Ditching the MacBook Pro for a MacBook Air
bradfrost.com
bradfrost.com
Besides, it’s not an excuse. Samsung can design a waterproof phone with headphone jack. Why can’t Apple?
As much I as a musician, who can't stand the unplayable latency of bluetooth headphones with any of my daily drivers, such as Garageband, and has invested in extremely high-quality headphones with cables, would take the headphone jack over a waterproof phone in a heartbeat; I have to say [citation needed]...
That's a bold statement to make. While I'd prefer a headphone jack, due to my particular use case, most of my friends have or have no problem with using wireless headphones, and many of them have also lost phones or other electronics to even a small amount of water in the wrong place.
Obviously this just anecdata but let me tell you that wireless headphones/earbuds have not even been a consideration for most people. Heck, even first world countries have lots of people still using wired earbuds for most use cases.
I heard lots of grumbling about the loss of headphone jacks. I never even once heard someone say "this is not waterproof? I won't buy it!"
Took me all of 10min to swap out the HDD for an SSD and 2x2gb RAM for 2x8gb RAM (and cost about $100). Now I don't notice any difference for normal web development/light design work between the new and old machines.
Sure - the 2011 is a lot heavier and the screen is rubbish, but I love that keyboard and the trackpad is perfectly sized for me.
(ed: spelling)
I don’t really miss anything, especially not the weight or the keyboard.
The touchbar has never been of use to me though. It doesn’t annoy me much, but the user design for changing volume requires more clicks than the non touchbar, so it’s obviously terrible design.
I don’t miss any of the ports, I thought I would, but it’s not like there was an Ethernet port so I still needed a dongle for the 2015 version.
There’s certainly room for improvement, but the 512gb 13” version isn’t crazy expensive for what you’re getting compared to other laptops, at least not in my country.
You click the sound icon, then the slide opens up, then you can either slide it or click one of the two icons.
It’s probably quicker to change the volume from one to ten this way, but 99% of my use cases for changing volume is for one or two steps, for which the slider absolutely sucks.
It’s some of the worst design I’ve ever seen for volume control, and the old system is some of the best.
The old way: click, you’re done. The new way: click, hold finger, slide, and you’re done.
Like I said, it’s faster to go from 1 to 10, but 99% of the times I use it, I’m just changing the volume by 1.
Hell, it’s easier for my brain to just click 10 times than to watch where the damn slider is too.
You press your finger on the sound icon, and just start sliding without waiting. It's one fluid gestural motion. Try it out. It takes the same effort as tapping a physical button but gives you more fine grained control. Yes, it's something new and different from the way you're used to, but give it a chance.
I'm aware I can do this. It still drives me nuts - and I have to agree with eksemplar when I think it is simply a serious step backwards in design and should be an option, not forced like the 2018 models.
Take a MacBook with the function keys, and one with the touchbar. Then adjust the brightness or volume on both at the same time and the hand that operates the touchbar gets “lost” so easily
I definitely hate the touchbar, for the same reason. I just want the buttons I need to be there when I need them. Changing volume or screen brightness just takes that much longer and I have no tactile feedback, so I actually have to look at the keyboard instead of relying on muscle memory.
I mostly don't care about the ports, but I'd still rather not have to use dongles if I don't have to. Would it have been that hard to add one or two USB 3.0 ports? No, but then how would they sell $80 dongles?
It does seem silly not to include a dongle in the box though. I mean, I’m buying apple because I want my tech to just work, and now my mouse or magic keyboard can’t connect and charge?
The only real port annoyance I have though, is the damn headphone jack. :p I mean, I can’t connect my iPhone XS headphones to my MacBook Pro...
Did I miss the news about charging devices over bluetooth?
I have a keyboard and mouse at my desk. I plug them into my laptop when I'm working at my desk. I don't carry them with me at all times, though, and I don't know many people who've ever done that.
And then I never used it again.
Apple is moving more and more away from acura into mercedes car territory.
- swap the SD port for UBC C (1 regular USB; 2 USB C) - move the microphone from the side next to the camera (when I'm talking to someone a slightest move makes loud noise for the other person) - round the front edge (next to the trackpad) - add 0.5mm "jump" ot the keys
If someone would make that with OS X or Ubuntu I'd buy it on the spot.
2015 pros: * Better battery life * Way better keyboard * More robust * More useful port selection * Trackpad is a more reasonable size
2018 pros: * Way better speakers * Slightly better screen * Lighter * Faster * Trackpad is not mechanical * Finger print login is useful
I'd really love a proper "pro" macbook pro, that sacrificed a bit of the thin-and-lightness for an actual professional level of stuff (better cooling, more ports, bigger battery, no touchbar)
I'd guesstimate I get at most 3 hours on the 2017 before the battery level gets low enough I have to start planning where I'll next plug in. Not ideal.
I suspect that Apple will be seeing a lot of 2015 MBPs brought in for battery replacements...
physics might have a word with you :)
When it was new i would regularly get ~12 hours of light usage from it (safari, email, terminal, VPN, citrix, remote desktop). It has been providing around 8-9 hours steadily for the past year or so. I finally noticed when placed flat on a table it wasn't sitting flat, and the battery was swollen.
Now with a new battery we're back to 12+ hours of light usage.
Nowadays, you can't even get a 15 inch MacBook Pro without a discreet GPU.
Add https://github.com/0xbb/gpu-switch - run the integrated gpu only - and you will never listen to a fan again, and prolong the life of your MPB.
I only use Chrome for development now.
I still prefer the 2015 Macbook Pros to the current release and that's just sad. How is it so easy for Apple to throw away so much good design research and implementation? They don't even have the mag-safe chargers, nor the the battery indicator lights on the chargers, what a step backwards on such simple but great functionality!
Furthermore I do agree with you on pretty much every point. I don't like my 2017 Macbook and I most certainly won't upgrade my 2015 to any new pro laptop.
I agree to most things, with the minor correction that the trackpad on the 2015 is also not mechanical (and works fine, I also like the size better).
Regarding the screen I observed: The 2017 has better colors. However it is far more of a dust and dirt magnet, and harder to clean. It seems like the coating or glass might be different, which allows more dust and grease to stick. As a result the display of my 2015 looks mostly clean, the 2017 is messed up as soon as I use it for two hours and have it in my backpack.
All in all I like the 2015 more. They should have just replaced the DisplayPort/TB2 connector with USB-C/TB3 and it would have been fine. The extra lightness of the 2017 is nice to have, but from a practical standpoint the form factor of the 2015 was already great.
More like MacBook Dev, imagine:
- Good keyboard, with Lenovo-like mouse clitoris
- Edges that aren't cutting your wrists off
- No touch bar and regular size trackpad (heck, I'll pay extra for this)
- 15" OLED screen for outdoors
- Figure out GPU. I do not want annoying GPU switching and beast of graphics card - I just enough to drive 5K screen.
- A USB port
- MacBook Air weight/size or insane battery life
- CPU with best single thread performance
- RAM up to 128GB or more
I've seen plenty of windows laptops with awful trackpads where I get it, but aren't they just a huge step back compared to a macbook trackpad?
This is probably just me, but when using my laptop on my lap, if I were using the trackpad i would have to bring my hands down closer to my body which is less comfortable, or move my laptop further away from me.
I have a thinkpad and am always curious on how to effectively use it. Even a video of someone using it might help.
Treat it as a tiny proportional joystick, which it is. I use index finger of dominant hand. Press hard and it'll fly the cursor across the screen. Press gently and it'll give excellent precision. If you keep overshooting, you haven't adjusted to gently enough. It is less movement and more thought for pixel perfect precision as you can barely feel any feedback but still get movement.
I always have to turn up acceleration, but rarely sensitivity, in Trackpoint settings a notch or two for my own preference. For me, if I turn sensitivity down, it ruins it. YMMV.
I will left, right and middle click with thumbs as they're just below space and land there naturally.
Thumb on middle and drag to scroll at pressure sensitive speed for as long as you press. No need to "reset" when you reach the end of trackpad or finger on scrollwheel. Two thumbs and index finger means select and paste are almost as fast as vi-only approaches, as it's placed so you're essentially still typing. :)
The thinkpad was the latest machine I got, after a string of macbooks and one XPS-15. I made a concerted effort to switch simply because I'm spoiled on OSX trackpads, and the thinkpad trackpad widget just isn't up to par (especially on ThinkPad + Linux). I asked a few colleagues how they got around the trackpad issue and a couple mentioned they just use the nipple cursor.
It's been a few months now. Changing over was really annoying at first. As the other poster mentioned - the key is learning muscle memory for _sensitivity_ to control the speed of the cursor. A light firm touch with a small pressure in the correct direction is all that's necessary for moderate speed.
I use my left index finger to control the cursor, and my left (spacebar) thumb to at the same time to click/drag/etc (as the mouse buttons are right below the spacebar).
Middle-click + drag-down for scrolling is really convenient.
I find myself having just crossed that midway point where the new system is becoming dominant. The trackpads are starting to feel somewhat unwieldy and cumbersome to me now - even the macbook ones when I use my wife's or friends'. It feels like they require too much hand movement, and are far more "gesticulatory" than gentle pushes and pulls on the nipple cursor.
I think I'm faster with the cursor now than with even high-quality trackpads.
If you do end up trying it out, be prepared to tweak settings a bit to get the right ones for you (and as the other replier mentioned - don't skimp on sensitivity), and be prepared to spend a couple weeks feeling like your hands are tied when you want to move the cursor around.
It gets better after that.
> It feels like they require too much hand movement, and are far more "gesticulatory" than gentle pushes
Well put. This encapsulates it well.
> I think I'm faster with the cursor now
When I'd got the hang of never overshooting and changing pressure to vary acceleration as I move around, trackpads, even Apple's, just start to feel cumbersome. Quite apart from the need to move hand away from the keyboard so you can't press keys at the same time. It's the thing I miss most on my Mac.
Oh, and just to address the parent's comment that a video might help. Probably not, as there's not much movement to see. Press an index finger on a desk or table and roll your finger around the pad - that's the extremes of movement you should expect with a trackpoint, assuming your finger didn't move on the table at all. :)
My laptop is a T450s, running Debian and KDE Plasma. Acceleration is set to medium, and "Adaptive". The key is tuning your sensitivity/accelaration so you can make very fine/slow movements, but also move the cursor all the way across the screen with stronger/faster ones.
However, extended use does induce tension in my wrist - hence I prefer not to play games on a laptop. The first thing I do when I get a new laptop with a trackpoint and a trackpad is disable the trackpad. If the glorious fruit company offered laptops with trackpoints, I'd do the same. I don't believe that a trackpoint is better than a trackpad in every conceivable way, but it does fit my way of using my devices far better than trackpads do. However, I also don't believe that there will ever be a trackpoint on a glorious fruit device - they don't allow for multiple ways of doing the same thing, and I'm very aware that most people do prefer trackpads to trackpoints. I just hope that my niche will be served by someone until I no longer want to use laptops.
Middle click scroll whilst still typing, as your fingers stay on the home keys. Precision and acceleration that's leagues ahead of every trackpad, including Apple, and faster than moving hand to a mouse. OK, I know quite a few seem to struggle with a trackpoint when first using by using actions that worked on their trackpad and other oddities. It's so long ago I forget my first encounters and learning curve.
I carry a small mouse around with the Macbook. When I have used Thinkpads I never carried a mouse and often didn't use the mouse at my desk either.
Only when I got my first thinkpad I could finally work without a mouse and haven't looked back since.
And yes, the mac ones are a bit better than the others, but I still don't like them. At all.
Not sure if that's possible on a Thinkpad but there was no obvious way on the HP running Ubuntu to do the equivalent of two finger touchpad scrolling.
FWIW I'm ok with trackpads too; I'm an engineer and all my jobs have given me an MBP for work. But like, I'm never pinching and zooming, keyboard shortcuts work just fine for paging and back/forward. Love I know gestures have been successful because keyboard shortcuts aren't intuitive, but to someone like me who uses them, gestures just seem like gimmicks for which we sacrifice smaller laptops and bigger keyboards.
Also FWIW I dislike naming things after genitals. I find it crude and vaguely misogynistic in this case, and wish people would stop.
Do you know how much physical space that would take? I highly doubt you’ll see it any time soon.
The better speakers I'd like. I still need to use USB sticks and SD pretty frequently and have always hated bags of adaptors. They always seem to break or get lost at the moment you're sitting with the important client.
The rest seems to come with a cost far worse than the benefit (for me anyway).
Larger trackpad was so large I would constantly get false activations when typing. Perhaps I have the wrong sort of fingers.
The touchbar was constantly activating when I typed on the top row of physical keys. Perhaps I have the wrong sort of fingers again. :)
The newer thinner keyboard was both horrible and horribly unreliable. Dust sensitive? LOL I think back to when the kids were little and throwing rusks, or putting toast in the VCR the moment we blinked. Then the amount of dog and cat hair (that magically gets everywhere) that's been removed from our keyboards over the years.
Lighter is OK, but not at a huge battery life cost compared to the 2015.
To be honest, I really love my rMBP 2014 hardware, it was basically perfect. Great speaker, as you say, good enough keyboard, BEST display, etc.
If Apple releases another MBP based on 2015 I'll take a quite good look again.
Of course it would be nicer if the laptop had better speakers in it, but there are always trade-offs to be made on cost vs benefit, and fairly cheap bluetooth speakers are a pretty good workaround for a lot of people.
What I'm trying to say is that if really good audio quality is important to you, then having a couple of sets of bluetooth speakers in your house strategically placed in the places where you'd regularly watch movies or consume other high-quality audio is a reasonable workaround for a lot of people. OF COURSE having better speakers (equivalent in sound quality to the bluetooth workaround) in your laptop would be better if you care a lot about audio quality. But that would add to the cost of the laptop for every user, even the ones that don't care about having really high-quality audio on their laptop. I'm saying that it's not unreasonable for a manufacturer to make some tradeoffs like that when there are workarounds that work fairly well.
Over time the costs of adding higher-end features like this drop, and things like audio quality improve to the point that the workarounds aren't needed (the audio quality of my phone speaker is actually pretty amazing).
- 6 cores (12 threads) was absolutely noticeable
- NVme disk performance is much faster
- 2nd generation butterfly keyboard is much improved
- Speakers are way louder, bassy, and crisp
- 15" screen is much better in terms of real-estate than 13"I really liked the 2017 to begin with.
My 2015 MBP has a force-touch trackpad. Is the 2018 one substantially different from that?
After just one year I tried to get more support and they said I’d have to send it in for three weeks which was impossible, I was using it every day. Onsite support was only for the first year, whereas apple stores you can just walk into
Finally the warranty ended and I decided to fix the damn thing myself. Was extremely careful and it was perfect for about a week, then the power somehow failed and it now refuses to turn on. Windows is also horrible for coding due to heavy file system use, fat threads and windows defender, let alone the constant privacy invasion. Was planning to install Ubuntu but figured if I ever did send it in it would just confuse them all the more
I finally got an MBP 2015, should have done it from the beginning.
I purchased the extended support once the warranty expires, so have another 2 or so years left on that.
One thing I love about the Dell vs the Macbook I had previously is that I can just download a service manual from https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/de/de/debsdt1/xps-13-93... if I want to service it myself.
Apple on the other hand will disable your computer if they detect that an unauthorized 3rd party has serviced it (if you bought a recent one with a T2 chip).
Hardware wise - it's most of the way to being a great laptop, but has a few aspects that seem "designed by committee". The 4K screen looks really nice, keyboard is pretty good, it's quite fast, battery life is good. But, the trackpad is massively irritating - it's constantly picking up the heel of my hands while typing and causing the cursor to jump and click. The webcam is terribly located, the TB16 dock is a piece of junk, speakers only sound OK if you're working on a hard surface. They still use a barrel connector for power - would've preferred to get power over USB-C (which the dock uses to provide power), and have a second USB-C port on the laptop.
There are several issues with Linux support - if you're successful making an XPS Hackintosh, then those won't be a problem, but I'd encourage getting the lower resolution screen if you're considering the Linux route.
Some hardware + distro combinations have certainly made that easier than others, but the general trend has been towards a good experience. Certainly there's been less headache with the average Linux desktop, than some Windows (plus whatever Antivirus that the IT higher-ups have mandated) machines I've had...
This particular laptop though, has highlighted the poor Linux support for "DPI Scaling" (a 15" 4K screen was the only option at the time), and touch screens. Combined with some questionable hardware design decisions (webcam, speakers), and some generally crap design (the TB16 dock) though, this whole package just isn't a purchase that I'm really happy about - and that's only partially about Linux. The touchpad might well be the sort of issue you describe, where a better driver could better adjust the sensitivity, but even there I'd look first at the vendor before blaming "the community".
It's a shame really, because as these MacBook Pro threads attest, there are a lot of folks looking for something that's totally feasible, but no manufacturer seems to be aiming at...
It is its own silo on Windows. Yes, it is native from an implementation standpoint, but does not play well (yet) with the rest of the Windows environment.
Install Visual Studio Code, the usual Windows version.
Explain to VS Code that it is really a good idea to use the Linux subsystem as its command-line environment. Not only interactive sessions like Bash on its integrated terminal, but also for git, compilers, Node, etc.
Once you have got that set up and your development workflow going ok, try setting up the same on Linux or macOS.
Which one would you prefer?
The Windows Subsystem for Linux is brilliant. PowerShell is brilliant. The dotNET universe can be brilliant.
I wish it was easy.
Hackintoshes tend to break (more specifically, the OS) with every OS update.
[1] For me issues were mostly interaction with random conference software and screen sharing (e.g. webex), or random hangs when connecting external displays (e.g. doing a presentation before CTO).
The 2018 model notebook is thinner but it suffers from problems as a result of this: No USB A port. The SD card slot was replaced by a Micro SD card slot. CPU heat management is also an issue. Finally, it has a smaller battery (52Wh instead of 60Wh, 13% less!). The display went from 3200x1800 to 4K which doesn't really make sense for a 13inch display anyway.
See https://www.notebookcheck.com/Editorial-Dell-XPS-13-9370-Sex... for details (German)
Personally, I find that difficult to touch type with. I'd rather have that as fn keys as it is on a mac.
On macOS closing the lid is suspends to sleep i.e. it keeps RAM powered only. On Fedora 29 (and every other Linux I've tried) it's the same.
The difference is that after some set amount of time macOS is smart enough to stop powering the RAM and suspend to SSD. That's not the case under Linux and instead the laptop just goes completely flat.
Anyone with any suggestions on that I'd love to hear it.
(I should add that I see the XPS 13 as a competitor to the old MacBook Air 11 but with a quad-core CPU and a bigger screen).
[0] https://jlk.fjfi.cvut.cz/arch/manpages/man/systemd-sleep.con...
4k@60Hz. The MacBook Pro 2015 with Intel Iris (I don't know about the Radeon GPU) only supports 4k@30Hz, which is terrible.
(My wife has the 1st gen MacBook 12", which has the same downside.)
Are you using the HDMI port? I'm using a 2015 with Iris and can run 4k@60Hz through the mini-DP.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206587 shows that both 13" and 15" from 2015 should support 4k@60Hz.
The GPU must have a HDMI 2.0 output for 4k@60, and this is usually not present on all but the most recent laptops, producing the 30 Hz limitation.
On the other hand, DisplayPort 1.2 supports 4k@60. This is built into the Thunderbolt 2 ports on Macs, so as long as the GPU supports DP 1.2 it will work.
On my MBP (15"), the DP(Thunderbolt) + HDMI ports are wired directly to the Nvidia GPU. Parent mentioned his computer only had the Intel Iris graphics (13" model), which apparently can't do 4k@60 (so my previous comment was incorrect :( ).
I came across this while looking to see if I could buy a 4k display for my 12" Macbook (2nd gen.). My brief reading of it implied that it would be possible to drive it at 60hz. but maybe you are correct.
They are really cheap used or refurb
Why not just get a decent Windows laptop, if you want nice port selection? The X1 Carbon is incredible, while Dell, Microsoft, and more offer yet other options. If you truly love MagSafe, the Microsoft Surface series offers magnetic charge connectors, good displays, and regular USB.
If you wanted a laptop from 2014, there were plenty of ways to get one without paying Apple their premium price.
Any cons to using them like MagSafe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G3#PowerBook_G3_Seri...
I also recently got a 2018 MBA to try replace my 2014 MBP but unfortunately my eyes suck so 13 inches is turning out to be an issue. It's not enough screen space to do my normal dev without having to be constantly opening and closing panes.
Examples would be trying to us VSCode with 2 panes and the project panel open. The 2 panes are two small so I have to keep opening and closing the project panel anytime I want to switch files.
Another example is trying to debug JavaScript I need both the page and the devtools visible and there just isn't enough screen real estate to do it comfortably.
Jacking up the scaled rez to 1680 mode I get my space back but my eyes aren't good enough to focus at that rez
It is also super notably slower than my 2014 MBP. As an example if I run pretty much any WebGL page and try to view a detailed PDF in another window in the browser it's practically unusable. My 2014 MBP had no issues multi-tasking.
Also connect it to a 30inch 4k monitor at my office and it just doesn't feel up do it. Just switching apps often takes long enough it feels super sluggish.
If Apple would get rid of the touch bar I'd have gotten the MBP again though am really loving the weight so really disappointed Apple can't match or beat LG in that.
My personal MBP circa 2014 is still chugging along wonderfully and will probably continue to do so until Apple comes up with something better.
For my home laptop, I'm finally getting around to replacing my mid-2009 MBP and decided to go with a Lenovo X1 Carbon Extreme. I'm so annoyed at Apple at this point that I figure it's time to go back and give Linux another shot.
I was a little worried about hardware support, so I bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed. Pretty much everything worked out of the box. But my friends tell me that the Linux experience is good with other laptops too.
FaceID on the Mac would be a cool addition. Lighter would be nice.
It's already beyond the point of where "lighter would be nice". Now "lighter" only means "we'll take all the capabilities you care about and all the ports you need away".
I wish Apple stopped with their obsession on "lighter and thinner".
For the same price, I get a far superior machine.
For less than what I paid for the maxed out '16 MBP I get:
* Hexacore Xeon CPU
* 64GB of RAM
* 2TB NVMe SSD
* Nvidia Quadro P2000.
* a keyboard that is nice to type on again, instead of the butterfly SH!T that is on the 2016+ models.
I had concerns about switching my dev workflow from macOS to Windows 10, but WSL is fantastic.
Can't help but think Apple doesn't make macOS a priority anymore. The experience with High Sierra was just the straw that broke the camels back.
I sold my MBP for much less than what I used to get on resale. They don't hold their value like they used to. I wonder if this is lost on Apple management. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If anyone is thinking about switching from macOS to Windows… unless you're doing {mac,i,watch}OS dev, I say jump on in. The water is nice.
As to performance problems with regards to WSL and disc IO, there has been problems with how Windows AV software's real time virus protection interacts with WSL. Adding an exclusion to the part of the file system used by WSL should give a significant performance increase.
- Scoop is "ok" but not on par with homebrew.
- Cmder is not on par with iTerm2 (CMD+D, CMD+Shift+D, CMD+T)
- Powershell terminal is utter crap
- WSL is just OK but still the integration is not that good
- VSCode works well
- Vagrant does not work that well. In general setting up the PATHs is clumsy
- Working with Ruby/rbenv or NodeJS/NPM is clumsy
- I miss Cmd+Space for calculator. using Windows Key + entering the formula doesn't work half the time
- Ninite is a godsend, but nowadays lacks several programs
- I love Paint ... why doesn't OSX have a similar paint program (I have to download Paint from sf.net)
- I loved the Windows spanned volume HDD. I had 7 plate-disks that I installed in my ATX tower and made one 1Gb disk with all of them, quite easily
- Impressed (with Windows) that several old hardware that I dug from a box (old webcam, old usb WiFi, old BlueTooth) worked as soon as I connected them.
There is a lot of stuff that I am still getting used to, but in general, although my experience doing development in Windows "works" it is still somewhat painful, while compared to OSX.
OTOH, I installed ubuntu on the same Machine, and god I removed it after 2 hours of tinkering here and there (to make work multiple monitors, wireless, bluetooth, webcam, stuff not working after resume-after-sleep). I was sad because I really like bash (that was my "safe place" when I first started to use Mac).
Ctrl-Shift-E and Ctrl-Shift-O? (split windows)
Ctrl-T to create new tabs? (create new tabs)
But CPU intensive tasks should be be similar to host system.
1. How did you set it all up?
2. What stack are you using?
3. Do you have to use (gasp) Docker?
4. Performance issues?
I had a Sufrace Pro 4 for about a year, until I ditched it for a Dell XPS 13 running Linux (the Surface wouldn't run Linux properly). It happened when the x-org server suddenly stopped supporting retina/high DPI, and I couldn't figure it out after a couple of hours of fiddling. Definitely not something I want in my life.
The reason I needed an x-org server is that I use IntelliJ for my editing, and it doesn't support running stuff in WSL. So I had to run IntelliJ under WSL too, meaning I had to run an x-org server on the win10 side. It did work quite well really, except from the high DPI issue. And bad file system performance..
Currently experimenting working directly on win10 for a side project, that works quit well, actually. The tech stack is Rust and ClojureScript, both seems to work fine on windows so far at least.
I also though about going with one of the system76 machines, but the terrible battery life spooked me away. I'll probably still get one early next year, though.
Luckily, it takes all of 30 minutes to just wipe your hard drive and install Ubuntu on your ThinkPad and you'd be much better off for it.
But how long it takes to fix all drivers and other Linux issues (WiFi, sounds, video, mouse...)?
I used a few Linux versions last year and none could do the switch window feature without breaking (alt tab on Windows).
Meanwhile, installing Windows is a pain in the ass. I had to go to Realtek's site on a separate machine to get ethernet drivers before I could even use the internet. Then I had to go to Nvidia's site to get the GPU driver. Rinse and repeat for various exes on various sites for everything you need. Package management is a joke, so good luck installing all the software you need since you're about to go on a scavenger hunt through somewhat questionable download sites. Then spend hours trying to disable all the spying and forced updates, only for your settings to get reset in the next big release.
This is Windows specific and completely idiotic IMHO. Just like on macOS you can switch windows belonging to a single application with a certain key combination (in Gnome it's Alt + the key left to the 1 key).
Of course it's a hassle to fix some driver issues, although this has drastically improved over the last 10 years. These days it's usually more firmware that leaves you hanging.
But at least I don't have to jump through a ton of hoops to get the most basic development software installed. Unless you do Windows specific development or you're forced by your corporate environment I don't really see any advantages to Windows.
You're leaving out the part where you're spending countless hours figuring out how to make $TASK work on Linux (i.e. scan + OCR, photo editing, accounting, pivot tables in a spreadsheet, to name a few examples) with any number of WORKAROUNDS, rather than a it-works-out-of-the-box experience because software exists for Windows already, that works out of the box.
You might want to deal with getting those workarounds going, because you're a purist, or you're in your 20s, and have nothing but time on your hands.
I'm 45, have a family I want to spend time with. I don't have time for that shit anymore. I want things to work and stay out of my way.
macOS used to be that good. I don't feel like it is any more.
Windows 10 has been that good, here. I turn off the telemetry. I don't know where you've seen ads. I get no ads. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
First off, you're not being spied on any more w/ Windows than you are on a Mac--the NSA doesn't give a crap about what kind of computer you use.
Updates are only "forced" if you choose them to be, otherwise you can accept/decline updates.
There are NO ads. Zero.
Worse performance than what? In what? In which application? I use Excel all the time and I recently used it on a Mac and thought about killing myself.
The biggest concert is I'm an iOS developer. I consider to move to programming either Android or cross-platform with Qt framework. Then either jailbreak my iphone XS and compile code on it (iphone XS is more powerfull than my macbook i7) or go virtual machine or hackintosh road just to do app sideloading while testing or real iphone devices. Or switch even to android device.
I really like Thinkpad P1 that it gives lots of room for future upgrades with 2x ram slots and 2x m.2 ssd slots so I don't need to max out my rams or ssd now.
The final straw for me on new macbooks is that they soldered SSD and even removed backup port. I'm contracting so I'm loosing money if I have to wait 2 weeks for repairs. Besides I often work from developing countries in south east asia - where you would have to wait even longer instead of picking up off-the-shelf ram or ssd. Keyboard reliability issue also scares me a lot in new macbooks.
From my time with it, I ultimately concluded that I'd be better off just running Linux. If I had to use Windows, I'd setup a VM and avoid using WSL.
EDIT: Ok, I remember now: iOS development :)
I have installed Hackintosh on a netbook some years ago and as far as I remember you needed to take care not to agree to an OS update.
It's vanilla so I can update it for the most part no problem. Just gotta make sure my kexts are updated to support the OS. It's not as simple as an actual mac, but it's close.
It's pretty amazing. It boots up, shows the Dell logo, then the Apple logo, then it's up. Brightness, sound, thunderbolt, usb 3, wifi card had to swap but that was $20. Bluetooth, it all works. Keyboard backlight, multitouch trackpad, sleep.
I feel that sometimes Linux can be a hobby, more than a productive machine. I realize that there are distros out there that cater to people like me (Elementary comes to mind) but there just some things that work better on MacOS.
setfont /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/latarcyrheb-sun32.psfu.gz
setfont /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/latarcyrheb-sun32.psfu.gz
- Ethernet device sometimes disappears after resuming
- USB devices randomly disconnect
- It sometimes gets very confused about displays (e.g. the primary device, rotation)
(However, generally, I find undocking/docking more stable than F28)
The XPS hardware/build quality is crap: thermal throttling often, coil whine, bendy, noisy, web cam in a stupid place, terrible mic, auto screen dimming that can't be turned off (AFAIK). This is not a lemon: I know companies with XPS fleets. Read Reddit, too.
EDIT: I've owned a 2015 rMBP 13" for 2.5 years.
The incorrect sleep-wake behavior, the average track pads and the inability to easily upgrade macOS were all annoying, but for me the straw that broke the camels back was when a friend tripped over the charging cable, pulling the laptop onto the ground and smashing the screen.
The irony was not lost on me - had it been a genuine Apple laptop macsafe would have saved it.
The irony is your comment since Apple removed magsafe
My MacBook Air is a mid-2012 model. Many thousands of hours of use, including in stuipd-cold (-40) and stupid-hot (+45C), dusty and humid, and still going strong.
Lots of ports, Magsafe... sigh.
I also have bought a 2012 era Macbook for testing on OSX, the screen has some artifacts, battery is dead.
It's funny you mention that, because I can't for the life of me get my 2018 MBP to lock the screen without going to sleep randomly and disconnecting my IRC session, despite changing every possible setting that could affect it.
It's amazing how hard it is to get basic shit to work on these things.
Is the going to sleep truly random? Do you get the screen saver first? If you aren't seeing the screen saver, the sleeping may actually be an issue with the lid sensor - possibly due to a nearby magnet or some hardware issue.I had that in the past when I inadvertently set the MBP on top of an iPad (in case).
It's kind of strange, really: all the complaints you may have read about iOS holding the iPad back at this point are absolutely true; there are a lot of nitpicks I personally have with it (mostly relating to automation, scripting, and system-level text editing capability); there are slightly questionable hardware decisions (did you really need to take out the headphone jack from something this large? is this just a vendetta against headphone jacks? did a headphone jack kill Jony Ive's pet poodle?). But when I pick up my iPad I keep thinking this is the best computer I've ever owned. I'll see if I'm still thinking that six months from now, to be sure, but so far I'm surprised at how much I do not regret this purchase.
The Studio Neat "Canopy" for the Magic Keyboard provides a support that works with an iPad in my lap, although I don't love it.
This is entirely lost in a system that simply takes handwritten text and converts it to characters (its more difficult, and slower, than a keyboard), so it makes sense this system would be unpleasant to use. But even if it worked well, it’d be worthless for writing current programming languages, as they’re inherently line-based, and optimized for keyboard input. Theres nothing to be gained from vertical lines in your C codebase.
A visual programming language might see better use, but the main issue there is that the visual part of it is the relationships: in a sane codebase, this is relatively rare to edit to any significant degree. You’re primarily editing values (a keyboard-appropriate task), and the the visualization is used for reading; rarely, its useful for editing (where a pen might be more convenient, but its competition is the mouse, and I’m not sure it does any better [if not worse])
So it makes sense that writing/editing code with handwriting will be non-compelling: its clearly worse than the keyboard in all cases I can think of.
But notes, documentation, and by accident of qwerty keyboards, arbitrary symbols (eg greek) is another story. Where arbitrary drawings are first-class citizens along with text, and the computerized benefit is automatic cleanup (straighter lines, handwriting to text) ala onenote, though its conversion is lacking (I can never get it to parse things “perfectly”).
But code? It shouldn’t be compelling. Pens are simply worse at the task.
The magic keyboard has an escape key, which is handy when using vim on a server, and a function row with brightness and volume buttons that work on iOS. Pairing is automatic, battery life is great, the keyboard is more clicky, it's not bound to the device physically, and when you switch devices 5 years down the road you don't need to buy a new, shiny, expensive, essentially the same keyboard. I use the MK with my desktop as well, just so I don't need to adjust to different keyboards during the day. And it's cheaper.
Personally I see only upsides to the magic keyboard over the smart keyboard.
I think I will go with the MK :)
* Once you switch your preferred text editor a couple of times file management becomes a mess. You probably didn't copy over and delete everything immediately but you moved _some_ files over to try it out. Now you have different versions of everything, all of which you're afraid to delete. If you hitch a ride on the iOS text editor hype train every so often you'll have three/four of these red flag apps stashed in a folder somewhere within a year.
* If you use more than one app on the same text file there will be numerous copies of it in different apps.
* Some apps support 'open in place', meaning they don't copy the file you're editing to the app's sandbox. But I don't know which apps support this and they all use different terminology to tell you on use (if they tell you at all). In addition these files or file pointers may or may not be differentiated in the app's local file system and may or may not be there when you reopen the app.
* Each app has its own, separate tagging and/or folder solution.
* Some apps have a genuinely clever way to solve a problem that should be solved on the OS-level. These solutions make no difference to me; only one app supports them, and using them is mildly intuitive so I never get beyond using them once or twice.
And on it goes. I have found the best use for my iPad is to treat it as a stateless machine. My passwords, bookmarks and apps are on it and that's what I'll use. Then I move the files elsewhere and forget about the internal storage. In that capacity it's the best device I've ever owned.
In theory, apps don't have to have the problem you mentioned, as there's an "open file in place" API for them to use (and even an "open directory in place" API) which avoids all the document shuffling. Unfortunately, a lot of apps don't seem to really support it particularly well. And I'd still prefer the apparently crazy, radical idea of having a shared Documents folder.
I don't own a Macbook Pro, but when I use one for testing or use a friend's, this is one of my chief complaints. It seems idiosyncratic—why aren't more Mac users complaining about the sharp deck edge against their wrists? Presumably not many people actually rest their wrists on the surface. It's probably bad ergonomics to rest your hands in such a way. But I do, and it hurts on the Mac.
Compare the following decks:
A. The deck of the Macbook Air that Brad is discussing appears subtly chamfered for the entire width of its front edge and then chamfered further for a notch in front of the touchpad: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/13390447/v...
B. By comparison the MacBook Pro's deck is chamfered for only a narrow bit in front of the touchpad: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60364845/...
C. Microsoft uses a chamfered edge and Alcantara on the Surface Laptop: https://img-prod-cms-rt-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/cms/api/...
D. On larger decks, Microsoft (and others) usually at least chamfer the entire width of the touch pad, as is seen on the Surface Book: https://img-prod-cms-rt-microsoft-com.akamaized.net/cms/api/...
You should be orienting your keyboard/body in such a way that your forearms are approximately parallel to the keyboard surface, and most importantly so that your wrists are as straight as possible. If your wrists are more than slightly flexed (or extended for that matter) injury is waiting just around the corner, and finger strength and speed is undermined. Look at any expert tool user, especially tools requiring finger motion (e.g. musical instruments), and you will see they largely keep their wrists quite straight.
Ideally wrists/palms should be “floating” freely above the keyboard, held up by your arm muscles or possibly light fingertip pressure on the keys, with your upper arms roughly parallel to your body and your shoulders relaxed. But if you lightly rest your palms on the laptop surface that probably isn’t the end of the world, as long as your wrists remain straight.
Typical desk/table and chair heights are poorly adapted to typing on a flat keyboard. A table which is the right height for handwriting or eating is generally too tall for typing. To compensate (assuming you aren’t willing to get a lower desk or taller chair or put the keyboard on your lap or a low tray) I recommend tilting the back end of your keyboard up (e.g. by piling something underneath) until the keyboard surface is parallel to your forearms when you place your fingers on the keys. For inspiration, look at the slope between keytops of mid 20th century typewriter keyboards, which are built to fit in with typical office furniture.
Once you get your body/tools into a more appropriate pose, your typing will be faster and more comfortable.
One element to fixing the wrist angle was actually a sit-stand desk. Most desks were too tall for me, the sit stand let me lower the surface to a good height. And I can use another programmed height for eating and writing.
Probably because for many people it isn’t as much of an issue as it is for you. Personally, it doesn’t really bother me. I understand how it could bother others though.
Probably the same reason pianists don't complain about the sharp wooden piano edge below the keys: hanging wrists expedite RSI and reduce dexterity.
I definitely know what you're talking about, but it's not the hill I'll die on because it's not the best habit.
- It's light at 1.6 kgs
- Upgradable RAM which i upgraded to 16GB
- The keyboard has travel and is brilliant.
- HDD + Intel Optane - Intel Optane is a caching layer which sits in front of a traditional HDD. So you get SSD level performance from a normal HDD. It also means that I can install Win+Linux+VS+Android Studio+Ableton+Games on it and still have 500+GB to spare. Also it's an NVME module, so i can swap it with an SSD anyday.
- Can play PUBG and Overwatch and proper games on it.
- 8520U CPU, which has 4 cores and 8 threads.
- Windows + WSL ( Arch Linux ) + Dual Boot(Arch Linux). WSL Is brilliant because it allows me to run a copy of Arch inside of windows without virtualization. pacman is a much better package manager than brew.
I've only had it for a week so can't say much but so far, definitely worth it. And £1k less than a MacBook with worse specs.
The reality is that when I'm at work, I'm logged in to a super beefy server. When I'm at home, I'm logged in to a moderately sized server in GCE. I don't use an IDE, essentially the only apps I use are Firefox, Spotify, and Terminal.
What's holding me back is the screen size. I'll take the biggest screen I can get. More screen == more panes. I absolutely love the 15" inch pro screen. Not sure if I could live with the 13" on the air.
I don't understand why people whine so much about it. I never used the F keys from a Mac, and everyone who needs the Esc key already remapped it to Caps Lock or some other one.
Is there virtual desktop support?
As for keyboards, you can use any Bluetooth keyboard with any iOS device. That said, the keyboards made for the Smart Connector are quite nice — just not the first generation Smart Keyboard because the case is too flexible to use on a lap.
As I've swapped caps lock and control in the keyboard settings, it's very easily became second nature - due to where my hands sit at rest on the keyboard I only really need to move my 3rd finger to q to hit it - even easier than having to look down at the keyboard/touchbar
The main issue though is with "Expanded Control Strip" the touchbar locks up (while holding a key down) about 2 or 3 times a week (which can only be fixed by a restart or: "sudo pkill TouchBarServer")
The whole thing is pretty inexcusable for such an expensive machine, but I like the macos ecosystem.
My main gripe with the newer MacBook Pros is the overly large and sensitive touchpad (I've tried everything) which is a real pain for palm rejection.
But about a month ago, the screen broke down. Had to get repairs. And the service center told me I'd have to wait 2 weeks to get it fixed. That would mean I wouldn't be able to work for 2 weeks which would cost me money. So I bought a 27" iMac and worked on that ever since.
My MacBook Pro is repaired, but I will probably sell it soon. The screen breaking down so soon got me worried, since in the past I had an iMac with a faulty motherboard and it died on my 3 times - not willing to take the risk of the screen dying multiple times.
I also really don't like the keyboard. I am quite concerned the keys might get stuck at some point. And even though before I didn't mind the Touch Bar that much, I really prefer just normal function keys that I can feel.
So my plan is, when I visit The Netherlands next week to visit some family and friends, will sell the MacBook on the Dutch equivalent of eBay and buy an iPad for travel. I live in Thailand on the country side and I believe in this area the MacBook Pro would be too expensive for most people, so it'd be a hard sell over here.
I have to admit, I feel Apple is going in the wrong direction with the MacBooks and especially with regards to the keyboard quality. Though I've read that the 3rd generation keyboards should be decent I am not willing to try them out (I believe my MacBook Pro still has a 2nd gen keyboard).
Agree Touchbar is the most worthless feature ever invented. Just give in and add a touchscreen already Apple!
What is new with Air keyboard that makes it better? The old school MBP had the best keyboard before these butterfly switches.
Never had issue with battery in the new MBP. I have the 2018 i7 w/ 6 cores and I can work pretty much all day (8 hours). I use VMware Fusion and Chrome which are battery hogs.
As for the size, I was happy with the MBP 2015 where I could replace parts. It was the perfect size for the expandibility it provided. I'm not a big guy and I never thought this MBP is heavy.
You can't pre-install macOS or distribute software to facilitate its installation on non mac hardware, but the community would find the way on their own and shield the company from liability.
I wont be buying a new Mac.
It works, technically. But it lacks all kinds of integration with core Windows, to the point where you can't run VS.Code against Python files in the WSL world.
It's easier to run a VM and sync files over SSH, sadly.
If this one would get run over by a truck I'd probably buy a Thinkpad.
Consider the possibility that you represent an extremely tiny segment of users.
Very little of the promotional material from Apple features engineering being done on the MacBook/iMac Pro - it's almost all content creation.
Engineers are far from being the main target audience for these products.
And that's why I was careful to say exactly that by qualifying that they are not. The bigger point is that post-Jobs Apple doesn't seem to target engineers or even "content creators" that strongly anymore.
There are always going to be the type of people who just want the brand identification that Apple serves up, and will happily use a MacBook Pro to access Facebook or YouTube and little else. That seems a really bad way to appeal to the pro user market, even if it's smaller.
The "Pro" branding implies battery, horsepower and ergonomics. Something Apple consistently failed to deliver ever since they peaked with the MacBook Pro 2015.
It's a laptop, it's not a fusion reactor. It's mature technology, as far as humans are concerned.
Apparently the fix is to unplug it & put it in sleep.
'Solution' is to suspend the VM before closing the lid.
https://github.com/niw/HapticKey
How haptic feedback is not a general feature of this, is beyond me. How the Touch Bar is no longer an 'option' if you want a new MBP is also beyond me.
Heck, Apple's been beyond me for some time. There are so many decisions I just don't understand.
In any case though I likely still would not use it much. My Pro spends most of it's time with an external keyboard, track pad, and monitor plugged into it.
Or, heck, let us opt out at purchase time, and of the TouchID too. No way I will ever use this.
But you can do this in System Preferences?
I thought the worst thing about touchbar would be "no feedback on the ESC key". That's bad, but boy was I wrong. Turns out that the far worse thing for me is that I rest my left hand slightly above the number row. With touchbar, any touch, no matter how light, will trigger random stuff (very often, repeated "esc" keypresses, with the predictable disrupting effects)
What I can't let go is the Keyboard sound !
[1] WebEx meeting, QuickTime, iTunes
I would even consider the 13 MBA if they offered an i7 configuration. It feels like that was purposefully omitted in order to push buyers towards the Pro.
I hope that both the macbook and new Airs take a similar trajectory to the original Airs. The first iterations (2008-10) were quite weak performance-wise, it was more about Apple planting a flag and saying "this is what the future laptop will look at" and iterating under the hood till they reached it.
After buying a pro and returning it, then seriously eye'ing the new airs, I've fallen back to...buying a new battery for my old 11 Air.
One thing worth noting was that price / performance / portability peaked in the 2015” 11” air and has not come close since. So you are right to hold up this model.
The thing is I think we are going to see a very powerful ARM based MacBook that will be a real successor to the 2015 11”.
So I’m treating the new mba as a holdover until then.
Let's hope that new Macbook arrives next year...
It is a lot bigger and heavier than the 11" and there is no getting around it except get used to it. But for the speed, touch Id and keyboard it is worth it.
If a superior ARM macbook is released next year i'll probably sell this though.
Does this make sense to anyone else?
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/2/27/17058616/a...
Firstly the USB-C power cable seems to be designed to have a very light grip on the port, so it slips out easily if anything snags on the cable. (If anything, the worry is that a slight tug can make it slip out unnoticed and stop charging).
Secondly, because it’s got plugs at both ends of the cable, it can pull out from the wall end just as easily as from the MacBook.
2. I started missing the magsafe's light the first time I thought my computer was charging but it wasn't (dead outlet before a long flight, so zero charge). Now I open my laptop every time I plug it in a new outlet to verify that it's charging.
Of course, I don't need a magsafe port to solve these, just a special USB-C cable, which is a better solution.
So the only remaining thing I liked about the magsafe was how shallow the port was, which made it easy to clean. Recently I somehow had a tiny pebble or something in one of my USB-C ports that rendered it unusable until I could get my hands on a pin to pry it out.
Right. But as the USB-C cable has sockets/plugs at both ends, it’s hard to imagine a situation where it won’t safely pull out at one of the ends, at least.
I’ve had a couple of “trip” incidents with my USB-C MacBook and in both cases, the MacBook did not fly off the table nor was there any damage to the cable or ports. (Both of which did happen to me in the bad old days of pre-MagSafe PowerBooks!)
Got them for 2 for 35$ on MassDrop.
http://www.macbookadapter.com/magsafe-2-to-usb-c-power-adapt...
But it is really bulky, not cheap and limited to 60W.
[1] https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/docks/owc-thunderbolt-3-dock
Absolutely love the new Air. It’s so small, so relatively light, great battery life, and the new keyboard (which I had dreaded) is one of the few that haven’t given me RSI after long continuous use. Love it. At some point I’ll have to buy an adapter, which is annoying but I have yet to bemoan the lack of old school ports.
- Keyboard didn't work no matter work, attach, un-attach, reboot, power off, nothing. It started working after I watered contacts.
- No bluetooth for you until Windows is booted. That means when the keyboard failed I couldn't choose Windows startup options as I have no wired keyboards home.
- Inking still has noticeable lag compared to my iPad Pro (the very old one, 9.7 inch)
- One Note still has no proper grid - one is too small and tiny and another one is too large, no grid that would much traditional notebook grid. Both Apple Notes and Notability on my iPad Pro have proper grids that more or less resembles the notebook.
- One Note refused to create a notebook "Foo" with message "Notebook Foo already exists" because I had a folder "Foo" in the "Documents" directory in OneDrive. I had to delete it.
- Build-in Photos app crashed when I tried to edit a video with it. That is click a video in the collection, click "Edit" button, see "Preparing video" screen, crash.
- YouTube application that is one of the top in the Store crashes every time I try to scroll things. It's fine until I scroll something, then crash.
- Startup items that cannot be deleted even though application are gone for good. Only disabled.
- I tried to install Adobe products. When I uninstalled it I had two services left running and 1 GB of files that has been leftover. I had to open PowerShell and manually disable and delete services and then manually delete the files.
- I tried to install Amazon Photos and while it completely removed itself during uninstall I'm stuck with "Amazon Photos" startup item. Files are gone for good though.
- One of the reboots took over 40 minutes. I dunno what was it doing, it was just sitting there with “Rebooting” screen, speaking fans. I let it run just to see how long can it be like that
All this I had in two evenings. I didn't even try to do any real work on that thing.
I know that Adobe and YouTube app issues are not Microsoft's fault but that the culture you have in this ecosystem. Be ready you'll have to deal with that.
I made my choice - until Apple looses it completely I'm stuck with them because everything else is just unbearable. And once they've loose it I'll probably go linux or stop using computers altogether.
I have been using a Dell Precision M3800 with Ubuntu for the last 4 years and it still rocks. I just upgraded memory and SSD HD. Couln't be happier.
MacOS is basically a polished version of Ubuntu with (much, much) better user interface.
(I use both macOS and Linux on the desktop.)
OSX seems far too opinionated on things. It keeps installing Itunes even though I've gone through and deleted it repeatedly. It won't let me uninstall all of the Apple software that I have zero use for (I have no use for a word processor suite). I spend 100% of my time either on Firefox, Thunderbird and the Terminal. I have nearly zero use for any other gui applications and would like to uninstall everything down to the bare minimum of applications and processes to do my work.
Too many terminal applications are subtly different between what I have available on Linux vs OSX, and I'm frequently having to resort to compiling them myself to get feature parity. Shell scripts need to be every so slightly altered to account for the fact that its running on OSX and not Linux -- I'd like to be able to write it once and then run it on my dev machine, virtual machine, and server without needing to make these changes.
OSX likes to liter hidden files all over the place that I need to remember to exclude from git repositories.
These are all little things, but they're little things that have grown over the years to really irritate me and I probably won't be doing a MacBook on my next upgrade.
I got upset about the things you've said too, after going from Linux to macOS. Linux is much "cleaner" (and FreeBSD even more so). But back on Linux now I get way more upset when Bluetooth doesn't work, when the battery on my laptop isn't recognized (I got a Thinkpad with a removable battery), when the trackpad is glitching. Right now I have a nagging issue that the laptop wont charge when it hits 0% battery unless I unplug it and remove the battery, then plug it again. This is a Thinkpad, which I got specifically because it's said to be hassle-free on Linux.
I'd love to complain about hidden files and the bad situation of package management on macOS, that'd be a luxury. I don't think even the most ardent Linux defender can argue macOS isn't miles away as a consumer OS. You have to be in a very specific bubble of distro+hardware for Linux to never crap out some hardware on an upgrade, before even going into the merits of the UI/UX comparison.
I'm also not defending Linux as a consumer OS, but as an OS for use in a work environment tuned purposely to maximize the efficiency of an employee working as a developer who is deploying to Linux from OSX. I'm often bewildered as to why I run into so many back-end developers who are deploying to Linux, yet using OSX for their daily driver.
I suppose the hardware issues that you cite. I've had the occasional hardware issue, maybe once every two or three years that takes a couple hours to track down and fix. My workflow doesn't really make use of pointing devices, and I've never owned a bluetooth device that I've needed to connect to a workstation, so I haven't come across those issues. Battery would be a horrid pain though.
It's very obvious: they use a personal machine for work only 8h a day and want their OS to be usable the other hours of the day and weekends. It's not that they necessarily prefer macOS for programming, but they prefer macOS for everything else they spend most of their time on. Or, alternatively, they have done so for so long they're more productive on macOS (admittedly a worse OS for programming) than Linux.
Just think of it like this: my demands from a development environment are much less strict than from a consumer OS. For developing all I need is a terminal and some programs, that's it. For a consumer OS all I need is what every other consumer needs: a functioning system 100% of the time with good usability.
It's much easier to run a VM than to constantly fix hardware issues or usability quirks that are out of your control as a user.
Your idea seems to make more sense when you use one for work and have a personal notebook for whatever else. Some people can't have that, or just don't want to. That was my original idea when getting a Linux notebook, but when I had to use it as a personal machine it became much less adequate.
No, it is a question of preference. I am way more produtive on Linux than on macOS, because my window manager of choice (i3wm) is very customized to my needs and basically impossible to replicate on macOS (you can come close, however things doesn't work as it should).
> when the battery on my laptop isn't recognized (I got a Thinkpad with a removable battery), when the trackpad is glitching. Right now I have a nagging issue that the laptop wont charge when it hits 0% battery unless I unplug it and remove the battery, then plug it again. This is a Thinkpad, which I got specifically because it's said to be hassle-free on Linux.
This seems to be a hardware issue, since even if the battery is not recognized by Linux (say, bad ACPI tables) it should recharge anyway (you wouldn't have indication of it charging, unless your Notebook has a LED indicator for it).
A prove that this is a hardware problem is that you probably would have the same issue on Windows. If you doesn't it maybe a problem that only happens on Linux, however I find it very strange (and dangerous) that Lenovo would leave battery management entirely to the OS.
Just because I'm a programmer and a sysadmin for many virtual machines and a complex home network, doesn't mean I enjoy being sysadmin on my primary personal computers. I want them to work. If they don't work, my life is upside down until they do.
When my BSD router and Linux VMs unexpectedly bugger up after an update, it might be mildly frustrating, but fixing them can be satisfying and occasionally educational.
I have an XPS 13 running ubuntu that I use for my personal coding work but I have a macbook pro for work just to minimize driver issues.
Finder - Spark - Safari (iCloud Keychain and iCloud in general) - Paw - Postico - Transmit - Notes App - Pages - Sketch - Photoshop
There is nothing (for me) that compares to Finder, a proper email client, my favorite browser, Postico, Sketch and Photoshop on Linux.
There is nothing on Linux that I don't have on macOS, and of course: it simply works.
Battery life is 5-7 hours depending on what you're doing which I think is fair enough.
The developer community for macs has completely dominated the market for so long that virtually everything I need is first-class supported.
A 6 core I7 Mac Mini is perfect. It supports up to three monitors.
The Air is a wonderful machine. Lightweight. Plenty fast. Great keyboard that I now prefer.
That said, neither is appealing, and the replacement I am actually considering is a 2018 Mac Mini (I mostly work in offices where monitors are available).
And I am also keeping my 2013 rMBP until it falls apart.
It's absolutely incredible how long my rMBP has lasted the thousands of hours of wear and tear of travel. At this point, my battery is pretty much non-existent and the body is a bit warped, but otherwise for a six year old laptop that's seen incredible amount of use per day, it's tremendously resilient.
It kind of disappoints me that five years after the release, today's batch of laptops aren't really that dramatically better for their premium cost, especially when you compare the difference between the 2012 rMBP to the 2006 MacBook line.
It sounds to me like you've never owned a Mac.
As for open sourcing their hardware, I really couldn't care less. That's a problem for other manufacturers, not Apple.
* https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Elite...
That's a foolish assumption. I've worked as a web developer on Macbook Pros my entire career. Recently they've made some decisions that make me want to leave MacOS. The only thing I'll miss is being able to text on the desktop.
> As for open sourcing their hardware, I really couldn't care less. That's a problem for other manufacturers, not Apple.
That's a problem for users. It's a great idea they're discarding but keeping it guarded with patents.
I have never gotten battery life this poor out of the 2016 MacBook Pros, even when running Xcode continuously with a bunch of other apps open. 6 hours, maybe. I think you'd have to use every single battery guzzler at once: Chrome, VirtualBox, a Java IDE, antiviruses…
There's a substantial environmental benefit to reusing a computer you already have over buying another machine even if it is made of recycled aluminum, but my main hesitation is if Apple does change processor architecture in the next 2 years per rumors these may be their last x86 devices, and software compatibility for them in just a few years could become very bleak as developers focus more exclusively on the newer architecture.
Order of preference:
MacBook > MacBook Air > MacBook Pro 15" (pre-touch bar) > MacBook Pro 13" (pre-touch bar)
The MacBook is my favorite and I think is the proper evolution of the MacBook Air. I rarely need ports for doing day-to-day stuff like programming, reading and consuming content.
Also, as the OP mentioned, the tapered design makes typing a better experience compared to the hard edged MacBook Pros. The daily ergonomics of the MacBook is something that needs to be experienced and experience with the MacBook Air with respect to ergonomics was a factor in buying the MacBook.
There's not really anything else that comes close to giving me what a MacBook does. So it's going to have to be a lot worse than even 'filled with problems' to get me to switch.
But it's not actually very much lighter that the current 13" Pro, there's only about 100g in it. It's only a few bucks lighter on the wallet too.
The only way to get a truly light Mac is to get the just-plain Macbook, but that has no thunderbolt so it's a no-go.
I don't want to look at other brands for a work machine, but I am starting to, because some are now offering true quad-core i7's in a package about the weight of the Macbook.
I'm really hating the direction that tech is taking lately, getting colder and colder, more hype less substance, arbitrary choices (no more headphone jacks), making people disconnected from the real world, and overall just freaking me out with all those fingerprint and face recognition sensors getting ubiquitous.
I can't seem to find options that fit me now and I don't like it.
https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/what-every-major-ph...
Besides, just because the removal has some factual claims doesn't mean there aren't facts supporting the other side of the story. So it seems like it comes down to opinions now, what do you know.
That's still not what arbitrary means.
Which is more likely: That you don't know what a word means or that everyone and multiple dictionaries are wrong?
I do dislike the lack of a magsafe, but at least with 4 ports hopefully if/when I break one (haven't yet in a year) then there's more left.
That's my #1 complaint with the new macbooks. They are expensive enough already, and I hate having to buy dongles/docks as well.
I just hope my 2015 rMBP doesn't die on me for a while
to me it seems to drain power, take up mechanical space, i dont even like the aesthetics of the touchbar, truly the appendix of the mbp.
i do like the 32g for the mbp, the air only gets up to 16g
So, in the opinion of HN, what are good macbooks?
Then I bought a refurbished MBP 2015 15". Couldn't be happier with a laptop, honestly. Only thing I hate is when you load it heavily for a few minutes and the fans start wailing like a banshee. But truthfully, that's just a hate towards laptops in general. :D
The MBP 2015 is extremely durable, still lightweight enough, very powerful -- on compilation it seriously outperforms the 2nd gen i7 CPU on my gaming PC! -- and has a respectable battery life even when loaded. Never had to look for an outlet before I hit 6 hours of coding and compiling. And if I wasn't doing much compiling and mostly was just reading, coding from time and time, and watching videos, once it actually lasted for 10 hours.
So again, I ain't an Apple expert but ever since I got the MBP 2015 and read countless reviews and stories about the other models (like this thread) I still can't see what would ever entice me to buy another MacBook. Especially having in mind that the keyboard of the MBP 2015 is much better compared to anything on any subsequent MacBook so far.
I would love it even more if it didn't have the touchbar and would have a key press depth larger than half a millimetre.
Kinda. If you do, you get the 2016 specs machine, not the 2018 bumped specs. Maybe it is not rational, but if I am forking over that kind of money for a machine, I would want to get the best version, not an artificially gimped one.
He's obviously referring to the latest 15" MBP, or any quad-core MBP. You can't buy one without a touch bar. The existing stock for older 13" MBP without touch bar aren't new models. They are older models still being sold.
So no, you can't buy a new MBP without a touch bar.
Edit: And saw one of your other comments: they aren't selling 15-inch MBPs without a touch bar.
I don't think he is. He is referring to his older macbook pro. He is even saying is that Air is less powerful then MBP. So not so obviously as you think.
"Decreased firepower? – The MacBook Air isn’t as powerful as the MBP, "
EDIT: Arguing on HN is nightmare. It costs lot of karma. And I can't downvote yet. Not fair.
This is why you shouldn't have the right to downvote. You don't use down voting to argue. In fact, if you down vote something in reply to, you are literally saying that whatever you reply with is worth less than the comment you are replying to. A down voted comment by definition adds _nothing_ to the conversation and doesn't belong.
If I’m doing general writing and browsing, it’s basically 5 hours.
If I’m doing general writing and browsing, it’s basically 5 hours.
I have to quit Docker for Mac if I want more than ~3 hours from my late 2017 MBP. If Docker decides to do whatever it's doing when it uses 300% CPU for no apparent reason, that can end up being "I have 25% battery; time to look for a place to plug in!"
I've probably read 100+ comments on this site saying they prefer the 2015 MBP to the new ones. There is no value in repeating that again or upvoting a comment that repeats it.
It's a minority of customers as evidenced by sales numbers, but they seem to think Apple has a duty to cater to them.
2015 MBP was available until this July, non-touchbar 13" still is. The fact that the new Air got TouchID but not TouchBar could as well be a hint that it's non-touchbar models that were making most sales.
This is a superficial, brief opinion piece outlining someone's thoughts on a piece of hardware reviewed ad nauseam across the internet.
How is this submission 'deeply interesting' (or am I missing something here)?
This one might be at the less gratifying end of the spectrum, but if it gets a lot of votes and a worthwhile discussion develops, that generally indicates that it's a solid enough post.
Mediocre posts can sometimes spawn surprisingly good discussions.
But if you don't like a post, you can always flag it. If enough people do that it will be demoted down/off the front page.
Second, the laptop has a lot less wear and tear on it since I'm not typing on it. Not only does it help keep the keyboard nice and clean, but the screen, which gets grime on it from touching the keyboard when I close it.
I'm surprised this configuration is not more popular.