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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

#341

Post by cma »

smt88 wrote: post #332
zeroxfe wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fantastic for pretty much any kind of design work. Even you're a software developer building UIs and web interfaces and such. Also great for kids (who generally have less developed motor skills.)

What kind of design work? I don't understand how something laggier than a pencil/pen and less precise than a mouse can be useful. I actually hated doing design work because of the hours of incredibly precise mouse movements required.

It has to be a big help when developing a phone or tablet app.

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

#342

Post by tombert »

strmpnk wrote: post #244
tombert wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a big problem with it at work, but at home I tend to go kind of hardcore at home since it makes me feel validated as a geek. I know you can install X on Windows, but I tend to prefer using XMonad with urxvt to navigate at home, so as to minimize my time using a mouse; AFAIK, you can't interop the Windows version of Firefox in my XMonad setup for WSL. I'm not saying I couldn't make an equally productive s…

You can run window managers just fine with X on windows. I use i3 and bspwm on my surface almost anytime I turn that machine on (I have other Linux laptops I use as well and the config is one rsync away usually). Just be sure that whichever x server you run doesn't run its built in manager. With VcXsrv you can do this via XLaunch.

Yes, but won't that only work with apps compiled with X? If I wanted to use the Windows version of Firefox and Visual Studio or something in the panels of XMonad on Windows, would that work?

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

#343

Post by kraftman »

madushan92 wrote: post #322

I don’t really understand the value of a touch screen on a laptop. Specially for a Software Developer. It is easier and quicker to move your hand (while typing) to the touch pad rather than to the display. I think TouchBar (which is underrated) makes sense because in that case you don’t need to move your hand up, it just is there along with the keyboard. Plus I really don’t like those huge touch-optimised buttons on…

It's just faster for some things. I would have agreed with you before getting one, but now I find myself using it all the time, I don't notice until I touch someone elses screen and nothing happens.

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

#344

Post by f3xy »

hammock wrote: post #340
makecheck wrote: post #103

It’s 2018 and I still see people walking around with Windows laptop lids open because they presumably have no confidence in Windows’ ability to sensibly preserve state after closing the lid. Software matters, and how it integrates with hardware. And I keep waiting for them to fix just the basics in Windows 10. Not utterly losing both the sizes and positions of all windows just because the laptop was undocked. Not fai…

That's funny because I'm pretty sure Windows has a setting that you can set it to NOT go to sleep at all when you shut the lid, but MacBooks DO NOT have this feature.

The name of the mode escapes me , but they don’t sleep if you have an external display mouse and keyboard connected. I don’t normally use this mode as usually utilize the laptop hardware too when “docked” but when people ask I always help them with this and it works fine

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

#345

Post by bcheung »

bradford wrote: post #294
andrei_says_ wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not spying on me and not transmitting unknown to me personal information to unknown parties would be a killer feature. I treat any windows machine as if it has a keylogger and submits all my activity to all major governments (maybe only one today and “all” in a few years when my data gets sold, shared or stolen). This is a serious issue for me.

disclaimer: MS employee, this is solely my opinion Does the GDPR do anything to put your concerns on this issue to rest? (By those regulations, MS is required, under penalty of very large fines, to not do what you are accusing them of doing.)

I doubt intelligence agencies are limited by the same standards.

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

#346

Post by bcheung »

I tried to switch from Mac back to PC and got the original Surface Book a few years ago. I really liked the detachable screen but otherwise I didn't find it very useable. The trackpad didn't register clicks a lot of the time and I had to press very hard when dragging so it didn't disengage. It was a bit too flimsy when typing on your lap. Also, all the weight is in the screen so touching the screen and using the keyboard means that you have to grab the back of the screen when pressing so you don't push the screen.

I wasn't happy with the performance either being that I needed something that could process RAW photos and do video editing. For general web browsing and coding I think it could work well.

I recently got the Dell XPS 15" and am working on converting my programming and photography workflows to Windows. So far everything seems to be going smoothly. Windows Subsystem for Linux really makes a difference and most stuff I've tried works flawlessly without change.

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

#347

Post by ztjio »

dxxvi wrote: post #337
hug wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see people talking about Macs not supporting pro use. But hey, tell me, how am I going to power my 6 external displays on a Surface product of any kind? I have many friends, most of whom are professionals, but none of whom are software devs. A bunch of them do devops and SRE work, a bunch of them are creative professionals, and a bunch of them are in other professional services, like finance and law. Personally,…

I guess he is a stock dealer. That's why he needs 6 monitors.

I don’t know of any stock dealers using kubernetes, but, maybe I’m just out of the loop.

No, I’m a developer, I work in, I dunno what you want to call it, Machine Learning Data Engineering? Stuff like that.

I use seven displays because I like spatially organized workspaces. Four of them are only 10”, effectively 1280x800 displays, two of which are always showing terminals. I have a particular way I like to work that I’ve developed around how macOS handles multiple displays/Spaces that benefits more from many small displays than few large ones.

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

#348

Post by rablo »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #239
rablo wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>try edge So exactly what safari does, no?

Other users can report their experiences, but I've never been prompted to try Safari in three years of using OS X daily. Default web browser is available in the first page of system preferences and all the stock applications (Mail, Notes, etc) open links in there, unlike Windows settings opening Edge if you click something like "Learn more".

Just google “try the new safari notification”

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

#349

Post by shpx »

ams6110 wrote: post #167
martin_ky wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s 2018 and I still see people walking around with Windows laptop lids open because they presumably have no confidence in Windows’ ability to sensibly preserve state after closing the lid. At my workplace it's about 60:40 Windows to Mac user ratio. Regardless of the machine, nobody closes the lid when moving in the office between desks and meeting rooms. So, I'd say it's probably not that.

Probably don't want to lose their ssh connections.

If you have tmux or your remote machine, you can add this alias to your mac's bashrc

    alias my-server='ssh server-hostname -t "tmux new-session -s user || tmux attach-session -t user"'
It will connect to a tmux session on the remote machine if it exists or start a new one if it doesn't. If you Cmd+w your terminal window or disconnect, the tmux session stays running on the remote machine.

You could also tell it to try reconnecting every second and bind it to something easy to type like 'kj' (too bad df is already taken)

    alias kj='while true; do my-server; sleep 1; done'

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

#350

Post by wilsonnb2 »

jestar_jokin wrote: post #335
madushan92 wrote: post #322

I don’t really understand the value of a touch screen on a laptop. Specially for a Software Developer. It is easier and quicker to move your hand (while typing) to the touch pad rather than to the display. I think TouchBar (which is underrated) makes sense because in that case you don’t need to move your hand up, it just is there along with the keyboard. Plus I really don’t like those huge touch-optimised buttons on…

When running Digital Audio Workstations like FL Studio, having a touch screen is invaluable. Being able to manipulate knobs, sliders, and buttons using natural movements is much more conducive to creativity.

Eh touchscreens are just barely better than using a mouse cursor for knobs and sliders in my opinion. I still have to look at the touchscreen know what I'm doing, which kills the creative process for me.
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