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Hacker News,

What is your setup (hardware, software) and your workflow? If you had to give an elevator pitch - explain why is it the best for you and how it helps you be productive / achieve your goals?

In the title. I have a 11" 2011 MacBook Air (which I feel is one of my best consumer decisions to date, and isn't going anywhere) but I'm looking to purchase a cheap laptop that I can just run into the ground. It should be compatible with Linux/BSD out of the box. That means integrated graphics and solid network interface cards. What are my options?

Edit: Battery life is not an issue. I am tempted by a cheap desktop, but I hate the idea of having cables everywhere and a great big stinking tower under my desk.

I assume that most readers on Hacker News spent most of their daylight hours (at least Monday to Friday) in front of a computer. Do you try to avoid using your computer outside of working hours, and if so, how do you prevent yourself from wasting hours on Facebook/Twitter/HackerNews/YouTube etc..

In my experience as a web developer for the past year, it seems that many clients are shocked by the price for a website where they want specific functionality created just for their business. Why is this?

I've been writing Java for two years now, and one thing I see a lot is people comparing Java to C++, but not for the language features, standard library or syntax, but speed.

Surely these two languages can't be compared? Java is a much higher level language than C++. It is interpreted at run time (byte code) rather than compiled. Should people not be making comparisons to C# or other similar languages?

How can you estimate time for something you've never done before? It could be a feature you've never written before or one which you are not sure is even possible?