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How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

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Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#261

Post by sirn »

fooker wrote: post #244
sirn wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's probably because Homebrew has all the obscure packages one might ever need, and packages in Homebrew are quite up-to-date even though it may not be extensively tested. For example, I use cocot quite often (for dealing with SJIS systems), and while cocot is in Homebrew, it's not in the Ubuntu's official repository.

It is in AUR though, and for *ubuntu distros you can always find a PPA.

I'm pretty sure AUR has everything :) But the OP was talking about ARM, which I'm not sure about the state of ARM port for Arch Linux. It's also true that one can also find PPA, but there's big convenient when it's installable right away without needing to search for PPAs.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#262

Post by beat »

avn2109 wrote: post #221
muninn_ wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a desktop or a special interface port if you need something specialized.

His point is that fundamental physics and information theory limit how good a wireless link can be. So wired links will always perform better and therefore high-end audio engineering will run cables forever.

Technically, you could create an isosynchronous wireless protocol. But 802.11 ain't it, and neither is Bluetooth. Both are very tolerant of lag and have little guarantee of latency.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#263

Post by WaltPurvis »

TheOneTrueKyle wrote: post #246
WaltPurvis wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my experience also. It seems like Apple is delivering premium hardware and build quality -- they're certainly charging premium prices -- but in my family I can think of at least five show-stopping hardware failures with Apple products in the past few years, and zero such failures with a comparable number of Windows/Android devices. In addition, Apple's hardware specs no longer justify premium prices, in…

Hackintosh it up. Youy won't regret it

I do use a Hackintosh for my desktop, but that's not really a viable option for the general public, and even for myself I'd prefer to just have Apple start selling decent desktops again.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#264

Post by dkonofalski »

kruipen wrote: post #65
electic wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did take a close look at the Surface Pro. Sorry, the build quality is nowhere near a MacBook Pro. Secondly, I found the touch screen very gimmicky. I tried using it for a week and found that my hand just hurt lifting it up repeatedly and also hated switching context from the keyboard to the screen. Not to mention, the screen was full of smudge marks after awhile. To be honest, I really found myself using the keyboa…

The touch screen on the Surface has one killer application: scrolling while reading. It's very natural to scroll content with a thumb on the edge of the screen.

This sounds like everyone here is about to get into an argument over hand position. I feel like the hand being positioned hear the bottom of the computer is the result of you knowing that you can scroll with your thumb like that. Wouldn't your natural position after using the keyboard be to just relax your hands which would put it right near the trackpad? It seems like moving your hands out to the side of the computer/table/desk is a self-fulfilling improvement as you most likely wouldn't put your hands there if there wasn't a touchscreen. There would be no benefit or convenience to it otherwise. On top of that, you'll most likely still have one hand resting near the keyboard for typing which further worsens the inconvenience.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#265

Post by dkonofalski »

snoman wrote: post #141
electic wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you have to lift your arm up. It is far far faster to scroll through a web page with the touchpad.

You're starting to sound like one of those funny infomercials where everything is black and white and the actor fumbles with some overtly awkward action, that is otherwise mundane... Holding their outstretched arm up over their head with their other arm, a grimace of strain on their face, trying to scroll with their pinky finger. All the while the voice-over is asking why you'd subject yourself to this. It's a, very…

I think the point, though, is that your hand wouldn't naturally rest on the table near the screen like that. The main reason you're comfortable doing that is because you know you can scroll with your hand in that position. The natural resting position would be to relax your hands off the keyboard after typing and that puts it squarely in the area of the (comically) huge trackpad.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#266

Post by brightball »

wlesieutre wrote: post #166
brightball wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same boat with a maxed out 2010 17" MBP. RAM is maxed and I've upgraded the HD 3 times. The lack of a new 17" is blocking my upgrade entirely and has me shopping for Linux laptops at the point that it finally dies. I use my laptop as a second screen when I work and a screen smaller than 17 makes it less functional in terms of readability from a distance.

I don't know how the Linux support is, but if you're looking for a 17" performance machine I've read good things about the Razer Blade Pro. http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13344566/razer-blade-pro-... http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro 4K, 32 GB DDR4, dual PCIe SSDs, i7-6700HQ, GTX 1080 (a real desktop one apparently), SDXC reader, Thunderbolt 3, plus a full compliment of legacy ports. Doesn't…

NICE

I will patiently await Linux reviews of it...but that looks awesome.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#267

Post by electic »

dkonofalski wrote: post #265
snoman wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're starting to sound like one of those funny infomercials where everything is black and white and the actor fumbles with some overtly awkward action, that is otherwise mundane... Holding their outstretched arm up over their head with their other arm, a grimace of strain on their face, trying to scroll with their pinky finger. All the while the voice-over is asking why you'd subject yourself to this. It's a, very…

I think the point, though, is that your hand wouldn't naturally rest on the table near the screen like that. The main reason you're comfortable doing that is because you know you can scroll with your hand in that position. The natural resting position would be to relax your hands off the keyboard after typing and that puts it squarely in the area of the (comically) huge trackpad.

Bingo. Your hand is already there, no need to leave the workspace. There is no need to move up they keyboard and to the right and then up the screen to scroll.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#268

Post by slantyyz »

pas wrote: post #240
curun1r wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying that I prefer the soldered-in versions, but back when I had a Mac with user-replaceable memory, the RAM would get unseated from time to time as my machine got jostled around in my bag and I'd have to open it up to fix it. I imagine that the Genius Bar saw a non-zero number of people bringing in computers that wouldn't boot because of this. Also, soldered-in saves space and thus helps with their patholo…

Huh? I'm using a Dell Latitude E7440, it's about 3 years old, and I carry it everywhere. It has a few dents here and there. I've gone to the pub with it a few times and only God (and Google location services) know how I got back, luckily with the notebook still in my backpack, and the backpack somehow inside my place. The RAM never dislodged. http://17c4dcd7f91259d8cc66-f5932f6db0039e8c02f89a70c334ff0e... But of cour…

>> But of course, soldering them in is not surprising. It cuts costs.

Unfortunately these cost savings don't get passed to the customer. RAM bumps in Apple BTOs cost notably more than socketed RAM of equivalent quality. And because the RAM is pre-soldered, you can't chalk the price premium to the cost of some guy popping RAM into sockets.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#269

Post by vintageseltzer »

After 15 years of doing so, I can no longer tell people that the quality of Apple's products are worth the cost.

I waited three years to upgrade from my late-2013 MBP and I see no improvements of value in the new version.

The new MBPs have seemingly worse battery life, the RAM is the same, ports I use every day are gone, and now their "portable" laptop requires you to carry around a bunch of adapters and wires. The touch bar is a naked marketing ploy. Might as well be straight out of the mid-2000s Microsoft playbook.

I work at a "unicorn" and I can tell you that the majority of developers eligible for new machines are delaying upgrades or getting a Surface. I'd do the same if not for homebrew.

I feel the same about their phone line. I've been praying my iPhone 5 continues to last because I have no interest in paying more money for their flimsier successors and then paying a tax to buy new headphones.

I am also a shareholder and am quite concerned. The Apple Watch is a joke. Their desktop machines, monitors and routers are stale, obsolete and overpriced.

Usually I like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it's clear they have lost their way and the marketers have won. What is their leadership thinking? How long until talent starts to migrate out?

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#270

Post by sosborn »

protomyth wrote: post #205
delegate wrote: post #57

Hardware is not the only problem Apple has right now vis-a-vis developers. Apple's flagship IDE, XCode, is also lagging behind, at least when talking about C++ development, but even Swift doesn't get too much love it seems. Having used it since at least version 5, XCode 8 has been a frustrating experience for me starting from day one, when it defaulted to Swift version 3.0 and so broke all of the existing Swift proje…

Xcode was the buggy "single program" replacement for Project Builder and Interface Builder. It really never got over the bugs. I wish they had gone the other way an embraced the parts and components so we could at least add stuff beyond the current model. Thinking about it, this whole must be in xcode to read the documentation is still a pain in the butt. I miss printing the pdfs (much easier on my eyes or I could us…

> why the heck they at least don't have an official documentation viewing app on iOS.

https://developer.apple.com/reference/

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