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Best Developer's Laptop?
s31523 writes "I love my current laptop, but unfortunately on my last trip the primary LCD went bonkers. It's an older Gateway (2 GB RAM Intel Pentium M 2.0 GHz, ATI M7). There are a handful of features I love about it: [1] Hot-swappable drive bay, with several components that can go in: CD/DVD R/W, extra battery, floppy drive, extra hard drive, memory card reader, etc. The extra battery option is especially appreciated — I can go 4-5 hours on battery power. [2] Docking station / port replicator: I like having my home setup with keyboard, network, and dual screens (a necessity). [3] It runs Linux. OK, I'm a wus, I actually have GRUB command three different OS's: Windows 98 (I have really old embedded software compilers that only run on 98, and yes I have tried every trick in the book to make them run on Linux), Windows XP Pro, and Ubuntu. I'm trying to find a replacement setup that offers the same flexibility and a little better performance. I am open to change as well. So, I ask Slashdot: What is your pick for best developer's laptop under $1,200, considering the features above?"
Who can be bothered with that.
Any new laptop is probably going to have a bunch of cores and hardware virtualization, so put ubuntu on that, and virtualize XP and 98.
All the Java developers at my work used Apple and I found this odd. When I asked one, they mentioned that it was built on BSD so they could use shell commands that they were used to on other Unix based systems. My wife had one and is a system administrator and found it very easy to VNC, SSH and manage most of her servers from her Macbook Pro.
I gave it a shot and have been able to do Objective C, Mono development, LAMP dev and just about everything without any problems. There effectively is not any language or environment that is left out and Eclipse and Subversion work as great as they do on my Linux box.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
You can easily get one that will fit your budget of $1,200. The ultrabay drive is hot-swappable and you can get a Li-polymer battery to slide in there for extra staying power. Also, Lenovo has kept Thinkpad customer service to essentially the same level of quality that it was under IBM which, in my experience, has been nothing short of fantastic.
Sounds like the Gateway/MPC 450-series laptops to me. The problem is usually the video system of the motherboard. Are you open to simply replacing the motherboard? Look at http://mundocorp.com/ or http://blueraven.com/. Either will sell you the parts or do the whole job for you.
I go to a lot of developer forums. Be it stuff designed in Java, PHP, Ruby, etc, there is one common thread I've noted of all the developers that present. 8 of 10 presents will use a mac. I switched a few years ago and couldn't be happier. I have VM Ware. Many people use VMs to run various windows versions, I like to use it to run Linux VMs that I eventually move off to other machines. Works fantastic. No need to reboot.
Now, if the OP is a .net person, well, Mac may not be for them. But there's something nice about being able to pop a BSD style terminal window.
From my personal experience, if you want to have efficiency:
1. You will need as much screen estate as possible. Coding against spec? Against existing code? Against requirements? Writing tests against code? In all these cases you would want to have at least 2 windows open in parallel
Thus resolutions such as 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 are desirable. Don't go for 1280x800 unless portability is #1 goal.
2. Compiling ... Compiling ...
Investing in faster CPU will pay off in both short and long term. You won't be able to change CPU - almost not feasible.
3. Hard drive
Today's development requires a lot of tools open at same time, and often projects are huge with lots of small files.
Therefore, I recommend going for 7200rpm drive which will help you feel like you are using desktop (speed-wise)
4. Other stuff
Most laptops today come with lots of RAM, and decent graphics.
And it meets none of the poster's requirements. Good jerb!
ThinkPad has the hotswap bays, excellent Linux support, excellent hardware support and turnaround from the factory, and there's always a 20% off coupon floating around. You can get a T series laptop with discrete graphics and well equipped for that $1,200 you're willing to spend, and probably far less. Not only that, but you generally get higher resolution displays than you get with Dell or Gateway laptops.
As for your Windows 98 installs -- why not use VirtualBox?
- oZ
// i am here.
Weeelll... you can't just nuke it and install anything yet. I tried to install only Linux on the Macbook I have only to find it uses EFI only, so until grub2 makes it into distros and it fully supports the Macbook EFI, you're stuck with having OS X around just to setup bootcamp (and emulate the regular BIOS, I guess)
I have read they don't have all the bugs nailed out in grub2/EFI/Macbooks yet, and this post: http://www.mail-archive.com/grub-devel@gnu.org/msg12901.html looks like it agrees with what I read. His test was done September 22nd...
That's been my experience, anyway. YMMV
Here's to the crazy ones
So, I guess, you would want the laptop to come with Java preinstalled (if you a Java Dev), or PHP / Apache installed, if you are that way inclinded. For source control, best make sure it comes with a mainstream SCM software, something like Subversion and hopefully the same company will create an IDE that supports it out of the box , while at the same time recognizing that alternative IDE's are out there and provide support and assistance to those who want to use it. Of course, been a developer laptop, having a good Backup Strategy is important, you wouldn't want to loose all that hard work if your hard disk died now would you!. Finally, of course, that manufacturer would provide tools to allow alternative operating systems to run on their hardware so you can test your final product on different systems, or even provide links to third party software should you wish to run any OS in a virtualised environment.....
Shame such a company doesn't exist *sigh*...
Build quality? Really?
My MBP's keyboard backlight was misbehaving within a couple of months of buying it. The machine regularly overheated playing games. The motherboard fried itself and needed replacement after a couple of years. The DVD drive is now extremely fussy about recognizing an inserted disc.
The last two Dell laptops I've owned each lasted well over 5 years with no problems.
Macs may have their advantages, but IMHO build quality is not one of them. You know, to be brutally honest.
But as most/many people know, a virtualized Windows9x installation often doesn't work particularly well. In VirtualBox, it all but doesn't work at all because of the way "idle" time is handled. (I don't recall having much trouble using VMWare workstation long ago however)
Virtualizing instead of multi-booting is a far better idea for me. I use Windows XP on rare occasion and I definitely don't like taking my Linux down to run another OS.
A well made laptop needs a "port replicator" or "docking station" like a fish needs a bicycle. (Gloria Steinem reference unavoidable.)
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Isn't Grub2 one of the features of Ubuntu Karmic Koala?
No sig for the moment.
make sure you get the extended warranty then - I've had to replace the battery, hard drive, dvd player, and screen of my macbook, and this thing doesn't even get used when I'm not travelling.
Any of these I recommend over home/gaming/entertainment equipment.
I happen to agree with this poster about the dell laptops. I have had 3, the most current one I run is an Inspiron 8500 and it works very well. the others were also dell laptops.
I think the most important thing I do with my laptop is the cleaning, I bust it open every year, take out all the dust an 4 times a year I just remove the fan and blow that dust out.
it has survived decently well.
if you see me, smile and say hello.
Windows 98 (I have really old embedded software compilers that only run on 98, and yes I have tried every trick in the book to make them run on Linux)...
If can't get it to run on Linux, what will make it run on Mac OS?
Your post does have a bit of Mac Fanboy feel to it - just saying.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
If you can, why not save a few bucks and get the "Value Line" or be able to spend the extra money on more RAM, peripherals, etc.... or beer? I see a few features with the Thinkpad line that may be unnecessary for a developer.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
It's about the 50th comment recommending a Macbook, despite the other 50 comments noting that a Macbook doesn't qualify for any of the OP's needs. It's a shame that buying a Mac comes with an EULA demading you work as a freelance PR agent for Apple. Also, it's a shame that you morons will recommend buying a Mac even when it blatantly isn't fit for the job.
Couldn't be much happier. When I'm in the office or home I hook up my USB keyboard/Mouse, my large monitor and 500G backup drive (for nightly backups of my subversion DB.).
When I'm out and about the long extension cord comes in handy. So does the two hour battery life. Sure, there are times when I really need to plug in and I can't so the trick is to keep your battery full (charge overnight) and when I hit the cafes I wait for the tables near the power plugs to empty out and jump on those tables. I've not had any problems. YMMV depending on location.
The small size really does mean portable. I've got 160G HD, 1.6G Hz ATOM CPU. Unless your compiling multi-million line projects, I find mine rather comfy. I built the entire boost library in ~1.5 hours.
Now for the killer: less than $300.00!! My last LT cost me almost $3,000.00 but was a PITA to lug around. It's still a fantastic machine but it's been relegated to the special projects heap. If this LT goes, who gives a crap. remove the HD, copy the data from the it (if it didn't make the nightly backups), buy another cheap-ass LT and move on with life.
It runs linux fine. I've been playing with SLAX lately (still a little flaky from a USB key, though) and it's exceeded my needs there, too. The Atheros WIFI card works great. (My HP never got the WIFI working.)
The only draw back I have with the device is its small screen resolution: 1024x600. Yes, that's six hundred.
Now, I've not done it but a friend of mine tells me his son runs WOW on his. I wouldn't run games as there isn't much in the way of cooling for the LT - no bottom fans. Just a large intake vent on the front and a exhaust port on the LHS.
Expressing my personal opinion is not a logical fallacy. Reporting my personal experience is not a logical fallacy. My inferences regarding build quality drawn from that experience, while subject to the usual caveats about inductive reasoning, are no less reasonable than those drawn by the O.P.
So I'm a little mystified as to what on Earth you're complaining about.
I am with Goldberg. MacBook Pro has very good Intel hardware, which means it is inherently a very nice Windows machine. Better hardware than a PC at the same price? When actual comparisons have been done (as several magazines now have), as opposed to FUD, it was found that the price difference was surprisingly little. Macs do tend to be a little more expensive for the same electronics, but at the same time their physical engineering is superior (that is something that is not under much dispute). And Mac hardware is probably more thoroughly tested together as a unit than any brand of PC. The beauty of the Mac, though, is that together with good hardware, you get the best of all worlds when it comes to software. I can (and do) boot up Windows so that it runs natively on my Mac, at full hardware speed, or, if I don't need all the speed, I can start the same instance of Windows up, fully functional including Internet connection and I/O, in a VM under OS X. And as far as OS X itself is concerned, I essentially have a Linux machine, with all common Linux tools available to me, with the additional plus of a superior UI. (Superior to Linux, that is. It is debatable whether the UI is superior to Windows, though some people feel that it is.) So, yeah... a MacBook, or at least a MacBook Pro, is indeed a superior developer's machine. Arguably better than any PC, because it gives you many more options. Want to use Windows for something? Go ahead. Want to use *nix for something? Go ahead. Want to use OS X for something? Go ahead. And they run Windows natively just as fast as a PC with similar hardware. I have Linux-style development tools, and Windows development tools, and OS X development tools, all on my MacBook. And I can even use them at the same time if I want. (Though the Windows tools will run a bit slower in a VM, but that is just the nature of the beast.) That is something that PCs just do not do... or at least definitely do not do well. So, no... unfortunately the "best" development notebooks will cost you more than $1200. If you are stuck with that budget, you are stuck with that budget. But you sure are missing out.
I use both high-end laptops. Both have 15" screens.
MacBook Pro advantages:
+ much brighter screen
+ Nicer OS w/ native Unix support
+ trackpad is way better if you use trackpads
Lenovo Thinkpad t61p advantages:
+ 1920x1200 resolution fits *alot* of code on one screen
+ better build quality-- yes, I think the build quality is better than the macbook pro
+ its got the trackpoint (aka nipple) if you don't like the trackpad
+ much better keyboard
Most of the "benefits" of the extra swappable drive bay are nullified in newer laptops.
Here's his list: CD/DVD R/W, extra battery, floppy drive, extra hard drive, memory card reader, etc
Floppy drives are obsolete
Since this is a developers' machine, a 17" should have 2 drive bays, so who needs to swap out drives? Failing that, use an external USB drive.
Memory card readers are built in nowadays.
If you're going to be lugging an extra battery around, just carry a spare.
So just go with the built-in DVD R/W, built in 4 USB ports, built-in 2nd hard drive, built-in card reader, etc. A grand should get you all this, including 4 gigs of ram and twin 500 gig hard drives.
Weeelll... you can't just nuke it and install anything yet. I tried to install only Linux on the Macbook I have only to find it uses EFI only, so until grub2 makes it into distros and it fully supports the Macbook EFI, you're stuck with having OS X around just to setup bootcamp (and emulate the regular BIOS, I guess)
You can install and use rEFIt on an Intel Mac. Of course it's a good idea to keep a bootable OS X partition if no other reason than to update firmware.
To tell the truth I don't know why anyone would pay for a Mac and not use OS X. I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro running Leopard now. I have the Snow Leopard DVD but haven't installed it yet. When I do though I will also install Ubuntu. I already have my hard disk drive partitioned with 2 partitions for OS X and Ubuntu and another one for the user home. Doing this I can use any and all user files in both OSes.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
You insulted his Mac, so he's offended and on the attack.
Heathen.
Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
Hm? Laptops are more expensive. But cheaper than a laptop and a desktop. Presumably the guy wants to have the option of taking the thing with him.
Laptops aren't underpowered for development work. They're underpowered for hard core gamers but that's about it. If you find your laptop is underpowered for development you really should be considering what the users of your code might be running it on.
My notebook (MBP) has a full size keyboard, except for the numeric keypad. I've never used the numeric keypad for development, or much else except playing games. If it's an issue I can always plug in a full keyboard if I'm sitting at a desk.
If the screen on your notebook is too small you buy a monitor and hook it up when you're sitting at your desk.
You can use a notebook in the same position you do when sitting at a desktop. Or you can put it on your lap, which is actually one of the best places to have your keyboard (note where keyboard trays are). Or you can use it in your hammock, which is the most ergonomic position I've ever discovered.
You are implying that a Macbook or a "PC Laptop" are Compal or Quanta laptops with different badges on them. Which is not the case. It's irrelevant which manufacturer is used - you might as well say that they are all made in China for the difference that makes.
That's like saying that back in the day, Porsches and Volkswagens were made by the same large corporation. The answer to that is, "So what?" It is completely irrelevant.
For the umpteenth time, a Mac doesn't fit what he needs. There are no Macbooks which offer hot-swappable drive bays or docking ports. And a Dell Latitude with a 9-cell can also use a slice battery and bay drive battery which will get you well over a Macbook's 7 hours. With a solid state drive you can be into double digits of battery life easily.
A Mac fits some needs, some very well in fact, but the submitter is not going to find what he needs from Apple.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
My work laptop was a Latitude D620, but it was replaced with with an E6400 last week. It is lighter then my old D620 even with the , and has a much smaller power supply. This makes a difference when you have to lug a bag around.
I can't really comment on battery life since I my use consists of moving from docking station to docking station. I don't think I actually opened it since client support dropped it off, but I haven't had any problems running 2 monitors through the docking station.
I do like the fact that both the dock and the laptop have eSATA ports. For my use, this is probably the biggest improvement outside of the upgraded processor. If you are like me an keep most of your work on an external hard drive, eSATA is a big improvement over USB.
My only complaint is the sound quality, and you if you can't listen to Lady Gaga you can't do any real development. I don't think it pumps out enough power to drive my headphones. Maybe this is an excuse to build an Altoids amp.
I just bought a new laptop to replace the mobile workstation our school gives us (HP nw8240 for the 2005 class; now you know where I go to school!). While that computer was, even to today's standards, pretty freaking fast, I had no warranty on it and saw that the LCD was going at some points.
Instead of waiting a few months, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade two weeks ago. I was deliberating between a non-unibody Macbook Pro, a Dell Precision M-series and a Latitude E-series. Since I commute and am moving around a lot, I really wanted a computer that could take a bit of a beating and hold a decent charge, all while still being not being as powerful and svelte as my old machine.
In the end, I landed up getting a Latitude E6500 with the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (P8600 - 2.4GHz with 3MB L2 Cache), 2GB of RAM (though the eBay ad advertised it as having 3GB...bastards :p), 80GB SATA hard drive, nVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M 256MB discrete graphics (not good for Crysis, but good enough for a non-gamer like myself :D), 15.4" LED WXGA LCD and an integrated webcame (VERY IMPORTANT) for $695 shipped.
This thing is awesome. Scratch that; it's FREAKING awesome. It runs Windows 7 like a Cadillac, looks damn good, has THE perfect keyboard (no, really...it's really, really good) and is pretty light (something like six pounds). It's 6-cell battery usually lasts me 3.5 hours, which is perfect for me. Thus, doing development work on it (right now, I'm working on projects in C, though I mainly do a good amount of scripting and am learning C# in the future) is just fantastic. You might want a bigger LCD; they have a WUXGA LED screen available, which I hear is phenomenal. I personally wanted something with a lower-resolution, as I hardly use 1920x1200 anyway (and most mobile graphics cards can't push that many pixels smoothly anyway when under load).
To add, I can get the fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth module and LED-backlit keyboard from Dell (more like from eBay) when I need it. Oh, and it came with a 3-year limited warranty, which isn't business-class, but it's perfect for me.
In short: Macbooks are still overpriced, and AppleCare still comes separately. My Latitude does EVERYTHING a Macbook would do (yes, it even runs OS X successfully)...while looking just as good and with more AWESOME.
If you're going to be lugging an extra battery around, just carry a spare.
Yeah, because nothing's quite so convenient as hibernating your laptop, swapping out the batteries, and resuming.
Actually the double-convenience of the swappable bay battery is that if you don't want to lug anything extra around, and you know you need the battery life and not the CD/DVD, you can drop that extra battery RIGHT IN YOUR LAPTOP and don't need to carry it separately. Added bonus: don't waste power spinning up the CD at boot time.
This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
I'm happy with 1440 x 900 for a 17" laptop - but I've seen the same model, but with a lower-res screen - 1280x800.
The question I have is how much squinting at fine fonts I'd do at 1920x1200 on only 17" of screen - it's great on a 26", but can't see it being that good on a laptop.
Laptops are ALL sketchy pieces of shit, and if you get one that lasts more than a few years, it's the luck of the draw. I worked at a hardware support desk at a university, and we saw all kinds of laptops come through...Mac, Toshiba, Sony, Dell, Lenovo, etc etc etc. They all use the same innards, and they all wear out at about the same rate. The main difference in quality is the exterior.
I had a cheap ass Gateway laptop that lasted me for 4 years, while a friend's Macbook died within a few months. On the other hand, I've seen Macs last for years and "pc's" die after a few months.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
The 9400m is not a discrete graphics card. The only Mac laptop you can't get without discrete graphics is the MBP 17".
Your singular experience isn't really relevant to a discussion of MBP build quality. To say that they have better build quality is not to say that none of them fail. It is to say that they fail less often than competitor machines. Obviously, with a non-zero failure rate, someone will get the failed machine. So, you pointing out that you have one of the failed machines really has no bearing on whether or not the build quality is better. You tacked on an "IMHO", but it's not a matter of opinion, there exists data to say whether or not they fail at a higher or lower rate.
The best developers laptop is a Thinkpad. End of discussion. There is a Thinkpad model for everyone, and they have the most open-source friendly hardware. There is not a single other manufacturer which provides similiar features in a package as appealing as a Thinkpad. As far as I am concerned, and I have tried to use everything from plastic-fantastic to Dells to expensive Vaios, there is only one option for a serious developer. A used Thinkpad T42, which is in my opinion made for developing software, is to be had for something like $200-$250. A new Thinkpad T400 costs $1000, and a T400s, its slimmer brother and IBM/Lenovos most expensive offering these days, is about $1300.
The only devs that Macs are good for are Mac devs.
You do realize that OS X is a certified Unix? That means that OS X shares an enormous commonality/overlap with the entire *nix software developing world including AIX, HPUX, Solaris, BSD and Linux. In fact OS X ships with a huge amount of OSS software pre-installed along with Apple's own proprietary stuff and optional developer packages that include a lot more OSS stuff. Apple also contributes to the OSS movement. Macs are also quite popular for all kinds of platform independent and web development. Apple deserves criticism like any other soulless megacorp and their computers aren't the best development machines ever conceived by the mind of man but Macs are useful for a lot more than just Mac development.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
My laptop (thinkpad t61p) has a 15.5 inch (I think) screen and 1920x1200 res. I love it. Sooo much workspace room. Everyone that walks up to it whines about how small it is, but rarely do I ever care what other people see on my screen - in fact, it's usually not their business. Everything is small, but that's not stopping me from having a 10-point font default. I guess I just have good vision...
A 13" MacBook will fulfill some but not all of the requirements listed by the OP (the major missing one being a dock) for $1,200, and it's relatively easy to virtualize and/or dual boot all three major OSes (Windows, Linux, OS X). What more is there?
BookEndz sells a line of docks for Apple laptops but they look kind of clunky to me. Thanks to the USB hub in my display and bluetooth all I have to plug into my 13" MacBook when I sit down at my desk are the power cord, the Mini DisplayPort connector and the USB root connector which takes all of five seconds so I never felt the need to shell out €€€/$$$ for a dock. What really annoys me about the new MacBook Pro line is the built in battery, 7-8 hours of wifi enabled battery life are IMHO irrelevant. I want the ability to swap batteries without having to reach for a screwdriver and if that means having to put up with squeezing only 4 hours of life out of each battery then so be it.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
The reason you need to swap the battery is because there is no external power to plug the thing in to.
I'll leave taking a laptop with some holes drilled in it and some wires connecting it to an external battery pack though said holes through airport security for you, thanks.
When actual comparisons have been done (as several magazines now have), as opposed to FUD
What magazines have done is irrelevent to me against comparisions *I* have done, for myself, using hardware configurations I care about. You can swing numbers all over the place depending on what options you want, but without fail, I can get the machine I want from IBM or Dell for significantly less than I'd get from Apple. I'd also get a keyboard and touchpad that doesn't make me want to kill myself.
at the same time their physical engineering is superior (that is something that is not under much dispute).
How is that not under dispute? What criteria are you using for this? I personally think Macbooks feel flimsy and I'm hardly alone in this. And as noted above, I loathe their keyboards and touchpads. I find their screens to be generally inferior unless you want to pay a HUGE, ENORMOUS premium for a resolution that isn't 1200 by Suck. In short, I find Apple's engineering to be pretty damned horrible. And I'm not alone in that either. There are millions who will complain about this stuff and more.
a superior UI. (Superior to Linux, that is. It is debatable whether the UI is superior to Windows,
All three of those are debatable. You will find people in every camp who think one of those three is far superior than the rest. I think Gnome is an excellent, highly usable, unobstrusive desktop. I think Windows is obnoxious and in my face all the time, and I think OS X is a bunch of shiny crap that does nothing but get in my way and has a one-thing-at-a-time mindset that is counterproductive.
Really, your statements are delivered with authority but have no substance behind them. None of what you claim is axiomatic actually is axiomatic. And I could easily supply anecdotal evidence that shows that Macs are great at running OS X, but generally suck wind when it comes to running Windows or Linux, but anecdotes prove nothing. The fact is that Macs are no better than anything else when it comes to "a developer's machine", and are quite often worse, depending on what, precisely, you intend to do with it. But one thing is for sure -- despite your claims to the contrary, they do carry a hefty pricetag.
mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
Someone hasn't been keeping up with Apple's products it seems. After the outcry in the beginning of the year with the glossy only displays on the MacBook Pro's, Apple actually listened to their customers and brought the option back. You can get matte on the 15" now as well. The 17" has always had the matte finish option and never lost it even with the switch to the unibody design (unlike the 15" which did become glossy only). The 13" is the only one which does not have a matte option, but I don't see that model as being pertinent for the poster's requirements (aside from cost). For development work, you want that larger screen so you can have multiple files or applications open next to each other for writing code (like the program's design document, or API, or even a test window, etc.)
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
hundreds of flavors of *nix for free, yet none of them run iMovie, iTunes, iDvd, Photoshop, Illustrator, Aperture, Lightroom, Visio*, Word, Excel, an Exchange client or a dozen other business/personal critical apps for normal human beings.
Do a check - last time I priced a Dell with comparable hardware to a Mac, they were MORE expensive, not less.
I own a lovely Sony Vaio, and ditched it for a 24" iMac which was _cheaper_, faster, ran OS X not Vista, so could do more with less, and supported Apache/Postgresql/PHP/Java without serious pain. It has a better screen, a nicer keyboard, better Bluetooth support, good networking (ever try to get WebDAV to work properly on Vista, or bring up the network neighbourhood screen and not wait less than several minutes?) an excellent built in backup solution that doesn't suck balls, firewire 800 so my external content drive doesn't take forever to transfer large files, which apparently USB sucks at, wireless that actually works (still waiting for wireless to work properly in linux distros), and actually syncs with media players without patching the kernel, or installing really stupid software.
I'll run linux when linux devs stop building more MP3 players and start working on apps that people actually need. I'll run Windows when Microsoft stops re-inventing the wheel every other release and focuses on bringing a stable easy-to-use environment to me. Have you noticed that OS X gets better with each release? What an amazing idea! They add _more_ functionality, _more_ (useful) apps, _more_ performance, _more_ stability, and the upgrade is $50 for a whole family and I don't need a degree in computer science to install it successfully.
Linux on the desktop will never happen until somebody with lots of money comes along and makes it happen. Oh wait - that's Mark Shuttleworth at canonical, and linux on the desktop is still years behind OS X.
The question isn't why would you buy a Mac, it's why wouldn't you? So they cost more. I save the difference in a single week of productivity gains.
Everyone is living in a personal delusion, just some are more delusional than others.
Try this on a Dell - As likely to crap out on wake-up as not... and yes, seen SHITLOADS of Dell laptops do this, even my brand-spanking new E6400.
I fix laptops for a living and Macs don't seem to be any more or less reliable than other brands.* This is based on fixing around 80 laptops a month.
The main issue is that they are a bugger to work on when things go wrong and the parts are about 2x the price of Acer or Toshiba parts. Sony is the only other brand that rivals them for that.
* Every HP made in the last few years has the nVidia chipset failure problem so they have around a 100% mortality rate after a year or two. Toshibas all seem to get clogged up with dust after a few years and start to overheat, but no brand is immune to that. NECs seem pretty solid and reliable. Acer are also good and parts are cheap (available direct from Acer). Asus are really hit and miss. Advent and Philips are both PC-World own brand (Philips whored their name out) and are cheap rubbish. Packard Bell are nothing special. Thinkpads are very solid and reliable, and parts are generally not too expensive.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You are describing manufacturing defects. Those do not imply problems with the engineering. Lots of PCs have manufacturing defects, too, that are equally unrelated to the engineering that went into them.