Noogler laptop pick

SpinDance / Eng
okOu43

SpinDance Eng

okOu43
Aug 26, 2018 51 Comments

Starting at Google soon and have to pick my equipment.

The on boarding guide strongly pushes me to pick the Google Pixelbook, but I’m hesitant to pick that one for a few reasons:

1. Everyone else on the team I’m joining uses Mac or Windows, and I know how sometimes it’s a pain to ramp people up who have a completely different OS than the rest of the team.
2. I think my productivity will suffer with Pixelbook because I’ve never used one before. On the other hand, I’ve spent years doing development on Mac, so I have a good Mac workflow already.
3. I don’t know what kind of support Pixelbook has for dev work. Like can it run IntelliJ, Sublime, and other dev related tools? I don’t want to use a cloud based IDE. Can it compile C++? I just don’t know if it’s a good dev box and not to mention if it can run other programs like Camtasia which I use a lot to make demo videos of new features that I create for sprint reviews.
4. I asked the team manager about it and they said Pixelbook would be fine and it’s really up to me, but I don’t want to go against the grain from the very beginning of my time at Google.

Which would you pick and why?

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TOP 51 Comments
  • Amazon / Eng
    Ncajfhaohz

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    Ncajfhaohz
    Just get a MacBook Pro . I wish I had problems like you!!
    Aug 26, 2018 1
    • New / IT
      lallu1

      New IT

      PRE
      Startuply
      lallu1
      I wish I could say it like you.
      Feb 20, 2020
  • Google
    s89

    Go to company page Google

    s89
    Laptop doesnt matter a lot. Take any laptop and Linux desktop. That's what most of the folks do. Laptops are just for meetings at least for more than 50% googlers.
    Having said that, u can pick Mac if u want
    Aug 26, 2018 9
  • New
    36dba2

    New

    36dba2
    Do engineers not use ide like intellij and coding is done on web ide?
    Aug 26, 2018 8
    • Google / Eng
      mad👩🏻‍🔬

      Go to company page Google Eng

      mad👩🏻‍🔬
      We have an internal web based IDE that I find works pretty well
      Aug 27, 2018
    • New / Eng
      bx44

      Go to company page New Eng

      PRE
      Parsons Corporation
      bx44
      In my current role we use vim/sublime for our C++. It initially sucked not having the IDE for autocomplete, documentation, etc.. but over time it actually improved my C/C++ by quite a bit.
      Apr 18, 2019
  • This comment was deleted by original commenter.

    • Google / Eng
      BiggusD

      Go to company page Google Eng

      BiggusD
      RAM matters. I was constantly paging disk when I had a MBP with only 16 GB of RAM because Chrome is a fucking hog.
      Aug 26, 2018
  • Hinge / Eng
    YIjR20

    Go to company page Hinge Eng

    YIjR20
    Get the MacBook Pro, 2018 with 32GB of RAM. Keyboard issues are fixed and the extra memory is sweet when you need it.

    Pixelbook isn't capable of handling all development tasks.
    Aug 26, 2018 4