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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

#271

Post by mstaoru »

I cannot really accept a MacBook because it's a rental product where Apple has complete control over your machine.

Used a Dell XPS for a while, it's a fairly good experience with Linux (Ubuntu and Manjaro), but the build quality is pretty bad. Once it fell backwards from a coffee table and shorted the main board from the hit. I had to resolder a few SMD parts, was not fun. I also hit the corner or the "metal" lid which cracked and bent from an impact what wouldn't even scratch a MacBook. Needless to say, Dell's support was not helpful.

Now I've got a new 2022 ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16, and so far the experience is much better. It's a sturdy machine, without any Dell's creaking and bending, the keyboard is much better as well. ASUS Linux community at https://asus-linux.org/ is helpful and most of the features worked either out of the box, or with reasonable amount of tinkering. The price for it here in Shanghai is also reasonable, 12700h w/ nvidia 3060, 2T SSD, and 40GB DDR5 RAM is ~US$2250.

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

#272

Post by icelancer »

dbevv wrote: post #186
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…

I dislike using touchpads very much. I go to great lengths to control everything with the keyboard, and fall back to a traditional mouse when I have to (I tried trackballs but I couldn't adapt). Whenever I'm forced to use a touchpad because I'm on the go or I don't have room to bring a mouse with me, I groan. That said, the implementation of the touchpad in a Macbook vs a regular touchpad in even a high end laptop is…

Well said. The Macbook touchpad is almost good enough to get me to use it without being mad. And that's a hell of an accomplishment, because for any other laptop, I'd prefer to simply not use the computer if I didn't have a mouse on me.

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

#273

Post by hahuang65 »

Respectfully I disagree. In fact MacBooks are slowly become the LEAST viable option, at least for me personally.

It's all about personal requirements and I suppose, taste.

Don't get me wrong, the MacBook is a fantastic laptop, especially for the creative professional and laypeople.

For me, as a Linux user and enthusiast, MacBooks have slowly become less and less viable each year.

I bought my first MacBook in 2007, in college, and have used MacBooks as my primary choice of device until 2018. I still use a MacBook professionally, as it is what my company distributes for development machines.

They are beautifully crafted, well integrated, and optimized for a good amount of use cases.

What they are no longer good for is openness. They are slowly migrating away from being able to access low level things, and when you can it's highly limited. Each year, I feel like the OS and hardware creep toward iPad levels of openness.

A lot of open source software will stop being supported for M1 (MX moving forward) chipsets if they choose to ditch backwards compatibility with current architectures. Powerful tiling window managers are all but extinct on macOS, with the exception of yabai, which you need to disable a lot of security features just to use.

I bought my wife a MacBook for Christmas in 2020 and I was very jealous. The hardware and the OS are simply beautiful. However it simply doesn't work for me anymore.

I bought an XPS developer edition in 2018, slapped Arch Linux on it and never had any serious issues.

My next laptop will be another XPS, ThinkPad, Systemic, or a Star book, but I will continue to look at MacBooks with envy.

That being said, if MacBooks meet your requirements, it's hard not to argue that it's a good machine, if not the best, possibly lending to your feeling that it's the "only choice".

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

#274

Post by vmurthy »

GraphenePants wrote: post #248
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…

Given Windows' market dominance it stands to reason that most people believe them to have taste. It also remains unclear how these issues would impact your ability to do work.

Hmmm, are you conflating the hardware the runs Windows or do you mean something else?

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

#275

Post by srcreigh »

For what it's worth, when I purchased a desktop PC last year, I had to return 3 before I got one which wasn't problematic. Two of one model both shut off randomly, the first of the 2nd model had a bad hard drive (write failures while installing arch).

On the other hand, I had two 2018 Intel MBPs fail in the span of 4 days last month. Just my personal work computer. I set up 2 new MBPs in 1 week. Don't know the cause but after a while they would stop starting up properly. I ended up with an M1.

I speculate it's all related to covid shortages somehow but who knows.

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

#276

Post by n8ta »

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.

If we're doing anecdotes. I was hit by a car with my laptop and it has a 1/4 inch dent in the corner of the case. The screen on the bottom right is somewhat off color but it's been running fine for last 7 years. I've swapped out SSDs too for more room.

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

#278

Post by subsection1h »

> they force the "apple way" of doing things. But it seems to be the only option these days to buy a computer with ease and get a computer "that just works".

Replace "computer" with "laptop" and the above statement might be true. I use desktop computers because I've worked remotely for almost my entire career, and I haven't had a problem with a desktop since the 90s.

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

#279

Post by MBCook »

alienthrowaway wrote: post #252
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…

> It'd cost way too much to redesign the product correctly. No such thing as a "correct" design: it's all about market positioning and design trade-offs. I'm typing this on a sub-$300 laptop, it's made of plastic, it bends and flexes, but it is very light, and has a 1980x1024 display, a 9-hour battery, and again - it bears repeating - cost less than $300 brand new. These factors may not be important to you, but they…

Those are totally fair trade-offs. The problem is that often they seem to continue to exist at or above the thousand dollar plus price point.

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

#280

Post by konfusinomicon »

uuyi wrote: post #59
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…

If that’s an Intel one you’re getting, I can understand it. However the M1 ones are a completely different computer. I am shocked at how good they are.

if only they could support 3 external monitors
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