Hacker News Reader

Comment by ogre_codes | Hacker News Reader

This story works well for a professional writer. If you are a professional developer/ video editor/ audio professional, or any number of other professions that lean heavier on the hardware they use, it's quite different. If buying new hardware is going to substantially improve my work-day, I'm going to buy new hardware. With the pace of modern hardware improvement, the time between purchases is longer, but there is still a refresh. If your time is worth money, spending money to save time is an easy decision.

I don't toss my old devices out, they get another 5-10 years use in someone else's hands so much of the environmental impact arguments are more-or less irrelevant.

View on HN

At least in my bubble, even professional developers, video editors, and audio engineers use a desktop computer as their primary daily driver and do not rely on their laptop for computational power rather than as a medium for presenting their work. Some of them are even switching to tablets for presenting to clients. A desktop computer will always offer more computational power and a more straightforward and cheaper update path. Why update a perfectly well-working laptop for a newer model when you have become accustomed to the quirks and features of your current device.

This is exactly what I am doing now except my desktop is in cloud. For months, I was researching laptops, I am currently 13" MBP user but was debating switching to Windows laptop. However, if it was going to be able to run video games, it was turning into $2000+ purchase. Plus pretty big to be portable.

Then I discovered Shadow PC. For $12 a month, I have pretty powerful machine. My MBP is now a simple thin client. When it dies, I ll buy the cheapest Macbook. Also I use 21" external monitor or my TV to play games. Works great.

Also been using it for ML projects but unfortunately they will shutdown the VM if it doesn't receive user input. So long running processes require you to be sitting by the machine.

I am a big user of iPad and their iPad app is awesome. If I can figure out right dongle tobl hook up hdmi, keyboard, and mouse, I might just never buy another laptop.

> [...] using the remote computer provided by Blade for business or commercial services or purposes, or even in such a way that the purpose or effect is to make all or part of the Services available to third parties, in return for payment or free of charge; or even using Shadow® as a server or with Software that has the function of a server;

I think you are pretty much in violation of ToS the moment you install Docker and start any container or start debugging your networked code. I mean, it sounds a bit too good to be true, it's even cheaper than COTS hardware from Hetzner.

> Also been using it for ML projects but unfortunately they will shutdown the VM if it doesn't receive user input. So long running processes require you to be sitting by the machine.

Ah, that makes sense. They are betting that people need sleep and under normal usage patterns you will never use the machine 24/7 and then $36 (8h/day back-of-the-napkin math) works out to something similar to Hetzner prices.

Pro dev rocking MacBook Pro 2015 here. I use it for full stack rails, js, front end design including photoshop. And for photography - capture one photoshop Lightroom etc.

I use MagSafe, SD card slot, USB ports daily, and the full size hdmi port weekly. The keyboard is wearing out, and the battery cycles are in the hundreds but everything just works.

That feeling that you get when you accidentally walk at full speed through your charger’s cable and you know nothing bad is going to happen? I get it about once a week.

I may upgrade to an m1 mb pro 16 but I’d still have to swallow the downgrade in port functionality and the touch bar monstrosity.

Apple has been designing primarily for cheap efficient production and maximum profit - for a long time now.

Running a 2013 maxed out Macbook Pro professionally and it‘s great! I upgraded from a 2015 Macbook Air (both used), and the extra speed was useful. I don’t really feel to need for it to be any quicker though. But like you I use the ports all the time—so upgrading would in some sense feel like a downgrade.

(btw in my experience the battery can be replaced easily, also at non-official repair shops)

2 years ago I went from a 2011 MBP to a used i7 2015 15" MBP and it was a great machine. I liked the ports and it was really handy to stash a 400GB microSD in the slot for more space. I upgraded the stock SSD to an NVMe and it really made a difference.

I went to the i9 16" MBP a year ago and yeah it's new and shiny and faster but not a world-changer. Managing to skip the butterfly keyboard was the big win. The better speakers are surprisingly the best feature upgrade from the 2015 to 2019.

Except for the lure of the M1 Macs, a used i7 15" 2015 MacBook Pro is probably the best bang for the buck in the Apple world.

Is the screen perceptibly larger on the 16”?

I can see how that works for you, but it’s not a given. With the exception of software developers, creative professionals really don‘t make that much money (unless they’re famous), and upgrading also brings a lot of inconveniences (software that no longer works, ports that no longer come with your computer) that incur extra costs (new software and the time to learn it, dongles). My friend edits her movies on a 2012 laptop, my other friend records her album on a 2012 laptop. Graphic designers around here often buy the 2015 or earlier macbooks second hand, because of the useful ports and the keyboards that don’t break.

I don't know, I've had the same business-class HP ultrabook as my personal machine for the last 7 years. It can barely play Minecraft on medium graphics but it's basically done every software development task I've cared to throw at it. Granted I'm not doing deep learning or building the Linux kernel but for building web applications it's fine. It is extremely slow at running the Android emulator, however.

As I replied on another thread, I don't do containers and this laptop is doing just fine with 8GB, running stuff like W10 Pro and VS 2019.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com