Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion • Hacker News Board

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#71

Post by bennycwong » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:00 PM UTC

arthurjj wrote: post #8

Any suggestions for good non-Windows laptops in the $1000 price range? I'm seriously considering just buying a refurbished MacBook Pro from 2013 at this point.

I think the dell XPS 13/15 or precision 5510 line is the successor to the MacBook Pro. I recently picked up an XPS 13 and installed Linux. I really prefer it to the MacBook Pro 2016 I have at work. The only thing missing is iMessage, which unfortunately is why I haven’t gone full Linux.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#72

Post by peterbraden » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:00 PM UTC

I had an employee provided macbook air which had constant issues with driving an external display. (I think it was firmware problems). When the keyboard broke after 10 months, I was pretty happy to have a solid reason for a replacement.

New macbooks are junk.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#73

Post by slantyyz » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

ballenf wrote: post #22

Louis Rossmann has examined these issues in detail on his electronics repair YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KuVvb9DTaU (I disagree with the level of his vitriol against Apple, but I appreciate his deep teardowns and clear explanations. He just doesn't seem to understand how valuable the Apple software is vs. Windows to those who need or appreciate osx.)

>> (I disagree with the level of his vitriol against Apple, but I appreciate his deep teardowns and clear explanations. He just doesn't seem to understand how valuable the Apple software is vs. Windows to those who need or appreciate osx.)

IIRC, he said in one of his videos that he's a basically Windows guy who repairs Apple products because that's where the money is.

Because his channel is on YouTube, it's quite possible he's amping up his vitriol a little to get views. On the other hand - I watch a lot of his videos (I discovered his channel when I had one of those overheating 2011 MBPs and was looking for a fix), and his vitriol for the most part is all related to repairability and how Apple prefers to replace entire logic boards instead of fixing what's wrong.

It does seem like a lot of his customers come to him after talking to a Genius and being told that their Mac can't be fixed.

So in general, while he does take a strong stance, I would not say that he's not hating on Apple simply for the sake of hating on Apple.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#74

Post by akoster » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:08 PM UTC

post_break wrote: post #69

Just an FYI, Apple still sells the older 2015 model: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-2015/

I hope they keep doing so until a newer model with a descent keyboard comes out.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#75

Post by bebna » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

mortenjorck wrote: post #55

It's just incomprehensible (and an unfortunate indictment of Jony Ive's design leadership) that the 2016 MacBook Pro has continued to prove such a regression from the 2012 design. Professionals demand good design: tools that meet our needs in efficient, reliable, and even elegant ways. Apple's line of professional laptops has traditionally delivered this by and large, but the problem with the 2016 platform is that va…

My notebook is from a time, where HDMI wasn't the most common port yet for modern displays and it came with regular display port and an VGA. While I do have an adapter for the display port, the VGA shows significant marks from all its usage over the years. So many locations still only supply VGA from their beamers. Sometimes I find those mini-dp to vga adapters broken in the corners of those rooms. They seem to work fine for you mac users...

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#76

Post by akoster » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

I hope that issues like this further open a two-way channel of communication apple has with "pro"-oriented users. For most of us, computers are tools, which must meet our connectivity and performance needs (encompassing raw compute power and hardware endurance requirements). To continue serving this market well and staying relevant to professionals and power users, Apple needs to take into account our needs and use cases when designing and releasing future products, which was quite evidently an afterthought for the 2016 MacBook models.

If apple tomorrow released an updated 2015 rMBP with a Coffee Lake or Ryzen2 CPU, an optional dGPU, 2 (or better yet 3) full-sized USB type A ports, and (only in my dreams) a full-sized number pad, I would more strongly consider a purchase than migrating back to the PC world for my main PC.

I am hopeful Apple recognizes their shortcomings, learns from them and produces more innovative and powerful hardware that meets the needs of the professional and power-user groups.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#77

Post by marcus_holmes » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

ballenf wrote: post #22

Louis Rossmann has examined these issues in detail on his electronics repair YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KuVvb9DTaU (I disagree with the level of his vitriol against Apple, but I appreciate his deep teardowns and clear explanations. He just doesn't seem to understand how valuable the Apple software is vs. Windows to those who need or appreciate osx.)

It's not Apple's great software. Most of Apple's software is shit (as opposed to 3rd parties who write OSX apps).

It's the fact that it's mostly-decent hardware running a mostly-compliant POSIX OS that looks enough like GNU to make it usable (and compatible with web servers).

If someone, ffs anyone, made a decent, reliable Linux laptop, Apple would lose the dev market in a month.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#78

Post by Ocerge » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

post_break wrote: post #68

Ocerge wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, those are the holy grail machines at my shop. Everybody that has one is skipping their turn when they are due for an upgrade. Unfortunately I got hired too late and have a 2017 15-inch.

Why? They still sell that model: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-2015/

Not our choice, IT only lets us choose the newer models.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#79

Post by sofaofthedamned » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

kahlonel wrote: post #62

I'm honestly thinking of switching to Thinkpad X1 Carbon now, but I HATE windows. And from what I've heard, Linux doesn't bode well with it. Anybody here Linux running on X1 Carbon?

I am, it's awesome with Fedora 28. There a couple of things to twiddle, mainly regarding sleep, but after that it's flawless. I can detail it a bit more if you like once I'm not on a phone.

Re: Don’t buy the MacBook Pros even on sale, in my opinion

#80

Post by tlrobinson » Wed, Apr 25, 2018, 5:42 PM UTC

Tangential rant ahead:

I've been pretty disappointed in the latest MacBooks as well (mostly just the keyboard and mediocre performance improvements over previous generations), so as a hedge I thought I should give Linux another try, hoping in the ~5 years since I last attempted it one of the more user-friendly distributions would have figured out how to make installation painless.

Nope. It's easy enough to get a basic installation of Ubuntu or elementary OS working, but you still have to muck around with things like wireless drivers, graphics drivers, multitouch support, etc to get everything working as well as macOS. After half a day of trying to tweak kernel parameters and other things I gave up. Sometimes I enjoy that sort of challenge, but not right now.

I understand it's difficult to support a wide variety of hardware without the support of a company like Apple/Microsoft/Google, and supporting proprietary drivers is controversial and not the community's top priority. It's just a bit disappointing desktop Linux still isn't ready for the mainstream, despite multiple commercial companies working on it.