PC-life: Its pretty much a crapshot whether the next iteration of any given model will have major regressions in trackpad quality or battery life or screen quality. PC manufacturers just don't care--they'll source whatever part is cheapest.
Some stuff to remember:<p>- thinness does not matter that much. If you want your stuff to look cool, then it does, but for portability it doesn't.
- thinness affects cooling. You don't want your battery get ruined, your CPU throttled and your lap burned.
- expandability matters on the long run<p>I just replaced my 2013 rMBP. I needed the following:
- expandable storage -- I can put 3 SSDs in this<p>- expandable memory - 4 DIMM slots, up to 64G RAM<p>- dockable<p>- trackpoint<p>- can drive UHD screens @ 60 Hz<p>- as Linux friendly as possible<p>- good keyboard<p>- good cooling<p>- IPS screen, min. fHD<p>I ended up buying the HP Zbook 15 G2. The only issue with that is UDH external screens and Linux-friendliness don't go together, because those displays require discrete GPU (Broadwells can drive UHD screens through MST, but most displays don't support that). The other alternative was the Thinkpad W550s, but I could get the G2 at half the price (and it's much more powerful).<p>I didn't buy:<p>- smaller devices because I'm working on this 10 hours a day sometimes, and portability itself wasn't enough to compensate for less power, less memory, worse cooling
- Thinkpad .40 series because of their clickpads<p>- Dell Precisions because they're extremely bulky and HPs have better keyboard<p>- Macbooks because OSX was not an option for me after using it for 2.5 years, also they don't have a trackpoint and their cooling is really abysmal<p>- anything from smaller vendors like System76, etc. because they all use OEM chassis and they're a far cry from top-end HP, Dell, Lenovo and Apple chassis<p>I personally don't understand how could anyone recommend a 11" MBA to someone who wants to do serious work on it. A 11" screen is extremely uncomfortable for all-day coding; if you keep it docked all day then might make sense though.
The number of people recommending MacBooks makes me cringe a little. Sure the build quality is good, but I can't live with the keyboard's crippling lack of keys and the need to constantly use the mouse in OSX. Lenovo isn't fairing much better these days - I have a T440p, and the lack of the 'menu' key (between right-alt and right-ctrl) drives me nuts. The lack of Home/End/PgUp/PgDn/Delete on the Mac also drives me crazy.<p>For those of us who live on the keyboard and hate to touch the mouse (too slow and inefficient), these days are dark times..<p>Also: why aren't we seeing >16 GB of ram in laptops yet? I realise workstation laptops are at 32, and possibly 64 GB now, but why are some brands going backwards from 16GB down to 12 and even 8?<p>As for my recommendation? There isn't a single laptop on the market that I like, I'm sad to say. Lenovo dropped the ball, and dell's build quality isn't up to par. I'd look at an HP workstation, or maybe one of the Lenovo W541's, although the keyboard isn't much better than on a MacBook.<p>The Chromebook Pixel 2 (the top spec one) is such a tantalising glimpse of what could be - just shoehorn in more hard drive space, add a mini-DP port and an RJ-45, and most people would be good to go...if they fixed the keyboard.<p>Sorry for the rant! Just overly frustrated with the state of the market.. Won't someone just release a standard workstation laptop without following all the keyboard/mouse trends?!?
I'm an infosec guy, and I use a 13" retina MacBook Pro. Unfortunately my work laptop is different, but for outside of work (security is my hobby as well as my work), the MacBook does exactly what I need. Long battery life, great build quality, and the screen is amazing for reading a lot.<p>I'm not a fan of Apple, but when I was looking through my options while shopping for a new laptop recently, there was nothing else that seemed like it wasn't a compromise for the same price.
Purism is building crowdfunded laptops (13", 15") based on user feedback on features (e.g. VT-d and TPM to support Qubes) and privacy (hardware switches for camera, wireless and microphone). Where feasible, components are used which support libre drivers and firmware.<p><a href="https://puri.sm/" rel="nofollow">https://puri.sm/</a>
I also recommend a Macbook (Air or Pro depending on how much dev).<p>Most students these days seem to be using Apple products, laptops or iPads. This makes it easy to deal with your University's IT department if/when they make you do special things to get access to their networks. (I remember the days when only Windows was supported and getting Mac/Linux to work with campus networks and services was a huge ordeal.)<p>As an entrepreneur, a lot of tech companies are mobile focused which means iOS is in the mix. To do any native development requires a Mac. And to do pitching/presentations, Macs are very nice for creating and presenting that type of stuff. (Guy Kawasaki has warned Windows users to expect to lose 20 minutes setting up your PowerPoint display for a pitch.) Additionally, VCs tend to use iPhones and iPads now...your Mac data will usually interoperate better.<p>For hacking, again, if mobile is a concern, Mac is the only platform that lets you do both iOS and Android. The Unix heritage on Mac makes dealing with the harder areas of Android development easier than on Windows (Linux is okay).<p>If you are doing heavy development, then a Macbook Pro is probably better. If you are doing light development, Air is fine. With Xcode, RAM is more important than CPU. So max out the RAM on any Air. (I don't know if the 12" Macbook will have enough RAM where you will be happy with Xcode.)
If you don't mind waiting a bit, the ThinkPad "Retro" is quite promising. We might get a good ThinkPad with modern hardware: <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/a-retro-thinkpad-classic-could-be-a-killer-laptop-not-crippled-by-insane-thinness/" rel="nofollow">http://www.zdnet.com/article/a-retro-thinkpad-classic-could-...</a><p>The company is even asking customers and thinking about backtracking to old designs. It's wise decision. I thought I would never see this, especially after introducing island-style keyboards and the Superfish fiasco: <a href="http://youropinioncounts.lenovo.com/s/87869/Survey2/nc/" rel="nofollow">http://youropinioncounts.lenovo.com/s/87869/Survey2/nc/</a><p>If you are in a hurry, I would recommend getting a x220 and then waiting to see what we get. The x220 was really good, except for a horrible trackpad and a slightly noisy fan.
If you mean "hacker friendly" as in completely free/libre software, one of these would probably be ideal:<p><a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/" rel="nofollow">http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/</a><p>The older X60 is slower but also similar, and Thinkpads (before Lenovo bought them) are very robust hardware-wise.
I initially used a think pad (T61p) with ubuntu installed on it, subsequently moved to the chromebook but finally settled for a macbook pro late 2014 , its the best undoubtedly . look at craigslist in your area for a re-sale one in case your budget is a bit constrained.
If you just want to get shit done, I recommend a macbook air 13" (or pro if you can afford it).<p>Shit will just work (mostly), updates won't (generally) break things and you can just do work.<p>When I was younger with more free time, I would have recommended a Lenovo or a Thinkpad running some variant of debian and happily messed around making things work how I want. Now I'm contracting and every hour I spend trying to make my computer work is an hour I can't bill - I find my tolerance for down-time is pretty much zero
My hands are too big to type on anything smaller than a 15" laptop. 17" would be better, so you actually have some screen real-estate to work with, if your intent is to do actual work on it. Ideally something with an aluminum case, since the screen hinges on plastic case models wear out so quickly. Something that has accessible panels for upgrading/replacing RAM and hard-disks, without having to completely disassemble the case. Something with a standard keyboard layout, with real F1-F12 function keys, and a full numpad on the right.<p>Get a cheap wireless/bluetooth mouse that takes AA batteries and turn off the trackpad.<p>If carrying around a 5 lb laptop is an issue, you might want to go to the gym a little more often ;-)<p>Unless you have to do iOS work and need to have XCode, I wouldn't pay the 300% Apple tax. There should be something offered by Acer or Asus for $500-600 that would fit your needs. Get the cheapest one that has a decent processor/GPU (don't worry about the HD or memory, as long as the motherboard supports at least 8GB DDR3). Throw an SSD and some decent memory sticks in it, and install a clean version of Windows, without all the bloatware, or your favorite flavor of Linux.
I hate to redirect a question by someone else, but I also am looking.<p>Would really like to see Ubuntu AND Kali Linux laptop that supports these requests:<p>A decently high resolution screen (minimum of 1280x1024)
wifi hacking capable (hardware that will work natively with Kali)
Faster than ARM - for processing reasonable password hashing (not 3d GPU level) and running VM's of Windows<p>Thanks all including original poster.
I'll vote for (yet) another Mac. I bought a retina 15 with my accrued leave when I left my last job and my current job bought me another. Neither, with varying workloads and duty cycles has ever left me wanting. My hackerness leans more toward cloud instances and microcontroller/raspberry Pi hardware, which the Mac works with just niftily. I _did_ have an issue with finding a usb/serial/terminal solution to talk to the console on a Palo Alto Firewall, but a second machine was easy enough to borrow while performing the initial config.<p>(Yeah, I'm a console gamer...while 'games' is the historical achilles heel of the mac, I've not had any problems with the types of games I play (Bioshock/Portal))
Whatever laptop a hacker can get his hands on, is a hacker's laptop. and a friendly one is one that is easily upgradeable, like x86. Get a reasonable x86 laptop. In my opinion, something with an 8gb, 500gbs i5 equivalent should be more than sufficient.
Mac laptops are definitely the go to in the startup world. If you're using it for work and you plan on doing programming, this will make that transition much easier. Biggest perk? They have a unix operating system.<p>For things that are linux specific, you can always use a VM through Vagrant (there's few practical reasons you'd need a Linux GUI).<p>If you truly want a "Hacker" laptop, then what you actually want is the Novena. :D <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena" rel="nofollow">https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena</a>
> a good work machine that would suit all three roles<p>You need a server that is hosted in the internet, a desktop system with a good mouse and keyboard, and two or more screens, and a laptop that is portable and cheap.<p>I really can not see, how to combine those 3 different roles, into one machine, as those roles have different locations: Server room, desktop and shoulder bag.<p>For laptop the only requirements are: max 2lbs as one has to carry it, maximum $300 as a laptop can be damaged or stolen easy, and it must run 100% free software without binary blobs, when it comes to wifi and graphics.
MacBook 13 or 15 retina. A great 13" for software development can be had for ~$1200.<p>Why Mac:<p>* It's Unix-like.<p>* Homebrew is fantastic for OSS package management.<p>* It's ubiquitous. (Yeah you could use Arch Linux instead of a Mac with Homebrew, but Homebrew will always get updates first.)<p>* Great battery life. (Linux often sucks at this.)<p>Why Retina:<p>* Text is extremely clear. It may seem like nothing before you've used it for a while, but you'll never go back.<p>* More real estate for side-by-side viewing of whatever you need.<p>* The Retina MBPs are actually quite light, enough so that I don't have MacBook Air envy ever.
The Macbook Air 11/13" is a solid solid workhorse. You don't necessarily need the extra power that MBPs offer.<p>My 2012 MBA is still perfect today.<p>Two things to note:
1) Max out the RAM and CPU
2) The 2015 13" MacbookAir has much faster PCIE storage for some reason<p>In addition to this, I sometimes remote desktop into a £500 Windows Laptop (80% as fast as TOP-end unreleased Broadwell) from pcspecialist.co.uk with an i7-4810mq processor). Also has nvidia 860M graphics!<p>15" MacbookPro with old graphics for £2500 is outrageous.
I just bought a ASUS 303LN. Was tossing this up vs the Dell XPS 13 and Mac Book Air. Seems a fairly good machine for a reasonable price point. If getting make sure you get the 5th gen processor as some places still sell with the 4th.<p><a href="http://www.ultrabookreview.com/4274-asus-zenbook-ux303ln-review/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ultrabookreview.com/4274-asus-zenbook-ux303ln-rev...</a>
I think macbook is the best if you don't want to use linux. I had some issues with it using linux. I also purchased lenovo x1 carbon, but I don't like it I tell you. the build quality is kinda low. I also heard some good things about dell xps 13. but I also saw compatibility complains.
I've been using a Thinkpad X1 Carbon (3rd gen) with ubuntu on dual boot no problem. It's pretty thin like that other brand, and has good battery life in both OS, like 6-9hrs depending on use. Visual studio and netflix? 6hrs. Coding in a text editor: 8-10.
I use an Asus N550JK. It's got good performance and handles Linux well, except for Optimus support which is still not great.<p>I used to own a MacBook Pro, but had bad experiences with hardware failures and Apple sweeping such defects under the rug for as long as possible.
I've got a macbook pro 15 retina and the new Macbook. Would recommend either. Though you might want to offload heavy workloads to a droplet/linode if you go for the new Macbook.