Hacker News Reader

Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

> But, man, Apple hardware still rocks. Can't deny that.

They really dodged a bullet there. 2016-2020 Apple laptop hardware definitely didn't rock. It's good they did an about-face on some of those bad ideas.

View on HN

The fact they were able to turn around their hardware division after all that is the only thing which gives me hope they might be capable of doing an about-face on software.

Are you referring to the butterfly keyboard and TouchBar?

FWIW, I think the Touchbar was close to being a good idea, it was just missing haptics.

They didn't rock but... modern MacBook Pro models are bigger and heavier and have a notch (and yes, I know technically the notch is more screen rather than less, and that one can simply use the space below, but I still don't like it). I also liked how you could charge the older models from either side and still have 3 free Thunderbolt ports.

Debatable since the nub is still around on all their devices. My M3 work laptop definitely feels like a playskool toy.

You can’t get more brain dead that taking away important screen real estate then making the argument that you get more real estate because it’s now all tucked into a corner.

God forbid there be a black strip on the sides of the screen. How did we ever live?!??

Except Apple increased the height of the screen by exactly as many pixels as the notch is tall, so yes, your windows actually do get more real estate compared with the pre-notch models. I’m not going to argue that it’s free of problems, but it doesn’t come at the cost of usable desktop space.

Also worth pointing out that this design allows a substantial footprint reduction, which for example puts the 13.6” Macbook Air within striking distance of traditional bezel 12” laptops in terms of physical size. Some people care about that.

It does come at the cost of useable desktop space because if you don’t use a separate monitor with your portable device, you can’t see or use icons in the task bar.

And peoples suggestions is to install 3rd party software or just deal with it. It doesn’t help that fanatics feel the need to tell you which parts of the screen are and aren’t important real estate. Like fuck me and my opinions right?

“Well actually mathematically there’s more real estate in less convenient places so it’s fine.” Is so…depressing to watch people just give in to any little idea that comes out of this company’s PR department, like their logic is The Only truth.

My suggestion would be to buy a laptop you like, then.

Or if your work is forcing it on you, I'm sorry but that's not the fault of people who happen to enjoy it. Maybe ask if you can get a different machine?

I’ve tried all those options. I only use my Apple laptop for work and for everything else I use a well designed piece of hardware, a Framework laptop. I’m a hardware prude and only work on professional hardware with fantastic design that doesn’t obfuscate my screen for an argument about pixel space and a desire to standout at the cost of sensibility.

It’s a legitimate issue in one sense, but another way of seeing it is that outside of a select few programs that actually need to be that way, Windows-tray-style apps are something of an anti-pattern. Most apps would be better as plain old dock apps or maybe headless daemons with HUD style UI summoned by a keystroke and thus not need menubar icons. It’s genuinely weird that we’ve ended up in a place where more than a fractional number of users have a bajillion menubar icons to contend with.

I really like my macbook with the notch. The bezels are smaller and you can fit a larger screen in a similar footprint to previous macbooks without the notch.

Putting aside the keyboard debacle a lot of the blame for that can be directed at Intel's door. They consistently over promised and underdelivered.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com