Previous discussion from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17312588 (331 comments)
Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
111–120 of 145 posts
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with USB-C? It's seen a pretty wide-spread uptake over the last couple years, and you're hard pressed to find a new laptop from any manufacturer that doesn't use it for charging.
https://marco.org/2017/10/14/impossible-dream-of-usb-c
I returned to Macintosh in 2015 after a 15-year hiatus, buying a late 2013 MBP. Having seen the absolute abortion of a device in the most recent MBP line-up and the glaringly obvious neglect of the platform, I feel like I've swapped one shitty experience (Windows 8 onwards) for another - except on a platform that's twice the cost and far less flexible when it comes to future options.
It won't happen, but in an ideal world, Apple would spin-off a Mac business whose only use to them appears to be as a means for them to burnish their superficial 'creative' brand credentials and as a dev platform for iOS.
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#113I think this is a combination of issues: USB-C's ecosystem was confusing and good products never materialized, or if they did nobody could find them in the sea of junk. The lack of hardware updates, which seems to have started with the 5-10% performance bumps Intel piddled out in the absence of competition from AMD from 2011-2017. Most of the CPU's and GPU's that could have been used frankly weren't much better than…
What's wrong with USB-C? It's seen a pretty wide-spread uptake over the last couple years, and you're hard pressed to find a new laptop from any manufacturer that doesn't use it for charging.
It's beginning to look like consolidating a variety of capabilities into one connector was a bad idea. There's no way to differentiate what features are supported on any given USB-C port. USB A was different in that the features were only on the device being attached. USB 1-3 was a bus only. Though even then, there were rarely markings to distinguish between USB 1 and 2 (when that distinction was relevant). And there is no way to know if a given USB hub will provide enough power to your device until you plug it in.
At the root, it seems like Thunderbolt, or Thunderbolt over the USB-C port is more the issue. I've even run into this same problem with Thunderbolt ports on PCs vs. Macs. On a Surface Pro, Thunderbolt is video only, for Ethernet you have to use a USB-attached device. On a Mac, Thunderbolt does both.
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#114Original link to the author's article:
https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2018/06/14/on-the-sad-state-o...
which was discussed earlier:
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#115I switched back to a Linux workstation, after being "all mac laptop" since 2003 (!). My current Macbook Pro is from 2010 and my professional Macbook pro from 2015. The newest Macbooks with their stupid keyboards and USB-C only are total garbage, IMO. Sad.
I ended up buying a new 2017 15 inch MacBook Pro and it's really been not that bad. Yes, you have to use a USB-A to USB-C dongle here and there but at least for my daily use, it's not been terribly inconvenient. The machine is light and thin and I enjoy it immensely, although I'm a little scared about the keyboard (so far no problems). Touchbar?... meh. Neither like not dislike. I don't know. I understand the new Mac…
Excessive complaints?
A machine that costs >2000$ that very likely will have a broken keyboard, that is missing the function keys and all the useful ports have been removed.
What is excessive in the complaiants made by people that spent a lot of money and would like to have a working machine without having to pray to win the keyboard lottery?
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#116The most dangerous thing here is that the public is increasingly getting the message and idea that Apple's mac hardware is decomposing. They really need to make this a priority. I fear that the success of the iPhone is blinding them to the importance of the mac. And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny. This is reminding me o…
> And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny.
I'm not convinced of that. I bought an iPhone for the first time a few months ago and returned it after a few days because iOS felt like a backwards step. I've no fanbois allegiance one way or the other, but Android felt a lot more polished, usable and intuitive. Even the hardware was a backwards step for me (albeit at a more advanced price).
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#117I am a former Mac user who has “come home” to Linux and BSD in recent years.
Between the sad state of the Mac ecosystem (I like both the hardware AND software less today than I did 7 years ago) and the repost about desktop Linux UX this morning, I feel like the F/OSS and Mac communities have missed a golden opportunity.
If I had a time machine and a magic wand, I’d certainly have blessed the GNUStep project to build the desktop many of us wish we had today. Had some hypothetical GNUStep desktop captured the mindshare of the majority of Linux desktops, I could imagine living in a world today in which Mac and Linux software were more or less a recompile away from portability. I could imagine a world in which some developers prefer building Mac software with GNUStep tooling. And I imagine a world in which Apple’s focus, priorities, and missteps weren’t an existential threat to people trying to make their living on the Mac.
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#118Interestingly for me, the annoyances of the new MacBook have faded into the background (no escape key, worse keyboard). I learned to hit ctrl+[ in vim, and don’t mind the keyboard until a key sticks for a little while. Meanwhile I can’t imagine going back to the thicker form factor. I don’t mean to downplay people’s issues, and Apple definitely didn’t do a wonderful job here. But I do find that my day to day experien…
I agree with this in principle, but repeated hardware failures are likely to test my patience to its limits.
Since I cannot see myself switching to a combination of by and large inferior hardware and (at least what I consider) inferior OS on other platforms without considerable comprises and pain, I've persevered with the OS bugs. Sadly, hardware failures are too disruptive and costly to put up with in the long run.
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#119My biggest issues is the lack of memory past 16gb in the "pro" line of macbooks.
Right now I'm working on some integration tests with 5-6 different codebases and I have an intellij window for each. Then I have a couple of dozen chrome tabs open, a bunch of terminals and (most importantly for memory) a whole stack of docker containers and virtual machines.
16gb is a major blocker.
Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
#120The most dangerous thing here is that the public is increasingly getting the message and idea that Apple's mac hardware is decomposing. They really need to make this a priority. I fear that the success of the iPhone is blinding them to the importance of the mac. And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny. This is reminding me o…
> And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny. I'm not convinced of that. I bought an iPhone for the first time a few months ago and returned it after a few days because iOS felt like a backwards step. I've no fanbois allegiance one way or the other, but Android felt a lot more polished, usable and intuitive. Even the hardware w…
As an iPhone user I agree. I often look at how feature packed while cheap Android devices are. The only thing that keeps me from switching is Google and that I don't have the time to bother with alternative ROMs anymore.