Agreed. I’m back in the market and for a MacBook myself. They simply work far better.
Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
101–110 of 449 posts
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#102I think Framework and System76 are largely replacing the best options from the traditional PC manufacturers for Linux users (and maybe many Windows users as well?)
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Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#103I may be an outlier, but for me, the problem with non-mac machines is that they seem just careless. Steve jobs famously said "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste.", and this seems true to me for almost all hardware manufacturers, and to a larger degree still for software. Why does nobody care about creaking plastic? About sticky-feeling texture? About uneven weight distribution? About the sound…
Jewellery is a great analogy imo. Apple is a jewellery company imo. They sell expensive, shiny, conspicuous consumption items without practical use. I was shocked when I found out that macs are popular among people who actually work with computers and even make software. It will never cease to shock me. The only explanation I can think of is that this is a USA social class thing. In the USA the upper classes have App…
My last MBP only lasted 10 years of almost daily use so yeah, no practical use at all...
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#104Wow! Why suffer the slings and arrows of such garbage? Thinkpads were last good in 2000.
MacOS - mini or macbook - is just a life-changer. It's like having your own Tesla instead of walking or taking the bus. Don't be so put off by the marketing and fandom that you actually make yourself suffer. Just get one.
Years from now you'll still be accelerating, and your former troubles will be laughable.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#105I may be an outlier, but for me, the problem with non-mac machines is that they seem just careless. Steve jobs famously said "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste.", and this seems true to me for almost all hardware manufacturers, and to a larger degree still for software. Why does nobody care about creaking plastic? About sticky-feeling texture? About uneven weight distribution? About the sound…
Or materials that look grimy/grubby from use and wear (e.g. Thinkpad touchpads). My go-to has been to run Windows (best OS) on Mac laptops (best hardware), but with M1, it looks like this will no longer be an option. Hoping for some magic cross-architecture emulation.
> Windows (best OS)
I'll admit, I haven't touched a Windows machine in over a decade, and it hasn't been my daily driver since 2002. The last version I used on a semi-regular basis was Win2K3 at work.
I'm willing to give it another shot though. Why do you think it's the best now?
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#106> I strongly dislike MacOS because they force the "apple way" of doing things.
Complaining about this is like complaining that cats don’t behave like dogs.
macOS has its own idiosyncrasies. It may not be for everyone, but maybe this is the reason why things “just work” for the general public (and more).
I’m not aware of Windows working on Apple Silicon, but there is Asahi Linux which, I hear, has done a good job with their M1 support, although it likely comes with compromises (again, this is second hand information).
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the thing. We spend a huge amount of time using computers. Considering not just the share of time but also the share of concentrated attention, they are an even more important object in our lives. Why would you not desire the tool you use to be the absolute best you can have? And if eating cornflakes is important to you, the Laguioles may be worth it. After all, they will probably last ten years or twenty. Com…
TBF Apple sold very expensive laptops with shoddy faulty keyboards for YEARS. People idolize and idealize Apple but tend to ignore the faults and failures. I truly believe Apple does not respect their customers. They have some good product and some bad ones too.
I think it was Ive who prioritised aesthetics over usability, an approach that I feel is inherently disrespectful to the paying users. The MacBooks have returned to form since he left. A post recommending Mac over Lenovo would have been untenable a year ago.
Though perhaps I’m being overly harsh on Ive … have they sorted out spellcheck yet? The way they’ve conducted that the last while is I think some of the most disrespectful product management ive (should be I've) seen since Cadbury replaced quality chocolate with a drumming gorilla.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It feels a lot more like a dual os system than just running a vm inside of windows. The integration between the two is pretty seamless and powerful. e.g. this is in my wsl .bashrc file, it writes to my windows clipboard by running the powershell.exe windows executeable: function cb () { powershell.exe -command "\$input | set-clipboard" } Mac is unix sure, but they have diverged from the popular main stream linux dist…
I think you have that backwards: it's Linux that has diverged from the Unix way of doing things. All the various gotchas and different ways are Linux-isms. After all, which came first, and which came later, then changed? macOS is more consistent with the BSDs than Linux is with older Linux or one distro is with another.
Celebrating Unix certification feels dated to me.
Once upon a time our production servers might have also been Unix. And developing from a Unix system was therefore desirable.
But these days our production services are almost certainly running on Linux (and probably Docker). Mac/Unix will have incompatibilities with this.
But you can get away with a non-Linux local environment because: * most server software doesn't use APIs that differ between environments * most OSes are well supported by Docker- which may work using a seamless Linux VM.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#109I'm shocked the LG Gram doesn't get more attention. It's a dream come true laptop for a non-Apple developer. It took me months to actually find it after needing to replace my Vaio, but going 2 years strong with no issues whatsoever.
It has it all. Lightweight, great battery life, big screen, full backlit keyboard, numpad, latest processors, USB-C charging and display, the only PC trackpad that beats the Mac. And with PowerToys, you can lay out the keyboard however you need.
Unless you need a dedicated GPU, it's the complete PC laptop in my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#110I may be an outlier, but for me, the problem with non-mac machines is that they seem just careless. Steve jobs famously said "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste.", and this seems true to me for almost all hardware manufacturers, and to a larger degree still for software. Why does nobody care about creaking plastic? About sticky-feeling texture? About uneven weight distribution? About the sound…
Apple's taste and the ways they do things makes you love / hate your experience and your judgement of whether you should buy their product. The company is position as "we know what's best for you" and you can see this along their product line. General PC makers have a carefree attitude where here is what you want and they will give you the specs and it works however you want. Which means sometimes you will have to deal with managing your own experience.
The design inconsistencies though are twofold. If we look at phones Samsung makes their own processor that they try to use with their phones and they are also not fabless but that processor continually either underperforms Apple's products. On the other hand the Apple tax is quite real. Also, Samsung's aesthetic at least at their phones is quite real although they might just abandon their standard flagships to foldable phones because the yearly update cycle for phones is stopping soon.
Also, many manufacturers seem to just blindly copy Apple up to even their marketing (which I don't think many would disagree that Apple does the best out of any of their competitors).