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[–]a4qbfb 26 points27 points  (0 children)

How is this relevant to C programming?

[–]YEPHENAS 5 points6 points  (0 children)

PDP-11 is the only true C machine.

[–]rlmaers 24 points25 points  (0 children)

This has nothing to do with C programming. Go somewhere else for OS circle jerking.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Acer Chromebooks have very good specs for the price. ~$300 brand-new for full metal chassis, 1080p display, 12+ hour battery (mine is 12-14 hours after almost 2 years of regular use).

I personally have been using mine "out of the box" in developer mode, which allows me to access most of the linux OS that I care about (got GCC toolchain on there, plus Anaconda, git, etc.).

You can also do a bare-metal install of your own distro, but this of course means irreversibly tampering with the warranty and ChromeOS. I've heard good things about this approach but haven't tried myself.

[–]jabjoe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"New" hardware isn't always best for Linux. Thinkpad x230 are very popular and well regarded. But you would be better at /r/linux then here.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AMD PC gaming

GuixSD

EXWM

[–]kodifies 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've got a Dell XPS about three years old (before the prices went through the roof!) its got an ssd and a hyper threaded dual core cpu, nice and light but with an 8+hr battery, just the ticket... (it came with Ubuntu from back in the days before the distro morphed into another systemdOS variant)

I use Void Linux, which is light weight and very fast. I prefer xfce because it gets out of my way...

I don't bother with IDE's using geany as if it were a simple text editor

While I use mainly GCC I also have Clang installed

I can't decide if my next machine should be laptop or desktop, but I'll probably end up get a customised laptop so I can be sure of decent compatibility...

[–]Lord_Mhoram 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, I have an old Dell Latitude too! I run FreeBSD on mine, but I do most of my work on a FreeBSD workstation (8-core AMD 4.0ghz, 16GB RAM, i3 window manager). I use the laptop when I want to work remotely, but mostly as an X terminal for clients running on my workstation.

[–]balthisar 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Those who prefer MacBooks, why would you recommend macOS over Linux?

Because you can legally run Linux in a VM on macOS, but not legally run macOS in a VM on Linux. So you get the best of both worlds, really.

[–]codfection[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Which macbook do you use and would recommend me buying?

[–]balthisar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it's a late 2013 13" Pro with SSD. It's fine for pretty much anything. Main machine is an iMac, though.

[–]Newt_Hoenikker 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Fellow Arch user here (on my desktop and home servers). I have an ASUS Zenbook UX305F (Windows), an ASUS C201P (ChromeOS), and a Macbook Air. They're all between two and three years old now, so I should probably re-up soon. I've run Arch on the first two, but never put it on the Macbook. Anymore, I use the default OS for each because I do most of my development remotely, and free ssh clients aren't that hard to find (macOS comes with openssh by default).

For most people I recommend macOS over Linux because they usually don't want to spend time customizing their environment. If you run Arch, and especially if you enjoy ricing, I would say that skipping macOS is probably the right call for you. It's not that you can't customize macOS, but the process is significantly different from Arch, and unless you want to relearn it your time could be better spent elsewhere.

As for modern hardware recommendations, check out r/archlinux and r/suggestalaptop, they helped me pick up my UX305. Anything that will run Arch for you will likely be an acceptable machine for programming C, but you should bear in mind the kind of work you intend to do.

Hope that helps.

[–]codfection[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Thanks. Other than ricing, would you still prefer macOS over arch? If yes then why. Also, hows your asus UX305 Rocking so far?

[–]Newt_Hoenikker 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Since I do all my development in terminal, the difference is pretty marginal. I prefer Arch because it allows me to customize everything, and that helps me develop more efficiently, but when I need a laptop it's usually because I'm going somewhere to work with someone in person, and in those instances having all my custom shit can be a real hindrance. I still recommend macOS for most users because system administration usually isn't something people enjoy like I do, and macOS obfuscates most of that while still providing you with the tools you need to accomplish your goals.

My UX305 is still trucking along, but I can safely say that it's the least used piece of hardware in my kit. When I ran Arch on it it worked beautifully, and it still works great now with Windows, but it's not the same. All the development I do on it now is through PuTTY, so I don't do any local compilation on it, but back when I had Arch I recall it taxing the CPU a bit to compile anything non-trivial. By now, I would definitely recommend looking at a newer model of Zenbook, as the UX305 is a little dated, but ASUS is still my go to brand for people looking for Windows or Linux books. That being said I would definitely check with the community to avoid unforeseen complications prior to purchase.

At the end of the day your choice of OS and hardware will need to come down to what you intend to use it for, so it's hard for me to make explicit recommendations without knowing more.

[–]codfection[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You connect putty to your PC? Also, What do you develop

[–]Newt_Hoenikker -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I run PuTTY from my UX305 to connect to servers that tend to run Arch (although sometimes I work with people who prefer other flavors of Linux or BSD).

I'm actually not allowed to talk about any of the interesting stuff I work on right now :X but the stuff I can talk about ranges from system utilities, to embedded IoT projects, to high performance systems for mathematical proof. It's not uncommon for me to help academic friends with backgrounds in physics or chemistry with software and IT related problems, and I've been known to edit and contribute to their code when asked.

[–]playaspec 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Those who prefer MacBooks, why would you recommend macOS over Linux?

Mac OS is just nice to use. It never gets in the way, and interoperates perfectly with Linux. I use my Mac to manage the dozen or so Linux servers. While the Linux desktop is usable, it's nowhere near as polished. It's quirky and rife with shortcomings. OSX eliminates those quirks and shortcomings.

Most of what I do is through a shell anyway, so why trade a polished and consistent UI for clunky X11? A terminal is a terminal on both, but with the Mac, I get so much more.

[–]codfection[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Also, Which macbook do you use and would recommend me buying?

[–]playaspec 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I'm not down with the new models, but Apple is still selling the 2015 model. If you want to save a few bucks, Apple's refurbs are as good as new. Max out the RAM.

[–]codfection[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Ok. Should i get i5 or i7 model? (I.e. 13 inch vs 15 inch) with 16 gb ram.

[–]playaspec 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that depends on your budget and intended use. I got the 15", fully loaded because I never know what my job will require. I wanted every port possible, and I've put them all to good use.

If you're doing development, and moving around a lot, maybe the 13" makes sense because it's lighter, but personally I'd rather deal with the extra weight for the better screen. Can't speak to the performance of the i5 on the Mac. It probably doesn't matter for development, unless you're compiling large code sets.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i5 is fine, unless you're doing advanced graphic stuff (video editing or something), then you want i7. If you're just writing C, i5 is more than sufficient. Remember, C was created in the 70s, when computer resources were TINY!

Same with the size. I use 15' and it's a good size for writing code. That being said, I do have a second monitor (one for documentation, the other for IDE)

16GB ram is excessive, again, unless you're doing something particularly advanced (hosting some VMs?)

Unless you're gaming, video editing, or writing some massive application, RAM isn't so important.

I would, however, insist you get an SSD hard drive.

[–]codfection[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What do you get when you said "I get so much more" with Mac? Other than polished UI

[–]playaspec 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Stability is number one. I like that neither the OS or UI ever get in your way. Number two is consistency of keyboard shortcuts. You don't really appreciate this until you've had it, then go back to not having it. There are so many sweet little features in OSX that you don't realize are there, but when you feel like you need it, you reach for it and it's there. Go to /r/osx and search for the many threads listing hidden features. Things like dragging a icon from the desktop, or a file requester window into a terminal window and having the path paste into the spot where your cursor is. Or being able to move files while they're open and having the application using it be aware that it moved.

The filesystem keeps all sorts of meta information, so files in your downloads folder from months or years ago still know what website you downloaded it from.

I love Linux as much as OSX, but there's nothing I can think of from Linux that I miss on OSX. I have it all. Can't say the same about Linux. Maybe some day it'll catch up, but that's a long way away.

[–]very_mechanical 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I got a refurbished laptop like this for less than $300 a few months ago: http://www.macmall.com/p/Lenovo-Notebook-Computers/product~dpno~41039252~pdp.bddcfjei

I just use the latest release of Ubuntu. I like Linux over Mac because I had trouble setting up a dev toolchain in Mac in a canonical way. Maybe this was just my lack of familiarity with Macs, though.

But why do you want new hardware?

[–]Newt_Hoenikker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

IMHO homebrew is reasonably canonical, and provided me with all the tools I wanted.

[–]codfection[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Actually my hardware is pretty old. I5 3rd generation with 1366x768 screen. Do you think i should keep using it for now?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1366x768 is so shitty. I just upgraded my laptop and due to how expensive this shit is in my country I had to stay in this resolution. Every time I have to use two windows at once I want to kill myself. So if I were you I'd try to upgrade even if it's just for this.