Computer selection
Choose according to the needs of daily use. I have tried notebooks, desktops, tablets, and 2-in-1 computers. At present, the notebook is the most suitable for me personally.
notebook
If you hesitate between notebooks and desktops, choose notebooks; if you hesitate between notebooks and 2-in-1s, choose notebooks. Laptops are quite satisfactory, and can be used as the first or second choice in most scenarios.
When choosing a laptop, you need to consider the following factors:
- Performance (such as whether the CPU, memory, and graphics card can meet the demand)
- Heat dissipation (most thin and light notebooks are hot water bags, which need to be paid attention to)
- Battery life (if there is a need for mobile office)
- Screen size (screens with a ratio of 16:9 and a resolution below 2k are no longer recommended, it is uncomfortable to watch)
- Weight (Mac Mini weighs 1.2Kg)
Other non-critical factors can also be used as a reference:
- Keyboard (feel, key travel, etc.)
- Touchpad (whether multi-finger gestures are supported)
- Color gamut, brightness (the design field needs to focus on)
Most of them are struggling to choose Apple or others, but in fact, they only need to pay attention to the budget.
Desktop
apple
I recommend the iMac 5k. As the so-called buy a monitor and get a computer, the monitor of the Apple desktop is really good. Of course, if ¥ is not a problem, you can also use the Mac Pro + Pro Display XDR solution.
I have used iMac 5k 2019 for two or three years, working with Philips 4k monitor dual-screen office. I customized the i9 processor and installed 64G (32*2) memory sticks by myself. The overall price is about 30,000, which is not as expensive as the top configuration of the notebook, but the performance is really powerful, and there is no need to worry about heat dissipation. Two large The screen looks cool, and the development efficiency is really high.
Disadvantages:
- Inconvenient to carry (I have moved twice and had to pack an extra monitor, which is a killer)
- It’s not convenient to share. Others enter the meeting room with a notebook in their hands, and I enter the meeting room with a notebook (and pen)
- Power outage issues, though uncommon, and mostly with autosave. But for a period of time, the power supply in the company was unstable and shut down several times, and I still vomited blood.
Except for the above problems during my use, the rest are all advantages.
Assembly machine
I also saved a desktop computer for a while, equipped with a curved screen with fish. The game experience is not bad. If you are willing to make a fuss and are not afraid of trouble, the three systems of Win, Linux, and Black Apple can also take it all.
Disadvantages are basically the same as iMac, except:
- Compatibility (Need to toss, such as wanting a perfect black apple, or installing other distributions of Linux)
Advantage:
- Cost-effective, save yourself cheaper
- Customizable, if you like RGB lights, cool chassis appearance, etc., although the practicality is not strong, but it is very cool to install
If it is for entertainment and games, it is very cost-effective to save a high-end configuration; if it is for company cost considerations, it is not bad; but as a personal productivity, it is not recommended, there are too many factors that need to be paid attention to, and these factors have nothing to do with it. Productivity and efficiency speak for themselves.
notebook tablet two in one
My personal understanding may be suitable for those who are partial to design or products. I used Teclast's 2-in-1 before. Although the performance is relatively low, playing LOL is quite smooth. The biggest impression left on me is that the charging is slow and the power consumption is fast. Sometimes it can run out of power even if it is plugged in and used while charging.
Advantage:
- easy to carry
- Supports touch (or stylus)
shortcoming:
- low performance
- Few interfaces (such as USB, HDMI, Type-C, etc.)
If you have handwritten notes, drawing inspiration, etc., you can consider it. Of course, in fact, if there is no special demand, the tablet can already meet this part of the demand. In addition, there are not many real choices, such as Huawei Matebook E 2022, Microsoft Surface series, Lenovo Yoga and so on. Like the Dell XPS 2-in-1, although it has a touch screen, the keyboard is not detachable. Domestic thousand yuan machines come in all shapes and sizes and are garbage.
flat
By the way, let me mention the tablet, I haven't tried a Linux tablet (such as JingPad) yet, so I don't know if it will have an amazing experience.
Tablets may be better suited as design tools, but less so as development tools. I have used iPad Pro to try to build various development environments, which is far from the macOS experience.
There are currently two solutions, one is remote desktop control of idle computers at home (or cloud desktop). This solution involves issues such as frequency resolution display, network delay, and on-screen keyboard operation. The other is to configure the development environment on the remote server, such as the VS Code Web version. It's all very frustrating.
Huawei tablet mode (also available in mobile phones), with an external large screen is also a solution, but the resolution can only be 1080P, and although it can run a Linux emulator similar to Termux, there are still many problems in practice.
At the current stage, it has not yet reached the perfect development through mobile devices. It's okay to play with it occasionally.
equipment
Single device or multiple devices
For a while, I used a desktop at home and a laptop at work. Two main development computers are quite troublesome, because I don't submit all the code to Git. Some temporary demos written locally are ignored. In addition, configuration parameters (environment variables) and the like also need to be synchronized. Chat messages are out of sync, local assets require additional sync, etc.
Tools should be used to increase productivity, not reduce productivity, so for me personally, it is more trouble than convenience. My current ideal state is to have a Macbook with a large-screen monitor at home, and take an iPad with me as a secondary screen for temporary use, which is enough.
monitor
When choosing a monitor, it is generally entangled with a high-resolution screen or a high refresh rate, or a large screen or a fish screen.
For me, who has no need for entertainment games, high resolution is more suitable for office work than refresh rate. I prefer the ratio of 16:10 (I haven’t found a suitable 4k display product yet) or 3:2 (currently only Huawei’s Mateview) for high-resolution screens. The next best thing I recommend is a 90w type-c monitor. charge the display. The current Philips monitor also provides an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, which is a very good choice.
With fish screen, 32:9 ratio, one screen can be used as two, which is more suitable for split screen. However, if you use a fish screen, especially a curved fish screen (such as the curvature of the Samsung Dragon Knight G9 1000R), it is determined that you can only have one working screen. And it is not friendly to use as an external screen of a notebook.
For a desktop computer, you can use a combination of two large screens, or an iMac 5k with its own monitor and a large screen. For notebooks, in principle, another large screen is enough (for the display quality of the Macbook screen).
operating system
It only represents my personal development and use experience and experience. Purely personal likes and dislikes, for reference only.
Windows
I officially joined the Mac OS X camp in 2011. Before that, I was a black apple for a while. Later, Windows was only used in some office computers and tablet 2-in-1 computers equipped by the company, so there may be a lack of understanding of some new efficiency tools.
From my own perception of use, Windows development needs to cooperate with the Linux subsystem (WSL), so there will be multiple shell environments in the system (such as Powershell, installed Git Shell, subsystem Bash/Zsh, etc.), use Very unfriendly. And copying and pasting shortcut keys, selected status, etc. under the terminal tool will give me a headache. This has greatly affected my development efficiency.
Advantage:
- Rich software (especially software with GUI graphical interface) and easy operation
- Balance work and entertainment
Disadvantages:
- More software also faces more risks of junk software
- Script/command line processing
- File management/permissions (such as deleting files and traversing all directories and files, such as inconsistent with the file permission policy on the Linux server, etc.)
The main reason why I don't like Windows is that I think the GUI is unreliable, and it is difficult for the GUI to complete complete and complex functional operations. Compared with the graphical interface, I prefer to complete my operations through the command line.
Linux distribution
I have also tried many Linux distributions, and most of them will not be used for more than half a year. In the process of using them, I will encounter some problems that cannot be solved without reinstalling. Moreover, a lot of software does not provide a Linux version. Even if it is provided, it may not be suitable for the distribution version I am currently using. As small as input methods, office chat software, etc., they are ubiquitous, and there is no solution.
Now in the company, I installed Manjaro (an Arch Linux-based distribution), which supports rolling upgrades. Generally, there will be no problems, but there are still some that affect the experience. Here are a few:
- Two-way copying and pasting inside and outside the virtual machine (it has to be turned on when booting up, using chats such as DingTalk) often fails, causing the entire system to get stuck
- Docker (not the Docker of the container service) and the status bar need to be configured manually, and need to be configured separately under each screen, and often fail (such as transparency problems, time stops, application menu does not display, etc.)
- Can’t wake up from sleep, occasionally can’t shut down, and in rare cases, it will suddenly restart automatically for no reason, which may be related to incomplete drivers
Although there are many problems, it is still barely usable. After all, the experience of this solution is close to macOS, the environment is close to the server, and the cost performance is extremely high.
It is worth mentioning that it is more playable, and the entire system interface UI can be flexibly configured. It can have a global top status bar and Docker like macOS, or it can only have a bottom status bar like Windows. If you are willing to toss, it is more personalized than macOS.
macOS
After using it for more than ten years, the biggest feeling is that it saves worry and trouble. Although it has been updated in the past few years, it feels that there are not too many changes, and there are more and more minor problems, but it is still the most suitable system for development, not one of them. I am referring to white apples here. Black apples will have more compatibility issues. If you like to toss, you can try it. After all, Apple has always been not very cost-effective, but it is acceptable.
For Apple's system, I won't elaborate too much here. After all, most of the resources and examples in the follow-up articles are completed under mac os.