Some people have to take their laptop into the field. There isn’t always a socket to plug into. It’s heartbreaking when the battery runs dead.
cmo
mindok
Or you have to wait a week to get the site electrician to tag your power cable as “safe” and can only recharge in the motel room each night.
1
elepedus
16" M2 Max 96GB RAM, no external accessories.
I’ve found that maxing out the RAM on MacBooks is a fantastic way to get many happy years out of them, never having to worry about juggling open apps/tabs etc.
My last MacBook was a 2013 Retina with 16GB RAM, and it was a good 5-6 years before anything started taxing it, and another 3-4 before I really felt I had to replace it.
Not being reliant on external monitors, keyboards etc has forced me to learn to make the most of the system and app features so I’m equally productive whether I’m in my office or on a train. Battery life on MacBooks is so good, I just don’t tend to think about it any more.
The extra unified memory is also very handy when it comes to running local LLMs. Sure, it’s not always as fast as CUDA, but good luck getting 96GB of VRAM from Nvidia without taking out a second mortgage!
4
mhanberg
Expert LSP Core Team
D4no0
Maybe a bit offtopic, but I am getting annoyed recently a lot by the fan noise of my desktop when I want to focus in peace. Obviously you can get a setup with passive cooling, but that would hurt the performance a lot.
The alternative I’ve seen is to place your tower in another room and use something like hdmi over ethernet, which seems like something that would be not hard to pull off. Has someone managed to do that successfully?
1
Kevo
There is a wide range of noise levels with fans. You might have several in your desktop that would need to be swapped to make it “quiet”, but there are some good options you can buy that I would consider unobtrusive even in a quiet room.
I’d at least look into that if your machine still does everything you need it to. Unless you need to replace quite a few fans, in which case it might be smarter to put that money towards something different.
1
cmo
I’ve setup remote PCs for control rooms before. I believe we used a long HDMI cable for that one as it was in the next room. Used a hardware KVM for peripherals.
3
AndyL
Linux remote desktop (VNC) works well over LAN and also over WAN using Zerotier or equivalent.
My VNC client is Remmina. Here’s a script to start the VNC server:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# start_vnc - start VNC server
#
# requires vnc server: `sudo apt install x11vnc -y`
#
# to set password: `x11vnc -storepasswd`
#
# Add it to startup applications:
#
# - Open "Session and Startup" from the Xubuntu menu.
# - Go to the "Application Autostart" tab.
# - Click "+ Add", name it (eg "VNC Server"), set cmd `$HOME/.bin/start_vnc`.
x11vnc -forever -usepw -display :0
2
Nicoo
15 years of Ubuntu Linux, either on assembled PCs or Clevos (laptops assembled with the components I want).
Since 2023, Macbook pro M1 Max : ram: 32Go, DD: 1To + external NVMe 2 To.
I’m really happy with it.
A sit/stand desk. Ideal for adjusting to the exact height desired, then occasionally standing up (20 or 30 minutes).
A second 27-inch screen, placed on an articulated arm so I can place it wherever I want.
An ergonomic chair (HOLLUDLE). Very good for the back and the neck.
This has its importance for the DX:
OrbStack for Docker on Mac, much faster than Docker desktop.
VS code, Zed (very fast for quick editing), a little bit of Neovim with Astronvim.
ZSH (OhMyZSH) with iTerm2, Warp (intelligent terminal) from time to time.
2
AstonJ
If you (or anyone else) needs additional storage I just had an alert these NVMe enclosures are on offer at £85 here:
When I researched them previously they were widely regarded as the best TB4 enclosures (I’ve got the one with the fan but have not needed to turn it on). I am running macOS off it and it’s been excellent - and more than good enough for working with videos directly stored on it. I’d recommend looking at a Samsung 990 Pro to go in it or a Crucial.
For anyone interested in running macOS off an external drive, some advantages:
- You can bolt it on to a wall or under your desk and if there is a break in chances are a petty thief will be more interested in nicking your Mac than a hard drive that they won’t be able to easily/quickly remove.
- They are a lot cheaper than paying Apple for large drive upgrades, a 4TB drive in a new Mac costs £1200 here, whereas an external NVMe costs about £250, with £85 for the enclosure - that’s a massive saving (you can also buy cheaper drives as well as enclosures).
- You can take the drive with you to your next Mac so end up losing less on resale of a Mac with a larger HD.
Only negative I can think of is it takes longer to boot/restart - but that’s probably being done on purpose by Apple (can’t see why once set in the bios it shouldn’t just take as long as an internal drive). The only concern is a Mac disconnecting it randomly and corrupting data… but I’ve not heard of such reports. (Can anyone think of any other cons/negatives?)
0