What laptop does your company give you?

[-]

PhatOofxD@reddit

I'm a Windows guy but always a MacBook because you never know if they're going to give you an actually good Windows device (most companies don't) while MacBooks are always consistent

[-]

All developers used to get a MacBook Pro. But now they’ve downgraded to MacBook Airs M4. Typical cost cutting decision by management. All big 34” curves screens are being replaced by Dell docking stations with two screens, which are not compatible with Mac.. Devs are not happy as you can imagine

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Rusty_Raven_@reddit

The M4 can handle two external screens as long as one of them is plugged in via DisplayPort over USB; the other can be DisplayPort or HDMI. If you have a Thunderbolt hub, use the TB port for one monitor and problem solved.

I do this with both a MBP M4 (work machine) and MBA M5 (personal machine) - I just swap the hub between the two at the end of the day :)

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morgo_mpx@reddit

If it’s the same non tb dell dock every company buys then you just install the display link utility.

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adhd6345@reddit

How much RAM on the air?

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jobo437@reddit

32GB

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adhd6345@reddit

I don’t think the difference would be that noticeable between the two (pro and air) at 32gb, presuming they would still give you the base m4 instead of m4 pro soc

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TheOnceAndFutureDoug@reddit

You're forgetting thermal throttling. I definitely noticed a difference between my personal MBA and my work MBP even when I wasn't maxing out my memory.

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riotshieldready@reddit

The air is passively cooled so the difference can be huge if its sustained performance you need.

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epelle9@reddit

Build times wouod still be affected though.

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adhd6345@reddit

I suppose. I don’t usually run into that issue though.

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m1nkeh@reddit

Yeah, I switched from a 16 inch M1 pro to an M4 air with 32 gigs of RAM and I’m pretty happy to be honest this was a request on my part

[-]

Cahnis@reddit

I prefer 2 screens than one big curved. Having that logical separation is better.

An ultrawide big one is a better one screen, but two screen are always better than one

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yillivs@reddit

I know this is preference but I love the ultra wide. I can split well. No mounts which I love.

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drnullpointer@reddit

Honestly, I would prefer a MacBook Air. I can't imagine doing development without dual monitor, keyboard and mouse. So both at the office and at home it is connected to a docking station and tucked away.

And performance-wise, it has plenty of power and memory to do pretty much most of kinds of developments except maybe graphics intensive tasks and even then it is by no means a slow laptop, it is only slow because MacBook Pro exists. If there was no MacBook Pro you would say that MacBook Air is absolutely fantastic machine.

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PlasticSynth@reddit

The max speced out MacBook Pro’s significantly cut down on build times so developers always get the newest pro when they join

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drnullpointer@reddit

I guess it depends on how your build system is designed.

I make sure my build system is incremental because I hate waiting for anything to build.

But I guess if you have technical debt sometimes it can be easier to just give out beefier laptops that fix broken builds.

(Yes, I work on large projects. My current project takes 30m to build on a server and 1h 30m to run unit tests. It takes 4s to build and boot up on my MacBook pro)

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PlasticSynth@reddit

App needs to compile lmao

[-]

drnullpointer@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incremental_compiler

[-]

Win_is_my_name@reddit

Just curious, what stack do you use?

[-]

drnullpointer@reddit

It is a boring Java backend system. Java is pretty much asking to be compiled incrementally as each class is compiled to its own file and the files do not need to be linked afterwards, compared to C/C++.

Unfortunately, almost everybody immediately shoots themselves in the foot by using/misusing tools that crawl half of the internet for dependencies on each build or zip up archive with entire codebase and dependencies when just 0.01% of files changed.

If you just don't do anything stupid, you can get almost instantaneous compilation (in our case this is under a second), zero time spent on packaging (just run the application from compiled files without packaging) and if you also don't do anything stupid at the startup, the application can also start very quickly. In our case it is under 3s, which is why the total build/start time is under 4s.

[-]

ProfBeaker@reddit

Paying for incompatible hardware is pretty great.

[-]

natty@reddit

Maybe it’s not working but at least it’s cheap

[-]

Professional_Mix2418@reddit

LOL I had a financial controller like that once where he changed my specific order and was like look how much I saved. I literally called him a muppet as it wasn’t like for like. The screen quality was terrible, they didn’t power the MacBook through thunderbolt/usbc you had to use hdmi. Some just don’t get it.

I am luckily senior enough to override it and made him use that setup and stop doing it again 🤣🤣

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OoIIoO@reddit

The complaints are going to be a data point to switch from Mac to Dell.

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Hot-Clerk504@reddit

First world problems or what

[-]

MoreHuman_ThanHuman@reddit

losing days of productivity per year to an overheating slow ass laptop to save $500 is a great reason to be pissed off, it shows the technical leadership at your company has their head secure firmly up fheir ass.

[-]

Aggravating-Boot-983@reddit

The macbook air is not a slow ass laptop.

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MoreHuman_ThanHuman@reddit

apologies for insulting your religion.

under 99% of real engineers' workloads these days, cutting costs on cooling, ram, etc is an exceptionally stupid way to save a few hundred bucks per developer. it's a decision only an MBA would make.

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Sir_Edmund_Bumblebee@reddit

Aren’t M4 Air benchmarks pretty much in line with M3 Pro? How much of a difference are you seeing in real workloads?

[-]

Aggravating-Boot-983@reddit

i accept your apologies.

now stop speaking for the 99% when you're the 1%.

[-]

jobo437@reddit

We run a monorepo with > 1M lines of code. Building the app to run locally takes around 5 minutes on a full spec MacBook Pro.

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hakazvaka@reddit

I switched voluntarily from Pro to Air, it’s a better laptop

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RedFlounder7@reddit

Your local dev environment is clearly less taxing than mine.

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hakazvaka@reddit

that’s possible, I work only with JS

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robhaswell@reddit

Very much depends on how much memory you have.

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hakazvaka@reddit

ALL

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belkh@reddit

i originally got the beefiest mac pro option i could get which was a 16" one. joined the team and realized we do most of our work on a remote dev server anyway, switched to the 13"

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GreatValueProducts@reddit

My problem with it is it is so heavy. I only work in React and some minor BE it is good enough. I couldn't request Air. My company IT has only one spec for everyone, Pro 16" 32GB because it is "their rental agreement with Apple" lol.

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chuckmilam@reddit

My problem with Pro is it is so heavy.

Me: Laughs in whatever HP "engineering" laptop they provided me when I was working in the financial sector. That thing was a BRICK.

[-]

ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

Is it really heavy? I thought it was only slightly heavier and thicker than the Air. But I haven't held the last few generations of it.

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Toren6969@reddit

No, it Is big And heavy AF.

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GreatValueProducts@reddit

I was comparing with 14" Air with a 16" M1 Pro. My shoulder is tired when I haul it around, especially when I take the subway or waiting in the airport. I prefer 14" M1 Air which is like 900g or 2lbs lighter. To me I am hauling 900g more with the power that makes functionally no difference to me.

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Kaimito1@reddit

How so? Wouldn't the greater power be better for Dev work?

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hakazvaka@reddit

These M4 laptops are so ridiculously overpowered that having a pro or whatever version doesn’t make a difference. I use a 24GB version and I regularly run like 6-7 full stack projects without any sort of slowdown.

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dogo_fren@reddit

Why no one can just give a proper 32” 4k is beyond me.

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jlamamama@reddit

So are you guys selling the old stuff? What happens to them?

[-]

jobo437@reddit

It’s all handled by an external IT supplier. They provide and manage all laptops and hardware

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electricpuzzle@reddit

I use a Dell docking station with two monitors and a Mac. As long as you have a Thunderbolt, they are (mostly) compatible. I had to get an HDMI to Thunderbolt adaptor for the second monitor, otherwise it works well for me.

[-]

mrcaptncrunch@reddit

Just got my upgrade email.

MacBook Pro, 2TB, 128GB of RAM, M5 Max 40 core GPU.

I’m happy

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Xacius@reddit

Top of the line within company offerings. 2.5 years ago that was a Lenovo p16 Gen2 with a 13950hx and rtx 4090 mobile. I am an outlier with special approval. Me like fast machine. I also have an M4 Max as a secondary machine for actual laptop stuff, the p16 is really a desktop that never moves. For my refresh I think I'll request a proper tower so I can upgrade the cooling and RAM

[-]

tinbapakk@reddit

In my current company (recently employed), I use my own 4 years old Dell XPS (i9-12900HK, 32Go DDR5) with Ubuntu on it.

After 3 months, I'm supposed to have a 2000$ budget for a laptop. I still don't know what I'll pick. I hesitate between a MacBook Pro (M4 or the M5, I don't know what would be best for this budget), or something like a Thinkpad with Ubuntu, but too many models are available.

Any advice is welcome. I've never used a Mac (I've been developing on Windows for the past 11 years, but I grew tired of it and switched to Ubuntu), but all my ex-colleagues were using one and they never had any RAM or battery shortage, so I think it could be worth trying. I don't want to change all my home setup, though (keyboard, mouse and stuff).

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TheOnceAndFutureDoug@reddit

Pretty much always a MBP but I've had a few jobs now where the company said, "Or any equivalently priced computer".

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thedentofmerril@reddit

MacBook Pro M5 Max- but needed good justification over why I didn’t need the Pro chip. Also have an older MBP Intel 2021, and a crap Windows desktop for Mac intel/windows debugging.

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TastyToad@reddit

"Windows" laptop with Ubuntu. Because I'm an old stubborn fart. Vast majority get Macbooks.

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padreati@reddit

I am also the last one using Ubuntu in my dev center of \~250 devs. I suppose I will die with this setup. After over 25 years of Linux is hard to consider something else.

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touristtam@reddit

If you are running Windows with WSL you are getting the worse of both world. At that point why not pick the iFruit machine which is Unix compatible?

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padreati@reddit

I don't run Windows, just native Ubuntu.

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TastyToad@reddit

Correct.

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kayakyakr@reddit

Unless you're doing .net, MacBook is the better dev environment.

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RVA_RVA@reddit

.net is fine on a Mac. Use Rider as your IDE

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Bubonicalbob@reddit

I use terminal

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tcpukl@reddit

Definitely not for games programming.

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drnullpointer@reddit

Who says MacBook == XCode? You know you can install other applications on it?

[-]

RelevantJackWhite@reddit

tfw IT locks your laptop down completely

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ham_plane@reddit

It is.

Unfortunately, also the best IDE for iOS development

[-]

magichronx@reddit

I try to avoid using XCode with iOS development but I still have to keep it open/updated for all the app signing hoops Apple makes you jump through

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Dreadmaker@reddit

Depends what language I guess. I use vscode on my Mac just fine.

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tcpukl@reddit

VSCode really isn't very good debugging compared to Visual Studio.

[-]

Dreadmaker@reddit

Depends on your use cases I suppose. I’m old fashioned, but I rarely use built in debuggers - I’m a print statement sorta guy, most of the time. It’s a polarizing thing, I know, haha, but definitely makes me less choosy about the ide

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tcpukl@reddit

You just can't debug everything with printf in games.

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Venthe@reddit

If you only code; then definitely. For anything requiring more than IDE + terminal, the mac UX sucks donkey balls.

WSL + windows. Not perfect, definitely not as performant in pure dev as *nix lineages, but the UX and the ancillary software it can't be beaten.

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JustLTU@reddit

I'm doing dotnet on the macbook, it's great, not sure what the issue is?

I was using Rider back when I was on windows as well, it's just superior to VS.

Unless you're working on very old .Net Framework stuff, Linux / MacOS is just as good (or better) for dotnet development

[-]

Narfi1@reddit

.NET has been cross platforms for years

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Mechakoopa@reddit

We're still dealing with an old a Framework 4.8 project, unfortunately it's part of our core product, but once we finish migrating it I'm switching to Ubuntu on my ThinkPad. I have a MacBook as well but I can't use it often for the same reasons.

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Captain-Mayhem@reddit

Right but Visual Studio stopped support for Mac

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Narfi1@reddit

So ? That’s not the only .NET IDE

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Jmc_da_boss@reddit

Dotnet is also better on Mac these days

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duckwizzle@reddit

How is it better?

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alchebyte@reddit

no Visual Studio means not better. a dysfunctional keyboard means not better.

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l-roc@reddit

Do you use your laptop keyboard for work?

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13--12@reddit

Of course not, I carry my custom mechanical keyboard everywhere

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l-roc@reddit

omg me too!

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Jmc_da_boss@reddit

It's more so that Mac is infinitely better than windows and dotnet on Mac is acceptably workable with rider.

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Jolly-joe@reddit

If I'm doing .net I'm looking for another job

[-]

ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

Agreed, although WSL has bridged the gap.

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littlehero91@reddit

We get a windows laptop with 64GB of memory. Almost every day I'm running out of ram lol.

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audentis@reddit

We give people an €8k budget from which they can choose their own model but also home office stuff like desk, chair, camera and mic. The laptop is deprecated in three years and the rest in 5.

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aeroverra@reddit

This is great. I can't stand looking at an invoice for 4k for some business grade laptop when I can get a gaming laptop that performs better, has a bigger screen which is huge for me because my vision sucks and is overall just way better.

[-]

audentis@reddit

Absolutely.

Device management gets a bit more tricky because of the high variety, but in this work your laptop and peripherals are your primary tool and we love giving people the one that fits their taste.

[-]

ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

So you can use your company's money to buy whatever furniture you want for your home office and this then becomes your property?

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AlmiranteCrujido@reddit

When COVID happened, my employer let us all take office chairs and monitors home. They didn't want them back when the offices reopened and that was WAY less than 5 years...

I liked my own chair better, so my 13 year old daughter now has her own Aeron.

[-]

audentis@reddit

I liked my own chair better, so my 13 year old daughter now has her own Aeron.

Never too young for ergonomics! Although she might be a tad small compared to what the chair is designed for :)

[-]

cach-v@reddit

Perks of big tech

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audentis@reddit

security scale up*

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MasterBathingBear@reddit

It’s likely cheaper than shipping it back to be redistributed.

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audentis@reddit

Correct, although that does occassionally still happen we try to minimize it. It's a win/win when parting ways with someone.

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audentis@reddit

Pretty much. It starts as company assets that happen to be located in your home. But after they deprecate over 5 years, they becomes yours.

If for whatever reason you stop working for us you can keep the stuff that is >=5 years old. The other stuff you have to return or pay the remaining book value. So imagine a $1K desk that's 2.5 years old. 2.5 years is 50% of 5 years, so the remaining value is 50% of $1k which is $500.

[-]

NotRote@reddit

The startup I work with also does something similar we get a home office card when we start and a MacBook Pro

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Ill_Huckleberry_2079@reddit

I love this idea!
I would also think this tells you a lot about how they treat people ?

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audentis@reddit

It's one aspect, yea. The owners intents are good but he's been a complete doofus in the past - so there are problems, that we're working on fixing.

[-]

ReefNixon@reddit

Work shipped me a think pad which I only use for shit on the VPN, otherwise I use my own mbp or Mac mini

[-]

Ok-Influence-4290@reddit

6 jobs and 6 MacBook Pros. 7 if you count for this job I have two 14’ M4 pros.

Disconnected for development and connected for deployment to higher environments.

Hopefully should be going to one in the next few months.

[-]

CreativeHunt2655@reddit

MacBook m1 pro. The project takes 5 minutes to build every time 😭

[-]

PaulPhxAz@reddit

I used to argue with the head of IT all the time about this. He wanted to give the crap-tops to the devs ( essentially the lowest level dell you can buy with 8gb of ram ).

But, when I went to Silicon Valley Bank ( yeah, oops ) for a bit they got me a very decent Thinkpad workstation.

At another company they loaded up a basic HP with soooo much stuff ( remote management, security, IPAM, 3 VPNs ) it wasn't very useful, so we took an image of the hard drive and make it a VM, and then re-installed windows from scratch so it was again useful.

(.NET Dev Comment) It's always been trendy to run macs and jet brains, but I think windows and visual studio pro is still better.

Now I'm running a GPD WinMax2 2025--because it's TINY. At home I have an external graphics card and 3x monitors. When I'm on the road I want the smallest utility form I can get.

[-]

Fidodo@reddit

I wish I could use Linux at my company. I choose Mac for unix but good Lord is MacOS buggy.

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thearn4@reddit

HP Zbook engineering laptop. Not a particular fan but this is a traditional F500 industrial corporation so Windows is mandatory. Since coming here if figured out that with WSL, it's fine but can also confirm Windows laptops still suck.

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Current_Can_3715@reddit

HP Zbook but I could also go Mac I’ve just always used windows because it has better support at my company.

I’ve actually had two ZBooks because the first had a battery expand.

[-]

random314@reddit

I miss MacBook pro.

My new place (a bank) gives us a Citrix instance. It sucks balls.

[-]

iSmite@reddit

😂

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Ttbt80@reddit

At my last company (F500 subsidiary), all devs got shitty Dell laptops with a couple small monitors and a docking station. It was a constant issue for the devs, especially since security software took up 16-32 GB of the 64 GB of RAM at any time.

[-]

buddroyce@reddit

Thinkpad, Dell and MacBook Pro.

I somehow got all 3.

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sleepyguy007@reddit

we gt a refresh every 3 years or so, i'm on an m1 pro right now, but i know my coworkers just got 16" m4 maxes. not even sure if i could choose a windows machine if i wanted. im remote, but my coworker who are 3 days RTO, company policy is to ship you a 34" monitor and standing desk to your house if you want one

[-]

lb0sa@reddit

M2 MacBook Air at a startup. Only the tech lead has a Pro. Would love a Pro though.

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HeroOfOldIron@reddit

At my first job I got a dell, and at my current one I got a 14” MacBook Pro.

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brutal_youth_@reddit

ThinkPad X1 Carbon running Ubuntu. I'm at a startup and they let me pick my own within reason.

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xdyldo@reddit

Do they still not have teams on Ubuntu? Only reason I didn’t run it was because I hated running teams through browser

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yodal_@reddit

I swear they had Teams on Linux since it first came out.

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xdyldo@reddit

They didn’t have it ~4 years ago and I just looked it up and they still don’t have it today.

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NGTTwo@reddit

There's not an official client, but there's an Electron app that you can install using Snap that works pretty well.

snap install teams-for-linux, in case you're curious.

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OverclockingUnicorn@reddit

Our IT Sec team would loose their marbles if I started using a third party teams client

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NGTTwo@reddit

All the more reason to switch to a tool that doesn't suck donkey dick. Slack still exists, after all.

[-]

MaleficentCow8513@reddit

My company uses google workspace for email, docs and meetings, slack for non email coms. It’s not bad but tbh I do miss having separate apps for email and docs that sync to the cloud. Now I have everything open in browsers and I don’t like that

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OverclockingUnicorn@reddit

Lol we move from slack to teams

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NGTTwo@reddit

Ouch.

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xdyldo@reddit

Thanks, old company, wonder if they had that 4 years ago when I was looking. Couldn’t see to find anything decent at the time. Now on slack + MacBook which is great.

[-]

Southern-twat@reddit

They did for a while, they discontinued it at some point (it's just a webview wrapper anyway so a bit weird but eh).

You can still use the website if you need it

[-]

touristtam@reddit

https://github.com/ISMAELMARTINEZ/teams-for-linux it's maintained

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AllIWantForXmasIsFoo@reddit

okay I was thinking it'll be hard for me to accept a job in a company that doesn't use macs.

But then you mentioned "Teams".

Dude, using teams is a big big red flag. I would never.

[-]

jnwatson@reddit

Even better reason to Ubuntu

[-]

Civil-Camera-6284@reddit

Lenovo brand, it is not that bad

[-]

AlmiranteCrujido@reddit

At the gig I left recently, we had a choice of PC or Mac, but basically everyone got the Mac; as a Linux user, I was the weird one out.

The main Mac for Devs was a Pro 16" with the M4 Pro and 48GB (I'd imagine they're ordering the M5 now they jump on new models pretty quick.) Most PM/PgM/EM also got the 16"

The non-dev Mac is a Pro 14" and unlike devs, people in G&A were were much more likely to get one that had been given to someone before, so we had plenty of M1/M2 with 16GB still circulating. I'm not sure if they'd bumped up to the 32GB for new ones.

On the PC side, there was in theory a 14" G&A spec but literally never saw one in the wild. The dev model used to be Dell, but they switched to Lenovo - the machine I shipped back to them was a P1 Gen 6, i7-13800H, and I had to pull my own 64GB of RAM out of it and put their 32GB back in before I returned it.

We were remote-first hybrid, and the office monitors were all mix of different ages, from old Dell 27" to some very nice 34" ultrawides and a few Apple-made displays that did not play nicely with my Lenovo.

[-]

hanbaoquan@reddit

My current one gave us a 16 inch MacBook pro m3 pro. My last startup just gave everyone a credit card with a budget to buy whatever we wanted. I got an m3 max 16 inch MacBook pro.

[-]

Dry_Proof_3575@reddit

None it’s vm

[-]

OoIIoO@reddit

Dell laptops, Windows 11. PCs are locked down, have to ask for admin rights to install anything.

Installations have to be corporate approved through IT Reqs, (with rationale for need), who take up to 2 days to respond, take control over a remote session, and install the IT approved SW.

[-]

iFlexicon@reddit

Last 4 jobs: MacBook Pro. Current role I’m more of a freelancer so I bring my own equipment. Still bought a Macbook Pro though.

[-]

Professional_Mix2418@reddit

MAC if we provide it; typically a Neo now with fingerprint reader for non developer. Developers can choose. But we allow BYOD but you are on your own and have to accept our controls.

[-]

thelaxshmisinghers@reddit

Dell Pro Max 16, 64GB RAM running Linux

[-]

anonymousdawggy@reddit

latest, maxed out macbook pro 17"

[-]

Comp_Sci_Doc@reddit

Thinkpad. I think it was the same at my last job.

[-]

RelevantJackWhite@reddit

In reverse chronological order:

M4 MBP 16" - very happy with it
M1 MBP 13" (touchbar) - mostly happy except it could only push one external monitor
Thinkpad T550p running Ubuntu - was quite happy with it
Dell XPS 13 - got to select this one by hand on a $1000 budget

[-]

chaiinchomp@reddit

I'll always choose linux if given the option, but my last few jobs it's been a streak of macbooks. At least it's not windows.

[-]

xt1nct@reddit

I use Lenovo ThinkPad.

I work with C#/SQL/Windows servers. I self host a lot of smaller apps.

Outside of work I’ve been enjoying iOS recently. Only use windows for gaming now.

[-]

iPodAddict181@reddit

M4 MacBook Pro, 48 GB memory.

[-]

normantas@reddit

Lenovo Thinkpad P16 or some other model. You can pick up a mac bust it is done by only people who code for MacOs/IOS & some frontend. Everybody else run windows

[-]

rochakgupta@reddit

We get to choose between Macbook Pro or Dell. Wish I could get a ThinkPad instead that I could run Linux on. Macbook is good but gets in my way too much (I want to be able to run a tiling window manager like i3).

[-]

m1nkeh@reddit

MacBook Pro 16” paving slab, but I asked for an Air, plenty fine so long as you keep the Chrome tabs below ~250

[-]

SmartCustard9944@reddit

Got lucky and bought a Thinkpad with AI chip and 96GB ram one month before they doubled the price 🤦‍♂️

[-]

berndverst@reddit

I got a MacBook Pro at every job except Microsoft. I was able to get a Mac there too for the first several years - then had to switch to Windows last year - the most underpowered horrible Lenovo laptop ever. Now I connect exclusively to a 128GB RAM machine in the cloud to do my work - my laptop is too awful to do work locally.

Windows isn't great - but Windows combined with our horrible Microsoft defender and other antivirus and security rules is terribly slow.

[-]

_Merxer_@reddit

I have an M2 air. Most of the time it's fine, but the passive cooling isn't strong enough when working in a warm room.

It'll overheat in a slack call when nothing else is running.

[-]

DavaiDavaiDeploy@reddit

New company has sent me Dell Latitide on Windows. Ugly piece of crap with a bad screen, bulky chassis and loud as hell under load. I am linux guy and I'm ok to deal with mac (I like their HW, but hate SW), but dealing with windows will be huge pain for me. Surprisingly, I had almost same Dell in terms of chassis at one of the previous companies, but on Ubuntu. Surprisingly, it was one of the reason why I left the company :)

[-]

k958320617@reddit

Windows isn't too bad. Get WSL up and running and you'll be happy in Linux again.

[-]

Training-Ice-3181@reddit

90% of people take MacBooks and the 10% that take a "windows laptop" actually run some flavour of Linux on it

[-]

raughit@reddit

Shackbook Ho

[-]

BeastyBaiter@reddit

HP Elitebook. It's ok, nothing special.

[-]

586WingsFan@reddit

Same here

[-]

tikhonjelvis@reddit

Out of the last several companies I worked for, there was a very early-stage startup (<10 people when I joined) where I used my own gear, two places that got me decently specced Macbooks and one company that let me choose whatever laptop I wanted. That last company used NixOS in production, so I got a Framework laptop running NixOS.

The latest Macbook had the best hardware (build quality + performance + battery life), but I still preferred running NixOS over macOS, warts and all. Having a declarative, programmable system and not having to use fucking Docker was amazing. I spend so much time on my system that having the control to set it up the way I want and having a solid programming model to do that is worth the learning curve and occasional day-to-day issues.

[-]

Prestigious_Dare7734@reddit

I have worked with various organizations, here is the brief:

Big org, Macbook Pro 16" (Intel one, 64GB, 1TB, discrete graphics), this one was in 2016, 1 1080p monitor
Medium sized, Series F funded startup - Macbook Pro 16" (same as above), this one was in 2017, no monitor by default, you can request one of those apple displays.
Angel funded startup - Macbook Pro 16" (32GB, 512 TB), no monitors. Moved to Lenovo Legion due to budget constraints once the macbook gave up
Surface Pro 5, 2 1080p dell monitors, I am using my own 4k monitors as I WFH. Hate the surface pro due to it being thermal throttled very quickly, and underpowered CPU. Can't use mac as the main setup uses the old C#.

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marssaxman@reddit

When I have a choice, I pick the latest 14" ThinkPad and install Ubuntu. I can deal with Mac OS when I have to, but I never use Windows.

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open-mind-001@reddit

Windows is such a pain to use.

Nothing went smoothly, installing docker - wsl,wsl2,enable hyper threading and in my case will become unstable after a few months.

Anything related to machine learning, well good luck with getting proper driver and dependencies. Most tools are written in unix environments.

Most painful was the auto updates which will frekin trigger just before an important meeting or once happened before an interview call.

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Bderken@reddit

Oh god, I have some bad hyper threading flashbacks

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Internal_Pride1853@reddit

I had a ThinkPad in my previous gig and now I have the MacBook m5 and bought myself a private m4 pro 48. I hate windows now

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kutjelul@reddit

MacBook Pro with ungodly specs. Always - I’m an iOS developer though :))

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Politex99@reddit

Latest MacBook pro base. I hot M2 pro. Intern has m4 pro.

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mmm19284202@reddit

Large financial services company, I don’t get anything! Citrix to a VPC

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No_Pin_1150@reddit

They gave us one but no one uses it since help desk makes it impossible to install all the software the devs need so the devs end up just using their personal computers

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ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

Is this an American company? I'm surprised that's allowed.

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altraschoy@reddit

am I the only one that prefers BYOD policy?

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OkWealth5939@reddit

Macbook pro but only m5 pro 24GB 1TB
Perfectly fine for me though

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waterslurpingnoises@reddit

Thinkpad T14s 32GB running Fedora.

Most devs have Macbooks though. There's only one dev I know in the company that runs Linux, and they run Gentoo.

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ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

he sounds like an ub3r 31337 h4x0r

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keelanstuart@reddit

Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition - upgraded to 64GB, Quadro RTX 5000

It's from 2020 and it's still awesome

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DjangoPony84@reddit

Team MacBook Pro, like a ton of others 😁

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laStrangiato@reddit

MBP or a thinkpad. On the Thinkpad we can choose Windows or Fedora.

I work for Red Hat so anyone who chooses a windows laptop is generally poked fun at. PMs get a pass though.

I have run Fedora in the past but I switched to a MBP a few years ago. I wanted to daily Linux when I joined to get more immersed. It was a great experience but it ended up being easier to jump to Mac and provide a more consistent experience where I didn’t have to baby the OS quite as much and I could run tools my customers were often using.

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Aromatic-Apricot-298@reddit

The day I get a Mac for work is the day I'm resigning. We get either Z-Books or Thinkpads

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ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

Why?

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qrzychu69@reddit

we have a server running in our basement (a bank), and every employee gets a virtual machine on it. On the desks you have one ultrawide screen, and one normal, and a thin client to connect to your virtual machine via citrix.

Working from home is great, because you just use citrix from any device to connect.

Now they are switching to Thinkpads over the virtual machines (which sucked balls to be honest, when someone was sharing their screen through teams the machine would pretty much die). We as developers have a Thinkstation with i7-13700k and 32gb of ram on our desks, and we can use citrix to connect to it from home.

There are no macs, because they cannot be locked down as well as windows can - no local admin (except for the devs, but only on demand and audited), acccess to shared drives and sharepoint storage highly regulated, everything behind a proxy.

The citrix integration blocks any attempts of copy/pasting. You cannot plug in random usb devices - my keychron keyboard was blocked :D

It's actually quite decent

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riskrunner_zero@reddit

We give you a choice between a high end MacBook Pro or a Windows Snapdragon Ultra. Remote office stipend of $1500 for whatever you need.

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ChibiCoder@reddit

MacBook Pro, which isn't too surprising since I work in iOS development on VERY large codebases.

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tecedu@reddit

Used to be thinkpad x1s; after that we used a project budget to get everyone p14s with 96gb ram. And also we have shared remote workstation with gpus, 64 cores and 512gb ram if needed.

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ritchie70@reddit

I’m the only dev in my group. I do windows development and Mac is barely supported. I have a thinkpad x1. Only problem is the weight.

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CrushgrooveSC@reddit

The only reason we would ever not get the best possible MacBook we can spec would be if we specifically ask for something less.

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Chromze@reddit

I always choose the windows one if they let me change it for linux, macbook otherwise.

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rFAXbc@reddit

We get a budget and can choose our own machines. Most people use MacBook Pros.

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rover_G@reddit

Always MacBook Pro at work but MacBook Air for personal use

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jimbo831@reddit

My company gives you a choice between a MacBook Pro or a Windows laptop. I don’t know the details of the Windows option because I chose a MacBook. My MacBook is pretty well specced.

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Melkor45@reddit

Dell Precision..the 17inch one that weighs a ton lol

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MyBossIsOnReddit@reddit

Some kind of HP machine with 64g ram.

Managers get a small one.

Development needs to happen on remote desktops in the cloud.

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Marutks@reddit

MacbookPro. Most of non-devs get windows laptop.

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The_Penguinologist@reddit

Macbook pro but i’ve gone through 3 of them. First one just died one day. Replaced with an M1 right when that released, and then recently upgraded to M3 and requested sufficient ram for a change (36GB)

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BunchCrazy1269@reddit

HP Zbook or something. Same price as a mac book pro but it takes 2 mins to turn the thing on.

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Ghi102@reddit

We had a choice of either Windows (which can mean any laptop they have in stock, some Surface, some Thinkpads, some Dells) or a Macbook. You're free to install Linux on the laptop if you prefer. Once the company does a hardware refresh, you could theoretically request any laptop as long as your manager approves.

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FeistiestMeat@reddit

My company is the exact same as OP’s but I decided to take one for the team and chose a Thinkpad running Windows because almost everyone else took a MBP, so no one tests on Windows.

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GND52@reddit

Just joined a new company (mid size 2010-era tech company). Was issued a 14" M4 Pro MacBook Pro with 24GB of RAM.

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MasterBathingBear@reddit

Engineers get Dell laptops with i9 and 64GB RAM.

Business gets whatever Dell’s thin and light model is

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buhhster@reddit

Dude you’re getting a dell

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binocular_gems@reddit

We do all development on workstations either through a VDI or decently powerful local workstation. If you’re on a windows VDI you get a Lenovo laptop to connect to it, they’re not powerful but the VDIs themselves are. If you’re on a Mac development machine (usually a studio), you get an underpowered MacBook Air, similar. For Linux devs, you get the Lenovo and connect to a Linux VDI.

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HoratioWobble@reddit

Personally, I predominately use Windows for development.

But whenever I've worked somewhere, I prefer they get me a mac (and I usually remote in to it)

The problem with companies just see "3ghz, 16gb ram, 1TB hdd". They don't really discern between an i3 and 16gb of DDR3 with a Mechanical drive and an i9, 16GB DDR5, dedicated GPU and M.2.

So you almost always get utter garbage if they give you a non-mac laptop.

With Mac, they're mostly forced to buy you good hardware

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I-Am-Maldoror@reddit

Same, but we're free to install any Linux distro to the ThinkPad. So using ThinkPad with Fedora.

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raver01@reddit

this is the way

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nsxwolf@reddit

Still stuck with this Intel MBP

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ninetofivedev@reddit

Latest MacBook Pro with the top configuration.

I’ll actively refuse to work at a company that doesn’t give me this option.

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raver01@reddit

Unless you are a linux power-user take the Macbook Pro. Thinkpads from their high tier are really nice machines, but I would'nt change a Macbook Pro for my E series thinkpad (tho I love it).

I usually work with the terminal and use a window manager so I can switch to code - testing env fast using a single screen. I wonder if I ever get a Mac how I'd end up configuring it to ahieve this kind of fast and straightforward experience while working.

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engineered_academic@reddit

My company gives us a budget allowance to purchase whatever peripherals we want, within reason. The computer has to be a mac or linux platform at this point because we don't have MDM for Windows.

Before this I worked at a bank that mandated Windows and it was a terrible environment. Great for gaming never again for work.

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mr_poopybuthole69@reddit

We get some kind of dells that are not thinkpads, theyre heavy as hell and not even that good and then theres mac option. I really dislike mac os, thats why i took dell. I wish they would offer better alternatives for windows computers.

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YeastyWingedGiglet@reddit

MacBook Pro M3. Think some people have M4.

I started with an Intel MBP over 5 years ago. The switch to an M3 was huge.

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Thadboy3D@reddit

I work remote, they sent me a gaming PC with a giant GPU

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BOSS_OF_THE_INTERNET@reddit

For some reason we all get a completely maxed out MBP 16-incher. Each of them runs almost 8k

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Toren6969@reddit

Some Dell or Macbook. Used to be Pro, but for most people Air Is enough, So not it Is basically either Dell or Macbook Air.

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hibikir_40k@reddit

The last time I wasn't handed a top of the line macbook pro with at least one step up of memory was in 2008. Replacement cycles in most companies are about 4 years if you get that far, but when the M1 came out, any company that that didn't get rid of the intels as fast as possible was being foolish, as the upgrade was that big.

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Unique-Squirrel-464@reddit

MacBook Pro - hands down. Even a Mac that is 3-4 years old is still a very solid machine, hard to say that about a Windows machine.

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goronhug@reddit

Developers get Lenovo Legion laptops, other company employees have HP Elitebooks

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shimroot@reddit

No a dev, but a PO.

When I joined I got a Zbook 16 that seems spec-ed like for dev work (Ryzen 7 + 32g RAM). Standard company policy to give this. They didn’t have any lighter and smaller better suited for the kind of work I do.

It’s heavy, bulky, and I dislike it.

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WJMazepas@reddit

At PayPal it was a MacBook Pro, but you could receive a brand new M3 Pro or a 2019 MacBook Pro

Now at ExxonMobil it's an underpowered VM being streamed, that chugs when I open VS Code

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Wide_Obligation4055@reddit

Standard is MacBook M4 Pro 64Gb But you can get the equivalent PC if you prefer the running linux

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zangler@reddit

Lenovo Legion. Non windows wasn't an option, but Thai has been a really excellent machine to develop on. Mostly doing heavy MLOPs and AI applications in Java/kotlin and python.

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HettySwollocks@reddit

Used to be a top end Mac Pro, now it’s a similar windows machine with more ram but it’s vastly inferior. Coding on windows is an absolutely chore. Give me a decent Linux machine all day longs

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maxmax4@reddit

64 cores AMD Threadripper workstation 😂 Its basically a necessity for compilng a ton

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fleccy2@reddit

Standard HP company laptop with Microsoft Dev Box

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zerocoldx911@reddit

M5 pro

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HelloSummer99@reddit

Mine didn't give me anything, and also didn't provide any funds to buy anything. They just said they have BYOD. It's a fully remote job so I didn't complain so much, but it's 100% not normal.

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ImportantSquirrel@reddit (OP)

Is this an American company? I thought there were liability concerns if a company lets devs use their personally owned computer.

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c1rclez@reddit

Dell Precision 5570.

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CharlesV_@reddit

Most developers have Macs where I work, but I’m one of the few people who still supports a bunch of legacy projects so I have an older windows laptop to work on dotnet apps. A few of my coworkers switch between projects like this and have 2 laptops. I think I might end up in the same situation here soon.

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AHardCockToSuck@reddit

I have always had MacBooks in every company I've worked for

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mpanase@reddit

Too many apple fanbois.

You usually get a 1-2 years old macbook.

If given the option and if I don't need to build ios/macos, I will choose a more powerful windows (because yes, they are more powerful for the same price and I don't care about battery life)

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ceilingscorpion@reddit

Thinkpad (Internship), MBA (Internship), MBP Intel (1st Real Job) MBP M1 Pro (1st Job/ 2yr upgrade), MBP M3 Max (2nd Real Job)

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DomBrown2406@reddit

M4 MacBook Pro. It’s awesome.

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Sensitive_Elephant_@reddit

Microsoft Surface. 8GB/512GB

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ProfBeaker@reddit

Macbook Pro. Fairly nice ones now - I had to advocate for why devs needed more than 16GB of memory, which took a bit of work.

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Hackx007@reddit

I had to buy my own laptop. The one they had was soooo slow.

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RushShirtKid@reddit

HP Elitebook running latest Windows. They typically allow us to "upgrade" every few years here but I know this one was just a refurbished comp. Runs like ass for coding, runs fine for other stuff.

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im-ba@reddit

Apple Macintosh PowerBook 190cs

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No-Economics-8239@reddit

My company largely offers a choice between ThinkPad and MacBook. I run Linux as my OS of choice at home, but I still go with the Windows machine. There are too many tools and utilities that are still Windows focused from Outlook to old IE web apps to corporate security work arounds. Yes, it's all stuff you can work around. And if they let me run Linux, I would be happily leading that charge on ideological grounds. But they don't, and between Git Bash and WSL, I don't feel like I'm missing anything important except my pride and juvenile desire to make defenstration jokes.

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VillageTube@reddit

Working for an Enterprise financial services company. Using a Dell laptop using WSL for Java Linux dev. Most of the other Devs are .net and the rest of the company is windows desktops so can see why we don't get a MacBook. Previous company made less sense being a technology company whose backend was Linux everyone had windows desktops.

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AggressiveAd5248@reddit

Bum ass dell with a 720p screen and horrible battery life, amazing 16 inch m1 MacBook Pro which I think about regularly , decent lenovo with bad battery life and not enough ram, bum ass Lenovo that died , decent Lenovo without an appropriate dock so it gets fed 65W which isn’t enough when it’s in performance mode and it’ll drain itself until it dies.

I miss my MacBook :(

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