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Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

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Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#151

Post by uniqueuid »

chaostheory wrote: post #127
uniqueuid wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it very sad to think that masses cannot have style. Some old Swiss everyday products are affordable yet beautiful; I am convinced both is possible.

Apple and companies in general need to make a profit. Those same "old Swiss everyday products" are most likely no longer affordable based on the modern cost of labor and materials.

The price of, say, a basic victorinox Swiss Army knife or a simple Caran d‘ache ball pen is still around one hourly wage in Western Europe and perhaps 2 to 5 in Eastern Europe.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#152

Post by Gollapalli »

postalrat wrote: post #53

I dream of a device that's basically a laptop without a screen, keyboard, trackpad, etc. Just plug it into a usb-c hub it restores everything from where I left off last time. Then once I'm done put it in my pocket and go. Then if I do want a laptop I could buy a chassis with a battery, keyboard, trackpad, screen, etc, etc to dock my device above in to. Edit: Seriously considering taking the motherboard out of a steam…

That is actually, genuinely an amazing idea.

I'd steal it, but I doubt I'd have time to seriously work on it. So... either make it and sell it to me, or have someone else do it.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#153

Post by fartcannon »

uniqueuid wrote: post #87
kmeisthax wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because every other computer manufacturer realized they can save on the BOM cost by shoving the whole computer under plastic gingerbread. That weight distribution? It'd cost way too much to redesign the product correctly. Flickering redraws? We don't make the OS, we just sell Microsoft's. Occasionally you do see PC OEMs that try for taste in the Windows ecosystem. Sony did that with their VAIO laptops, with the somew…

All true, but why is the culture and aesthetic of computers inherently trashy? Look at all the fields where superior quality is a completely natural criterion (whether it exists may be another question): Watches, cars, pens, paper notebooks, furniture, fashion, jewellery, architecture, bikes, coffee machines ... What's more - if you look at the visual representations of computers - i.e. marketing material, art, illus…

Trashy is paying extra for needless aesthetics. Function over fashion forever, in my earnest opinion.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#154

Post by jordache »

Apple's service network, via physical stores can not be beat!

I had an issue with my Samsung smart phone at one point. However, I couldn't part with the phone for x number of weeks, to send it in, for an assessment.

After that, I realized ease of support on iPhone was the biggest differentiator between Apple and other brands

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#155

Post by varunprasad »

clint wrote: post #126
28304283409234 wrote: post #42

I'm on my 3rd(!) company supplied macbook in almost 2 years. Macbook Pro, 16'', 32GB. First Macbook: screen broke in the middle. Second Macbook: screen broke and MacOS is complaining that there's something wrong with the SSD. Third macbook I just received and can't tell what will break. But break it will. I only move them around the house, never on the road. When I move them, I place them in a Thule Gauntlet. I reall…

As an equally useless anecdote, I've probably owned ~10 mac laptops in my life and I've never had an issue. I literally have never used a laptop sleeve or anything I just throw it in a bag and go. Literally one of the most indestructible things I've ever owned.

You're extremely lucky. Or maybe you change your laptops before Apple acknowledges the very real problems they have.

So many of their laptops have had issues necessitating recalls, but because they were able to delay those recalls until 5+ years after those devices were released (even if complaints started way earlier), they get away with it.

I've already had 2 Apple laptops where I took in a 4-5 year old device, and basically had them replace/refresh it for free. One was the gen 1 or gen 2 Macbook which had a ridiculous discoloration issue on the case palm rests, combined with the case peeling apart, and the other a Macbook Pro (2011?2012?) that had a graphics card issue.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#156

Post by [deleted] »

alphabettsy wrote: post #94
ProAm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 the keyboard issue was overblown given what we saw at work with those machines. That said, the one person on my team with a failed keyboard was able to get it fixed very easily. One thing that makes me tend to prefer Apple is the stores and support. I recall support for HP and VAIO computers being extremely painful. PC manufacturers have so many models they don’t even have parts available for a computer that…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#157

Post by chaostheory »

uniqueuid wrote: post #151
chaostheory wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple and companies in general need to make a profit. Those same "old Swiss everyday products" are most likely no longer affordable based on the modern cost of labor and materials.

The price of, say, a basic victorinox Swiss Army knife or a simple Caran d‘ache ball pen is still around one hourly wage in Western Europe and perhaps 2 to 5 in Eastern Europe.

Are they made with the same quality of materials as older, more reliable versions? I would guess no. It's also a poor comparison because both are low tech products.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#158

Post by pathartl »

alphabettsy wrote: post #100
heavyset_go wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backups are important, but what I also think is important is that an entire laptop shouldn't become garbage just because a soldered component on it fails.

It’s not garbage. Just replace the motherboard.

"Just replace the motherboard" and lose all of your data on it. Yes, backups are important, but there's a loss of time when you have to restore from backup or provision a new machine/motherboard with your environment.

Not to mention that "just replace the motherboard" can often mean costing half, if not more, the original price of the machine. What happens if my SSD wears out? I just have to replace the entire logic board for one wear component?

Say it's not the SSD and it's something else like a voltage regulator. Now this motherboard is complete scrap. There's no harvesting of the RAM or SSD, so the part is probably $300 more expensive than it needs to be. And all those useful parts that are already scarce in a chip shortage will just be ground down and "recycled". These laptops suck.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#159

Post by watmough »

bsder wrote: post #84
uniqueuid wrote: post #24

I 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…

I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 on a crisp new Lenovo P1. Expensive but very nice laptop. The powerbrick did self-destruct, but I bought the fancy service plan and support shipped me a replacement after just a few questions with no issues.

I would echo your experience. macOS has gone significantly downhill overall, in terms of sheer ugliness and hassle to use as a developer box. I'm think about the continual prompts for running software and allowing access to folders etc., incredible difficulty in getting non-macOS frameworks like SDL etc., to run.

It's no longer worth the hassle.

My work Razer Blade 15 runs CentOS 7. My MBP M1 runs Asahi. And this Lenovo is running Ubuntu 20.04. Gnome on all of them, and by and large, much much better experience than either current Windows or macOS.

Re: Ask HN: MacBooks seems to be the only viable option these days

#160

Post by xet7 »

Apple is not any better.

At 10th of this month I bought MacBook M1 that has 16 GB RAM and 512 GB disk. I did dual boot macOS Monterey and Asahi Linux. I could not find a way to turn off boot sound, selecting that menu option at macOS did not work. When I was away from keyboard, macOS did go to sleep mode, even when I tried make it not to at power settings. Asahi Linux did keep running, so my HexChat IRC etc did not stop when away from computer. Linux is still best work OS. I did like MacBook M1 is silent.

At 14th of this month I had to return MacBook M1 to warranty repair, because it does not boot anymore. It does charge to full, but does not boot.

Good luck finding working laptop.

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