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Ask HN: Which is the best prog. laptop (battery, Linux Hardware support etc.)?

1 points by dmz ↗ HN
Hello Readers, I want to have a really good machine for my programming needs. Just wanted your input as to which laptop is really the best for the purpose. I cannot afford a Mac (yet!) and my budget is just about a 1000$. I mostly program in Python and C++.<p>Thanks for your comments.

5 comments

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babul
If you cannot buy a new Mac (or better still a Mac Book Pro) why not try and get a used one from eBay? $1000 should get you something fairly decent.
macmac
Anything from ASUS.
djm
I wouldn't be worried about what laptop you have - I generally find it's better to buy cheap stuff and replace it often (I tend to stay about 1-2 years behind the best in PC's for example and buy a new one each year, selling the old one on ebay to cover part of the cost).

The only hardware aspect worth thinking about with a laptop for coding is how big a screen you will be getting - get the largest you can afford so that you can see as many lines of code as possible.

Try http://www.linux-laptop.net to make sure you get something you can run your favourite Linux distro on.

olefoo
Shop around for a Thinkpad, you can occasionally find a batch of them off a corporate lease, which can be a real bargain (half what you'd pay for a new laptop of equivalent specs).