[whitecat]

This turned out to be a longer first post than I though it would be. I don't know why people are comparing these "good" laptops to Apple laptops in specs. Apple laptops really have not been better than the best laptops. For every MBPr that has come out there has been a better laptop by one of the tops Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer. The reason is I buy Apple is I need a stable operating system. The last 4 Windows based machine I owned crashed when I close/move/sleep/awoke it/plugged in another display (who would think that would crash a computer), the reason was drivers. I switched those laptops from Windows to try Linux and it was marginally better but again driver support did not fix those problems. I bought 4 non Apple laptops in hopes to get a good one.

When I switched to Apple I still faced issues bug only 1/10 the time as when I was with other brands. I hate apple operating system lack of getting things I want. I wish I could have stayed with Windows, I am hampered by using silly work arounds to play video games I love. Linux is great if I didn't have so many configuration issues, installing the correct video driver is a pain (I'm looking at you intel video cards). The system works.

I spent 20 years working on windows machines. The last 4 years Windows machines just have had more and more issues which pushed me to something that is stable and will work.

[hsitz]

I've heard people say this about Windows but it certainly hasn't been my experience. Since 1999 I've had nine (I think) different Windows machines, eight laptops and one tablet. They're from varied manufacturers: Dell, Compaq, Lenovo, Acer, Asus. I still have all of them and they all still run. I've never had resume problems or crashing problems on any of them. (Well, maybe I did with my 1999 Dell running Win98, don't particularly remember, there. But since WinXP all has been good. I did just buy a used Thinkpad with a bad motherboard, though. It crashes, but it won't once I replace the motherboard.)

At least for the last 10 years or so my use has involved rarely turning them off or rebooting, just close the screen and re-open to get going again, often going for weeks or months at a time between reboots. When I do reboot it's usually because things seem slow or buggy because of some problem with the browser or with Flash.

I recently converted my 2008 vintage Thinkpad X200 to Linux. Linux Mint installed quickly and without incident and sleeps/recovers fine, just like my Windows machines. I didn't do anything other than bog standard install, no search for any specific drivers.

This is all just my personal anecdote to counter other people who claim to have had lots of problems on Windows machines. Hasn't been my experience at all.

I've liked Macbooks and Macbook Airs for quite a few years, ever since I deemed that Apple was charging reasonable prices (not sure exactly when I decided that). My next laptop may be one of the forthcoming Macbook Airs, or maybe the new 12" retina Macbook that's supposed to come out soon. I expect one of the first things I'll do is install Linux. I like the Macbook hardware; OS X not as much (although OS X is okay, too).

[72deluxe]

I've never ever ever had problems with Windows machines (admittedly ones that I built myself) in 15+ (?) years. The only problems I did have were: 1. Virus (Win95.CIH if I recall correctly) 2. Bad RAM 3. Hard disk died 4. Windows XP didn't recognise my SATA motherboard (no drivers) when I upgraded my machine and just took my old IDE disk and put that on it; my problem expecting it to know about SATA (when XP was released, it hadn't been invented yet). 5. nVidia drivers were duff / GPU was faulty

So none of those problems have been actual Windows problems.

Maybe I've been really fortunate but I don't remember having any problems or deaths of items. I have never had problems with the Macs I've had either, even the minis that I installed Linux on and used as tiny convenient Linux boxes back in the day when miniITX and Atom boards didn't cut it (and when PCs with the same power as the Mac Mini were significantly larger).

I have had to clean up virus-ridden machines from others though; if you fill your machine up with junk and aren't careful browsing the web things go wrong apparently.

[artimaeis]

This is a surprising comment to me. I've followed the laptop market pretty closely for years now and Apple consistently has offered the highest quality devices of everyone in my opinion. Most importantly to me is the sheer size/weight of the device while still maintaining features. In this way Macbooks have been superior for years - but I'm hoping there's just some lines I've missed.

If you could point me to some laptops that match the specs of a Macbook for the year they were out and are as thin/light then I'd much appreciate it!

[Encosia]

I traded in my MacBook for an i7 ATIV Book 9 Plus about a year and a half ago. The Samsung was (I think) thinner and lighter than my Air, but had a higher than MBPr resolution display and i7 processor. Basically like a high end MBPr in an Air form factor. The Samsung was a pretty dramatic upgrade and I sold my MacBook almost immediately. I only miss it occasionally when I'd like to be able to build an iOS app.

Today, I'm using a Surface Pro 3 and actually like it even better than the Samsung. There's something impressive about being able to carry a full i7 development machine around like it's a thin, hardcover book.

[jmcdowell]

I haven't used the Suface Pro 3 myself but I'm wondering, can it become your sole/main dev machine? Or is it only good for some light coding?

[beeworker]

I don't use the Surface Pro 3, but my friend does. He used it as his work "laptop" for the duration of a gig at one company. The dock attachment is a good addition if you want it for that purpose, but its tablet form factor makes it work better than any laptop I've seen for being productive off the office desk, like sitting in front of the fireplace and writing a bunch of text. His use has convinced me that if I ever need to get a new personal laptop (my company provides me with the only one I use) I would get the Pro 3.

[Encosia]

I use a desktop as my main dev machine, and I haven't tried to supplant it with any of these portable machines, just supplement. I do run Visual Studio, WebStorm, Photoshop, etc. on the Surface though, no problem, to code and push real features.

The docking station and a large display or two would probably be a must for using it as a primary machine. I haven't tried the docking station myself, but I've heard lots of good things about it.

[whitecat]

Dell has been producing amazing spec'ed laptops since 2013. When they use the IGZO display. Dell and Fujitsu both produced a 3200 x 1800 display laptop. Samsung has their 9 and 5 series that are pretty nice spec'ed work horses. Apple Does not have any laptop with 32 GB of memory, and you cannot upgrade them. They have the i7 but only 1 of the 13 different possible specs.

Given size it is a bit more difficult but there are laptops with higher display density than apple and faster processors.

[maaaats]

>The last 4 Windows based machine I owned crashed when I close/move/sleep/awoke it/plugged in another display

What century was this? I could understand one model having these issues, but 4? I think you embellish.

[whitecat]

I actually didn't tell enough. I have had 2 Asus, 1 Dell, 3 Lenovo, 1 HP, 1 Chromebook, 1 MBPr 2013 late. In the span of 5 years 2008-2013. I only stick need my Apple now.

I purchased and sold 4 of those the Asuses, Dell, and HP. The Lenovos were purchased by my Prof. I complained and she gave them to the incoming students and I got a new one.

[whitecat]

Update: Thanks for down voting because I am the most unlucky person with crappy crappy computers.

[virtue3]

Honestly (and really, hear me out here). Alot of those crashes were device drivers for graphics cards. Windows 8 (I know... 8.1 isn't bad) actually moved the display drivers out of kernal space (at the chagrin of every game dev ever) and now at least the system/applications recover from a graphic driver dump.

Although I will say I'm having issues with 8.1 that I can't really peg down. Sigh. We've had a string of issues with mavericks/yosemite here at work so I can't say everything is all rosey either.

Ubuntu is pretty easy going as far as linux distros and working. At least when you throw recent but not bleeding edge hardware at it!

I'll agree that right now osx is probably the most stable of systems for developing but that comes at the expense of lack of some pretty critical software (well... lets be serious, games...)

[stcredzero]

Alot of those crashes were device drivers for graphics cards. Windows 8 (I know... 8.1 isn't bad) actually moved the display drivers out of kernel space

The NT kernel was worked on the by guy who did the VAX kernel. The thing is pretty rock solid so long as you don't do certain things -- like put display drivers in kernel space. There were people selling monstrous RAID arrays run by the NT kernel. You can't get much more stringent than that for stability requirements.

[72deluxe]

What problems have you had with Mavericks and Yosemite?

[mrjatx]

Oh, I got this! Worst wireless reliability I've ever seen in a business. They keep putting out 'fixes' to wpa2 authentication and we still have constant issues in our office when going from WAP to WAP.

[virtue3]

Honestly there's been a few issues here with some apache configs and just general web development brew snafus. Most likely from upgrading the OS. The clean installs we recently got have been pretty good so far.

[pjmlp]

Windows 7 already enjoys user space drivers.

[kasabali]

As does Vista.

[angryasian]

I'm in the same opinion, mac os has become less and less stable. I get crashes more often than before. I like to never reboot my machines and can barely get a week before something causes it to freeze up forcing me to reboot or get the system message that its being rebooted for some type of crash. On top of other issues like wifi stability, etc.

I don't use windows. I wish there was just a good linux laptop.

[kod]

There is nothing on the market competitive with a MBPr in terms of hardware (completely ignoring software).

The XPS 15 is the closest, and it's apparently plagued by coil whine.

[kod]

Hahaha @ haters downvoting without providing any counterexamples... because they can't

What else on the market is that size and weight with a quad core, 16gb ram, and pcie storage?