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Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

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Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saner people did prevail at Apple. That's why for a laptop that typically lasts 5+ years they went with USB-C to replace the other dozen antiquated ports.

Some of us were using those antiquated ports.

I know. I'm one of them.

But I will always applaud Apple for when they do things like this because through sheer attrition they will move the industry forward.

The iMac is largely what made USB a success. And I am hoping this will make a single connector world a success.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#82

Massive tip if you decide to stay with a Open up the laptop and reapply the thermal paste on the CPU with something high quality like Arctic Silver. It really needs redoing after 1-2 years. This will result in a significant improvement to overall performance. Why ? Because when OSX detects that the laptop is overheating it schedules a dummy task e.g. secd or kernel_task to throttle the CPU. Cool the laptop and the th…

Is this specific to certain years only? I have a 2012 non-retina and it is great, but apparently certain years had more problems than others. Would you recommend it for my 2012 model too?

As a more reliable way to confirm if you have some thermal problem on an older Mac, download and run Intel Power Gadget. That shows the current frequency of the CPU, and when combined with running some program that puts all cores under load, you can see if the frequency drops below what is designed for.

Be aware it isn't always thermal paste that is the culprit. I had a 2012 Retina 15" MBP that was normally 2.6GHz but would drop down to 1.4GHz. That was purely due to the fans and (tiny) vents getting choked up. Solved by opening and using compressed air to clean, no fiddling with CPU paste.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#83
post #72
post #21

Just got a Thinkpad T460s. Practically the same dimensions and specs of a X1 Carbon but with replaceable memory and disk. Can easily be made to have 20GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD, and if someone makes a 32GB DIMM could potentially go up to 36GB of RAM although that's not advertised as supported. Everything works in Linux just fine and the 2560x1440 screen looks great.

T460s only has partially replaceable memory, some of it is soldered on. And god help you if that fails outside warranty, spare Thinkpad mainboards usually cost more than a new laptop.

The '-s' models are all designed to be slimmer counterparts to the non-'-s' models. Apart from that, the T460 should be identical to the T460s; and I'd recommend the former instead of the latter for the same reason you mention.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#84

No terminal is on par with iTerm. I was using Linux and *BSD for years, used many terminals, and of all iTerm is bread and butter (and with that font rendering and retina screen, nothing comes close). I would recommend to evaluate your needs, but be objective! If you can live with 16GB of RAM (I can, I do not do anything that would require me to use 32GB of RAM) then buy last year model. I have it, amazing machine. A…

What exactly is it that makes you think iTerm is so good? I've started using a MBP after years on ubuntu and I don't think which terminal I am using makes much difference. All I am going to do is open tmux anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#85
post #58

What is so special about iTerm? Features, font rendering? For features and portability, I can warmly recommend SecureCRT[0], you won't find a more capable terminal app anywhere. [0] https://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/index.html

The problem with that terminal (and lots of other with 'loads of features) is that it tries to reinvent the wheel. Why would I need SSH, file transfers, command editors, etc, when all of that is done by the shell itself? If I need ssh I just run 'ssh' on my terminal, and that's it. If I need to edit a command I press Ctrl-X + E and bash/zsh shows me a command editor (vim or emacs or nano, whatever you want).

What, in my opinion, makes iTerm good is that it doesn't try to redo all the things that shells do, but instead tries to give you better access to that shell. For example, one thing which is surprisingly difficult to find in terminal programs: a drop-down terminal. In iTerm, I press Cmd + Shift + 1 and a terminal appears in the top of the screen. Quick access, quick hide, and always there to do whatever quick thing I need to do. Another feature: no space waste. iTerm does not have toolbars, buttons or anything, it's all terminal because that's all I need. Only a tab bar with multiple tabs, and if you want a title bar on split mode (optional, I personally have it disabled).

It also complements the shell in system integration: one thing which is incredibly useful is the trigger system. For example, when I'm waiting for a host to come up, I just run "ping whatever" and hide the window. When the text "64 bytes from... " appears, a trigger I configured fires and shows me an OS X notification. You can also highlight text in the terminal or do any other custom action, which can be very useful.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#86
I love my Aorus X3: http://www.aorus.com/Product/Features/X3%20Plus%20v6

Portability, power and build quality are all excellent. Battery life isn't up to MacBook standards, but you get a good 4 to 5 hours on a single charge which is still fairly usable. The trackpad isn't as nice as a MacBook either, but it's good enough. Everything else about it has the MacBook Pro completely outclassed in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us were using those antiquated ports.

I know. I'm one of them. But I will always applaud Apple for when they do things like this because through sheer attrition they will move the industry forward. The iMac is largely what made USB a success. And I am hoping this will make a single connector world a success.

A single-connector world is not an end in itself. The reason anyone finds it appealing is because it means people won't have to carry a forest of adapters and connectors, or worry about incompatible devices.

But that's what Apple is now forcing us to do if we buy their new laptop. USB-A is going to be around for years to come, as is HDMI. I'm not going to throw out my extremely expensive Thunderbolt display because it uses a heretical connector. I am not going to refuse to speak at a conference because the projector doesn't work with my new machine.

The basic requirement of a professional machine is that it let us get our work done. This is just design wank.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#88
post #21

Just got a Thinkpad T460s. Practically the same dimensions and specs of a X1 Carbon but with replaceable memory and disk. Can easily be made to have 20GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD, and if someone makes a 32GB DIMM could potentially go up to 36GB of RAM although that's not advertised as supported. Everything works in Linux just fine and the 2560x1440 screen looks great.

I'm happily on a T460s as well. The nice thing about the T4x0 series is that they're used by lots of Redhat employees so driver issues tend to be resolved quickly.

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know. I'm one of them. But I will always applaud Apple for when they do things like this because through sheer attrition they will move the industry forward. The iMac is largely what made USB a success. And I am hoping this will make a single connector world a success.

A single-connector world is not an end in itself. The reason anyone finds it appealing is because it means people won't have to carry a forest of adapters and connectors, or worry about incompatible devices. But that's what Apple is now forcing us to do if we buy their new laptop. USB-A is going to be around for years to come, as is HDMI. I'm not going to throw out my extremely expensive Thunderbolt display because i…

As a wag on twitter said -- let's call it a courage of cables that we can haul around with us!

Re: Ask HN: Disappointed by the new Macbook, what alternatives do we have?

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us were using those antiquated ports.

I know. I'm one of them. But I will always applaud Apple for when they do things like this because through sheer attrition they will move the industry forward. The iMac is largely what made USB a success. And I am hoping this will make a single connector world a success.

There was nothing wrong with keeping a magsafe port, or throwing one thunderbolt 2 connector in there. That doesn't preclude a bunch of usbc ports.

ps -- for me personally, we're discussing a bonus $500 of cables/adapters/chargers that Apple is blithely demanding I replace.

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