Notebook System for Software Developer
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Hello, My company is asking what kind of notebook I'd like including different peripherals. This is just a survey of some powerful notebook for a software developer. What are the key ingredients? What hardware is good (drivers, etc.) and what hardware to stay away from? My first though is to stay away from wireless and go with an Intel LAN. What notebook do you have or want? Thanks, Kuphryn
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Hello, My company is asking what kind of notebook I'd like including different peripherals. This is just a survey of some powerful notebook for a software developer. What are the key ingredients? What hardware is good (drivers, etc.) and what hardware to stay away from? My first though is to stay away from wireless and go with an Intel LAN. What notebook do you have or want? Thanks, Kuphryn
Well you asked... This is what I want[^]
Paul Watson wrote: "At the end of the day it is what you produce that counts, not how many doctorates you have on the wall." George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
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Well you asked... This is what I want[^]
Paul Watson wrote: "At the end of the day it is what you produce that counts, not how many doctorates you have on the wall." George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
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Hello, My company is asking what kind of notebook I'd like including different peripherals. This is just a survey of some powerful notebook for a software developer. What are the key ingredients? What hardware is good (drivers, etc.) and what hardware to stay away from? My first though is to stay away from wireless and go with an Intel LAN. What notebook do you have or want? Thanks, Kuphryn
That depends, like everything else.
Personaly I look for long battery life, light weight, a big screen (conflicts with the previous) and wireless networking. However last time I had a laptop we did all our building on Solaris. With that as background I used the laptop as a portable terminal for the unix machines elsewhere. (sometimes dialing into the office from across the ocean)
If you plan on building code you might wish to trade battery life and weight for something with more CPU power. Depends though, if your typical build takes hours now on a fairly new system you won't gain much so it might be worth the lower power CPU for other atdvantages. If your builds are mintues now, cutting that in half will make a big difference so the better CPU is more worth it.
I found my main use for a laptop was working in meetings. With that in mind, I normally switched my cd drive for a second battery, allowing me to get more than 8 hours from a charge. This was handy several times. (In class to take notes in particular).
Wireless is essential, and in most cases fast enough. There are some security concerns, but they are IS's problem. Get the wireless, in the real world you are unlike to plug into the network once you have it. If you will take this home invest in a AP for your home so you don't have to plug in.
Require a seperate keyboard, mouse, and monitor to keep at the office. Those parts of laptops are horrid for real work (just fine for one the road work, but bad for all day work). Some laptops can drive the external monitor as a second display, allowing more screen space, but get the second monitor for work even if yours doesn't. If you work at home consider buying them for your home too. (keyboards and mice are too cheap to carry back and forth, you can live without a second monitor at home)
Most laptops today have more than you will ever need. However only you know your job. It would be stupid for someone writing digital camera software to get a laptop that won't connect to digital cameras for instance. (I'm not sure if such beasts exist anymore) In general with 1394 and USB you can connect anything you would want to, so just get those, and whatever peripherals you need latter.
Books can be written comparing all the hardware out there, but by the time you read chapter one, chapter two is out of date. You are on your own for research. In general though, these systems just work with Windows, so you can buy features.
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That depends, like everything else.
Personaly I look for long battery life, light weight, a big screen (conflicts with the previous) and wireless networking. However last time I had a laptop we did all our building on Solaris. With that as background I used the laptop as a portable terminal for the unix machines elsewhere. (sometimes dialing into the office from across the ocean)
If you plan on building code you might wish to trade battery life and weight for something with more CPU power. Depends though, if your typical build takes hours now on a fairly new system you won't gain much so it might be worth the lower power CPU for other atdvantages. If your builds are mintues now, cutting that in half will make a big difference so the better CPU is more worth it.
I found my main use for a laptop was working in meetings. With that in mind, I normally switched my cd drive for a second battery, allowing me to get more than 8 hours from a charge. This was handy several times. (In class to take notes in particular).
Wireless is essential, and in most cases fast enough. There are some security concerns, but they are IS's problem. Get the wireless, in the real world you are unlike to plug into the network once you have it. If you will take this home invest in a AP for your home so you don't have to plug in.
Require a seperate keyboard, mouse, and monitor to keep at the office. Those parts of laptops are horrid for real work (just fine for one the road work, but bad for all day work). Some laptops can drive the external monitor as a second display, allowing more screen space, but get the second monitor for work even if yours doesn't. If you work at home consider buying them for your home too. (keyboards and mice are too cheap to carry back and forth, you can live without a second monitor at home)
Most laptops today have more than you will ever need. However only you know your job. It would be stupid for someone writing digital camera software to get a laptop that won't connect to digital cameras for instance. (I'm not sure if such beasts exist anymore) In general with 1394 and USB you can connect anything you would want to, so just get those, and whatever peripherals you need latter.
Books can be written comparing all the hardware out there, but by the time you read chapter one, chapter two is out of date. You are on your own for research. In general though, these systems just work with Windows, so you can buy features.
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Hello, My company is asking what kind of notebook I'd like including different peripherals. This is just a survey of some powerful notebook for a software developer. What are the key ingredients? What hardware is good (drivers, etc.) and what hardware to stay away from? My first though is to stay away from wireless and go with an Intel LAN. What notebook do you have or want? Thanks, Kuphryn
I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 and I absoloutly love it for developing. It is stupidly fast and I often have multiple VS.NET instances, multiple servers, and a multitude of other applications running without any difficulties. I also LOVE the widescreen. :-D Regards, Brian Dela :-) http://www.briandela.com IE 6 required.
http://www.briandela.com/pictures Now with a pictures section :-D
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Hello, My company is asking what kind of notebook I'd like including different peripherals. This is just a survey of some powerful notebook for a software developer. What are the key ingredients? What hardware is good (drivers, etc.) and what hardware to stay away from? My first though is to stay away from wireless and go with an Intel LAN. What notebook do you have or want? Thanks, Kuphryn
Maybe my line of work is a little different to most developers, but I run a Toshiba Satellite P20-531, P4 3.2Ghz HT, Windows Media Center, 512Mb, 80Gb, 17 Inch Wide screen, Nvidia display, DVD Multi Drive ( DVD-R and DVD RAM ) with a TV Tuner. Apart from the excitement of watching TV, and photos and stuff on a small screen the machine is excellent, but damned expensive. I work with .Net, ASP, SQL Server, PHP, MySQL plus video editing ( thanks to the firewire port ) and music production. I'd never swap it for anything else. The only problem is weight... somewhere near 5 Kilos and battery life... about 2.5 Hours. You have to plug this in to use for a long time. Built in bluetooth allows my to sync with my Pocket PC and use my phone to stay in touch wherever, and built in WLAN is a necessity.... especially in Europe where support is pretty good ( Hamburg is one of the best places in the world for WLAN hotspots and legit services ) The sound quality is excellent, better than any other laptop I've had thanks to the Harmon/kardon speakers, wireless can be turned off at the flick of a physical switch and the metal topped keyboard layout provides good wrist support whilst typing. Plus of course it looks damned good, coming in a bright red metallic looking case. The screen is also the greatest I've used surpassing any flat screen for viewing angle. I've always used Dells because you can configure them so well, but this has changed my mind. It's horses for courses though. If you need real power for 3D graphics, film post production etc, you pay more and end up with a huge machine. If you need to travel a lot it always going to be a compromise between power, size and battery life. IbizaMike "May you live in interesting times" - a curse or an opportunity?