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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern Subscriber

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What computer do you use for software develpment?

What make/model do you use? Are you satisfied with it? Are you going to stay in the same operating system ecosystem when you upgrade?

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Ben Halpern

My details:

  • MacBook Pro (15-inch 2019)
  • Processor: 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
  • Memory: 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
  • Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

This is basically among the more powerful Mac laptops before M1. I'm overall satisfied with it. There's more than enough beef here for everything I do. I got it refurbished so didn't pay absolute top dollar.

I'd be happy to lose the touch bar and definitely feel like M1 Chip was a step up I missed out on — though have enough power in this machine to not worry about it, realistically.

At this point I worry that I'm an old dog that can't be taught new tricks enough to really want to leave the Apple ecosystem at this point. Just the way it is despite the premium pricing and certain missed options.

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Simon Wicki

I'm also team MacBook, but I skipped the 15-inch 2019. I need a physical escape key.

That's why I immediately got the MacBook 16" (non-M1) when I saw the keyboard 🥰

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Jared Siebert

I have the same, yet I've still had the keyboard replaced twice thanks to the stupid butterfly key flaw. Now, unless I absolutely have to (like for travel), I always use an external mouse and keyboard

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Ben Sinclair

I cannot stand typing or using the touchpad on Macs. I make so many mistakes, and it's not down to familiarity because sometimes the Mac's been the only computer I've used for weeks at a time. I connect an external keyboard and mouse if I can these days.

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Sherry Day
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Matt Curcio

I have eyed the XPS-13 & 15 for quite some time. How do you like it? I worried that 13 would be too small.

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Drew Ronsman

It's really small I have a friend that has it. it would work, but not be practical using it for software development

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Jared Siebert

Screen size of any laptop dev setup all depends on how you use it... Are you always on the go and only working off the laptop screen? Then yes, screen size matters. My setup is a 16" MBP but it's plugged into a mouse, keyboard, and 2 external 32" monitors.

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Kinanee Samson

Acer
14"

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GrahamTheDev • Edited

Windows (laptop!)

  • I7 OC TO 4.5ghz
  • 32 GB RAM
  • M.2 1TB (3700mb/s read write)
  • 2 SSDs @2TB each (RAID 0)
  • GTX1080 (stripped down PC version, not maxQ)

Was a custom build from PC Specialist.

The only thing I was never happy with was that I couldn’t overclock the CPU and GPU at the same time as it is only a 300 watt power supply and so there isn’t enough power. To be fair it is a laptop so cooling is always fun when stressing it on both CPU and GPU (rendering videos etc) for an extended period.

So I just O/C the CPU and undervolted it slightly to minimise the max power draw and left the GPU stock speeds. Real shame as I won the silicon lottery on both!

The thing still munches through nearly anything and is 5 years old, but I have been eyeing up building a desktop instead as I want to get back into making videos and so a 1080 is now a little slow.

The m.2 was the biggest win, always invest in a fast HDD for Dev work, saves so much time!

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Fida Muntaseer

Model: HP Probook 450 G4
OS: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-7200U
Ram: 16 GB
Storage: 256 GB SSD + 1 TB HD

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Evaldas Buinauskas

Just got MBP16 with Max, it'll take time getting used to it and its shortcuts, but the thing is beast.

Rust compilation times went down significantly compared to my previous machine, battery life is also sick.

It's my fist Mac and I might stick with it for a while.

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Nikola Stojaković
  • MacBook Pro (16-inch 2019)
  • CPU: 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
  • Memory: 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4 GB
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Pandademic

My details:

  • HP pavilion 15" 2020
  • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00GHz 1.19 GHz
  • 8.00 GB
  • some intel graphics
  • wacom bamboo ink Windows :( - which is the only thing i am dissatisfied about (love linux and macos) i have to do a lot of stuff to even come close for functionality
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Gualtiero Frigerio

I'm using my 16" Intel MacbookPro, still haven't upgraded to Apple Silicon.
In the past I used to have an iMac and a Macbook, now I prefer owning only one machine so there's the Macbook and an external display at my desk.
I see two advantages of having only one machine: the first is avoiding configuring and updating software and libraries twice, the second is I have more budget to spend on a single machine, so I don't have to compromise on the laptop or the desktop.
I'm an iOS developer so I'll stay on the Mac in the future.

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tomasszz

PC running Linux Mint 20.

AMD R5 1600 (af)
32GB ram
GTX 970Ti + GTX 660Ti