I do have a similar experience. However, when I start compiling, the battery goes down in 2-3 hours. Simply because the compilation takes so much time...
I do that stuff on AWS. I try and treat my laptop as a terminal.
Oooh, I like that idea! I'm gonna try to figure that out today.
Or if you have some spare basement space, pick up an old Dell PowerEdge or some HP equivalent from eBay and slap ESXi on it. Works well for me, and I use my PowerEdge T410 for some other home services. 12 cores, 24 threads and 64GB DDR3 ECC RAM goes a pretty long way.
Plus keeps your house warm in the winter :)
If you’re an Emacs user, TRAMP makes running compilers on an external system feel almost completely transparent. New shells automatically open up on the remote machine and it feels almost local if your network latency is low enough.
How much is that AWS instance?
I fire up a suitable instance when I need it rather than leave one running. I have an AMI ready to roll with tools on it.
Average about $7-25 a month depending on what I’m doing.