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Introducing Surface Book 2

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#411

Post by ant512 »

staticelf wrote: post #155
AlphaWeaver wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that in itself speaks to the quality of the Surface device line... I myself have the first Surface Book, and I will likely upgrade to the 2 at some point, but not because my current device doesn't serve me well... I'm glad this thing is still working like new and I don't have huge urges to upgrade because I suddenly feel inferior, like some other tech companies try to pull... EDIT: Don't work for MS, just a h…

Yes, the machines they produce is very high quality and lasts a very long time. Longer than any other laptop I have used. Even if I have used it for quite some time it still feel fresh and performant.

Last I heard MS were having reliability problems with the Surface:

"The breakage rate for Microsoft Corp’s Surface devices is significantly worse than for other manufacturers’ laptops and tablets, Consumer Reports said, adding that it was removing its “recommended” designation for Surface products."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-surface/microso...

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#412

Post by alphonsegaston »

dpark wrote: post #402
alphonsegaston wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad Pro is better than the Surface in terms of the digitizer, but not as good as Wacom.

I have a Thinkpad Yoga with a Wacom digitizer. I am distinctly unimpressed. Disclosure: Microsoft employee, so arguably biased toward the Surface.

Yeah, Microsoft is not unique in being unable to sucessfully integrate Wacom tech. And Wacom's own portables leave a lot to be desired as computing devices. It's a hard problem.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#413

Post by petemill »

maaaats wrote: post #307
olympus wrote: post #269

Looking at the specs, (linked in another comment), it appears that the USB-C port doesn't support Thunderbolt 3. Seriously, Microsoft, you can't charge this much for a laptop without TB3. I know that TB started as an Apple standard, but you're not killing this port like you did with Firewire. Your case of NIMBY has cost you my sale. I'll wait and get the next premium Lenovo/HP/ASUS/etc Ultrabook with 8th gen i7 AND T…

I have a MacBook Pro and have never used thunderbolt. Why is it a big deal / what do you use it for?

I use a single TB3 port to connect two 4K displays, 100W power and all USB devices all through a single cable

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#414

Post by alphonsegaston »

binarycrusader wrote: post #397
alphonsegaston wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most creative professionals would disagree that ntrig is anywhere near parity. I work in the field and everyone uses Wacoms of some sort. There was initial excitement when the 1st generation launched with actual Wacom technology, as a lot of us do work in Windows, but it quickly fizzled when Microsoft cheaped out and went with less performant ntrig digitizers.

I didn't say WACOM equivalent; I said WACOM-level. Whether or not it is equivalent is a subjective judgement on the part of the user. Personally, the current stylus input supported by ntrig is sufficient for my particular needs. The ntrig technology Microsoft acquired has been significantly improved since its first implementation, so I think your judgements are perhaps somewhat obsolete?

No, I've been to the Microsoft store and tested out all their new devices. None are on par with even Wacom's Intuos offerings. The Surface Studio seemed especially bad.

I'm sure their digitizers work great for the average user, but Wacoms are primarily devices for pros. None of the Surface stuff is at that "level," unless you're comparing them to other (IMO bad) PC integrations.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#415

Post by scholia »

olyjohn wrote: post #388
scholia wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) Superfish isn't a Chinese company -- it was founded in Tel Aviv and moved to Palo Alto; (2) Superfish wasn't installed on ThinkPads; (3) it wasn't on Lenovo laptops for long: they uninstalled it and apologised.

The fact that they did it in the first place is enough for most people. An apology hardly covers the potential for damage. All in the name of some bundled shitware to make them a few extra bucks. Totally inexcusable, and I don't see why people jump in to defend them at all.

You also don't see why someone should jump in to correct a wrong statement?

Either way, the potential for damage wasn't that obvious: it could have happened to any company. (Employees often make commercial decisions without understanding the technical ramifications.)

Also, Superfish said it wasn't its fault: it blamed Komodo's tool. This amounts to a similar type of buck-passing.

I've bought a couple of Lenovo machines since Superfish, mainly because they were fantastic value for money. I also know that if I wasn't happy with the installation, I could download Windows 10 from Microsoft and do a clean installation.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#416

Post by kpxxx »

staticelf wrote: post #94

So many negative comments just because it's Microsoft. If you don't like the OS, obviously this machine is not for you. Personally I think it looks nice, but I have a Surface Pro 2 that works just perfectly fine and I love it. The hardware on it is still good and I don't see any reason to upgrade.

That's because Microsoft is trash. Typing this from an SP3, which I overall like very much. I was given this, so I have no misgivings. But the overall sloppiness of Windows and the years of varying quirky behavior I've had with this thing has been very annoying. Windows has an excuse when the hardware is arbitrary, but with the surface line there is no excuse.

If I had paid more than a few hundred dollars for an SP3, I would be quite upset with the numerous annoyances. As of now, it generally works ok. Of course Windows is still trash (which app do I use for settings again)?

But yeah, once you start taking people's money in Apple ballpark (and these are not cheap), make things work at least as good as Apple (which, yes, isn't perfect), or expect negative comments.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#417

Post by firemancoder »

markcmyers wrote: post #146
skywhopper wrote: post #66

This is a good example of how Microsoft often does marketing poorly. The text reads like a script for an in-person product launch. On the page it doesn't even make sense "When you think about Microsoft and you hear our mission – to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more – it’s powerful." What? And then after all of that, you click through to the store and there's no pricing informat…

As a former advertising executive, I can tell you what the problem is here. The writer and his boss who approved the copy aren't addressing the customer, they're addressing the boss's boss. In a dysfunctional organization like Microsoft, communicating up rather than out is how you get promoted. It's a rare Microsoft employee who moves up the ladder by thinking about the customer.

I've suspected this is the case at a LOT of companies. So many marketing and advertising decisions are made this way. As long as they sell enough units it looks like a success, no matter how much potential was thrown away.

This is what made Jobs so great. Most of the criticisms about him are surely correct, but he was a boss who tried to understand the customer, and succeeded at it frequently.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#418

Post by milcron »

rbanffy wrote: post #405
singularity2001 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for some reaon Chinese spyware tastes appaling

If you install a decent OS replacing the one it comes with, there won't be any malware (at leat not the kind we knew about)

Reinstalling the OS may be good enough for most people, but you also have to be aware of firmware.

Re: Introducing Surface Book 2

#419

Post by isr »

y4mi wrote: post #281
jrs95 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's PixelBook could be a good option if you don't have any need for Windows. It will run Linux easily via crouton.

there are some limitations for software development with crouton though... basic scripting works fine, but quite a few things fail. The most recent one i stumbled on was kivy [1]. It couldn't start X-Sessions to open any windows. [1] https://kivy.org/#home

Could you elaborate a bit on that? I find that a tad surprising ...

Just hazarding a guess, but are you using the xiwi X11 replacement? That's just a dummy x server, with everything forwarded to a chrome app. Its a hack to get around the chromeos switch from x to a custom wayland'ish display server. Pretty slow.

But with crouton, you can also run a full xorg on vt-2. And I would be very surprised if anything failed to run there (from a graphical perspective). Even steam with full hardware acceleration works.

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