The Glade 4.0

Alright, so I'm going to be going back to school full time this January, and this has put me in the market for a laptop. Unfortunately, this is just an area of the market that I don't keep up with whatsoever, so I'm soliciting opinions.

The emphasis is, of course, on school work, but I suspect I'll wind up using it more than my desktop for general computing. The desktop is still going to be there, though, so gaming is not a factor for the laptop. And I don't really do that much gaming anymore anyway. At least, not the kind that requires powerful hardware. I'm not quite sure what my budget is. Let's just assume <$2k. Since I expect to be using it "in the field" a lot, battery life is probably an important factor. Otherwise, I don't really have any specific needs in mind. I am open to any OS at this point.

Having said that, in some respects I'm kind of leaning towards giving Apple a whirl. I like my Linux box and all, but along with the upsides, there are definitely some downsides to running the red-headed-stepchild OS exclusively. I've never used Mac before, so I suppose I don't really have any idea what I'd be getting into. However, from what I can tell, Mac and Linux are much closer cousins than Linux and Windows. And to be completely frank, Windows is the least attractive option of the 3 for me. Still, I'm aware that you get a lot more laptop for your money when you aren't paying the Mac tax. And this is hardly set in stone; I'm just kind of musing out loud.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Get a MacBook Air. I have mine, it's my first Mac, and I LOVE it. Far more than any other computer I ever used.

It's not Apple, but I was very pleased with the selection from Cyberpower when I bought my daughter's school laptop.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I second the MacBook Air.

Don't get a Chromebook.

Macbook Air is a great laptop but for the money I'd rather get a 13-15 MBP.

I fully support going with a Macbook of some kind, though. You'll fall in love with it. You will love the terminal in OSX especially if you get something like TotalTerminal (global toggle for a stylish console anywhere, etc).

I also enjoy that OSX comes with things like Ruby, PHP, etc. built in to the OS. Makes localhost testing a cinch.

I should probably refine my earlier statement that I'm open to any OS. Chrome OS isn't really on the table. It's also not really an OS, per se. But in any case: A) I need something more than a "thin client", and B) Crome OS is still an emerging thing that needs to mature a lot.

Right now I'm primarily trying to weigh: Dell XPS 15z vs.Macbook Air vs. Macbook Pro.

The top-of-the-line XPS 15z offers more hardware at less cost than the entry level i7 quad Macbook Pro. But on the other hand...Windows. I could scrub it and run Linux, and part of me would like to do just that. And maybe all things considered, it would be better to have Windows on my desktop and Linux on the laptop. But it's not like I can just swap the OSes; OEM windows licenses are non-transferable, AFAIK. It irks me to be paying for software that I don't want, even if it's cheaper than the alternatives.

OTOH, I would like to give Mac OS a try some time, just...because. This seems like as good as opportunity as any.

_________________
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

The user experience of OSX on the laptop is much better than on other operating systems. It's not all about hardware.

What kind of battery life do y'all get out of your Airs and/or Pros?

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

The XPS 15z, assuming you're not using the nVidia GPU, does really well on battery life 6-8 hours on desktop applications alone using integrated graphics. By the by, the 15z will chew up and spit out Skyrim pretty nice.

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Stathol, I get ~10 hrs on my MBP with casual work scenario. Emails, easy browsing, etc. I've seen my battery meter go up to 12 hours before, but that's uncommon.

When you're gaming that drops to 2-3 hours depending on the game intensity.

Someone made a handy application called GfxCardStatus that lets you toggle integrated/discrete graphics manually (instead of default behavior, changing to discrete any time acceleration is needed), and forcing use of the integrated card when doing things like browsing can really stretch out the juice.

To be totally honest, I stopped bringing my laptop to campus right around the time I caught my mother's hand-me-down iPad.

I've never found battery life to be a huge issue. My current laptop had around a 3hr battery when it was new, and the battery's lifespan is currently around 1hr. I haven't really found that this bothered me for using it at school. There are always plenty of electrical outlets around.

As far as OS goes, you're most interested in whether the software you use in your program has a build for the OS you have installed. This might be a nonissue, especially for the type of program I think you're looking to pursue, but it's worth keeping in mind.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

There's tons of truth to this at pretty much any campus. Battery life on laptops is only an issue for me in limited circumstances.

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Battery life was never an issue for me for laptops. Especially nowadays when you can have a real mobile device. Laptops are closer to desktops. I think the weight of the laptop, OS, screen size (whatever your preference), and memory are most important now, unless you plan on playing games.

edit:

It's also important to have a drive that is solid state.

Quite possibly so. I've been out of the loop for quite a while, obviously.

The most likely answer here is Comp Sci. Possibly Comp Eng, but the former seems most likely.

So compilers, mainly. And probably Mathematica or possibly Maple. None of those should be an issue any way I go (well, I'm not too sure about Maple on Linux, but...eh). I'm not sure if anyone is forcing their students into Windows-centric stuff like C#, though.

_________________
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

If you get OSX you can use all the same Unix commands as Linux... btw. OSX is 100% POSIX compliant.

I should also note, having a Macbook of some kind will also allow you to install any other OS on it if you want, whereas buying something like a Dell XPS would limit you from using OSX without a lot of tomfoolery.

Also if you accumulate multiple Apple devices they sync together really well. For example, if you take a picture with your iPhone it immediately ends up on your laptop and other devices without any other clicks.

edit: You can get iCloud for PC as well so the above statement actually isn't good point. I don't think Linux can do this though.

Dropbox, suckas! :p

But yes, Linux is being (IMHO) deliberately ignored by Apple with respect to iTunes, iCloud, etc. It is rather aggravating.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

But is that worth the $1500 difference in price?

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Linux has only about 1% of the desktop market, and they'd have to make different install packages for different distributions.

MacBook Air starts at $999.00, MacBook Pro's at $1199.00.

Dells would have to pay folks to buy to have a $1500 difference...and the XPS 15z starts at Amazon at about $1000.00

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/dell-xps-15z-review/

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In time, this too shall pass.

You apparently don't know much about Dell ...

I have a XPS 15z with 16gb of RAM, a Quad Core i7, a 256 gb SSD, and a full HD 300 nit 14.9" E-IPS LED backlit panel. With judicious use of coupons, I got this machine for $1650. I have an XPS 15z with 8gb of RAM, an i5, 750gb 7200 rpm 5.4" platter, and the same full HD panel ...

And that one cost me $700 after coupons.

Let me know when you can get any Macbook for comparable prices.

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Oh hai, today's http://www.woot.com/ deal.

So, by "comparable price" do you mean less than $1500.00, or less than a difference of $1500.00?

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In time, this too shall pass.

Refurb

Taskiss:

You get me the same hardware I got in an MBP for the same prices I did, and we'll talk.

Seriously, the XPS 15z beats the MBP on the price/hardware comparison pretty hard; the only argument to have is over your mobile GPU, and the 525m is slightly better than the Radeon option Apple provides.

And the 15" MBPs start at $1799, have no full HD option, and can only support up to 8 GB of RAM. Although, to be fair, you actually have to order by phone to get more than 8 in an XPS 15z.

Either way, I got more hardware for less money; in an OS neutral discussion, Apple loses.

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