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The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

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Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#131

Post by BuckRogers »

dijit wrote: post #4
cygned wrote: post #2

Holding off buying a new MacBook Pro at the moment. It’s like issues pop up every other week and I simply cannot buy a machine that is not reliable. Also looking into a Lenovo Thinkpad w/ CentOS as an alternative, even though it would be difficult. It’s a pity.

Linux these days is incredibly stable. As long as you have a laptop that has reasonably high quality (read: open) drivers. Intel graphics, Wi-Fi and a decent SSD/HDD from a known brand is usually enough to have a trouble free personal compute platform. I have a precision 5520 and haven’t had a single Linux/hardware related issue, before that I had a Thinkpad x201s, and an x201 before that- and further back still I ha…

Desktop Linux has a few problems for a power user IMO.

Docking support is pretty awkward IME.

Multimonitor support is also "rough" to say the least.

They're pretty bad with touch/styluses.

Multi-GPU (while I'm against multiple system GPUs) support is problematic.

Power usage is also inferior, which bothers me as I prefer things greener than not, if possible. Not to mention the inconvenience.

If you're just utilizing a laptop like one would in the 80s or 90s, no problem at all, I agree. If you're trying to push the limits, hook up 3 monitors and expect it to "just work" or worse, "keep working" once you set it up.. dock/undock, use a stylus on the screen. Anything beyond firing up a terminal and a browser? Hasn't ever worked well for me. I prefer Windows10 from everything else, but also don't mind macOS (though it's similarly limited like desktop Linux is) and for a distro to just reach for and install, Linux Mint was impressive for usability. Antergos was my rolling distro goto but I prefer Mint's model of Ubuntu LTS but with continual updates to fix bugs. Constant rolling updates is not good IMO and neither is a (largely) code-frozen Ubuntu LTS release. Linux Mint nails the sweet spot there.

But yeah, other than Linux Mint, I can't really use it with how much I demand out of my machines. I consider myself a power user but I don't want to dig into the X11 codebase ever again when I have other things to take care of, some of that code hasn't been touched in 20 years (and that's a bad thing, because much needs updated).

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#132

Post by alrs »

therein wrote: post #20
anbotero wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s been a while since I even have a laptop (just a gaming desktop PC with Windows), but I’m glad people recommend Arch Linux. It certainly was the best I worked with until two years ago, for several years. Sure, it’s got its quirks, but they help you a lot to learn new stuff, and after that, it’s much easier to set it up again in case you needed (I only needed it once every two years or so).

I can't ever go back to CentOS/RHEL or Debian/Ubuntu for my personal machine after having seen the flexibility that Arch provides. Don't get me wrong, technically you can make Ubuntu just as flexible but you have to try to configure it that way. All the conveniences they brought into these distros for simple package management actually sets you up for failure when you are doing larger upgrades. Not to mention that th…

You're never going to run Arch in production, so developing against "current" software means "hire a team of sysadmins to package all of these future-versions in to the conservative distro that we have in prod".

With luck it will be less than $1M/yr.

This is why people don't use homebrew anymore, either. If you're running a Mac you dev in a Docker container that reflects your production environment.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#133

Post by jsjohnst »

bluecat22 wrote: post #125
radley wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm running a mid 2012 i7 MBP (bought at release) w/ 16GB & a 2TB SSD (recently upgraded from a 1TB SSD). I also have a keyboard overlay as a precaution, since I've had to replace keyboards on previous Macs due to spills or sloppy cleaning. My 2012 is decent, but 2013 - 1015 MBPs are the best.

I think the issue will be that either your Mac will be unsupported for OSX Mojave or at most in an year or so while your machine physically will still be in good working condition.

> I think the issue will be that either your Mac will be unsupported

What precedent do you have for believing that to be true? The only time Apple has done that in the past is major platform changes (aka PowerPC and later 32bit CoreDuos). Unless Apple shifts to ARM (which is easily a couple years out at best) or Intel comes out with a 128bit processor (which isn’t even remotely on the roadmap), I’d say you are safe for at least another five years, even if those shifts do happen.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#134

Post by ehead »

4di wrote: post #110
swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a 2015 macbook pro, its the last one without any issues, superior keyboard, legacy ports as well. Smaller more compact touchpad as well The only downside is it is only thunderbolt 2, and they recently went away with external GPU support for new macOS updates. I paid $1500 for mine in practically brand new mint condition on amazon, buying a new a 2018 version was $2500 roughly for something that also had 512 GB SS…

Yeah my laptop of choice is 15" MB Pro mid-2015. Picked up 2 of them over the last couple of years from Apple's refurbished store and I think with OS X it really is still one of the best laptops out there. A little tip - you can use https://refurb-tracker.com/ to get alerts when they get in stock. TBH it's the MB Pro + OS X combo that works so well. MB Pro + Windows is definitely sub-par... lot of other great laptops…

Ubuntu runs great on my 2013 15" Macbook Pro. It does mess with the boot manager, and can become unstable if you install it simultaneously with boot camp.

The only issue is that the trackpad drivers aren't so good. Stick to OS X if you're a trackpad gesture power user.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#136

Post by shimms »

jsjohnst wrote: post #133
bluecat22 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue will be that either your Mac will be unsupported for OSX Mojave or at most in an year or so while your machine physically will still be in good working condition.

> I think the issue will be that either your Mac will be unsupported What precedent do you have for believing that to be true? The only time Apple has done that in the past is major platform changes (aka PowerPC and later 32bit CoreDuos). Unless Apple shifts to ARM (which is easily a couple years out at best) or Intel comes out with a 128bit processor (which isn’t even remotely on the roadmap), I’d say you are safe f…

My 2012 Mac Pro (cheese grater) can’t run Mojave since the GPU doesn’t support Metal.

There are aftermarket GPUs available, but it’s becoming an ongoing chore to keep the machine running the latest macOS features (needed new wifi card to support handoff and watch unlock etc).

New wifi, SSD, usb3 etc are relatively cheap. The new GPU is getting more expensive and is now actually blocking keeping up to date with major OS releases.

There is no other Mac I currently want to buy (desktop, my own display). MacMini is too underspecced, MacProvis about to be updated and aside from GPU isn’t really any better than my current MacPro - feels end of life and outdated from day 1, a non-starter for me.

So I’ll probably get a new GPU and hope that buys me another couple of years.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#137

Post by kalleboo »

jsjohnst wrote: post #133
bluecat22 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue will be that either your Mac will be unsupported for OSX Mojave or at most in an year or so while your machine physically will still be in good working condition.

> I think the issue will be that either your Mac will be unsupported What precedent do you have for believing that to be true? The only time Apple has done that in the past is major platform changes (aka PowerPC and later 32bit CoreDuos). Unless Apple shifts to ARM (which is easily a couple years out at best) or Intel comes out with a 128bit processor (which isn’t even remotely on the roadmap), I’d say you are safe f…

macOS 10.12 Sierra killed support for Macs with CPUs that didn't support SSE4.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_Sierra#System_requiremen...

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#138

Post by saagarjha »

coin wrote: post #122
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking at the new Thinkpad P1 and it's everything I hoped the last Macbook Pro update would be. Way things are going I'll be very surprised if my next machine is a Macbook when my 2015 needs replacing.

Except for the off-center trackpad. Why is it so hard to find a PC laptop with a centered trackpad?

I think the rationale is that it should be centered with the spacebar or something like that. To me it just looks ugly.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#139

Post by wild_preference »

saudioger wrote: post #115

IMO the 2015 Macbook Pro is one of the best laptops ever made. Don't know why they went and messed that up. I solidly regret the 2017 version. I've had one keyboard replacement already (that required the logic board to be replaced, seriously). Since then, I've already lost two keycaps. I've been ordering replacements online because they wanted me to ship it out for repair. My 2015 Macbook is being used daily by a fri…

I bought my 2017 MBP last November and accumulated a whopping 7 loose keycaps that would come off with my fingers as I typed. It was so unusable that I had to use my 2013 Air to get work done.

I returned to the States 2 weeks ago and took my MBP into an Apple store. The one nice thing I can say was that I was able to book an appointment online, drop my MBP off at the store, and 2 days later my repaired laptop arrived at my front door. That experience was at least more pleasant than I expected.

The high resale value of macbooks doesn’t do you any good when you realize you should keep your previous laptop around because your new one will likely break.

I will definitely be using an external keyboard when possible from now on. Sheesh.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#140

Post by kalleboo »

huebnerob wrote: post #109

It's long past time for the tech world to start realizing that their anecdotal evidence is not valid. Every single tiny glitch some person with a Twitter experiences doesn't warrant a fucking XYZgate level media blitz. @Apple @timcook my phone's battery discharged a little fast today. WHY ARE YOU HIDING FROM THE TRUTH ON THIS??? #draingate In a later reply, guy cited a Apple discussion thread as his empirical proof.…

It goes both ways. The media will blow up any tiny issue, and Apple and Mac fanboys will dismiss even major issues.
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