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Before I was a professional software developer, I used a scrawny second-hand laptop with a …

… Before I was a professional software developer, I used a scrawny second-hand laptop with a Norwegian keyboard (I'm not Norwegian) because that was what I could afford: https://i.imgur.com/1NRIZrg.jpeg This was the computer I was developing PHP backends on + jQuery frontends, and where I published a bunch of projects that eventually led to me getting my first software development job, in a startup, and discovering HN pretty much my first day on the job :) The actual hardware you use seems to me like it matters the least, when it comes to actually being able to do things.

Original discussionBig Data on the Cheapest MacBook292 source comments · at import
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Robdel12HN

I’ve been tempted to buy one and do “real dev work” on it just to show people it’s not this handicapped little machine. I built multiple iOS apps and went through two start up acquisitions with my M1 MBA as my primary computer, as a developer. And the neo is better than the M1 MBA. I edited my 30-45 min long 4k race videos in FCP on that air just fine.

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throwawayteaHN

I still manage and develop my php/jquery saas product on a 2011 27" iMac running Linux Mint, with an SSD being the only upgrade. Runs better than most new windows machines. No complaints.

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madaxe_againHN

I started my business back in 2006 with an ancient 306 laptop - it was practically free, it ran VIM just fine, and that was all I needed it to do to crank out PHP until the cows came home.

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bluedinoHN

I wrote 99% of a large PHP app on an six year old laptop with a single 17" LCD. Meanwhile, at my desk, I had a Dell workstation with 3 monitors at the time, but it was easier to squirrel away in a corner somewhere, undisturbed. After all, the actual server ran the code, I just needed text editors, terminal windows, and web browsers.

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sheiyeiHN

Your hardware matters quite a bit if you're doing lower level things and the architecture is not the same as you're developing for. But apparently HN is all web devs

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_fzslmHN

My substantially more privileged, but somewhat equivalent experience, was doing mobile app development, Docker, linux VMs, UI design, and finding out about hacker news on an 11 inch MacBook Air with 4gb of RAM. i have a computer that benchmarks literally 10x faster and with 32x the amount of RAM, but i miss that little thing that helped me build my career from nothing

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achairapartHN

I do most of my work remotely on a little Raspberry Pi 4 server attached to my home ISP: https://fatcity.it/ But I'm planning to do a big jump: Soon I will switch to a 2012 Mac Mini as my primary linux server!

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