Three caveats

Before we start, I’ll offer three caveats:

1. I’m using a loose definition of the word gadget. The more accurate term might be the less catchy, electronic devices, or even more broadly, tools.
2. This isn’t a my programming setup post. It’s about hardware gadgets. I’m not going to discuss editors, shells, et cetera. Though, I’ll go on record here as favoring Visual Studio Code, despite knowing how to exit Vim. 🙂
3. Most of these links have my affiliate ID. It’s not the reason for this post but they help offset the cost of my technology addiction. 😉

Good gadgets but not necessarily the best

The set of gadgets I currently use is the result of an evolutionary process.

The technology itself evolved over the years, but so did my ability to acquire it. Furthermore, the worst gadgets didn’t last or I replaced them with better alternatives.

So the gadgets below might not be the best in their respective categories, but they are sensible options. They offer the kind of quality that would please most readers. (Perhaps, even fellow maximizers.)

Laptops

I currently have two laptops. The first one I bought wasn’t really useful as a laptop (as I’ll explain below), so I ended up with two.

Mac laptop

I use a MacBook Pro 13″ (2018) as my upstairs, as well as on-the-go, laptop. Of the two, it’s the laptop I actually use on my lap.

If I’m on the couch, in bed, or at a coffee shop, I’m using my MacBook Pro. It shines for programming and writing, but it’s only adequate for video editing. 1080p videos are not a problem, but 4K proves to be a bit of a challenge for it.

The improved butterfly switch keyboard is actually pleasant enough to write on now that I’ve gotten used to it. I have not experienced stuck keys (though, I don’t eat on my laptop and I clean the keyboard from time to time).

I have experienced crackling speakers in the past (my video was even featured on MacRumors) but recent updates appear to have fixed the problem. Further, I experienced video card issues that also vanished with recent updates.

I find the touch bar useless and the lack of an SD card reader (or USB-A ports, for that matter) frustrating on occasion. Somehow, I always find myself out of space as well. Though I can’t blame the laptop per se. (I have the 512 GiB model.)

I like it enough, but it’s not a problem-free laptop.

PC laptop

Speaking of imperfect things, let me tell you about my Lenovo P51. I use this laptop as a de facto desktop in my office downstairs.

It’s heavy, noisy, and the touchpad is significantly worse than my Mac’s. Conversely, it has a beautiful 4K matte display, a fantastic keyboard, and more ports than you’ll ever need. Including a handy SD card reader.

The great keyboard and the lackluster touchpad balance out for my use case. The laptop is semi-permanently attached to an external keyboard and mouse, so neither really affect me.

The external keyboard I use is a mechanical one. A Filco Majestouch 2 Ninja with Cherry MX Blue switches. It looks cool and has very satisfying feedback. However, it’s quite loud as you’d expect from blue switches. I occasionally get it in my head to go down the customization route, but it’s a rabbit hole I have not explored to date.

The mouse I use is a Logitech MX Master wireless. It’s somewhat prone to interference if I clutter my desktop, but it’s otherwise a great mouse. I experimented in the past with the Magic Trackpad 2 by Apple and I found it to bother my wrist. I don’t experience that issue with either the Logitech or laptop touchpads.

Back to the laptop itself, I love that it’s very powerful. With four Xeon cores, 16 GB of RAM (upgradable to 64 GB), and 2 TB of fast PCI Express NVMe Solid State Drives, this thing is a beast.

It runs Windows 10 beautifully. Now that I started making videos, it’s my preferred option for editing them with Adobe Premiere Pro. (My video editing skills are currently rudimentary, but I’m learning fast.)

Yet, I would not recommend this laptop to many. If you want the same power or more, buy a desktop. If you want an actual laptop, maybe get a Carbon X1 instead.

Since I’ve already bought it, and it serves a purpose in my arsenal, I’m keeping it. I’ll likely replace it with a desktop when it becomes too slow to edit 8K video or whatever video resolution we’ll have by then.

Monitor

I attach my Lenovo laptop to a BenQ 32-Inch IPS 4K monitor. It’s a good display that works well when connected to either of my two laptops via Mini DisplayPort.

I don’t love the way it looks when connected via HDMI. It’s not just a matter of refresh rate. It seems to affect colors as well. I haven’t investigated the issue much and simply use Mini DisplayPorts.

The productivity offered by so much real estate is hard to beat and, for the money, you could do a lot worse.

Headphones

I love music so I tend to like nicer headphones, without breaking the bank. My desktop headphones are the Massdrop x Sennheiser HD6XX, coupled with an admittedly weak amplifier (i.e., a FiiO E10K Olympus). They are open-back cans, so they offer no privacy but they objectively sound pretty good.

I wish I could say I love them as much as the HiFiMAN HE-500 planar magnetic headphones that I used to have. Not even close. The HiFiMAN’s sound was in a completely different category as far as I’m concerned. I miss them.

My on-the-go headphones are the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2. They are closed-back, noise-canceling headphones and they sound great. Their noise cancelation is not as good as the Bose Quietcomfort 35 that I used to own, and they are less comfortable. On the plus side, they sound quite a bit better.

For working out, I have a pair of Bose SoundSport Wireless headphones. They sound fantastic for gym headphones, they are fairly comfortable, and they stay paired with my phone.

I actually prefer them over the more expensive Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless headphones that I previously owned. If one of the earphones was to dislodge from your ear mid-exercise, the cord on your neck would prevent them from falling off entirely.

Perhaps more importantly, they are not affected by audio lag while watching videos like the Free Truly Wireless are.

In the past, I even gave the Apple Airpod 2 a shot and the audio quality was appalling in comparison. The difference was night and day. I returned mine and I’m glad I did.

I love the Bose SoundSport Wireless and have no reservations in recommending them for sports.

For video calls, I have a pair of, now discontinued, Jabra UC Voice 550 Duo headphones. Great bang for the buck. I actually received compliments on their audio quality during conference calls. After several years of heavy use, their cable is now fraying.

Soon enough, I’ll likely replace them with a newer model by the same company.

I also have a desktop microphone, a Blue Yeti. Very good as well. (You can hear it in this video I made for my outdoor YouTube channel.)

Other Apple devices

Over the years, I flip-flopped a lot between Apple and Android when it came to phones. I like them both, for different reasons, but I can’t justify having two phones. So I currently have an iPhone XS Max and don’t expect to switch to Android again going forward.

I pair my iPhone with an Apple Watch 4. I used to have the first-generation and I was not impressed at all. This fourth iteration gets a lot of things right and I love it.

It’s good enough for notifications (not perfect, mind you). Useful enough for some key apps I use (e.g., Things). Pretty decent as a fitness tracker. Great at tracking sleep with a third-party app like SleepWatch.

It’s disappointing that AFib detection and the ECG feature are not available in Canada. Otherwise, I have no other complaints. It genuinely enhances the experience of having an iPhone. They are a match made in Cupertino. 😛

I have owned almost every fitness tracker and gadgets under the Sun. If you just want a fitness tracker, get a Fitbit with the heart rate monitor. If you are very serious about training, get a high-end Garmin (like the Fenix line). Want both a fitness tracker and a tiny computer on your wrist? The Apple Watch is the way to go. (Provided you have an iPhone to pair it with, of course.)

Speaking of Apple devices, I gave my iPad to my wife as I didn’t use it enough to justify keeping it for myself.

I’m not saying never again to owning an iPad. The newer, fancy models with the pencil cast a certain spell on me.

Still, I reached a point where gadgets are only added to my collection if they get used. So I’ll only get an iPad if I can find a workflow that makes it a necessity.

E-reader

I’m an avid reader and over the years I discovered that I read less when I’m limiting myself to physical books. I do most of my reading when I have an e-ink device (coupled with audiobooks when driving or exercising).

So I recently bought a Kobo Forma. I explained my reasoning for going with a Kobo instead of Kindle and why it’s a smart move for Canadians, in this post/video.

I still stand by my statements about the ecosystems, but I ended up returning my Kobo. The screen had a distracting light band near the border. The issue was systemic and not limited to my specific device. It was also the first e-ink device that caused me headaches.

So I returned it and replaced it with an Onyx Boox Nova Pro, which allows me to take notes as well. I just received it so I can’t offer a reasonable assessment of its merits and downfalls yet. I will share my review either as a post or as a video. (Subscribe here or on YouTube to be notified when it goes live.)

Networking devices

I have a NAS connected to my network. It’s only 3 TB and it turns out video takes a ton of space. 😉 So I’m quickly running out of storage and might have to invest in a larger NAS system.

At the moment, I’m using an inexpensive WD My Cloud device, backed up to the cloud via Backblaze. I’ll likely opt for a better, more expandable solution when I run out of space.

My internet connection is excellent (1 Gbps via fiber optic) but I have impenetrable walls in my house. The WiFi signal from the router downstairs struggled to reach the rooms upstairs.

I tried various methods to extend its range (including so-called range extenders). Nothing worked until I bought a mesh network.

The setup includes 3 Linksys Velop nodes. One downstairs near the WiFi router and the other two, strategically located to propagate the signal everywhere else in the house.

I cannot recommend this setup enough if you are struggling with the WiFi signal in your house or office. I now get up to 600 Mbps upstairs, which is impressive. It used to be 3 Mbps.

Video recording equipment

As I announced in a recent post, I started making videos on YouTube. I, perhaps too ambitiously, launched three channels: one on tech, one on self-improvement, and one about my outdoor hobbies.

I don’t have the best video setup in the world, especially after my full-frame camera died, and I ended up borrowing my wife’s Canon Rebel for the time being. Nevertheless, it’s a workable setup, so I’m sharing it here.

The camera sits on top of a Manfrotto 290 Tripod. I got a pair of Neewer Dimmable Bi-Color 660 LED Video Lights with Barndoors. They produce a serious amount of light and can be powered by either AC or batteries. The stands are not award-winning, but for the price, I’m impressed with the lights themselves.

I also got a super cheap background stand support system (a Neewer 8.5ft X 10ft one). It’s fine for the $100 range. The fabric backdrops that came with it are thin, wrinkly, and a bit transparent. I tend to use the black one, putting the other two behind it to prevent light from passing through. It’s not fantastic but it’s workable.

The audio I was getting, even with a RODE shotgun microphone mounted on top of the camera, was fairly bad. It would pick up a ton of environmental sounds. With such a high noise floor, removing noise in postproduction led to serious distortion.

So then I invested in a Zoom H4N Pro audio recorder and a Countryman B3 lavalier microphone and my audio drastically improved overnight. Two fantastic audio gadgets, in my opinion.

Compare a clip I made with my old setup, and one with the new setup. I think it’s a dramatic difference.

I picked that lavalier microphone because it offers great sound for the money. It also connects to my Zoom recorder via its balanced XLR input.

The Zoom records great audio on its own, but without spending significantly more money, you’d be hard-pressed to top it when combined with the Countryman B3.

Conclusion

Truth be told, I’m not exactly sure who this post is for.

If you were curious about which gadgets I use, now you know.

If you came here through Google, searching for an opinion between two different devices, I hope you found my comments useful.

I absolutely did not make this list to brag. Yet, looking at the length of this article, listing all these gadgets in one place, it feels rather indulgent.

Let’s all agree that, maybe, I have a tech gadget problem. I can quit whenever I want. 😉

The post 19 Gadgets I Use and Love appeared first on Programming Zen.

Due to sudden and unforeseen circumstances, last year I went from having several personal laptops to none at all. This is the story of how I ended up getting a Google Pixelbook and my take on it.

Buying a beast of a laptop

As soon as I could, I bought a powerhouse laptop.

In hindsight, I should have bought a MacBook Pro, but I wanted to save some money (roughly $1,000) and opted instead for a Lenovo P51, which I purchased with my employee discount.

My Lenovo is a beast. It has a Xeon quad-core processor, 16 GB of ECC RAM (expandable to 64 GB), 2 TB of NVMe drives, 4 GB Quadro graphic card, 4K display, and so on. It’s a mean laptop that can run the heaviest IDEs, Virtual Machines, and work with my large catalog of photos in Lightroom like a champ.

Unfortunately, at the time I erred a little too much on the side of power, sacrificing portability and usability on the go in the process. It’s a fast laptop alright, but it is also super heavy, noisy, has lousy battery life, and can get quite warm.

It’s a great quasi-desktop. You place it on a flat surface and it’s nice. You hook it up to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and it’s amazing.

Unfortunately, if you try to use it on your lap while sitting on the couch, balancing it on your body while lazing around in bed, or carrying it anywhere, you’ll suddenly understand why people obsess so much about sleek ultrabooks.

I don’t worry about this laptop getting stolen when I’m at coffee shops, because few petty thieves would be able to run off with this thing under their arm. Besides, the charger alone makes for quite a capable defense weapon. 🙂

It’s hard to regret buying such a powerful machine, but boy, it’s frustrating to use it as an actual laptop.

The Google Pixelbook as a secondary lightweight laptop

So after putting up with the Lenovo as my primary device for almost a year, I decided to look for a small laptop as my secondary device.

The idea is that my Lenovo would live downstairs in my office, almost always hooked up to an external monitor. And the lighter laptop would be with me when I’m not in my office downstairs, whether upstairs on the couch, in bed at night, or on the go (e.g., at the library, cafes, or while travelling).

I started looking for alternatives and stumbled upon the Google Pixelbook, the best Chromebook that’s currently available on the market.

I used to have a Toshiba Chromebook 2 prior to the house fire that we experienced in 2016. By and large, that Toshiba was quite nice to use, so I was willing to give a new Chromebook a go.

Reviewers took issue with the Pixelbook

The reviews from people I respect were not encouraging. Marques Brownlee found it weird. Linus couldn’t bring himself to recommend it. Dave Lee liked it but thought there were much better options in that general price range.

I decided to try it out for myself. First in store, and then by purchasing one.

It’s not a laptop for everyone and there are compromises (especially on the software side). And yet I can’t help but feel that many reviewers missed the magic that this misunderstood laptop brings into the computing world.

Its hardware is characterized by an elegant design with fantastic build quality. Its high resolution screen is beautiful. The keyboard is crisp and a joy to use despite the limited key travel. The touchpad is buttery smooth glass that I find to be on par or slightly better than the MacBook Pro touchpads.

It even act as a respectable tablet thanks to its 3:2 screen ratio, highly responsive touch screen, and excellent (purchasable as an add-on) Pixelbook Pen. The battery life is terrific as well, lasting up to 8 – 10 hours, depending on usage.

The Google Pixelbook is fast

Then there are the specs. Easy to overlook. i5 dual core processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of disk for the base model which costs $999 USD (now on sale for less in the US).

For that amount of money, you could find laptops with better specs. Allow me to let you in on a secret, however: most aren’t going to be any faster.

Do not underestimate how lightweight ChromeOS is. This laptop is incredibly snappy. As far as browsing goes, it feels faster than my Lenovo and the 15″ MacBook Pro I use at work, and neither of them are slouches. I also ran a web-based benchmark for the fun of it, and it came out on top.

It accomplishes all this, while managing to stay completely silent and produce virtually no heat. To me, this is what the future of laptops look like.

Possible competitors in a similar price bracket will typically run Windows 10 and feel significantly laggier, despite having a faster processor or more RAM. If a lot of what you do is browsing-related, it’s hard to beat this little laptop.

ChromeOS is great

But let’s address the elephant in the room: the limits of the operating system. After all, ChromeOS is supposed to be a toy of sorts; the OS you have on the cheap Chromebook that you give your kids to play with while dad or mom is busy doing real work on a real laptop.

Well, here is the thing. The operating system on the Pixelbook is actually a strength not a weakness. It is fast, lightweight, secure, and effortless to maintain.

It’s not Windows or MacOS, so there will be a slight learning curve to figure out the cloud first approach to computing, as well as the occasional workaround for an app that doesn’t exist on this system.

I readily admit that ChromeOS is not for everyone, especially if you are heavily into gaming, video editing or even photography (though Polarr is excellent).

I came in with reasonable expectations however, and was pleasantly surprised by how little there is that I can’t do on the Pixelbook.

The Google Pixelbook runs Android apps

Let me tell you what it can do. It can run Android apps out of the box and that is a game changer. After only a couple of days of using Android apps on the laptop, I really missed this functionality when using Windows or Mac.

I never realized how much I switched between my laptop and my phone, specifically because of Android apps. With the Pixelbook I don’t have to.

Android is also part of the reason why the Pixelbook’s specs, which might appear to be overkill for a Chromebook, are actually quite useful.

Now, not every Android app will work or scale properly to the larger screen, but I haven’t had a problem with the overwhelming majority of apps that I use (and Google is pushing for more and more developers to adapt their apps to larger screens).

The Google Pixelbook runs Linux apps

Then there is Linux. Without many of the hacks from the early days of Chromebooks, you can now easily install Linux apps. Even GUI apps (unlike the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10).

The year of Linux on the desktop might be here and we haven’t even noticed! 😉

To enable Linux apps, all you have to do is set the channel for the operating system to the Dev branch and enable the Linux (Beta) option in the settings. You can then install whatever you want via apt (or by compiling from source if you wish).

Linux runs in a container and you can also access your Linux filesystem directly from Files, the ChromeOS file manager. The Linux experience is seamless and I prefer it to WSL on Windows 10 by quite a large margin.

Interestingly, it also looks like the Pixelbook will be able to run Windows 10 in the future. So you could theoretically run apps from 4 different OSes on the same machine!

My colleagues were impressed

I brought my Google Pixelbook in to work to show a few colleagues and they were blown away by how nice it was.

“I’m really trying to find flaws, but I can’t find them”, said one who tried to “trip it” by asking me to do various thing a Chromebook is not really supposed to do well, only to have it pass with flying colors. “Antonio, I’m trying to make you regret your purchase decision, but I really can’t”, he said jokingly.

I overheard two colleagues who are in the market for a new lightweight laptop ask themselves, “Should we drive to Best Buy at lunch or wait until after work?”.

This laptop might not be for everyone, but I think it’s becoming increasingly relevant to a large number of people. Casual users on one end, developers and other advanced technical users on the other end.

My only concern with this machine is the size of its screen. At 12.3″, it might be too small for my eyes, and that’s the only reason why I’d ever consider returning it.

I suspect my ideal screen size is 14″ in a compact body, so 12.3″ is a bit of a stretch. But that’s on me, and not a flaw of the laptop.

Google Pixelbook alternatives

I seriously considered alternatives to the Pixelbook, many of which were mentioned by some of the reviewers I discussed earlier.

They all took issue with the price, arguing that better options were available. I’m not sure I agree, at least in Canada.

Most of the commonly mentioned alternatives are actually more expensive than the Pixelbook.

Then there is the issue of performance (despite better specs on paper) and build quality (with an exception made for the much more expensive MacBook Pro).

Google Pixelbook vs. MacBook Pro

The obvious Pixelbook alternative for me was the 13″ MacBook Pro. I didn’t buy it for several reasons:

• It’s very expensive in Canada and I wasn’t looking to spend that much;
• It’s overdue for an update, so buying now doesn’t make much sense;
• I hate the new butterfly keyboards. I know a few people who love them, but I’m not personally a fan.

Google Pixelbook vs. Dell XPS 13

The new Dell XPS 13 came close. However, not only was it more expensive — especially in a suitable configuration that would allow you to adequately run Windows 10 — but it had a pretty lame keyboard that felt mushy and sort of annoying to type on. (I also fought with the touchpad, but maybe the store model had issues.)

It also comes with a stupid location for the camera. It’s at the bottom due to the thin bezels, so it unflatteringly looks up straight at your nostrils! In fairness, the camera is a shortcoming of the Pixelbook as well, being limited to 720p. Still, it’s located in the normal position at the top.

The Dell has a gorgeous display and a great design in general, though, particularly the new Rose Gold model. A tempting choice despite its shortcomings.

Google Pixelbook vs. Microsoft Surface Laptop

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is quite nice, too. A new version is supposedly coming out soon so I’d be a little hesitant to buy the current one now.

The keyboard is sort of spongy as well, it lacks USB-C ports, and Windows-S is so locked down that you can only run Edge as your browser and apps from their store. All in all, I think it’s more limited than ChromeOS + Android.

A paid upgrade to the full version of Windows 10 is possible, of course, but the laptop itself will then need more than the basic configuration with 4 GB of RAM to run Windows 10 properly.

It has a beautiful design, though, and was also a serious contender for me.

There were more expensive alternative, as well as more affordable ones like Asus, Acer, etc., but I didn’t feel they offered the same quality and gorgeous design as the Pixelbook, the Dell XPS 13, or the Surface Laptop.

Pixelbook vs. Tablets

Some people will recommend an iPad Pro or other tablets, instead of the Pixelbook. I don’t quite get it.

Have you ever tried using those things on your lap? They fall off their standing position all the time. They are really meant to be used on a hard surface.

The lack of a touchpad also drives me nuts. I think they are great tablets, but not a suitable replacement for laptops for my use cases.

The Google Pixelbook is actually amazing

The Google Pixelbook might not be for everyone, but it’s definitely a great laptop if it meets your needs. Especially as a secondary, ultra portable machine.

It has surpassed my expectations. The Pixelbook is in fact one of the best laptops I have ever had.

More importantly, I think Google is really onto something with the ChromeOS + Android + Linux combo.

It’s been less than a week since I got this laptop, and already I’m not sure I’d be willing to give up that combo going forward with future laptops.

The post Google Pixelbook Review: The Little Laptop That Could appeared first on Programming Zen.

I almost bought a Lenovo

After mulling it over, and taking into account the feedback I received, I was quite positive I’d be buying a Lenovo X1 Carbon.

And then I saw it: an HP Spectre ultrabook that was available at Costco. Gorgeous laptop. Brilliant screen, great keyboard, good specs, premium price, but not exorbitant. It is also lightweight and slim. HP markets it as the thinnest 13″ ultrabook in the world.

I don’t care too much about thinness (self-deprecating joke not intended), but boy, that laptop is sharp looking. So I bought one with the intention of dual booting Linux on it.

Time to install Linux

I brought my HP Spectre home, did the unboxing and was very impressed by the luxurious presentation, as well as the laptop itself.

It was a beautiful, fast machine and I was one happy camper. For a little while at least…

Failing to install Linux on the HP Spectre

Some people, including Leo Laporte, mentioned that they couldn’t get Linux to run on this laptop. However, one or two others claimed to have had success with it.
I bought the laptop on the off chance that those folks were right. However, that approach didn’t pan out too well for me.

The HP Spectre ships with 3 USB-C ports. One used for the charger, the others as USB or Thunderbolt ports. It includes two adapters, USB-C to Ethernet and USB-C to USB 3.0, respectively.

I placed Ubuntu on a USB key (with UNetbootin) that was connected to their USB-C to USB 3.0 adapter and proceeded to boot the live version of Ubuntu 16.04. Doing so failed.

Pressing F10 gets you into the BIOS, from which I tried disabling secure boot and enabling legacy USB support. No luck. (I must remark that the BIOS options were quite limited compared to those of many laptops.)

Researching the error, I was able to determine that the issue was related to booting from a USB 3.0 device. So I tried a USB 2.0 key. Nothing. Tried to boot from an external DVD drive. Same error.

OK, let’s try something with a more recent kernel? No dice. Fedora 24? Nope.

Installing Linux like it’s 1999

Further investigation led me to find a boot parameter that would allow the live installation to start. Pressing e with the “Try live” GRUB2 line selected enabled me to add acpi=off pci=noacpi to the boot command.

This started the live session, though once it was booted there were serious issues that were probably brought on by disabling ACPI. Truth be told it was 4 am at that point, so I don’t even remember what were the specific issues, but the gist of it was that the laptop was not usable at all with Linux.

It really reminded me of all-nighters I used to do installing Linux and recompiling kernels back in the late 1990s. In all fairness, today’s Linux is fantastic and a big component at play here is how new this laptop is.

I restored the laptop to its original configuration and returned it to Costco. They offer 90 day, almost no question asked, returns on electronics so I was able to promptly get a full refund without any hassle.

I felt a touch sad returning the little guy and even considered running Linux in a VM from Windows. Or perhaps even relying on the upcoming Bash within Windows. I know, I know… but that’s how much I liked it.

I almost bought a Lenovo, for the second time

With the HP Spectre out of the picture, the Lenovo X1 Carbon was tempting me again. I considered the Dell XPS 13, but the, quite honestly, stupid placement of the webcam at the bottom left side was very off putting. I also find the Lenovo keyboard to be superior to that of the Dell.

Okay, time to decide between Lenovo X1 Carbon vs X1 Yoga. The Yoga version is essentially the touch screen 2-in–1 version of the Carbon. It weighs a little more, it costs a few hundred more, and it lasts (battery wise) a little less.

I’m not huge on touch screens for laptops, so my decision was easy enough. Time to order a Lenovo X1 Carbon. Along with the MacBook Pro, I consider the Lenovo X1 Carbon to be the gold standard of developer ultrabooks.

Taking advantage of employee pricing I was able to spec out the Lenovo X1 Carbon I wanted for something like $2,300 (Canadian).

Now, that is, I fully admit, a lot of dough for a laptop. However, when you stop and consider the fact that laptops are what enable me to make a living, they end up being a very small professional investment (we are quite fortunate actually, compared to quite a few other professionals whose tools cost them tens of thousands of dollars).

I was this close to pulling the trigger on the order, but then the Lenovo site decided to malfunction. It did so multiple times, 404ing on me each and every time. I didn’t take it as a sign because I doubt that the Universe is all that concerned about my laptop choices, but it gave me enough time to reflect on my purchase.

Comparing Apples to Lenovos

I realized that, yes, I needed a portable laptop now, but I was about to spend a considerable amount of cash on a laptop without knowing what Apple would have to offer next soon enough.

Would I still buy a Lenovo X1 Carbon if a newly released MacBook Air 13″ with retina display was available today? Maybe, or maybe not.

I’ll be honest. Unless Apple screws it up, they probably have the edge, since I could triple-boot MacOS Sierra, Ubuntu, and Windows 10 on the same machine. But either way, it would be nice to make that call when the two laptops actually exist and can be compared in terms of ergonomics, price, and specs.

Apple is likely to release such a retina MacBook Air 13″ in September or October. Possibly a bit later in the year, though not likely further than the end of 2016.

A Laptop to hold me over

I began toying with the idea of acquiring a laptop to hold me over until the new Macs are out and I can make an informed decision on which laptop I want to pair to my existing MacBook Pro 15″ (which I use as a desktop).

A key consideration for such a laptop would be cost. It has to be cheap so that my purchase decision of the laptop I really want in the fall or winter won’t be impacted by the expense that I make now.

Old Laptops vs Chromebooks vs Cheap Windows Laptops

The three main categories of inexpensive laptops that can run Linux are:

• Old laptops (either older models, refurbished, or used);
• Chromebooks;
• Cheap Windows Laptops (the few compatible ones).

Old laptops and cheapo Windows laptops tend to be more powerful than Chromebooks and, provided they are compatible with Linux, more straightforward to set-up as Linux laptops for development (Chromebooks require extra steps to dual boot.)

However, Chromebooks tend to have the edge when it comes to portability, weight, looks, and battery life.

Chromebooks are also interesting because of the upcoming ability (in the fall, though it’s possible to try it now) to run Android apps.

So I shifted my research instead to Chromebooks.

I almost bought a Lenovo, yet again

Fine, this is getting ridiculous, I know. While researching Chromebooks I came across a smoking deal on New Egg. A Lenovo T430 with docking station for $299 Canadian.

Much like Jesus, I was tempted a third time. Only, by Lenovo.

I think that the T430 above would have made for a great Linux laptop. However, you can essentially anchor a boat with that baby.

When you consider the lack of battery life, the old school TFT panel, the chunky charger, its size, etc, I quickly started to see the value that a Chromebook can add.

And I look forward to the Android app element as well.

Choosing a Chromebook for Linux

Alright, time to pick a Chromebook. I considered several models, but the ones that stood out for me where the Toshiba Chromebook 2, Dell Chromebook 11, and Acer R11.

I’ll cut an already long story short, and tell you that I ordered a Toshiba Chromebook 2. It’s almost universally well reviewed and most people consider it to be the best Chromebook for the money (unless you are willing to shell out more for a Dell Chromebook 13 or significantly more for a Google Pixel).

Great all around and the IPS Full HD display is particularly outstanding in its category.

Full disclosure here: I ordered it from the States. It’s going to take a week before it arrives, so what I write below is my plan rather than what I’ve actually already done.

If you are in the same boat, that wasn’t sunk by the T430 above, you should try to stick to:

• Intel-based Chromebooks for maximum application-level compatibility in Linux;
• Recent Celeron or i3/i5 processors;
• 4 GB of RAM, because those Chrome tabs aren’t going to remember themselves;
• SD card slots to easily and cheaply expand storage;
• Decent, ideally IPS, panel so that you can be comfortable while staring at the screen for long sessions at the time;
• Relatively inexpensive (or you might as well buy an ultrabook). The $200-$400 range is reasonable.

For me, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 ($299 USD) checked off all of those boxes. And I like that its hard drive is upgradable. It doesn’t hurt either that it takes 42 mm M.2 SSDs, which are quite cheap. If I like this laptop a lot, I’ll definitely upgrade its disk.

Chromebook as a Linux laptop for development

There are several ways to run Linux on a Chromebook for development purposes:

1. Simply use the preinstalled Chrome OS (which is a restricted Linux) and leverage cloud-based development environments such as Cloud9 and Nitrous. And if you are a data scientist, use my team’s Data Scientist Workbench.
2. Install Linux via Crouton. This chroot-based approach leverages the existing OS and allows you to cycle through a full-blown graphical Linux environment (e.g., Ubuntu with Xfce) and Chrome OS with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Back and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Forward.
3. Do #2 + xiwi which allows you to run Linux apps in a Chrome OS window. Read the fine print, however, as performance can be a concern.
4. Dual boot a lightweight Linux distro such as GalliumOS. In many cases, you’ll have to replace the firmware with a custom version in order to bypass Chrome OS restrictions. Check the hardware compatibility list to ensure your Chromebook is supported.
5. Do the same as #4, but simply get rid of Chrome OS.

I like the dual-boot approach the best. If that fails to realize for some reason, I’ll fall back on the less secure Crouton approach.

Either way, it’s worth keeping Chrome OS for things like Netflix.

Reasonable Expectations

I think I’m going to enjoy the little laptop that’s currently on its way to my doorstep. I have reasonable expectations, so I doubt I’ll be disappointed.

Obviously, a Chromebook (Pixel excluded) is not going to run heavy IDEs or multiple VMs, and I don’t plan to use it for those sorts of purposes.

Still, there is plenty of development (especially web development) to be had on a lightweight Linux laptop like the one I just ordered.

Will I get a MacBook Air in the fall?

I may still buy that MacBook Air in the fall (or whenever the laptop becomes available). Though, there’s a chance that I might buy that Lenovo X1 Carbon after all, at that point in time.

Depending on how much I like the Toshiba Chromebook 2, I may keep it or sell it and recoup some money from it when I buy my portable development gig in a few months.

Maybe, just maybe, I might even just stick to the Chromebook plus the MacBook Pro 15 that I already have (certainly the most budget-friendly approach). I’ll share my decision and experiences developing with a Chromebook, in future posts.

If you have experience developing with a Chromebook, please feel free to share below.

The post And That’s How I Ended up Developing with a Chromebook appeared first on Programming Zen.

Why I’m looking for a new laptop

When shopping for a developer laptop, I usually stick to powerful machines with a relatively large screen. My main operating system is OS X, so my last few laptops have all been MacBook Pros 15″.

My 2-year old MacBook Pro with an i7, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is still a fine machine. I’m not looking for a new laptop to replace it with. Nor am I looking for more power or more pixels, and I certainly don’t have an inherent desire to smudge my screen by touching it day in and day out.

The reason why I’m in the market for a new developer laptop is that my MacBook Pro is currently used primarily as a desktop machine. It is quasi-permanently hooked up to two large monitors (a Dell 34″ ultra wide, and a way too tall Benq 32″ in vertical mode), as well as a few other peripherals, disk drives, etc.

This is an arrangement that works well enough for me when at my desk, but is suboptimal when portability is taken into account.

It’s a pretty chunky laptop to carry around, unhooking is a pain, and I don’t find it to be comfortable when used on my actual lap. Sharp edges and heat are only two of the ergonomic issues that I’ve run into with it. (Interestingly, I found 13″ Macs to be less problematic from an ergonomic standpoint.)

So the real trouble with this laptop is that it forces me to sit at my desk. My comfort and productivity levels soar when I’m able to switch it up a little during the day. Standing here and there, moving to the couch (I work from home), working from a coffee shop on occasion, and so on.

Adding to the mix both work and personal trips, and it quickly becomes possible to rationalize wanting to buy a second laptop to be used as, well, an actual laptop! 🙂

A premium docking station that supports both monitors with their large resolutions could be an alternative, but it doesn’t solve the other issues I have with the MacBook Pro 15″ when used as a laptop.

Likewise, I have an iPad Air 2 which I like quite a bit as a media consumption device, but it’s lacking for all but the lightest of my productivity tasks.

Looking at MacBooks

Being an OS X user, I first looked at the obvious choices in the Apple lineup. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Macs are a priority for Apple today.

Take a look at this lineup from the MacRumors buying guide.

All but the MacBook to the left were last updated a long time ago. 427 days ago for the Retina MacBook Pro 13“, 498 days ago for the not-even-HD MacBook Air 13”.

These are still good laptops, but I have a hard time paying full price for old models when new releases are coming soon. We just don’t know how soon yet, though. It could be a couple of months. It could be half a year from now.

So Apple puts me in a tough spot. If their prices were lowered to account for the new models coming up, justifying a purchase now would be much easier — and apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way, with sales of the Pro and Air models currently decreasing while people wait.

The new MacBook is nice, but I’m afraid that at 12″ it is really too small for my needs. I also find the butterfly keys with extremely limited travel to be quite unpleasant (though I hear people get used to it).

Ultrabooks for developers

I prefer OS X because it’s a good compromise. Decent UX as a user; decent UX as a developer.

But I still use Linux (which I prefer for development and deployment) and Windows, too. So I’ve been toying with the idea of getting an ultrabook, instead of a Mac, as my portable option.

As a technologist, I find it useful to remain in touch with all three main operating systems, even if I predominantly use one for day to day use. The idea of an ultrabook, from this perspective, is quite appealing.

I would probably use Ubuntu as my main OS on the laptop and occasionally switch to Windows 10 (chiefly to play with .NET and related technologies).

After doing quite a bit of research on the topic, the best laptop for developers in 2016 appear to be:

1. Microsoft Surface Book
2. Lenovo X1 Carbon
3. Dell XPS 13
4. Asus UX305 or the newly announced UX306.

The Surface Book one is essentially Microsoft’s version of a MacBook Pro, with the included bonus of also being an awesome 13.5″ Surface tablet. It is, understandably, not cheap.

The Lenovo has the best keyboard of the bunch and a larger screen (14″), while still remaining remarkably light.

The Dell has the best screen and a format that is much smaller than its 13.3“ screen size would indicate, thanks to it being almost bezel-less (as such, it’s the size of an average 11.5” laptop).

The Asus is decent all around and is priced right, so it becomes the best bang for your buck sort of choice.

There, I shortlisted them for you. 🙂 If you are in the same situation, I hope that this saves you some time.

My ideal configuration is still i7 / 16GB / 512GB SSD, but since this is not going to be my main development machine, I’d settle for an i5 / 8GB / 256 GB.[1]

What works for you?

I haven’t made up my mind yet.

Part of me wants to wait for the new 13″ MacBook Air/Pro.[2] I have come to rely on the Apple ecosystem quite a bit after all, and use some apps that are not available on Linux (e.g., 1Password) and in some cases, not even on Windows (e.g., OmniFocus, MarsEdit).

Part of me feels like it might be worth “stopping the suffering”[3] and getting a portable solution now. An ultrabook might even force me to rely less on the Apple ecosystem, leading me to search for cross-platform alternatives. (A good thing.)

I’ll let you know what I decide in the end. For the time being, feel free to influence my decision by sharing what works for you. 😉

The post Developer Laptops in 2016 appeared first on Programming Zen.