Ditch the Mac
Every year I try to run a personal tech experiment. Past experiments have included Chromebook as my only device (2013), iPhone as my primary phone (2016), replace phone & sms exclusively with chat apps (2017). I do these for fun and to keep myself looking outwards.
This year my experiment is to kick the Mac out of my technical life. My Macbook Pro (MBP) is 5 years old this year; apart from being heavy, it runs as well as it has on day one. (Kudos to Apple.)
At Snapp my colleagues upgraded their MBPs and have not been particularly happy — especially with the keyboard that is just not up to the job. I never got around to upgrading which is lucky, because it gives me a reason to “think different”…
Actually there were two product releases last year that have nudged me into this experiment.
Google released the Pixelbook. In 2013 I used the Chromebook Pixel as my primary device for a year, so I was excited to see a significant development in Google’s hardware offering. Being able to run Android apps was also a big step forward since my initial Chromebook days.
Dell released new hardware running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS as a result of the efforts of the Sputnik team. This means hardware drivers and a support structure — which are absent to most who want to run linux. (I could have gone with System 76…maybe I’ll look closer at their products as a result of this experiment.)
What these releases signified to me, was that I could see some viable hardware & OS alternatives to the Mac. (I’m not brave enough to try Windows for a year — maybe that’s for 2020 if Microsoft can bring some of their new Mojo to the OS.)
Two laptops to replace the one MBP?
Mac fanboys (like our friend @JoseJeria) will be trolling me on Slack at this stage — so let’s deal with this first.
My job means I have multiple roles and like to create hard boundaries between them. In 2018, this happens to translate very naturally into a different machine for each role.
Most of my day is spent running Snapp and driving project delivery for our customers. This means, I am not writing code as my primary activity. (Yes, it’s pretty sad.) In reality I am in video calls, writing on Slack, crafting/reviewing contracts, dealing with financials. I am more likely to be sitting on the sofa in my office rather than at a desk. For this the Pixelbook is my friend.
As part of Snapp’s own product development initiative (more writings about that coming soon), I am back where the action is and writing code (amongst other things). Right now, this mostly means writing Dart code but I will pick whichever tool works best for the job — Golang, Java/Kotlin, NodeJS etc. (Hint, guess who’s picking-up the non-mobile parts of our tech stack.) For this I reach for a Dell Precision 5220.
Pixelbook is awesome
This is a great device. Small, light, powerful, elegant. The screen is fantastic, the keyboard very comfortable to use, battery life is good (perhaps not great).
Of course, the downside is that it runs Chrome OS. I actually get on well with the OS — it is more polished my 2013 experiment. However it is a purposefully constrained environment and you have to either take it or leave it. There are still some rough edges with plenty of inconsistencies in the UX and Google hasn’t quite figured out a clear line between the ‘app’ like experience and the browser tab experience. (Maybe Progressive Web Apps will change this.)
Being able to run Android apps is useful but hasn’t been a killer feature for me — mainly because Android apps aren’t built with large screens and keyboards in mind. I’ve ditched the Slack Android app in favour of the web version. The Kindle App can’t seem to render properly. Dropbox Paper (my preferred tool for writing) is a simpler version of the online app (which I prefer). My Snapp colleagues Juhani Lehtimäki and Pierluigi Rufo have some great conference talks about building Android apps for Chromebooks. (You can find them at these conferences later this year.)
Within the context of my job running Snapp, the Pixelbook replaces the Mac to about 95%. The missing 5%:
- I can’t do anything with Keynote presentations (for some reason people like using Keynote)
- I can’t use Mindnode which is a great tool, but Mac only (Mindmeister has been a good alternative)
- A couple of Android apps that would be useful aren’t available for the Chromebook (for example I wanted to run the Edge browser)
In our company Chromebook makes sense because we are pretty skewed towards Google — we use the GSuite tools (Gmail, Drive, Google Docs/Sheets) which I think are the best productivity tools out there.
I don’t think I would give-up my Pixelbook — it feels like it’s here to stay.
Dell with Ubuntu is good, not great
I am less enthusiastic but still happy with my experience using the Dell Precision 5520.
On the plus side, the machine packs more power than a fully loaded Macbook Pro. I got one with 32 GB of RAM, an Quad Core i7, a 1TB SSD, HD screen — all for less than 3/4 of the price my colleagues paid for their Macbook Pros.
The build quality is fine although it lacks the beauty and finesse of the Mac. Sadly, the device is let down by the keyboard and trackpad, both of which feel like they belong to a low-end laptop. (Shame on you Dell!) The experience is bad enough that I generally use a Logitech keyboard and mouse.
The device is pretty heavy and thicker than I’d like. Dell advertises the Precision 5520 as the ‘The world’s thinnest, lightest, smallest 15" mobile workstation’ — I really don’t know what those guys are smoking but this is totally misleading. Compared to the new MBPs or Pixelbook, the Dell feels like it’s meant to live on a desk in an office. (I’m a schmuck because I end up schlepping the thing around.)
Despite the uninspiring hardware, I’m actually very happy with the experience running Ubuntu. I’m delighted that they have ditched Unity and embraced Gnome — what a massive improvement! I went to 18.04 as soon as it was released and don’t even feel like I need to customize it. (Yes, I know that Linux is meant to be all about customizing and tweaking…) Everything works, thanks to Dell’s Linux drivers.
Because I only use this device for development, I couldn’t even tell you how a Ubuntu supports productivity tools. I haven’t even needed to use Ubuntu’s Nautilus file system browser which looks much improved under Gnome. (http://bit.ly/2KIsTgA)
For technical work, the Dell/Ubuntu combo is working out well. Obviously I can’t do anything iOS related — but I don’t think my Snapp colleagues would allow me to anyway!
The horsepower of the machine is it’s selling point. Anyone working with Angular Dart knows about the lengthy build times, i.e. via dart2js. There have been massive improvements with the pub_runner build cache and I’m sure it will keep getting better. However my old Chromebook Pixel running Gallium Linux which is fine for NodeJS work, just can’t handle Dart’s compile — or at least, I’m not willing to wait for 10 mins. The Dell chews through such tasks without problem.
One Pixelbook to rule them all
Google’s announcement at I/O 2018 that they will support GTK based Linux apps on Chromebooks is fantastic. The rumours have been circling for a while but a public reveal is a pretty clear signal that this is coming.
This would likely make the Dell/Ubuntu set-up something that remains in the office. I still like the rhythm of having 2 machines — although I might be sold on the convenience of just having the Pixelbook.
My main concern for the Pixelbook as a MBP replacement is the 3:2 screen ratio. Back in 2013 the rationale for going back to this screen ratio was to optimize web browsing — i.e. vertical space is more meaningful for web browsing than horizontal space.
For most IDEs I think a 16:9 screen is what you want. Maybe Google have a machine in the works targeting developers…but I wouldn’t hold my breath and if such a thing is coming, I suspect we would have to wait until 2019 or if Fuchsia ever appears.
Missing the Mac?
It’s now September and I haven’t missed my Mac at all this year. Apart from a couple of apps, I don’t see a compelling reason to go back. Although there is nothing wrong with my Mac, I just can’t get excited by an upgrade to a new machine.
However, my move to alternatives was driven by the desire to experiment. Most others probably don’t care enough and are happy to stick with existing or new Macs. Even with GTK app support on Chromebooks, I don’t see a noticeable exodus from the Mac by developers.
TL;DR
I like to run a little technology experiment every year and this year I’ve ditched my Macbook Pro.
I’m officially in love with the Pixelbook even though there is quite a lot of room for improvement — mostly with the software.
I’m surprisingly happy using a Dell/Ubuntu combo for development and even more surprised that the software is better than the hardware. Dell has somehow failed to deliver a decent experience where it matters — the keyboard and trackpad are aweful.
The future for Chromebooks is exciting with recent Google I/O demos of GTK apps running within Chrome OS. We will have to see how this translates to real-world usage and also how the top-end Chromebooks fare as development machines.
