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The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

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Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

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post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure it is Windows not Chrome? If you closed the lid while Chrome is running, it prevents Windows from sleeping. https://techjourney.net/chrome-prevents-windows-from-going-i...

Chrome has a very parasitic relationship with it's host OS's. Stopped using it when it halved the amount of hours a brand new MacBook lasted on a battery. My apologies for the webdevs that have to maintain Safari compatibility for me but the difference is just too big to ignore.

While it probably still loses to Safari in a Mac battery benchmark overall, Chrome is much better today in this regard than it was a few years ago - the gap isn't what it once was.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

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post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is Apple's OSX, which exhibits a lot of the same behavior with spotlight, exempt from this concern? They aren't. Neither is Ubuntu[0]. Luckily there are plenty of other operating systems that take your privacy seriously. Join the bright side. [0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.en.html

Realistically, you probably shouldn't be running them on anything with Intel Management Engine, which has a Minix OS with an IP stack that you don't control.

I'm not sure that Intel ME fits into most peoples privacy threat model the same way that OS and application analytics do.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#314

I looked at the surface book but ended up going with the T470P (i7-7700HQ/2560x1440) because it allowed me to put 32GB of RAM in it, 16Gb just isn't enough for my workflow (If I have a Win10 instance running in a VM for VS2017, a couple of vagrant instances and intellij open then I can eat 16GB in no time). Also I've been a Linux user for development for >10 years and a mixed linux/windows user for another 10 or so b…

I went with P71, running NixOS on it. The perfect development machine (with a 5k monitor to boot); way better than what MacOS or Windows can achieve.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#315
I have a "good" Macbook pro (2015 Retina MBP) and a Surface Book and prefer the Surface Book for many of the same reasons the author does. (because I have poor impulse control I also have an iPad pro :-).

For development, the Surface with the Dock is just killer for me. On the road the iPad has the longest battery life and I use it in a consumption only mode but if I'm doing development I'll bring the Surface as well.

From a personal perspective it just feels like Microsoft is spending more of their attention to developers than Apple is over the last few years and their tools reflect that.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

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Such articles always give too much importance to the hardware (which is somewhat important, no doubt) and not enough importance to the software. Many people are looking for quality alternatives to Macbooks, Mac Mini, etc (myself included). Mac Mini hasn’t been updated for 4-5 years. So, I started setting up a Windows desktop as a Mac Mini replacement. But when it came to finding all the alternatives to the OS X softw…

But software preference is a very subjective thing - it's better not to venture into analyzing it if you've mostly been working with a single OS. As a Linux user (who also owns a Macbook), I find OSX to be a weak substitute. Many features (that we take for granted in Linux-land) require downloading binaries from unknown sources, vastly inferior package management, can use 32 gigs of RAM, relative lack of server-side…

> In fact, running on an uncountable number of hardware configurations is a feat of engineering. Not to mention backward compatibility.

They are feats of engineering that are remarkable externally, but mean absolutely nothing to me as a user of only one of those uncountable number of hardware configurations.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#318
post #9

Just don't put your hand on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/7of68m/surface_pro... (I still think it is better than MacBook. Just really annoying that they got this wrong)

This has been screwed up since they moved away from the original, much MUCH nicer wacom digitizers(which were also more sensitive with the pen). I still haven't heard a legit explanation besides this other than "they're expensive"

One reason is that N-Trig works accurately right to the edge of the screen, but Wacom loses quite a lot of precision near the edge and pressure can behave differently there too. That's why Wacom's own Intuos and Cintiq devices have enormous bevels - the pen sensor continues out further.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I manage a few hundred Windows notebooks. Probably about half of them have issues hibernating. Despite the fact that they are identical systems, identical image, etc. I just tell everybody to shut it down before you put it in your bag. Otherwise we end up with overheated, melted laptops. It's always been this way in my experience. Windows is certainly better than it used to be at this, but I would be willing to belie…

At this level, do you have "premium" access to Microsoft support? At some point the company actually listens to you, right? What happens when you contact them, get ahold of a person, and say "yeah we paid you $300k in license fees the last 3 years. This pretty basic feature of your product doesn't work. Can you fix it for us?" Do they really just tell you to go pound sand when a corporate client asks them for support…

>Do they really just tell you to go pound sand when a corporate client asks them for support?

I'm guessing they tell you to call Dell or HP because that's who's responsible for whether hibernation works on their specific machines.

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