6 ms·

Nothing beats working directly on a fast but quiet workstation sitting next to my table. At least for me, the productivity gains associated with quicker builds

by simfoo 4y ago

Nothing beats working directly on a fast but quiet workstation sitting next to my table. At least for me, the productivity gains associated with quicker builds, IDE resyncs (CLion, looking at you) or just being able to have email, chat, calendar and an active video conference running without making the system crawl to a halt or long latency spikes are huge. 3-4k for a machine that will likely last 2-3 years is nothing in comparison.

scarface74 4y ago
What type of laptop are you use to using where that would make your computer crawl? I have none of those issues with my current M1 MacBook Pro 16inch. I have never heard the fan on my current MacBook. Now my older x86 one is a different story.
- hbn 4y ago
  I have the 2019 16-inch i9 MBP for work, and even that has served me pretty well for almost 2.5 years. I'm fairly conscious about what I have running at any given time, I force-quit out of apps that I only open occasionally to free up resources. Sometimes the fans will get going quick if I'm doing a lot (running Java services, in a Teams call, etc - on top of whatever the hell processes are being used by jamf, VPN, and zscaler) but I can't recall it ever "slowing to a crawl." It mainly just gets hot until I'm done with one of the big tasks the laptop is currently doing.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    So the issue is the corporate mandated malware. I usually lay the blame of performance issues on corporate malware for any modern Mac or Windows PC. But all video conferencing software sucks. I have to use them all on occasion depending on the client and usually the only one I actually keep installed instead of using the web version is Chime (yeah I know how do you say where you work without saying where you work). Oh I just notice you said you had an x86 Mac, yeah they all suck when it comes to fan noise and throttling
GiorgioG 4y ago
For the life of me I don’t understand why folks default to laptops for development. Yes portability is great, but most of us park our behinds at the same desk everyday. If I’m going to be out of the office (away from home) I take a laptop and remote into the desktop! Even M1 macs (I have one and love it), while powerful, just can’t hold a candle to a workstation class machine.
- duxup 4y ago
  Are most development environments high performance / high computer utilization environments? I was under the impression they were not. I couldn't tell you if I was on a laptop or desktop when I'm docked ...
- terinjokes 4y ago
  I've asked for a workstation from corporate IT, because I'm nearly always working from the same spot, and would be okay with a Chromebook on the rare situations I'm working remote. The cost of a beefy (but properly cooled) workstation + cheap Chromebook isn't much different than a corporate laptop. It's just not an option being considered anymore.
- BozeWolf 4y ago
  I bring my laptop with me to other teams for questions. I also bring my laptop for presentations, demo’s and sometimes for refinements. I work at home 2 out of 4 days. And I am no exception. The whole company I work for does this. I cannot imagine working with a workstation. A big part of my team has crappy laptops and work just fine with a citrix client. I am a developer and do not understand how they deal with it, but the ba’s are ok with it!
- romeoblade 4y ago
  I have a work laptop, but do 99% of my work on an identical VM that sets on my homelab proxmox cluster. Working this way allows me to work from any device, even my phone or iPad from anywhere. It's encrypted, has all the standard security tools required for work, etc. Our VPN suite checks for all of that on connection. I have the added benefit of being able to provision with massive amount of resources that it'll only use when needed due to ballooning and quick backup and rollbacks due to LVM thin provisioning. I do have everything sync back to the work laptop so in the rare case I lose internet or have a hardware issue with the cluster I can continue working. But that's only happened once in the last two years when a completing fiber provider cut a fiber line on my property laying their own fiber. (Not their fault, my current provider had the markings off by 50', and even then the foreman gave me a gift certificates for the trouble)
asdff 4y ago
Having access to a cluster certainly beats having a local workstation imo. Why settle for 1 node when you can have many?

by simfoo 4y ago

scarface74 4y ago

What type of laptop are you use to using where that would make your computer crawl? I have none of those issues with my current M1 MacBook Pro 16inch. I have never heard the fan on my current MacBook. Now my older x86 one is a different story.

hbn 4y ago
I have the 2019 16-inch i9 MBP for work, and even that has served me pretty well for almost 2.5 years. I'm fairly conscious about what I have running at any given time, I force-quit out of apps that I only open occasionally to free up resources. Sometimes the fans will get going quick if I'm doing a lot (running Java services, in a Teams call, etc - on top of whatever the hell processes are being used by jamf, VPN, and zscaler) but I can't recall it ever "slowing to a crawl." It mainly just gets hot until I'm done with one of the big tasks the laptop is currently doing.
- scarface74 4y ago
  So the issue is the corporate mandated malware. I usually lay the blame of performance issues on corporate malware for any modern Mac or Windows PC. But all video conferencing software sucks. I have to use them all on occasion depending on the client and usually the only one I actually keep installed instead of using the web version is Chime (yeah I know how do you say where you work without saying where you work). Oh I just notice you said you had an x86 Mac, yeah they all suck when it comes to fan noise and throttling

GiorgioG 4y ago

For the life of me I don’t understand why folks default to laptops for development. Yes portability is great, but most of us park our behinds at the same desk everyday. If I’m going to be out of the office (away from home) I take a laptop and remote into the desktop! Even M1 macs (I have one and love it), while powerful, just can’t hold a candle to a workstation class machine.

duxup 4y ago
Are most development environments high performance / high computer utilization environments? I was under the impression they were not. I couldn't tell you if I was on a laptop or desktop when I'm docked ...
terinjokes 4y ago
I've asked for a workstation from corporate IT, because I'm nearly always working from the same spot, and would be okay with a Chromebook on the rare situations I'm working remote. The cost of a beefy (but properly cooled) workstation + cheap Chromebook isn't much different than a corporate laptop. It's just not an option being considered anymore.
BozeWolf 4y ago
I bring my laptop with me to other teams for questions. I also bring my laptop for presentations, demo’s and sometimes for refinements. I work at home 2 out of 4 days. And I am no exception. The whole company I work for does this. I cannot imagine working with a workstation. A big part of my team has crappy laptops and work just fine with a citrix client. I am a developer and do not understand how they deal with it, but the ba’s are ok with it!
romeoblade 4y ago
I have a work laptop, but do 99% of my work on an identical VM that sets on my homelab proxmox cluster. Working this way allows me to work from any device, even my phone or iPad from anywhere. It's encrypted, has all the standard security tools required for work, etc. Our VPN suite checks for all of that on connection. I have the added benefit of being able to provision with massive amount of resources that it'll only use when needed due to ballooning and quick backup and rollbacks due to LVM thin provisioning. I do have everything sync back to the work laptop so in the rare case I lose internet or have a hardware issue with the cluster I can continue working. But that's only happened once in the last two years when a completing fiber provider cut a fiber line on my property laying their own fiber. (Not their fault, my current provider had the markings off by 50', and even then the foreman gave me a gift certificates for the trouble)

asdff 4y ago

Having access to a cluster certainly beats having a local workstation imo. Why settle for 1 node when you can have many?