HP: the pros are moving from Mac to Z | Hacker News Reader

HP: the pros are moving from Mac to Z

www8.hp.com

This quote doesn't inspire so much confidence:

“The thing we were terrified about when switching over to PC’s, was learning Windows, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought, especially because we spend the majority of our time in Adobe® Premier Pro and the interface is exactly the same.”

That actual inspires confidence for me. I expect the opposite -- for HP's marketing people to scrub out anything that isn't positive, and the fact that they're being honest here is refreshing.

The decades of Apple Marketing on the disaster of the Windows UI is seriously the biggest barrier for these people.

I do some sub-contracting on Video projects (My expertise is audio) and the "creative crowd" since the 1990s has made Apple apart of their identity. Most shops were Windows shops till mid 2000s to Final Cut. Now most shops are again Adobe shops and many are switching back to Windows and it really is a weird identity crisis for many of them. Also then hate how excited I get when I see non-Apple tech replacing their machines.

You're right but there's also truth to what you quoted. I switched to Windows 10 earlier this year and before doing so I had concerns about privacy issues, malware, and the half-baked UI. The following three solutions somewhat addressed the privacy and malware concerns:

* https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

* https://www.malwarebytes.com/antimalware/

* https://www.glasswire.com/

I use Wox [1] as an Alfred replacement so most of my interactions with applications is via that. Other than that most of my time is spent in tiled browser windows, editors or IDEs, and terminals so I could really be using any OS. I wouldn't say it's perfect but using OS X and then Arch involved different compromises.

[1] https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox/

Thanks for these. You wouldn't happen to know of a decent windows terminal app, would you? I'm using ConEmu and man alive does it suck.

Mintty is the best one I've come across. It even works with WSL https://github.com/mintty/wsltty

Awesome. You, sir, are my hero.

You're very welcome :) And here's my ~/.minttyrc with, IMO, a better version of Solarized Dark compared to what I found in search results:

https://www.pastery.net/ujprbd/

it does because it sounds like it's actually a real quote and it is relevant to people switching

Why was this flagged? I don't understand why it was submitted in the first place, so I did not upvote it.

However it is no different than submitting new MacBook Pro page. It is OK if it would not gain upvotes, but flagging seems out of place.

Is flagging used instead of non-existing downvoting?

I don't understand why it was flagged either.

I submitted because I though it was interesting, of course. No affiliation with HP.

If HP really wants to attract Mac users they need to do a much better job of marketing than this.

There's so many things wrong with the web site, they don't seem to get it.

They also have a long way to go in instilling trust. Their decades of abuse of customers using their printers shows they are very happy to throw customers under the bus (intentionally preventing printers from printing). I just don't see any reason to buy from a company that has such a long (and intact currently) history of such customer abuse.

I don't know what abuse they will foist on laptop purchases but given their company culture I figure it isn't smart to trust them to prioritize customer interests.

"Available with 128GB DIMMs. Expected availability late 2015"

Typo or haven't updated the site since last year?

I'm a little surprised that the main website of a major computer manufacturer can't handle the hits generated by a tech-based social network like HN.

I'm always reminded of scenes in the west wing where they argue about "naming your opponent", and how it gives them extra publicity and recognition.

I've seen a whole heap of microsoft etc saying "My Mac couldn't do that" or "I switched from a mac". It feels like a bad strategy to give apple that much air time in your ads.

They do get some points for misleading product comparison. On the page they use the "starting at" price and then specify the max specs that you can customize to. Not the specs related to that price.

So we upvote ads on HN now?

Haven't we always? Just because the ad isn't served from apple.com doesn't change things much.

That said I suspect many upvotes-before-read here, as the site is horrible. The "move away from Mac" sentiment seems to pick up on some popularity here recently.

While I had the same initial reaction, I think it's a fair conversation starter on how competitors are responding to Apple's offerings.

Like every Apple Ad I mean "event" of Apple?

Meh. Personally, for desktops/workstations, the best part is spec'ing out the components and building it myself.

I get it, it's not for everybody, but at least for performance-oriented software devs, in my opinion it's worth knowing how the "nuts and bolts" fit together. At the least, having a basic understanding of computer engineering helps you know where to best spend your money, even if you let an OEM handle the compatibility/reliability/assembly/testing issues.

It's the compatibility issues that stop me from doing that anymore. I don't have time for a video card / motherboard combo that lock up intermittently once every 2 days. I'd rather just buy a decent workstation or laptop.

These days the big names make both (Asus, MSI), so that's one way to reduce nightmares, but yea, I hear you.

I hate to say it, but HP has been reduced to a punchline in pretty much every space they used to be respected in. I wish that they would just let the brand die and rest in peace.

If only they had sent the HP name with Agilent and kept the Compaq name for printers and mediocre PCs.

I'm all about considering alternatives when it comes time to replace my MacPro, but HP probably isn't going to be one of them. A colleague ordered a couple of attractively priced HP pre-built systems (not the 'workstations' though) within the last year and the ordering and fulfillment process was as byzantine as you would expect from HP. What advantage does HP have over any other prebuilt PC system? (Perhaps the awesome website for downloading drivers...)

Sad. I can remember 20 years ago when I was a SysAdmin lusting after HP machines because they were built better than anything else, the quality of the case and components was unquestionably superior.

Would like to see a Surface workstation (basically, beefy GPUs and CPUs and proper industrial design) but realistically the market's too small.

I moved to Z...400 (6-year-old refurb), running fedora, haha.

So for $2700 you get a computer that doesn't even have an SSD but comes with a 7200 rpm SATA drive

if other than mac, I has a solid trackpad like apple's. Then I switch right away. Anyone recommend something good? Thanks

Not likely - I clicked "How to buy" and got lost in a gallery of all kinds of machines, with no trace of the Z...

EDIT: found it out, but what a way to divide your conversion rate!

Sadly, this happens too often on various things - in 50% of time I don't end up buying the thing because I don't know where to checkout. It should be easier for me to spend money, I guess.

I really hate these sites that totally break on mobile. In safari it just shows boilerplate. Ugh.

You're probably not a pro. Pros read the site on Z.

It also mentions Windows 8.

Thick, plastic, and ugly. Something tells me the technical merits won't mean a thing for many creatives if it means being seen in public with these turds.

Why post some advertisement?

That said, how is the Linux compatibility?

I use a Dell Latitude for laptop and generally get no name PCs for desktops (built by some local company that know what they do.) Why would I want to go Z?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com