new MBP or Ubuntu Dell?

[AJB88]

About 2.5 years ago my Ubuntu laptop gave up the ghost, a local guy (he actually worked for Pistonheads) was selling a 2010 13" MBP for cheap so thought why not it will tide me over and it has done me very well. I upgraded it to 8GB ram and Samsung SSD.

Just recently its been running a bit pants, despite recently being wiped and re-installed. video's struggling to run and it being a bit sluggish. So I was out in Barcelona today, sat outside lovely breeze, had chrome open with 2 tabs and a .pdf open, no videos etc. Machine is sat at +70 degrees with the fans going hard. It's been doing this a lot recently but put it down to the weather we have had.

It's also now not supported by Apple for OS updates so is "stuck" on High Sierra, combined with it being quite chunky compared to today's models.

The machine isn't used for anything special at all just browsing really, few image edits in Gimp, occasionally taken away with me abroad. I have previously run Ubuntu/SUSE/Linux Mint laptops and also Chromebooks.

So I have been thinking to replace it, I'm not a big Apple user (Most of my stuff is Google such as Pixel XL 2, Chromebase, Google Home), but must admit the MBP has been a dream to use.

Do I;

1. Buy a new 13" MBP (2017 model) which is currently £1,1199 in Currys + £200 cash back for trade in of old device (I am however not sure mine qualifies because they say up to 7 years old and mines 2010)

2. Buy a second hand MBP again and sell mine on (Seem to be going for £200-250), problem is here people are trying to sell 2nd hand ones for £900+

3. Buy a new Dell Ubuntu XPS 13 £1168 at the moment (i5, 8gb ram and 256SSD versus MBP 128SSD)

I was quite tempted by the Ubuntu XPS but, I recently bought a Porsche Cayman S and have COBB Tuning for it, the COBB tuning device requires software to update and its Windows or Apple only. So I would need to run Windows in virtual machine and I'm also not sure how "premium" the XPS will feel.

Thread isn't supposed to turn into a debate over Windows vs Apple or Apple vs Linux.

Edited by AJB88 on Wednesday 19th September 19:48

[AJB88]

GrumpyTwig said:

If you're not opposed to Windows or maybe dual booting the Surface devices look and feel pretty close to Apple build quality, the surface book2 base model matches the Mac you mention in specs and the display is actually even higher resolution.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/surface-book-2/8...

Windows is a no from me, Been a Linux user since 2001 all the way through school, Don't get on at all with mums Windows 10 laptop, I have to use Windows 7 at work but that's the extent of my Windows usage.

Quite easy to switch between Linux and MacOS but Windows is another thing.

In previous years I have bought Windows machines and just installed Linux over it but I really can't be bothered with semi hardware support etc these days hence looking at the Ubuntu edition Dell.

Edited by AJB88 on Wednesday 19th September 21:13

[AJB88]

Is there a sweet spot in terms on MBP? 2015/2016? Ideally I'd like to keep magsafe.

[AJB88]

Yeh I notice there isn't a huge amount of £££ between brand new 2017 and 2015 models. Not interested in the touch bar.

[AJB88]

mikef said:

AJB88 said:

COBB tuning device requires software to update and its Windows or Apple only

ging84 said:

chromebook

Got a Chromebase and Chromebook (with broken screen) they are fine for surfing etc, I did consider the Pixelbook but as said above I actually have software I need to run.

[AJB88]

ging84 said:

You can buy a chromebook and still have more than enough money left over to buy a windows laptop to run your tuning software

I have no idea how the tuning software works, but if it is directly connecting to the car to map I would seriously consider having a dedicated device for it anyway, do you really want to be flashing your car with the same machine you use to watch porn or download random st ?
There is no good time to get crypto locked, but in the middle of flashing your car definitely seem like the worst.

No the flashing device is a separate device that plugs into a MacOS/Windows machine simply to update.

The only Chromebook I would want is the Pixel. I've had others in the past.

[AJB88]

Corso Marche said:

I can recommend the PB alright. It'll do everything you've listed above. Both Android apps and Linux apps run in the regular everyday stable channel.
I do my image editing in Google Photos and Snapseed, but have GiMP installed too as a backup in case I have to do heavy lifting some day.
My PB is now my sole machine for work & home. I did test the Windows version of Office 2016 on the PB in August, Excel and Word worked fine with Crossover. Not sure if your COBB software would, as it may have difficulty communicating with USB addresses etc

You could get a PB, then wipe/refresh the Mac and keep that as a specific machine for your COBB tuning device. It's not worth trying to sell at this point anyway.

Other than that, buy the Dell with Ubuntu, and either run the COBB programme in a VM, or keep the Mac for that specific purpose, as above.

Edited by Corso Marche on Friday 21st September 13:40

Want to try wrap everything up into one device again, a few years ago I had:

Chromebook
Lenovo Linux
HP Windows (for a few bits of car software such as VCDS)

The PB does everything apart from the dedicated COBB software as its MacOS/Windows only. I did ask their development team about Android/Linux support but they said there wasn't a market for it.

[AJB88]

Whats the difference between say a 2017 MBP 13 and 2017 MB 12?

Apart from the screen size, all as I can tell is you get a worse processor? i5 vs duo core, you get the same ram and get a bigger SSD?

all for £100 more?

Edited by AJB88 on Friday 21st September 16:27

[AJB88]

Corso Marche said:

I'd go for the Dell with Ubuntu then. Run COBB in a VM, or even have a Windows partition setup if you preferred to run COBB in a native Windows environment.

Is the Dell machine going to "feel" worth the money being plastic mainly? Been using this 2010 MBP for like 2 years now and it still feels "premium" despite looking a little old now.


Notice they have a sale on right now the 13" with 256gb SSD, 8GB ram and the i7 is below £1000.

Edited by AJB88 on Friday 21st September 18:26

[AJB88]

Depends if I can get Windows to work virtually as I've not had much look in the past of USB support working.

[AJB88]

I'm still 50/50 haha been reading that the XPS is aluminium on the outside? Battery life up to 19 hours? wonder if Ubuntu can manage that?

[AJB88]

Bit the bullet and purchased the XPS 13 Ubuntu with i7.

It's on sale at the moment and also managed to get another 10% off as sister is a student! £854 in total.

Will try to run VM Ware + Windows 10 + COBB accessport as soon as I receive the machine. If it works happy days will flog my 2010 Macbook Pro for what ever I can get for it.

[AJB88]

It finally arrived today!






So yeh it doesn't feel "as" premium as a MBP but it feels pretty good, aluminium on the outside and carbon fibre rubber on the inside. Ubuntu seems to be playing well with it as well. Feels very light compared to the 2010 MBP.

They have left the windows key on the keyboard which is an OCD thing for me haha.

I've got Windows 10 working inside VM Ware Player as well, its a educational version which isn't activated so will probably ditch it for a better version at some point, will test whether the USB support works tomorrow when I'm home.

Edited by AJB88 on Monday 1st October 23:22