Programmer Laptops

Ancalagon said:
Running Linux on a laptop is a bad idea - always shortens your battery life.

This is mostly because of drivers - the linux drivers for things like video cards are not as good as the Windows drivers, and so your battery life is shorter. Its a well known problem, google it.

I also doubt that something Ubuntu is lighter in resources than Windows, especially not when using the legacy X11 windowing manager. Some Linux Mint flavours are quite lightweight.
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I am okay with my battery life being shorter than what it should be. I seldom use my laptop off plug if I am working. If I do, max 3 hours, of which I have 3 hours of battery life left.

Ubuntu offers Wayland as its replacement to Xorg. I have been using that for a while, a major improvement over Xorg.
 
Also look at T470/T480 lenovo, excellent value for money particularly if you go with demo or second hand.
But I also think that demo version from @Flashgear is excellent choice.
 
Macbook Pro - entry level is fine - find a refurbished 2015 model they have good Keyboards.

Otherwise anything with min 8gb ram and an SSD with a Linux distro.

Windows is terrible for development unless you do something in the Microsft ecosystem eg ASP.net etc etc.

But it's 2019, no one start new projects with ASP anymore.
 
cheesus said:
I don't entirely understand why Visual Studio has MACOS support but no Linux support. They go on about .NET supporting multiple formats but oops no Linux support.
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Monodevelop?

Visual Studio on macOS is essentially the Monodevelop codebase with the more recent integration of the Visual Studio Windows editor's codebase (a work in progress)

Monodevelop on Linux is however a workable release for C#, F# & VB.net

Download | MonoDevelop

www.monodevelop.com www.monodevelop.com
 
Must haves:
4cores 8threads
16gb ram
Ssd
1080p

Should use:
Linux, I use mint cinnamon

Linux is just so far ahead of Windows as a dev environment. Everything is better.
Docker is better and faster
All CLI tools are better and faster
All IDE’s work (except Visual studio, but rider is far superior for my .net core needs anyway )
The OS UX is faster

I use windows on Tuesdays and Thursdays when working in a .net framework environment, and Linux for everything else.
It always feels dirty when I need to use Windows
 
ronald911 said:
Macbook Pro - entry level is fine - find a refurbished 2015 model they have good Keyboards.

Otherwise anything with min 8gb ram and an SSD with a Linux distro.

Windows is terrible for development unless you do something in the Microsft ecosystem eg ASP.net etc etc.

But it's 2019, no one start new projects with ASP anymore.
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MacBook Pro is the best dev laptop, but it’s not cheap, and overkill for beginners. OP should just get a 8gb laptop with Win 10. Don't get hung up on the OS. It doesn’t make a difference until much later in a persons career. Learn java or python. Those languages are easiest to learn and the web has tons of resources for beginners. Most developers move to other languages and OS later anyway.
 
Ignore the Mac and Linux fanboys. The "best" is very much subjective. I won't sidetrack this thread with another Windows vs the rest discussion. Use whatever they use at whatever institution you study at. Experiment in VMs.
 
Sigqibo Manzi said:
I'm new on myBB so i don't really know what's legit or not.
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Buy from whoever you feel comfortable with, doesn't have to be this guy. Look at Makro or Takealot.

EDIT: So one thing I notice is that Takealot has Dells, but not with SSDs for some reason. Don't buy a laptop without an SSD!

Wootware or Rebeltech are also great. Had great service from both. Never bought from Flashgear but he has been on these forums for years.
 
Last edited:
Or you could look at cloud solutions


azure.microsoft.com

GitHub Codespaces

GitHub Codespaces gets you up and coding faster with fully configured, secure cloud development environments native to GitHub.
azure.microsoft.com azure.microsoft.com
 
Flashgear said:
I would suggest this @Sigqibo Manzi

Product Page | Nucleus Tech

www.nucleustech.co.za www.nucleustech.co.za

Looks more than adequate for your needs, I have demo units I can do that are a bit cheaper and will save you some cash.

Drop me a PM if you have any other questions or concerns :)
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Why would you recommend this one, and not the 2nd link in my post (#9)? Apart from the 14" vs 15.6 , I'll take the demo unit any day. Smaller (any developer always has at least one bigger monitor to work on) which makes it easy to carry to and from classes, if that need arrises

Just wondering ^^^ ?
 
In my experience programmers prefer a 15”, otherwise as you say they are identical and both great machines.

100% personal preference here to the user :)
 
Flashgear said:
In my experience programmers prefer a 15”, otherwise as you say they are identical and both great machines.

100% personal preference here to the user :)
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Agreed. My son is still using the 9560 we bought from you with 2 other screens, one 28" and one 24" in portrait mode (works excellent with coding :) ) . Will use the laptop screen just to park something...
 
Sigqibo Manzi said:
Hi guys. I am a programming student and i have been searching online for a suitable laptop to practice coding . I realised i need professional advice from legends like you guys. I can afford up to R15 000. Any suggestions?
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This is a pretty good deal for R10k:

Dell 39 cm (15.6") Inspiron 3580 Intel Core i7 Laptop | Core i7 | Notebooks | Laptops & Notebooks | Computers & Tablets | Electronics & Computers | Makro Online Site

www.makro.co.za www.makro.co.za

You could then just later add in an SSD, perhaps another 8GB RAM and youre golden.

Like the others have said if its a compiled language, get the fastest CPU you can.

If its interpreted like python its probably less of an issue.
 
zippy said:
MacBook Pro is the best dev laptop, but it’s not cheap, and overkill for beginners. OP should just get a 8gb laptop with Win 10. Don't get hung up on the OS. It doesn’t make a difference until much later in a persons career. Learn java or python. Those languages are easiest to learn and the web has tons of resources for beginners. Most developers move to other languages and OS later anyway.
Click to expand...
Are you suggesting that i begin with a Java and Phython Certificates?
 
Sigqibo Manzi said:
Are you suggesting that i begin with a Java and Phython Certificates?
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Python is one of the easiest languages to learn. It’s popular with teachers here in the UK. There are many languages out there. The thing to realise is that you don’t become a Python programmer or a Java developer or a C++ developer. You become a software developer or a software engineer. The languages are but tools. You will end focusing more on one, but while you are learning, you want to start with something that is easy and progress. Its rare for developer to stay with the first language they learnt at school or college. My first languages where Basic and Pascal. I have worked on C, C++ and Objective C. The last 3 years I have been using Java and deritive of Java used by the insurance industry called Gosu. The only certificates I have other than my degree are for Pascal, Java and Oracle Pl/SQL. although I learnt in Pascal and Basic, I never had a paying job coding in those. That doesn’t mean I made the wrong choice. It was part of my progression.

if you chose C# to start, it wouldn’t be the wrong choice if you can master it. There is no wrong choice to start learning. I’m sure folks will disagree with me. I have no problem with that.
 
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