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points by agrippanux 2 days ago | 0 comments

Increasingly all I need is a laptop with a big/nice enough screen to ssh into a beefy Linux box to run agents on Herdr.

I think my 48GB 16 inch MBP will last me 15+ years at this point.

I've just transitioned to the same setup a week ago - that's why I'm considering Air as the next upgrade, given the better portability.

One thing that bugs me mentally is leaving that machine pending on my input ("wasted") overnight etc... I'd like to arrive at a workflow where I can have agents running toward the overall goal autonomously overnight as much as they can, and I can review and iterate and "engineer" parts that need it afterwards...

For now, I still guide implementation very closely, piece by piece. Has anyone had any good experiences with workflows / skills / similar for that?

[–] krzs9 1 day ago

I have a Hetzner box that costs about 10$ a month - I use that as my always-on box. I use Pi as my harness and they run in herdr. I can then from my Mac (bottom of the line macbook air - next laptop will be a Neo) ssh to the box and control my agents. I can also ssh into the box from my iPhone (using Termius) and continue seamlessly from there too.

[–] Schiendelman 1 day ago

I haven't had good outcomes from letting the agent decide what to do, but if you spend time deciding what tasks to add to your backlog, then how to accomplish those tasks, when you're awake, you can end up with five or six or more projects to let your agent do overnight. planning when you're awake, execution when you're not.

[–] justinram11 2 days ago

Have the same setup -- got a good black friday deal last year on an AMD 395+ w/ 128gb of RAM. Still not super bullish on running AI models on it, but it makes a great dev server anyway.

Actually had claude spin up a kanban board to manage my tasks in a 'TODO -> Plan -> Implement -> Review -> QA -> Shipping -> Done' flow (with a worktree for each task) that works great!

[–] bdcravens 2 days ago

Did the same. Took a week or so to get used to the workflow after doing dev locally my entire career, but now I'm certain it's the best way to work. Even better is using a few scripts to simplify things like opening in VS Code (instead of `code folder-name` I run `codeon repo-name` from my local machine).

I did actually get a new M5 Pro/48GB machine last month, but that's only because I bought my work machine to keep my personal and professional lives properly separated; otherwise I wasn't seeing any issue running that M3 Max/36GB for a long time further.

[–] wffurr 1 day ago

> all I need is a laptop with a big/nice enough screen to ssh

> 48GB 16 inch MBP

That's wicked overkill for ssh + browser. A 15" MacBook Air would work for this really nicely. This is how I use my 13" Air, and for the big screen I dock it at a desk.

I wish they could bring back the 11" Air or 12" MacBook and trim the bezels for something like this. It would be an amazingly portable computer. The 11" iPad Pro with keyboard case is almost this, but you're stuck with iOS and it's actually pretty thick and heavy compared to a MacBook.

[–] tedd4u 2 days ago

If that continues to be the case, next time you can "downgrade" to the MacBook Air. Even today you can get one with 32GB RAM, so when you're in the market I'm sure more will be available. They are quite thin and light compared to the MBPs.

[–] mrheosuper 2 days ago

The screen on MB Air can not compete with the one on MB pro.

[–] 00deadbeef 2 days ago

Yep, that's why this M6 Pro and its ancestors probably exists. It's for people whose work can run on MacBook Air specs but with the superior screen, battery, speakers, and ports.

[–] code_duck 1 day ago

MBPs also have a fan, so they’re less prone to thermal throttling causing performance degradation.

[–] trostaft 1 day ago

Well, if the thesis is that we're running the heavy work on a remote server that's less of an issue.

[–] tedd4u 1 day ago

True. I still think it is good. My dream is for 120Hz on a future Air model. I took it as a positive sign they brought 120Hz to the non-Pro iPhones with the models last year. I can dream, I guess. And yes, I know MBP screen has benefits other than the refresh rate.

[–] system2 2 days ago

That's exactly what I am doing. I have a Dell R740 with 96 cores and 512 GB of RAM, and RAID 10 with 16 SSDs. All of my machines connect to it via Tailscale.

[–] bdcravens 2 days ago

and I thought I was doing something special with my little GMKTec 32GB machine I use for a dev server haha

[–] trostaft 1 day ago

There's (at least) 2 of us! Well, mine is a little minisforum unit, but the idea is all the same.

[–] kirubakaran 2 days ago

I have a similar setup! I use a Dell R820 though, with 1.5TB of RAM and NVMe ;)

[–] jerieljan 2 days ago

Hah, I agree. As soon as I can figure out how to replace batteries myself, I'd also be happily doing the same thing with mine.

[–] so-gala-massey 2 days ago

The main problem is Apple killing support for very old models.

[–] Schiendelman 1 day ago

Don't they have pretty much the best track record of any manufacturer in the last decade?

[–] so-gala-massey 1 day ago

No. They publish a list of products that are no longer supported but you have to dig it out, they are shady about it.

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/14/apple-three-more-obsole...

https://uptradeit.com/blog/what-macbooks-will-stop-working

https://www.macworld.com/article/673939/this-is-how-long-mac...

Microsoft is known for supporting ancient hardware. Not Apple.

[–] Schiendelman 1 day ago

I'm not sure I understand - it's been here for years: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102772

Support for security updates appears to be years longer than Microsoft.

[–] so-gala-massey 1 day ago

Are we talking about different things? I meant os/security updates. I think you mean hardware?

[–] Schiendelman 19 hours ago

You posted lists of hardware, saying Apple hid that list. I showed you they do not.

I added on that they ship security updates much longer than Microsoft (well, for consumer). I've worked on the tech side for both companies - I'm painfully aware of the work both do to keep old OSs running.