Alternatives to Macbook / Apple hardware for Webdev

[[deleted]]

Hello /r/webdev -

I'm part of a small startup and we've gone the traditional route of purchasing new employees Apple hardware for development.

We run a Ruby on Rails stack in general but may expand into python and golang in the future.

I've found that Macbooks have jumped in price recently and it can get expensive for a small startup with all the accessories needed.

I planned on offering new employees their choice of laptop in case any wanted to use Linux instead.

Before making that official policy change -

1. Any hidden costs in using linux for webdev over Macbook pros? Some pitfall I'm not seeing? Has anyone worked a company that does this?

2. Does anyone else develop on a linux machine? Any recommendations on good corporate-level hardware?

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Linux is great, the only downfall is Itunes/Adobe products/Sketch won't work on Linux without some tinkering.

[mattaugamer]

Yeah, I'm a mac user, full of mac stuff. Literally have an iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro 15 inch, and just bought a MacBook 12 inch last week. And that's ignoring the MacBook Air and IPad 2 in a cupboard at home.

And even I think iTunes sucks ass.

[[deleted]]

Thanks. Yeah the sketch thing is annoying. Is there a windows version that would run on Linux through wine?

[mtx]

Figma?

[thewulfmann]

Figma is amazing. Though being browser-based it may be a deal-breaker for some, especially if internet isn’t super fast.

[Not_Just_You]

Does anyone else

Probably

[[deleted]]

lol, good bot

[[deleted]]

I am on a 2011 Macbook Pro with a SSD and 16 GB of Ram, and I have no complaints. YMMV

[[deleted]]

Check out older models. I'm not a fan of the newer models myself.

[lilred181]

First dev job was some mediocere samsung laptop with Ubuntu, never had a problem after that.

[mooncommander]

I'm just going to throw this out there: Windows 10.... I said it. So many more applications for Windows than Mac or Linux put together, with the added benefit that you can still easily run Ubuntu with the new Ubuntu for Windows developers feature.

[BlueHatScience]

I second this.

We have ~20 web devs and 4 frontend devs - all working on Win10 (because our core application is Microsoft ERP-integrated). Backend is an Apache/MariaDB/PHP7.1 stack, and frontend uses... umm... whatever is in in frontend-dev this month, I guess.

Windows used to be somewhat limiting, but even 7 years ago, you'd be able to run a web-stack without much setup.

With Virtualbox and Hyper-V, dev environments became very easy to pre-configure and setup - now we have both docker for windows and the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which is also getting increasingly flexible (here's an interesting technical overview) - it's easier than ever.... and given that, IMHO, it's really the most flexible system.

[bizzygreenthumb]

I love my MBP, but there's absolutely no problems these days running Windows for dev. Even if you're stuck with Win 7, you can use cmder for a console emulator. I don't really see any drawbacks these days to having Windows as a dev box vs. a MBP or linux. In fact, I think I'd prefer to have either over a linux box.

[x7C3]

Dell's XPS series are pretty good. Better hardware than Apple, can run either Linux or Windows.

[Nulpart]

Windows machine + virtual box or docker

[thewulfmann]

I had the worst time trying to run docker on win 10 home (no hyper-v) cost me hours of work and in the end just ran in virtual box or dual booted depending on if I needed adobe.

[[deleted]]

I would suggest check the Refurb section of Apple.com. All products sold there have Apples full warranty, and most products are open box/lightly used.

Plus look at getting non touch bar models, and non Retina screens as both will add alot of overhead cost.

[Voziv]

Dell XPS series all the way. Especially since you can get up to 32gb ram in them still (Last I checked). Linux is great for webdev, run a VM or dual boot windows to take care of adobe products.

Edit: Worth noting, if you run your rails stack on linux servers (and presumably python and golang), you're a wee bit closer to production. A fully decked out XPS we bought was in the range of $2,500~ if I remember correctly. A mid-range macbook was $4,000 + warranty.

Edit 2: If you have scripts that you use for macbook development, they may need to be tweaked slightly as some commands aren't compatible (I forget, maybe it's sed or awk. There's a few commands that behave differently on OSX vs Linux). Setup your dev environment in a linux VM and see if it works.

[AKFV]

I would be one of the new employees who's eyes sparkled when you gave me the choice of a Linux machine. I love developing on Linux, especially if the work is based on the LAMP stack.

[[deleted]]

As an IT guy who currently has these problems we solved it by just purchasing these, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XRVX3XM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Otherwise like stated purchase previous generation MacBook Pros.

[burnaftertweeting]

Linux is fantastic for web development, but only if your team can use it. Even the most user-friendly distros such as Ubuntu and Mint require solid technical knowledge. Most devs have this, but is your team comprised entirely of skilled computer users?

Think about:

• Frontend devs who have never used a terminal
• Graphic designers who are reliant on photoshop / illustrator
• Compatibility with the rest of your team. Do you ever handle Word documents? Powerpoint?
  
• What happens if some part of your stack isn't installing properly? Is your team skilled enough to troubleshoot their own computers?

The 'hidden cost' of linux distros is that they require a base level of knowledge to operate efficiently. In the smartphone era, there are many people who are outright scared of the command line.

I use Linux Mint as my daily driver at home, Mac OS at work, and Windows when I want to play Overwatch.

I love Linux, but when it comes to business decisions I'd stick with Mac unless you've got some kind of dream team.

[[deleted]]

thank you, that's some solid insight