What equipment are you using, and what is your dream equipment?

It’s been a while since I have seen an equipment post, and since equipment changes so fast I thought I would ask this once again. What type of equipment are you currently running on, and what is your dream setup if you were to upgrade right now?

I am always curious to see what everyone’s using because last time I think I bought an UHK for “ergonomics”.

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MBP and ergodox for keyboard. I also have a home server for ML experiments with a beefier GPU. I honestly wouldn’t change anything at the moment really happy with my current setup. Maybe a new monitor?

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I’m using a 2012 11" MBA - that I bought after DHH kept tweeting about his - and fell in love with it.

I’ve tried others, such as a 15" MBP, 27" iMac etc but the MBP was just too big and I wasn’t fussed on the iMac (My main machine prior to the MBA was a Mac Pro). The MBA is so petit, so portable, it’s the most personal personal computer I have owned and I am quite attached to it. When it’s in it’s cute little sleeve, I look at it and think - this little thing can change the world, bring down govts etc etc etc :lol:

So my (somewhat feasible in foreseeable future) dream computer is a MBA of or around the same size but with 6 or 8 cores and an onboard GPU, 1TB HD, 64GB Ram and with a Retina display and 4 USB-C/TB ports.

My next (main) computer might actually be a 6-core Mac Mini, it has good IO with 4TB ports so you can add an eGPU, fast SSDs and even upgrade the RAM yourself. Just kinda interesting as I like tinkering :lol: I also have an LG 5K monitor here which I bought when Apple introduced it at a cut price, so they would pair nicely.

Funnily enough my MBA crashed today and then wouldn’t boot back up - it’s NEVER done that before :icon_cry: I hope it’s not dying :sob:

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This is about my free time programming. I have a 15" MBP from 2014, that is IMO the best MBP model year next to 2015 (at work I have the new 2016 and hate it). With that, I use the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (uhk.io) and absolutely love it, wouldn’t change it for anything.

I usually program on the sofa or similar at home so I don’t really use monitors. I have a laptop stand that holds the laptop and the keyboard is on my legs or wherever it feels comfortable (good thing about split keyboard is that I can position the halves freely). I have been thinking of getting a good desktop setup but it would require a 4K display at minimum and I don’t want to spend such money currently. I have a desktop computer but it’s really only for gaming and has only a Full HD display.

The uncertainty looming in the future is the time when my MBP dies. If the new Apple computers are as bad then as they are now, I will have to find a good Linux laptop and live with that instead.

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A dell Latitude 3340 with a 125gb ssd that I’ve had for > 4 years. I’m happy with it for now, since I don’t really do much with it that would require computing power, but I really would like a beefier PC so I could play around with ML and stuff like that.

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I built myself a small (3L volume plus power brick so a little bit bigger than a Mac Mini) 6-core PC. Much more powerful, cheaper and quieter than any laptop alternative I considered. What I like the most about it is the total silence I get, thanks to having only one Noctua fan in the whole setup.

Now I would like to get a fanless laptop with great battery life to use remote desktop / ssh into my PC. A beefy phone with a Superbook / Mirabook could be even better but I’m not sure the software is there yet.

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Had/Have the MBP '16, '17 and '18 and they are the worst laptops I’ve ever worked on. Safe to say I will never buy a MBP ever again.

I’m trying to move everything over to a droplet, vim + tmux so I’m not dependant on the Apple eco system anymore and it will allow me to work on Chromebooks and the like.

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Do you all really only use laptops with no second screen or something? I get crazy when I have only one screen to work.

I am using a PC I bought ten years ago but recently changed a few parts with second-hands including the motherboard, and 2 screens (a crappy old 26’’ one bought ten years ago with the PC and a new one with better resolution). I have no desk so I am using the Roccat Sova lapboard, it’s better than I imagined even though it’s a little bit cramped in there and my position is not ideal. It will have to do until I can get a bigger place to live in.

This year I plan on buying a new motherboard with USB-C connectors along with a good graphic card. Ideally I would like a 4K OLED 40-something’’ monitor to go along with it (true blacks so it won’t destroy my eyes during the evening :023: ), but it still costs an arm and a leg so I’m keeping my smallish screens. The tower itself should serve its purpose well for a few decades more hopefully!

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I use an old laptop bought 2014 with an i5-4210M@2.6GHz, built in graphic 17" wide screen, integrated Intel Graphics.

I do have a second screen (21") but rarely need it anymore. Most of the time I use it to stream some videos during I code. The necessity of the second screen vanished when I switched to i3 about a year after buying the laptop, today I use awesome WM. But since I use tiling managers, the second screen became more or less obselete.


As I rarely code from anywere but my desk (there is another laptop for working from the park), I’m planning to switch over to a desktop workstation somewhen during 2019, but still arguing with my boss and my wife, about the budget I’ll have available and if I can buy or have to lease the machine…

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That’s what I plan to use if I can buy a 4K monitor, but how can you have enough screen place for that on a 17’‘? I had to work on a 15’’ tablet a few years ago and doing 3 way merges drove me crazy every time. Your screen is wide so maybe that’s how you can cope? I usually have my code editor open with 2 tiles so I need one screen for that, and switch between a navigator, a DB software and a console (with 3 tiles) on the other screen. With a bigger screen I would be happy to have 3 or 4 tiles in my code editor so that I rarely would have to change tabs, 2 navigators, and a console with 4 big tiles. So something like 10 big tiles in all :sunny: ~

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The trick is, to not rely on such many tools. I have an editor and use its integrated terminal. The database runs as a service and if I have to look something up I do this from the terminal, switching back and forth between a couple of tmux sessions.

Also I rarely have more than 2 files open side by side. An implementation and its tests.

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My main source of income is macOS software development so I primarily code on an iMac (an early 5k one) which has an external monitor plugged into it. I do occasionally work from the sofa (or from a coffee shop, etc.) using a 2017 MacBook which I bought last year because I wanted the smallest, lightest, most portable Mac I could get.

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That’s pretty much where I’ve been going with my setup, prompted by wanting to use an iPad more often. That said I still end up using my droplets even when working on a desktop with more power. I just like the convenience and having very little attachment to any given piece of kit. I’ve also found a CLI-only experience to be the perfect sweet spot for working with Linux. It’s messy as soon as you need anything more.

That said, I can’t shake the urge to build a ridiculous workstation…

As for Apple and MBP… having been a huge proponent of their computers for years I’m finding their direction and ecosystem tiresome. The best computer I’ve used is my 2015 MBP 15” and I’ve become really attached to my iPad Pro (albeit a love/hate relationship) but I can’t condone the way their are resting on their laurels and attempting to take their loyal customers to the cleaners with every update.

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This is practically the reason I made this post. I have a late 2014 MBA (I couldn’t wait for the 2015 MBP because I was deploying) and I’ve always felt like I “settled” because if the MBP’s still had a 17" option I’d take it. I’m looking at how much Apple allocates towards iOS compared to MacOS anymore and there is a noticeable shift from half a decade ago.

I was honestly considering a good Linux machine, but wouldn’t know which machine to get. If there were some good >15" screen options I would definitely consider changing because I live in an RV and so the option to not use a monitor, but have a lot of real-estate appeals to me.

And my UHK has been on back order for about a month now! I am pretty excited to get it.

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As I said, this is my free time coding. At work I would refuse to work without monitors. But at home I first of all like to move around the home to different places (like the sofa), and I don’t have the money right now to put into a good big 4K monitor (well I do but it’s not high on my priority list so it will have to wait). :slight_smile:

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I finally remembered what I needed to go and look at after reading this comment. It’s a blog post by Miguel Grinberg about coding on a Chromebook and how Crostini is making this more possible.

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I have a new 2018 15" MBP since August (6 core i9-8950HK) with 32GB of RAM hooked up to the great LG 27" 5K Thunderbolt 3 Display when at the office. Blazing fast Elixir/webpack compiles w/all those cores and the much faster SSD.

I loved my 2014 15" MBP (agree the best version ever made) but I could no longer deal with the 16GB limitation as I do a lot of VMware Fusion/Vagrant stuff and may have many VMs up at one time. I upgraded primarily needing the extra memory and SSD space.

I considered saving money on a System 76 Linux laptop running Kubuntu 18.04 which would work great I’m sure but just couldn’t see myself leaving the ecosystem with iPhone/iPad sync tie-ins (GoodNotes, Photos, Things, iTunes, etc) and wider software support (MS Office, Navicat, Quicken). I realize there are (maybe better) Linux alternatives to all of this but it would just take too much time to transition everything. Also when I had a primary Linux box mid-2000s before I found myself spending a lot of time tweaking to get everything working right especially when upgrading anything. Tweaking is a lot of fun but I should probably be spending that time in more productive (i.e. paying) Elixir work instead.

Negatives:

  • It took some time to get used to the crappy low-travel keyboard but thankfully no issues with the keys (so far). Maybe that new plastic barrier is keeping dust away.
  • Had to use 3rd party software to make the left Control key (when hit on it’s own) map to ESC for vim to overcome the generally useless touch bar.
  • Prefer the Magsafe connector – a bit nervous about longevity of using the USB-C ports for charging.
  • Premium price compared to similar spec’ed System76

Regardless these negatives I can strongly recommend this setup for Elixir development.

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Currently my main machine is a S76 Galago Pro (i7/32gb ram/nvme) and a 29" 4k display. Linux Hidpi is garbage though, so I will be downgrading to a 27" 1440p monitor. ErgoDox EZ for my keyboard, I think it ruined me for all other keebs.

This year I will be building a Ryzen 3000 (8 core) or ThreadRipper machine, 32gb ram, multiple nvme drives, custom painted case, AIO for the CPU, etc.

I have a 2018 MBP and the keyboard is the worst I have ever used. The app support for OSX is nice but the price of the hardware and terrible keyboard stops me from purchasing for personal use.

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At work I have a 2018 15" Macbook with the i9 CPU. Upgrade from a 2013 model. I actually don’t find the keyboard on it to be much of a problem even though I’m using mechanical keyboards otherwise. For a screen I use a 32 inch 4k Samsung number. Just don’t look at the temps when working because that is truly scary.

At home I use my game/programming computer with a 27 inch 144hz screen. It has a 6700k CPU in it and man does that smoke the 8950HK. That >4.4 GHz clock rate really makes all the difference. We mostly do Ruby development at work and the tests run twice as fast on that machine.

My dream machine, if I didn’t need a laptop, would probably be a workstation machine with a 9900k in it and one of those gigantic 40 inch 4k monitors.

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the much heralded MBP 15" 2015 (recently installed new battery - ifixit)

sidenote: can not recommend https://www.rugarciap.com/turbo-boost-switcher-for-os-x/ enough for turning off the turboboost…

dream machine would be when Apple goes ARM and uses their Axx chips in the macs… so something like a 16/32/64 core mbp… - hopefully the 2015 will last until then…

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