Comment by w1nt3rmu4e | Hacker News Reader

Comment by w1nt3rmu4e | Hacker News Reader

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Have to pile on here.

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.

It's anecdotal, but Linux on my ThinkPad gives:

- 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.

I use a X1 Carbon 2015 running Fedora 28 (Since I first installed Fedora 22)

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 don’t love the new keyboards, but I program without any incident on them, though I try to cultivate a light, clean typing style.

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!

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