41-50k Hardcore programming laptop - SSD, high-res-screen, no gaming, linux usage

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Santa Maria!

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I'm planning to recommend some laptops for purchase at the office so I need quick expert advice. Don't let me down, guys!

What's your Budget? (e.g. >30K, not more than 50K etc.)
  • Let's try and keep it under 50k. But if you feel there it's worth it, you may suggest a pricier laptop.
What will be your primary usage for the notebook be? (e.g. web surfing/office apps/Casual Gaming)
  • Programming. Full time. No gaming.
  • Will run linux. Fedora 14 and CentOS. No Windows!
  • Gonna work intensely with databases, web development etc. Which is why a SSD would be nice.
  • Browser(s) with 20+ tabs open always
  • Basically LOTS of running processes and multitasking.
  • Will be used for 15+ hours everyday.
What size and weight considerations do you have? (e.g. Do you want a 17" desktop replacement or you want an ultraportable 12" or something in between)
  • Standard 15.6 inch will do.
  • I would prefer if we can go with a higher resolution than the regular 1366x768. Full HD would be nice, but an intermediate resolution would also work, eg. 1600x900.
Any brand that you prefer, or any brand that you detest? (e.g some would prefer to stay away from Acer or Dell)
  • Brand with good after-sales support would be preferred, of course.
Any other considerations? (e.g Battery life; Widescreen/non-widescreen; Glossy/Matte screen etc.)
  • Since this is not meant to be a gaming laptop, it would be nice not to have to spend a lot of cash on a model just because it has an awesome graphics card.
  • How much of a difference will a SSD make? I'm assuming a lot, since development involves a lot of disk intensive processes. So I would really prefer a model with a SSD.
  • 8GB RAM would be nice
  • Reiterating the need for a higher resolution screen.
  • If a suggested model comes with Windows, is it possible to opt for the same model without Windows?

Looking forward to some helpful suggestions!
 
Exactly the same question for me as well. I would also recommend that you have good battery life (for coding in coffee shops!).
 
I would suggest the same Edge series from Lenovo. If you can stretch a bit more and get someone to ship it to you from US, get the T430. Lenovo is refreshing their models so might get a good deal.
 
You gotta be kidding me. Any sort of serious development means you need two displays and a desktop with as much memory as you can get. Anything slower or a smaller display really hampers productivity - at least for me.
 
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if you are actual truthful about your usage. Get any laptop with maximum memory, good processor, max u can afford, SSD/HDD and then get a dock, 2 monitors, kbb and mouse combo.

Just a laptop with your usage is going to be nuts.
 
Chaos said:
You gotta be kidding me. Any sort of serious development means you need two displays and a desktop with as much memory as you can get. Anything slower or a smaller display really hampers productivity - at least for me.
Click to expand...

I won't completely dismiss this viewpoint. I used to think like this as well and I know quite a few people still do. I used to dream of having dual 24 inch displays for uber productivity.

I don't know about you, but in my mind, a good part of the 'productivity' argument favoring dual displays involves the concept using your mouse a lot, and maybe organizing your IDE's various toolboxes/windows in various configurations across both screens, etc.

But ever since I started using vim for everything (hell, even in my browser... vimium ftw), I'm finding lesser and lesser need for an external monitor or any dual setup. I rarely use the mouse anymore and my coding sessions feel insanely productive.
And if you adhere to good coding style conventions, 90% of your code would be around the 80-characters-per-line limit. While that generally improves readability and maintainability, it also allows me to split my screen vertically so that I always have two code files side-by-side - even on a 1366x768 display. And all my other code files are just a couple of keystrokes away, thanks to one of the countless awesome vim plugins.

So I always have a dual screen setup - right inside my laptop screen :) And I can carry this dual screen setup, plus all the vim goodness to the coffee shop too, where I do some of my best coding ;)
Combine that with some kind of terminal multiplexer (eg. tmux), and you have a million screens at your fingertips. Add some skilled Alt-Tab usage for browser-terminal switching, and nothing more is needed for me.

Of course, a dual monitor setup is very useful for situations where you're following a tutorial and it's nice to have your code and a browser window side by side. But besides that scenario, a regular web development session's workflow is usually spent sequentially - a burst of coding, then a bit of research/testing in your browser, coding, browser, coding... etc. So an Alt-Tab suffices for this switch, and you'd have to Alt-Tab anyway even if you had 2 monitors, to switch focus from editor to browser (unless you use the mouse... ew!).

I realize all the above doesn't easily apply if you're working on a platform like .NET, where the languages and workflow are so tightly coupled with the IDE (Visual Studio), but my development work involves Python and JavaScript, with hobby stuff in C++. And there's nothing more productive than vim for this stuff imo.

I digressed a bit from the topic. But workflow productivity is an important topic for me, so I just felt like sharing my thoughts on the subject since it was brought up in relation to my requirements. It might also help you understand better the requirements I mentioned in my OP.
Feel free to share your thoughts on this in general, or how this affects my laptop requirements.
 
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I've finalized it to two final options:
Dell Inspiron 15R SE N7520SE
and
Samsung NP550P5C-S05IN

Which one is better specs wise? (Besides the fact that the former has a full HD screen)

UPDATE: Bought the S06IN as the rest were out of stock.
 
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Congratulations for your purchase. I opted for Mac year ago for my web development needs and I haven't looked back ever since. You get Unix with great DE unlike gnome/KDE/unity in Linux. And I have seen that 4gigs of ram is sufficient too if we don't need to use vagrant etc.
 
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