Live data from Hacker News

How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

bloomberg.com

421–430 of 587 posts

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#421
post #16

My main computer is a five year old 17" MBP. I've upgraded it to the max and done repairs to maintain it. I need the computational power - I use it for programming, photo editing at scale, and recording/mixing music. It would cost me $3000 to replace it with a computer that is not significantly more powerful, has a smaller screen and less I/O functionality, and would be incompatible with my audio interface unless I d…

> Chromebook It's amazing how much of a good quality machine with great battery life you get today for $299, especially compared to what you used to get with a netbook just a few years ago - my son was using my old laptop and installing things left and right on it including adware some times and I let him go crazy because I don't want him growing up just knowing about the web and the browser. I still let him use that…

Same experience with the Chromebook. What I love is the logging in and the computer is you with no signs of any other accounts.

This makes quickly using another computer so easy.

ChomeOS is also noticeably faster than the same hardware with MacOS or Windows.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#422
post #77
post #16

My main computer is a five year old 17" MBP. I've upgraded it to the max and done repairs to maintain it. I need the computational power - I use it for programming, photo editing at scale, and recording/mixing music. It would cost me $3000 to replace it with a computer that is not significantly more powerful, has a smaller screen and less I/O functionality, and would be incompatible with my audio interface unless I d…

> My main computer is a five year old 17" MBP. I've upgraded it to the max and done repairs to maintain it. I need the computational power - I use it for programming, photo editing at scale, and recording/mixing music. It would cost me $3000 to replace it with a computer that is not significantly more powerful Compared to a five year old 17"? More like double the power. And unbelievably faster SSD (even if you have a…

Also @beat forgot to say "matte display". MATTE. Mine is a 6 year old 17 inches MBP and I still use it for everything.

It's still current. I can also rip CDs with it (it is handy children) :)

I've even found a VERY simple way to dual boot Windows 10 on it after trying to get the instructions I found everywhere to work (after Apple made sure it was indeed difficult).

I even play games on it.

To me it was the reference developer laptop and still is.

I would pay as much as $5000 for a 17 inches Retina Matte MBP, the same SSD speed as the TouchBar models, the Pascal chipset, an 8 core i7 and 64GB of RAM and I do not think I am alone in that category.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#423

I've started to wonder if I'm the only one who isn't understanding the problem in general. The MacBook is fine – the new models are quite expensive, and I'm sure having to carry some dongles could be annoying, but it's a lovely machine and there are obvious reasons and long-term benefits for those choices. I'll definitely consider purchasing one when the next refresh allows the processor and memory options to be bump…

> I just can't help but feel it's all a little overblown. Sure, look at the alternatives – a nice Dell running Linux, or a Surface or whatever – and if they suit your requirements better, cool! But I just can't see the abrupt, precipitous nosedive that seems to be the current narrative around Apple.

Interestingly enough, Surfaces are actually pretty expensive, especially if you try to upgrade SSD and RAM. Yet, somehow, there doesn't seem to be a big outrage over this. Most of the limitations of the MacBooks, as far as I can tell, seems to come from the fact that Intel processors simply have not advanced much in the last couple of years.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#424
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big thing that has deterred me so far, is that I heard it's not really usable unless you're cool with having a google account. Despite having one, I thought it was a bit offputting for that to be a dependency.

From what I've heard, throwing Linux in it works really well from a compatibility standpoint (and obviously doesn't require a Google account). I believe Linus was using a pixel as his dev laptop some time back.

There's s two ways to use Linux. You can load something called Crouton which runs inside of ChromeOS and basically exposes Linux. But this method everything goes away on reboot. Maybe way to fix.

The other is to replace ChromeOS with Linux. No different from buying a Windows laptop and replacing Windows with Linux.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#425
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Buy a desktop" in a thread about deficiencies in Apple laptops is a joke, right?

It's not a deficiency. Laptops can't do everything. Apple can't build a computer that caters to every edge case. That's why I don't complain that I can't play the latest video games on my laptop, or run 50 VM boxes or something.

That's not my point. The new MacBooks may be disappointing, but they exist. The Mac Pro, iMac and Mac Mini didn't even get a refresh.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#426
post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a customer . Of course I matter. They're losing sales because they're not giving me any reason to stay, and multiple reasons to go. That matters. Suppose I bite the bullet and switch to Windows? Apple's lost me then. They're not going to win me back. And that's not just the Mac. That's maybe my next phone. My next pad. My next router (oh wait, they're getting out of the wireless router game too). Losing customers…

I do dislike them exiting the router business. As for losing customers, well, then we will look at the sales numbers. I wasn't "happy" with the new MacBook Pro lineup, but I personally love the direction they're going. The only bad thing is the price increase, but they will drop the price. But for your "I'm a customer I matter" comment. No you don't. Apple isn't going to let people who want a gigantic laptop with a m…

> The only bad thing is the price increase, but they will drop the price.

Out of pure curiosity, when's the last time Apple lowered the price of an existing product?

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#427
post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does a USB-C to FireWire exist?

If only there were a wired protocol that is high-speed, has a standard connector, can deliver power, and has both bandwidth and latency controls ... wouldn't that be wonderful? Then we wouldn't have to reinvent all of these wires. (Yes, sarcasm. That protocol is called Ethernet. And basically every high-speed interface we currently have is a bad reimplementation of it for political reasons.)

Ethernet does not have any of the guarantees that 1394 offers.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#428
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My main computer is a five year old 17" MBP. I've upgraded it to the max and done repairs to maintain it. I need the computational power - I use it for programming, photo editing at scale, and recording/mixing music. It would cost me $3000 to replace it with a computer that is not significantly more powerful Compared to a five year old 17"? More like double the power. And unbelievably faster SSD (even if you have a…

Also @beat forgot to say "matte display". MATTE. Mine is a 6 year old 17 inches MBP and I still use it for everything. It's still current. I can also rip CDs with it (it is handy children) :) I've even found a VERY simple way to dual boot Windows 10 on it after trying to get the instructions I found everywhere to work (after Apple made sure it was indeed difficult). I even play games on it. To me it was the reference…

what's a CD?

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#429

I've started to wonder if I'm the only one who isn't understanding the problem in general. The MacBook is fine – the new models are quite expensive, and I'm sure having to carry some dongles could be annoying, but it's a lovely machine and there are obvious reasons and long-term benefits for those choices. I'll definitely consider purchasing one when the next refresh allows the processor and memory options to be bump…

You are right. Nothing else even comes close -- right now. But for the first time in a long time, there's an opening for some smart company to come in deliver the sort of user experience that only Apple (/ Steve) once could. We'll see if it happens or not.

Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe it's just the first time that we've started to see products that look like they could threaten Apple's niche – Google's Pixel, or Microsoft's Surface in particular. I guess that's good for everyone really, so long as Apple do respond appropriately.

Re: How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

#430
post #411

I've started to wonder if I'm the only one who isn't understanding the problem in general. The MacBook is fine – the new models are quite expensive, and I'm sure having to carry some dongles could be annoying, but it's a lovely machine and there are obvious reasons and long-term benefits for those choices. I'll definitely consider purchasing one when the next refresh allows the processor and memory options to be bump…

I think a lot of Mac users are forgetting how awful the Windows ecosystem still is. One gets used to everything mostly working and think that that's how it is on the other side, too. Meanwhile, one guy I know bought a new Windows laptop to replace his flaky older one. On the new computer, audio doesn't work. Programs load slowly (~10 minutes to start up software that takes 10 seconds for me). It turned out the flakin…

1. Some Windows PCs are shitty because there are so many choices. You can't expect a Mac pro speed and build quality from a $300 laptop. But you can get Mac pro level build quality and better specs for less from some manufacturers (Microsoft, Dell,..)

2. Windows and any other OS gets laggy is you load it full with crap. On Windows this is easier, since everyone targets you on the web.

Post reply on HN