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Full sun and sunglasses? There’s no way the guy on the left can see shit on his screen.
It’s because you’re a mouseclicker. I code for a living, i do everything in the cli, all i need to do to work on a sunny beach is increase the text size and invert the colors
I work outside all the time. It’s great. Use my laptop on the screened in porch. In the shade. Ceiling fan on. Maybe in the hammock. Doing whatever I want on the laptop while jiggler keeps my work laptop active in another room.
For those who can’t install much on their work laptop: just open notepad and put a weight on the space bar
Bonus point: you can see how long you’ve been away by looking at the character count, and try to beat high scores on slow days
I love sitting in my hammock or on a zero-gravity chair with my laptop on work days I don’t need 2 monitors.
I remember in ~2000 someone was in the parking lot of my office at a picnic table on their laptop and people commented how “cool” that was.
I’ve noticed since then that IT people qualify anything that drives work into personal spaces as “cool”.
2012: Wow, you can hot spot to your blackberry and connect your laptop to the Internet from the ferry, when you used to just let the wind ruffle your hair during your commute? “Cool.”
2026: Wow AI can write 78% of your code so you can produce twice as much shitty code while you spend even more time at your desk then you used to, for less money? “Cool.”
laptop outside is fine but on the beach? why don’t you pour the sand in manually at home?
That glare makes it impossible to see too
My boss gave me a RTO, so I retired. Union Yes, Baby!
This only works, if your job is sitting and waiting for other people to do the work.
Or making PowerPoint slides full of LinkedIn lunatic lingo.
I feel like we could double click on that statement and go granular!
Let me just do a quick recap here so we’re all on the same page.
I feel fully aligned.
Great! Now let’s leverage the key learnings into a win win scenario.
Even if you have a high nits screen that laptop is gonna run hot in direct sunlight. Screens don’t exactly like that. Especially something like an OLED. It will degrade the screen faster.
Screens degrade? I’ve been using the same one for 10+ years and I bought it used for $20.
Yeah they degrade. Tech has improved a lot and they don’t degrade as fast as screens from the 2000’s but they still degrade. OLED more so than LCD. But if they degrade gradually and evenly you won’t really notice.
Note this doesn’t really happen to CRTs. Look I just want a modern CRT monitor.
Also doesn’t really happen to LCDs. It depends on the liquid crystal alignment technology to a degree and the backlight, but realistically, an LCD will not fail without operator error.
I’m dark mode all the way… except in direct sunlight.
Working outside can be fun. At least AS long AS you dont need that good of an internet connection, have a comfy place to sit in and are at a somewhat dark spot, so you can still see on your screen.
If and only if these three things are all given, than it can be quite nice to work outside.
Exactly, I used to hike to the top of a mountain find a shady spot and work till my battery died then hike back down.
Couldn’t agree more. Some of my best work and learning recently has been me on my back porch under shade with a box fan. While I have solid WiFi and power there, I also pack a portable monitor and can work without internet on much of what I do.
My mobile tethering is so good that I’ll usually do it even if I have access to WiFi. It’s just faster and more reliable. I could probably get insane speeds on the beach too.
If the sun is not out and it’s not too windy/cold it can be okay sometimes
Also, if you take any meetings, it needs to be quiet enough to communicate but also not disruptive to others if you’re taking loudly.
There are some very decent outside-internet solutions. I have one of those solutions at home and it’s a joy to work outside.
WiFi mesh networks can have impressive range outdoors, without walls and reflections blocking the wifis. And they can be powered by PoE (Power over Ethernet) so you only need to run 1 cable to hook it up.
But for most of my work, a cellphone hotspot is suitable, so long as it’s not so remote that I don’t get at least a strong 4G signal. Video conferencing isn’t very data intensive with compression and, if I’m not running the meeting, slight spottiness is fine.
Working outside your home is nice. But I think a lot of these comments are talking about working outside in public is a whole other problem.
A coworker of mine specifically built a little gazebo on their deck to be a summer-office. They wired a little wifi repeater in the roof, retractable shades and curtains, a ceiling fan, and got a desk that specifically fits a comfy deck chair. Obviously all of this can be moved out of the way for normal back yard stuff, but it’s become the absolute envy of all my remote colleagues.
The dark spot also avoids overheating
So it’s good if you are close to your router, have a comfortable chair, and have so much shade you’re basically indoors.
So if I just open a window in my office…
I get what you’re saying and acknowledge that that’s the best environment for some people, but for me there’s a different feel in being in your office and being on the back porch or out in the garage with the door open.
The fresh air, mild distractions on an easy day, and more natural light make me feel good. I think the beach would be a fucking nightmare for me. Same for things like a coffee shop. But if I’m in at least a semi private space and it’s not a balls to the wall day, I’ll take not being chained to the desk every time it’s practical.
The dark spot is only an issue if you’re using a laptop or something. Pen and a pad of paper is fine outside. Loose stacks of paper is obviously not ideal.
Unfortunately, most of us need to work using screens these days. I have hope for the future with these smart AR glasses. With the screen on the glasses, it shouldn’t be a problem to use them in bright light. And, feeling the sun on your skin is one of the best parts about being outside when the weather is good.
No, because then I want to do stuff that is not sitting with my laptop outside. If the weather is nice, I’d much rather play with my dog, climb a tree, or roll around in mud. Why’d I want to sit and do PR reviews?
It’s the brightness and lack of cooling with my M2 MacBook Air. I have that, my iPhone, and my Galaxy S10. I’m on Lemmy on the S10. Even that isn’t as bright as my iPhone, but the typing is ten billion percent better.
If I’m ever envious of someone doing work in places where they should be relaxing, please kill me.
You must be someone who hates working from home, because home is the place where we should all feel relaxed, right? What about working in the garden? The garden is certainly a relaxation spot, but god forbid you get some rays of sunshine while you work.
I understand the desire to pity people who work at the beach. But then again, I pity anyone who ended up living near Silicon Valley. Think of all the money though!
That’s one extreme way to take the comment, I guess. I worked from home for a while and I think these return to office orders are stupid as hell, largely because going to the office needs unpaid commuting time, annoyances related to needing to bring a lunch, and it takes away your ability to do small chores and stuff during the work day that might be often impossible during the evening for one reason or another.
Look, if you want to work at the beach or whatever then go for it, but the idea that California is the “envy of nations” because people can do labour at a beach is insanity.
I spent all my childhood life growing up on a dairy farm. Worked from home, got to do various types of exciting manual labor and operate somewhat dangerous machinery, AND I got to work outside no matter the weather.
So suck on that California. You ain’t that special.
Gotta turn the brightness all the way up so you squint at your laptop for about an hour before it dies and you have a tension headache.
Not if you’re using a macbook…
they got e-ink screens now?
What does an eink screen have to do with anything? I work outside in a hammock during the summer on my mac and never have to bring it in to charge once, unless I forgot to the day before. That’s with running heavy applications like Jetbrains IDEs or Lightroom.
Laptops and screens can be pretty efficient. I got a pretty cheap run of the mill one (Arch btw) that easily does >8 hours at full blast HDR and no power saving.
I gotta add to this the app Brightintosh. It kicks up the screen brightness to the actual max brightness of the screen so a good 2x brighter. Major dif using in bright environments, less screen life and color accuracy theoretically
I use a MacBook Pro M4 from work, and the battery does last.
It’s also amazing that Apple Silicon can have similar power to a desktop RTX 5070 Ti in a laptop, except without a space heater PSU or a 16GB RAM limitation. If only it didn’t cost $4k and only have one Linux distro option. I’m hoping AMD RDNA 5 SoCs will be competitive and address both limitations.
What does that have to do with seeing the screen outdoors, and tension headaches?
I exaggerated the 1h battery life in my original post for comic effect. This person replied saying that’s not the case with a MacBook. I replied expressing my approval for MacBooks and couldn’t help but also going off on a tangent to express my other thoughts on the topic.
Oh, whoops, I didn’t look at names. Nevermind.
lol macs have the glossiest screens out there, almost like they make it a mirror on purpose
2022 brought one of the best screens for outdoor work… for a price, but of course
…why?
Cause mac laptops last like two days on a charge? If they lasted an hour people would return them. They’re not fucking dells.
Being on your laptop
outsideis a miserable experienceftfy
As a lifelong desktop PC user, laptops just feel claustrophobic 😅 Especially sucks without a mouse, fuck the trackpad.
I think it’s an excellent compromise for being a portable PC. If I’m going to university, to a study space or a lecture, a laptop is freaking fantastic.
Also all laptops universally have one killer feature that nearly no desktop PC has: a built-in UPS. If power goes out, the laptop just keeps chugging along on battery power, giving you an extra few hours of work.
It’s not my workstation of choice by any means, but I wouldn’t call it miserable. It’s fine.
Yeah, i have no idea how all those people are doing their work. I need a big monitor or two, a good keyboard and a nice mouse!
My partner is a psycho who does like 90% of her graphic design work on a 13" macbook air using only trackpad
As a graphic designer I need to ask what the fuck.
I never use drawing tablets, honestly, but I do need a real mouse.
Yeah, i mean she uses a tablet when doing the actual creating part, but mostly the job these days is moving assets around to fit the necessary sizes for different social media. I still don’t understand how someone can stand to do that using a trackpad, but she’s good at what she does so 🤷♂️
Don’t fall asleep.
Did you just mix up Michael Myers, Candyman, and the Blair Witch?
i use the keyboard nipple myself
haha I always heard of that being referred to as the “clit” :D But haven’t used one in 20 years or so, I don’t see them on modern laptops.
the think pads still have an
Hell yeah another clit stick user, there are dozens of us!
As a graphic designer, I’d quit being a graphic designer if laptop+trackpad was my only option D:
My partner used to do design on her laptop on the sofa with a graphic tablet. Inconceivable for me .
Dude I know these people. My brain explodes at how inefficient they must be.
Sometimes I forget not everyone is computer literate and so fast that their work laptop can’t keep up with them
i have no idea how all those people are doing their work.
like people in cafes “working”.
and what screen is visible on a sunny day outside.
I was thinking that too, just looking at the image is giving me a headache imagining squinting at your screen notched up to full blast and still dim, through your sunglasses.
What in the stock image hell is this. Lmao
Plug in mouse. If you need to, pllug laptop into external monitor(s)/TV
Bro, people today prefer trackpad. Its fucking mindblowing. Ive met several IRL people that love trackpads and don’t own a mouse.
I almost guarantee I’m 10x faster at anything on a PC than them
I’ve stopped caring about being fast. In fact I’m certain my current setup is slower, more comfortable, and funner than any I’ve enjoyed before.
If you feel good and you’re enjoying your setup then that’s what matters.
Yes totally . i can see trackpad bring good if you have some wrist issues. I do have wrist issues but a trackpad makes it worse for me
Same. I go between keyboard, trackball, trackpad, touch screen, and mouse. Whichever is lowest resistance.
I have fond memories of my Macbook Pro’s touchpad. That was over a decade ago, I still haven’t found a comparable experience.
Genuinely, Mac’s track pads are amazing. Which is hilarious because their mouses are so bad. I don’t know how they messed up a mouse so much while mastering the track pad so well.
Framework laptop 13 feels pretty close
Nope, I’ve got one
I prefer a trackpad while I work, and the reason is simple: Much less movement to switch from trackpad to keyboard than from mouse to keyboard. And much easier to land on the key you want without looking.
And I very much doubt you’d be faster than me with a mouse!
Trackpads give me handcramps very fast. Also if Trackpads were faster, gamers would use them.
A gamer does not need to switch from the mouse to the keyboard repeatedly. Plus, a gamer cares about precision, which obviously a trackpad lacks.
“Faster” standalone means nothing. Can you move the pointer faster with a mouse? Of course. But I don’t see most people flicking on their workstation.
In the context of this thread, “faster” refers to completing your tasks faster. And for that a trackpad beats a mouse if your job requires you to type a lot.
Makes sense!
The point of trackpads (and even more so of trackpoints) is that they’re faster to get to from typing position - you move your hand back a bit (or even just the index finger) instead of moving across the whole keyboard. That’s not something that would go high on the checklist when gaming - it’s usually one hand planted on WASD, the other on the mouse and hardly any going back and forth.
You’re assuming these people are doing something useful, they could be dealing with Microslop licensing as their full time job. Which is definitely a full time job, its just not useful work in the broader sense.
Ha, true
I don’t own a mouse. I like the trackpad because I’m left handed and a mouse always felt weird to me left handed because schools in the 90s forced me to use it right handed.
So, uhh, are you good and comfortable at using the mouse with your right hand? If so you have no reason to use your left. I have a left-handed friend who has always exclusivity used his right for the mouse. Ain’t no law saying your mouse hand must be your writing hand. Not to mention the benefits: it’s the default setting on any system, and there are lots of great quality asymmetric mouses that only fit the right hand.
I’m not trying to change you, by all means if you like the trackpad more power to you. Just curious why you’d try to mouse with your left if you’ve already learned to use it with your right.
I am comfortable with it in my right hand but I have a tendency to click the buttons backwards. Trackpad is easier one finger left click 2 finger right click just seems more intuitive.
I work on industrial production lines. I’ve gotten used enough to laptops that I don’t mind too much.
Work from home on my 34" curved screen + 27" flat is amazing tho.
Curved screens look appealing (I imagine also good for gaming), but I don’t think I’d want to try them for work as a graphic designer. I need straight lines to look straight :)
It’s not like it’s curved upwards
I use a tiling window manager and copious number of workspaces. It helps with the feeling of claustrophobia if anything can be easily full-screened and swapped around easily.
A 64" monitor with floating windows now feels clunky to me compared to a 15" screen with tiling set up like I like it
Unfortunately I like Plasma very much
I love the customization, but would find it difficult to really dig into work with it
But I’m happy if it works for you
I do most things on my laptop mouseless, or that is, trackpadless. It’s the best feeling ever. I seriously recommend it to anyone.
wait how does that work, keyboard-only?
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a “port” that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
I tend to vacillate myself depending on the noise of the environment vs the work at hand. If I need to spread out across a few monitors, dock it. If I just need to do some simple paperwork, portable. If I want to force no distractions, portable (as it is more difficult to see things when your screen real estate is reduced.)
Helps if you have good eyesight too, laptop UIs today are at clown magnification levels anymore.
But my laptop doesn’t have a PS/2 port :(
It’s kind of clunky, but Radio Shack has a Serial to PS/2 adaptor.
The Radio Shack by me has been closed for remodeling for a few years, though. Maybe you’d have better luck at Circuit City?
Amazingly, there is this nifty thing called a “port” that allows a mouse to be plugged into a laptop. It is pretty incredible technology. /s
Yes, I meant that it’s even worse when there’s no mouse plugged in, but I guess my phrasing wasn’t clear :)
I can’t work on a big screen. I’m thriving on my laptop with my 3x3 virtual desktop grid, though.
Well, these guys aren’t working, as far as I’m concerned, if they can do it without bringing out a mouse and real keyboard and probably a second monitor. (My laptop bag is pretty heavy.) They can at best be checking emails.
Agreed.
If you can do your work on a 13" laptop with no mouse or external monitor without your productivity dropping off a cliff, you were never productive to begin with.
I disagree on the external monitor, not everyone need one or they are just used to using it, also how the OS is scaled matter too
Yeah, tbh I’m fine working as a graphic designer on my single 24-inch screen, not sure what I’d put on another one.
Though I imagine it might be useful when gaming to put a guide or spreadsheet on a smaller, vertical screen.
For real, not having the mouse slows you down big time, even though I’m more or less skilled at keyboard shortcuts
I’m the opposite and am most comfortable on a laptop. I suppose part of it is that I’m near-sighted, but only bother wearing my glasses when I’m driving. Putting on glasses to see a monitor isn’t ideal. I also seem to concentrate better in a reclined position. I’ve spent so much time using trackpads that using a mouse doesn’t make much difference. Switching between windows on a single screen also doesn’t bother me.
I have a monstrous satellite l300 i use for light spec work and arduino programming. 17" screen. It does not feel claustrophobic in the slightest, unlike my latest gen dell work machine with a screen smaller than my first fucking 486 i need glasses to even see. where did we go so wrong.
