Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by EnderMB 3412 days ago
I waited for over a year for the new MBP to come out, but in the end I shelled out a bit more money for a Surface Book.

Since then, I've used the new MBP, and while it's a great machine I don't regret my purchase for a second. My only gripe with the Surface Book is that installing Linux is a bit of a nightmare (not sure if this is still the case), but I'm happy enough with running Ubuntu on a virtual machine.
2 comments
yokohummer7 3412 days ago
And Windows Subsystem for Linux! While all my server and development stuffs are based on Linux, I wasn't particularly a fan of the Linux GUIs. The reason MacBook was attractive was that it runs POSIX. But now Windows can do that too thanks to WSL. It's not complete but even the current partial support does enough for me. It's a cheap, lightweight alternative to Linux VMs. I guess I would go with a Windows-based laptop next time. It is truly a game changer.
link
matthewking 3412 days ago
I'm considering this too, Windows 10 still has some annoying UI inconsistencies but its getting there, and with the Ubuntu subsystem its viable for Linux based dev's without setting up a VM. I mean technically its closer to my target production environment than macOS is.

I haven't spent that long trying it out but managed to get a Rails 5 app up and running without much fuss, I'm with you on it being a game changer.

link
yokohummer7 3412 days ago
> I mean technically its closer to my target production environment than macOS is.

Huh, I didn't think about that, but you're right. Yeah, I won't have to deal with slightly different shell tools that are bundled with macOS. I'm not saying those tools are bad, it's just that I'm so used to GNU tools. Also, the directory structures and the kernel interfaces will exactly be the same as Ubuntu. Good point.

link
therealunreal 3412 days ago
Similar experience here. The killer feature for me is that the screen is detachable and can be flipped, it has served me very well both as a dev laptop and a tablet.

Agreed about Linux too, I didn't even try (yet). But WSL is nearly there, I think the next update will be able to launch windows executables from bash (they say it's in the insiders build).

link