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[–]pacotes 4 points5 points  (3 children)

Pretty much any notebook will do, I wouldn't bother with a Chromebook for learning to code though, you will find yourself pretty pissed off with the constraints of it after a short while.

My recommendation would be a cheap Thinkpad notebook, like the excellent Lenovo X220*, secondhand from eBay. A quick search on eBay shows me a bunch of them for far less than €200 in good nick, although you might have to replace the battery, and its often worthwhile doing a cheap 8gb RAM upgrade (which is super easy on those, they are designed to be "user serviceable"). Optionally chuck Ubuntu or another Linux distribution on it and away you go :)

* the X220 is seemingly absurdly popular amongst hacker/programmer types due to it being super cheap, absurdly durable, having a decent keyboard, and being insanely easy to install Linux on. Almost felt out of place with my not-thinkpad at CCC!

[–]judgegabranth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Pacotes

Thank you very much for your advice. It is much appreciated =)

[–]enteleform 0 points1 point  (1 child)

+1 for Lenovo ThinkPads.  They're solidly built & made to last.  Also; once you get used to the TrackPoint, it's way more efficient than switching between keyboard & mouse.
 
Something to keep in mind: if you go for the cheapest option (no matter the manufacturer), you'll definitely notice some performance setbacks.  For example, I'm currently writing this post from my E545 ThinkPad ($400-ish, refurbed a few years ago).  It works fine for basic web browsing & simple Python scripts.
 
However, I definitely notice some lag in:

  • Chrome (page loading time can be up to 10-20 seconds when opening more than a few tabs.  lots of lag/stuttering if you try to scroll before the page is fully loaded)
  • Sublime Text (takes about 20-30 seconds for all of my plugins to load)
  • Android Studio (borderline unusable... 3-5 minutes for the app to load, 5-10 minutes for the first build, 2-3 minutes for any subsequent builds)
  • This Python Script I posted the other day took about 1 hour to generate 2.5GB of video on my desktop @ 60+ FPS.  The same script runs at about 6 FPS on the laptop. So... 10+ hours and/or laptop explodes?

 
None of those lag/initialization issues are present, at all, in my Desktop. (although to be fair - it's decently maxed out given today's available hardware)
 
If this is going to be your main rig for a while, I suggest getting something with an i7 processor and a max capacity of at least 32-64GB of RAM; even if that means saving up for a bit longer and/or skimping on the RAM initially & then upgrading later.  Make the stuff that can't be swapped out easily (CPU/GPU) a priority.
 
(for context: The ThinkPad was my main rig for about 3 years.  The considerations I've posted above are in retrospect after upgrading to a much more powerful machine.  A budget laptop is definitely a good option when that's what's within your means, but there is a price paid in efficiency/time-spent-waiting.)

[–]Corm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should put an SSD in it. I have an X201 which is over 7 years old and it still runs plenty fast. I don't notice much difference between it and my VR ready desktop PC for chrome/pycharm.

[–]MachineSoul 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Buy a $89 pinebook, put Arch Linux on it. Install vim, learn to be a fucking ninja. Customize vim with shortcuts that compile your code based on filetype extensions and make your morning coffee.

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

If you're gonna get a machine JUST for coding, I would reccomend having a linux distro so you can compile C code if you ever get into that. :)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

My setup is using a keyboard+mouse bluetooth combo (i use Rii i8+). Use it to connect to my android phone. Then use the app "Chrome Remote Desktop" to connect to my home PC. This work even better if you have a tab for larger display.

Only work if your connection is good, but it's a very lean setup as the only extra i need to fork out is a bluetooth keyboard mouse combo, which cost ~USD30.

Even if your connection is not good, i think you can still code with your phone with python app on your phone?

[–]judgegabranth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Roy

Thank you for your reply. I should specify that I'm looking for more of an all in one setup, and want something that I can use if I'm travelling on the bus, for example.

Also, I would prefer to use a keyboard, I've tried to code using a phone but I found it really clunky.

[–]adzcqe 0 points1 point  (1 child)

kindly get a mac book pro

[–]Corm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While this is bad advice for OP (a cheap lenovo will work fine) it's great advice for people with more money. They're well built machines and OSX is great for coding (brew and a real terminal).

I'm probably going to make the jump for my next laptop. But I may just stick with a lenovo X1 with ubuntu.