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Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
131–140 of 449 posts
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#132I'd say just unlucky. My Thinkpad Carbon X1 is rock solid, no issues the last 1.5 years even though my large cat frequently sleeps on it.
X1 Carbon feels a lot nicer to me than a Macbook. It's also lighter than a Macbook air and has a bigger screen and better keyboard.
Macbooks are better than about 95% of PC laptops, but that's because Macbooks are only in the lower/mid upper end of laptops. PC laptops range from absolute garbage to being significantly better than Macbooks.
When people complain about how terrible PC laptops are, it's very rare that they've spent a meaningful amount of time (read: enough to get used to the trackpoint) with a high end PC laptop.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#133I 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?)
Framework doesn't even support Linux and they only have one model, which is not enough to meet everyones needs.
> Framework doesn't even support Linux
Yet. I am pretty sure you could spin up Archlinux / Ubuntu on it. I'd give it a shot if I had the need to replace my Thinkpad.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#134I'm a Dell XPS 13 user here (with Linux) and I'm very happy I actually bought it twice (2014 and 2021). 0 problems, the laptop is always cold, no noise, everything works fine.
At work I had several MBP in the meantime. All of them with several problems. Docker extremely slow, Bluetooth not working, ports not working, noise like a nuclear reactor, extremely hot like you can actually make a pizza on top also the OS is very strict and hard to tell any other MBP user how to install things or how to configure it feels like a roulette and some of them if you open more than 6 apps it may reboot so good luck if MBP is your only option because you will be screw.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#135Earlier 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 have one of those macbook keyboards (2018 macbook pro) and it is easily the worst keyboard I have ever used. I do not understand how a keyboard like that could possibly have made it onto a $3000 laptop.
Which is funny because the touchpad is by far the best touchpad I've ever used, it's the first touchpad I'd ever used that made me think a touchpad could compete with a mouse. It even made me start donating to the linux touchpad improvement project that got posted on HN [1].
My thinkpad is the exact opposite. Decent keyboard for a laptop but terrible touchpad.
[1] https://www.gitclear.com/blog/linux_touchpad_update_december...
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#136"I strongly dislike MacOS because they force the "apple way" of doing things."
What does that mean exactly? I'm genuinely curious about what Apple forces a user to do. I would think cost is a concrete example ... But does Apple restrict you from using some software? or executing some work related function? some other functionality? or is that "Apple way" with regard to Apple's user experiences?
I wish there was a "Vent HN:" for posts like this. I'm not saying there isn't a legitimate argument in the original post; but there's a lot of hyperbole & vague statements too. And venting can be healthy.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#137I 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…
Why does nobody care about the janky Bluetooth mouse that's only janky on macOS? Why does nobody care that my USB 2.0 ports on my external USB-C docks die in about 20 minutes necessitating a reboot--again, only on macOS (and only on newer macOS versions--old ones work fine). How many years did it take Apple to (sort of) fix their shittastic keyboards? How garbagey is Xcode relative to any other IDE nowadays? I can go…
> Macbooks may look pretty, but the software has been becoming increasingly garbage.
I consider most of their "free" add-on software best-in-class or at least best-for-my-use case, with only a couple exceptions (including, yes, Xcode). The software is a whole lot of what keeps me on Mac hardware.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#138It is extremely funny that people are able to come to conclusions like this from just 2 data points. "Macbooks seem to be the only viable option these days", because I had bad experiences with two non-Macbook computers. To be fair; I don't think that the author came to that conclusion only from those 2 anecdotes. But still, that is the way the argument is presented. And it really looks absurd.
Like he said, he was unlucky. I got a Lenovo Carbon X1 and it worked with Ubuntu without problems (well, the finger print reader didn't work which become a security problem with work as we realised the weakest point was our laptops which had all the IP on them). Other than that it was a joy!
It's just that there are endless pitfalls, especially running Linux on more recent hardware.
For instance, if you would be running Kernel 5.14+ but not 5.18-rc2+, you'd be crashing every time you try to wake from suspend right now.[1]
[1]: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/dfbba2518aac4204203...
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#139I've also been a ThinkPad user since the IBM days, but my most recent work laptop was a Dell XPS15. It has been working fine for me.
For my home laptop, I had been using, for around the last 4 years, an HP Chrome 13 g1 Chromebook (6Y75), which I really loved. Got one for my son for last Christmas for $120 landed. 16GB RAM, 32GB SSD, 2560x1440 display. The original one I got for $550, it was refurbed on woot. List price was more over a grand, but I wasn't prepared to spend that on the experiment.
For the longest time it didn't support the Linux containers, but that got remedied last year. I was mostly using it for the browser and using a Chrome extension to SSH into my work machines. With the Linux containers, it's a full Linux environment, though with some restrictions.
However, over it's life it lived very well up to the "just works" idea that I got it initially to try out. OS updates are super fast (they just show up and when you reboot next they are there, If you need a full laptop running Linux, you're going to just need to get a laptop. I'd probably consider another Dell, it has worked fine. My last Thinkpad had some weird battery issues, and because of it's slim config it had two small batteries and I wasn't quite ready to have work buy $300+ of batteries for a problem I couldn't reliably reproduce.
But, I'd definitely consider a Chromebook with Linux containers for lighter duty work.
Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days
#140I have few laptops by Asus and HP. All work like a charm and were cheap for what they offer. The oldest ASUS still in use after some 10 years. Runs some specialized control applications. Should I create a post and title it "ASUS laptops seems to be the only viable option these days"
I don't know about its longevity but I am quite happy with the OLED Asus ZenBook. Pretty screen, fast, etc. If they made one in a machined aluminum case instead of sheet aluminum it would feel more rigid, that's my only real complaint.