Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

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Not only does apple not care about sophisticated, or "power" users, it's becoming more and more clear that there are not many sophisticated users within apple itself.

Let's take multiple monitor support as an example - something that vacillates between barely working and a dumpster fire, depending on the release of OSX. Aren't there people within apple that need three screens ? Aren't there power users within apple that demand this functionality ? We are left to conclude that zero, or almost zero, people inside of apple are using this kind of configuration[1] - otherwise there is no way it would be allowed this kind of dysfunction.

Some other things that we are forced to conclude nobody at apple does:

- use USB cellular modems/dongles

- tile windows to hide unnecessary desktop

- primarily mouse-free usage

- move files in the finder with 'cut'

- use the god damned escape key, for the love of christ

We all knew this was coming - the day that Apple "mac pro'd" the rest of the lineup. We got a sneak peak with the 12" macbook. Now the other shoe drops.

[1] For instance, this relatively boring use-case: three primary screens on a desktop and a large flat panel connected as a secondary display. Kind of sort of works in snow leopard. Various, random dysfunction in each release of OSX thereafter.

What's wrong with Apple's multi-monitor support? At least mixed-DPI configurations have worked fine on Mac for years, unlike with Windows.

Also: (1) USB tethering to an iPhone is just about the easiest cellular solution there is; (2) Google "Divvy"; (3) a big draw of the touchpad is that mousing doesn't take your hands that far off the keyboard; (4) real men and women use Terminal for file management.

"What's wrong with Apple's multi-monitor support?"

One thing immediately comes to mind: configure a multiple (3 or 4) monitor setup (again, not exactly exotic) and then full screen a video in one of the monitors ... now change focus to a different window in a different physical screen. Fun ensues. Different fun, depending on OSX release.

USB or bluetooth tethering is great - I'd prefer to use that always - but some use-cases demand a physical thing stuck into the laptop and the plain old USB A-type is flexibility I don't like to see deprecated. I'll gladly take 1mm additional laptop thickness in order to retain those and I think the 11" macbook air, with one type-A on each side, is a pretty powerful swiss army knife.

Is this including the mac itself (so 2 external screens)? Because I have that setup at work with a mid-2014 Macbook Pro and with the last 3 versions of OS X and everything works fine - video fullscreen while browsing on another screen is not a problem.

I'm not sure why you indicate 3-4 monitors is not exactly exotic. Pretty sure its the 1% or less. Wouldn't that be the definition of exotic?

Wait'll you see what happens when you rotate them!

We are living in a bubble, our use case is not even remotely close to the average or above average use case. Looking at the data broadly, this barely registers as a 'thing'.

Spoken as a multi monitor user too.

1 external monitor: for me, it hard locks 10.10 regularly -- no core, nothing in console, just hard lock. This was on completely stock brand new macbook pros.

2 external monitors: even worse. I quit trying.

btw, I love divvy [1] (best $13 I've spent in years). For those who don't know, it allows keyboard chords to move windows. Unfortunately, it doesn't have good multi-monitor support -- it moves windows only within they monitor they are on. That said, it's crucial for good typists. A typical use case: code in one window, docs in another. Use the keyboard to increase the size of the docs window so you can read it better, then shrink it back and put it back into the lower right corner of your monitor. It's awesome.

[1] http://mizage.com/divvy/

For the hard lock issue, check to see if the cpu is grinding to 200%+ utilization, especially spending most of the cpu on the kernel_task process. If it is, see if [1] will help. The tl;dr of that page is when the Mac laptops sense a high temperature, the quick and dirty fix Apple has in place is push kernel_task to eat up as much cpu as possible to slow down everything else enough to cool down the laptop.

I pointed my room air conditioner's vent directly against the bottom of my Mac laptop, and it happily drives my external monitors. Enclosure Bottomside temperature reads 18-20 degrees C, and CPU A Temperature Diode reads 60 degrees C while I'm cooling my laptop like this.

I agree with the great-grandparent's sentiment that the product polish for high-end Apple laptop products is definitely gone. It isn't that no one within Apple is unaware of these issues, it is too few are in a position to take actionable measures about these issues. The margin between picking a MacBook Pro and a high-end Dell/HP/Lenovo/System76 is as slim to me as back during the latter stages of the PowerBook days, the last time I switched back to non-Apple laptops for a few years.

Product marketing-wise, Cook is in a tough position that I don't envy. Apple is so big right now that every product revision has to support that "big", "successful" narrative, and he's getting painted into a corner to not jeopardize that story. This pushes severe compromises into product design decisions to go after the bulk of that bigness, and niches like influencer demographics get squashed in the process.

[1] http://www.rdoxenham.com/?p=259&cpage=2

> move files in the finder with 'cut'

You can actually do this. Cmd + C to copy the file, then Cmd + Option + V to paste it and delete the original.

You know what's better for 'move a file' than 'normal shortcut for copying something + brand new unique shortcut for paste-and-delete-original'? Cut and Paste. Using the same shortcuts as every other piece of software. Why, on earth, can't we just have that?

Courage.

"Cut" and "paste" is a bad abstraction for moving a file. When you "cut" text and then don't "paste" it's the same as deleting the text. You don't want that for files (it would be too easy to accidentally delete the file). In fact, Windows doesn't work that way--if you fail to paste, the original file will remain in its original location.

Apple's abstraction is more honest to what is actually happening.

Why is accidentally deleting a file worse than accidentally deleting text? Some files, sure, but there should be safeguards about deleting those files anyway. Plus backups, always backups.

In truth, I don't think many people are accidentally hitting that shortcut that often. And, if they are, so long as there's an action analogous to undo'ing a textual cut/copy/paste, it shouldn't be a problem.

That's purity getting in the way of practicality. Non-destructive cut with text isn't unfamiliar to anyone who has used a spreadsheet, so use that abstraction with files(like windows does).

seems to me Apple's implementation is just lazy...

sent from my macbook

> multiple monitor support vacillates between barely working and a dumpster fire

This. Earlier this month, I tweeted that "I threw out my hardware RNG, since #macOS's window placement behavior turned out to produce better randomness."

vim users (and I am one!) ^[ strictly dominates escape: it doesn't force you to move your left hand up or rotate at the wrist. Does emacs use escape? What else does?

Also, remap that fat caps lock key to control.

I really hate using esc in its default position so I always map caps lock to esc. Mapping caps lock to ctrl seems so much more useful; I had no idea ^[ is the same thing.

> strictly dominates escape

For some I suppose. Many of us like using escape :)

I agree. For the first time in many years I'm going to be going back to Microsoft for my computers. The surface book seemed to expensive but then I realized that 1 surface book takes the role of a macbook pro + ipad pro.

Except you cannot detach the screen for the main computer. So not exactly like the iPad pro. (not trying to defend Apple).

I'm not going back to microsoft - I'm just going to buy a spare 11" macbook air and move sideways to that when this one wears out.

Previous all-aluminum macbook airs have lasted me 6 years, so I have a long ways to go before needing to switch ...

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