Yeah, you aren't the only one. They are seriously throwing away all the goodwill and reputation they'd built up over the past 20 years, over features no one is asking for like the touch bar and a ridiculously short key throw.
I have a 2017 and use it mostly with an eternal keyboard and monitors but I am shocked when I use the built in keyboard. It is really bad to type on -- all for what? A few fractions of an inch in thickness?
I had a first gen MacBook 12 and was ok with the horrible keyboard given its purpose of maximum portability. But on a desktop replacement / primary machine? What the hell were they thinking?
On this keyboard, 50% of the time when I type a single quote I hit the return key. Makes programming comically bad. It's just a couple of steps off typing on a touch screen at this point. (Which, I fear, is their endgame.)
Other joys of my 2017 (15, maxed out except for the absurdly expensive second TB of SSD):
1. (Un)plugging external monitors will crash the window server
2. Kernel panics -- usually related to IB in Xcode.
3. Unresponsive power key
4. Fingerprint reader that fails without any feedback
5. Serious hacking required to run external monitors in HiDPI mode
6. No more touch typing for the media keys, escape key
I'm professionally tied into the Apple ecosystem to a degree that it would be hard for me to leave, but I'm really unhappy with Apple these days. They seem to live in a fantasy world of unnecessary aesthetic goals and are alienating the small but extremely vocal community that have championed their products.
- Rock solid stability, uptimes of months (until I reboot to upgrade the kernel). I've never had a kernel panic in over a decade of use.
- No problems with WiFi, sleep, printing or monitor hotplugging (dual wide-screen, displayport MST).
Linux is tweaked, optimised and hardened by so many people and organisations, it is seriously fast and robust. The various desktop GUIs available have also matured a lot over the last ten years.
For any developer of server-side software (which likely runs on Linux), it simply makes more sense to develop on a Linux desktop.
You need to give Linux distros a few months to become mature enough to run flawlessly on newer hardware. I recall having displayport issues when I installed Fedora 22. Aside from that case, I can't remember the last time I've had issues.
I’ll even go so far as to say that I don’t mind the Touch Bar. But I rarely used media / fn keys to begin with and use C-[ for ESC where I can (e.g, vim). Often when I do use the Touch Bar it is to perform an action that replaces mouse / keyboard gestures (a plus, for me). Do not get me wrong though, the Touch Bar also displays a lot of useless information.
I’m not sure if I’d want fn keys on my next laptop (a fair number of my desktop keyboards don’t even have them), but realize other people’s workflows likely utilize them more.
What I would love is a modern, low profile, programmable mechanical keyboard though!
As a graphic designer, I used to be 100% windows -- and even somewhat against the hype of apple products. A friend had an old 2008 macbook pro collecting dust. I figured I'd try out OSX for a time, purely in an effort to fix her laptop. I fell in love with it and picked up the 2013 a few months later.
As time goes on, I don't doubt that we'll see the 2015 maintain its resale value.
You won’t regret Surface, fantastic hardware and W10 is not nearly as bad as the haters say, esp. with WSL now. I’m a switcher from MBP myself and I am very happy with the decision.
My MBP is luckily the last decent one (MBP 2015) and it has 16 GB DDR3 and 256 GB SSD. However it does have an Intel GPU, and only 2,2 GHz quad core i7.
Since I'm on 400 cycles at about 5% battery loss and a few minor but annoying damages on the screen I'm gonna get the latter repaired. Problem is I'm not sure how they got there in the first place. So I'm not sure how to prevent it. And the time to get such fixed is withering away. Tick tock, 2015 was 3 years ago.
We have been suffering from the same MacBook Pro keyboard issues for 3 years, and the latest 2018 just released still has that keyboard problem. And to add insult to injury T2 now causes panic every now and then.
Each period was very unique.
Best desktop environment for people who want a very good looking desktop is Deepin, and the Manjaro Community Edition with Deepin has been rock stable, very fast and very beautiful for me during the last few months I've been using it. Highly recommended.
You don't need a MacBook anymore for things to just work and be great looking.
I currently own a maxed out 2017 15" model. The control and "H" buttons don't work. So I am using an external keyboard.
I could get them replaced, but service will take three weeks (due to high demand) and they have to have the actual laptop the entire time.