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Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

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Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#111

Post by Someone1234 »

richrichardsson wrote: post #104
ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how many people in the world outside the London UK area know what Bruv means.

Unless you live under a rock, I'd say everyone in the UK understands what that means, otherwise it's no great leap of the imagination to hazard a guess, or there's always that new-fangled search thingamy that can help ;-)

If you don't understand what it means it is confusing, if you do understand it is disrespectful. In either case they shouldn't be starting out posts to strangers with "Bruv, look..."

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#112

Post by SheinhardtWigCo »

Someone1234 wrote: post #111
richrichardsson wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you live under a rock, I'd say everyone in the UK understands what that means, otherwise it's no great leap of the imagination to hazard a guess, or there's always that new-fangled search thingamy that can help ;-)

If you don't understand what it means it is confusing, if you do understand it is disrespectful. In either case they shouldn't be starting out posts to strangers with "Bruv, look..."

Disrespectful? It’s short for “brother” and is used the same way as “mate” in those parts.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#113

Post by FabHK »

MaxLeiter wrote: post #84
drcongo wrote: post #79

Absolutely not. I have the top of the range 15" MacBook Pro and I despise it, it's without question the worst computer I've ever owned. 1. The Touch Bar is appalling if you're at all a touch typist. It puts destructive actions just an accidental brush of the finger tip away. 2. The keyboard is failing all over the place. My left command key has fallen off, and three keys occasionally stick resulting in double entries…

If you’re crashing once a week you’re definitely doing something incorrect on your end. Apple may have poor QA, but there’s no way it’s _that_ poor.

I had very frequent cornel panics on my MBP, but running diagnostics (hold “D” during startup) revealed a hardware issue. After the Apple shop replaced the motherboard, the crashes are gone.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#114

Post by haasisnoah »

NullPrefix wrote: post #90
joefarish wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how you can blame a user for repeated kernel panic issues.

You are user spacing it wrong.

Isn't the point of a user space to protect the kernel and keep the OS from crashing?

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#115

Post by FabHK »

krob wrote: post #101

There is only 2 good reasons to buy a mac. Applications you use are Mac dependent, you need crazy long battery life. I haven't used a chrome book, I have heard they're pretty good. Considering those things, if you want to get power, buy a Dell Precision or an HP Zbook, or a Lenovo T series laptop. Dell Precision laptops are built like tanks, real workstation workhorses. Dell/Zbook/lenovo laptops will never give you f…

The MB Pro the OP is asking about doesn’t even have crazy long battery life though. Its battery stores less energy than the MB Air IIRC. My 2016 MBP ‘Escape’ gives up after about 4 hours with not much more than Safari browser and an editor running.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#116

Post by Razengan »

Macha wrote: post #107
Razengan wrote: post #27

NOTE: New low-end MacBooks may be announced in 2 weeks or next month. Have you identified how much RAM and disk space you actually need for your workflow? If you just want something “good enough” you might be able to make do with even the $1300 Core m3, 8GB, 256GB, 12” MacBook [0], or even a PC running macOS in a VM. Otherwise the answer is “as much as you can afford.” I haven’t compared markets lately, but I think t…

For a Java developer, Eclipse and IntelliJ will happily eat over 8GB on a midsize project, especially if Spring + related plugins are involved. For a Javascript developer, a typical webpack based build chain in live reload mode + chrome debugger + app using a front end framework will also easily go over 8GB. So for the two most common classes of developer, I couldn't reccomend a 8GB MBP. At work I need to work on bot…

It’s pretty grim that you can develop, build and test native apps with more features (graphics, UI etc.) just fine in 8 GB but twice that is woefully inadequate for anything with Java in it.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#117

Post by scrumbledober »

ajeet_dhaliwal wrote: post #93
universenz wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bruv, look into BetterTouchTool to only enable the touchbar input by using a modification key like fn being pressed first. Still displays info but doesn’t respond without the modifier. It’ll remove at least some if your frustration.

I wonder how many people in the world outside the London UK area know what Bruv means.

I live in the US but I have seen kingsmen

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#118

Post by Macha »

mr-ron wrote: post #110
drcongo wrote: post #79

Absolutely not. I have the top of the range 15" MacBook Pro and I despise it, it's without question the worst computer I've ever owned. 1. The Touch Bar is appalling if you're at all a touch typist. It puts destructive actions just an accidental brush of the finger tip away. 2. The keyboard is failing all over the place. My left command key has fallen off, and three keys occasionally stick resulting in double entries…

Couldn't agree with you more. The new MacBooks are lemons. The giant trackpad is a huge complaint of mine I don't hear a lot. Why on Earth would apple make it so big??

People who like trackpads seem to enjoy it bigger. Personally I'm not in the camp, and bring a USB mouse with me anywhere I'm using my work Mac to avoid it.

We definitely seem to be in the minority though, I've heard more complaints that the XPS 15 trackpad is too small than complaints that the Mac trackpad is too large.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#119

Post by saurik »

georgebarnett wrote: post #89
drcongo wrote: post #79

Absolutely not. I have the top of the range 15" MacBook Pro and I despise it, it's without question the worst computer I've ever owned. 1. The Touch Bar is appalling if you're at all a touch typist. It puts destructive actions just an accidental brush of the finger tip away. 2. The keyboard is failing all over the place. My left command key has fallen off, and three keys occasionally stick resulting in double entries…

If you feel your laptop has made you a permanently angry person, why not sell it and cut your loses?

After spending a decade optimizing your workflow to work with Apple's operating system, and after investing tons of money into software and peripherals designed for this ecosystem, it isn't so easy to just give up on it all, even if it is pissing you off and making your life miserable: you essentially just sit around having regrets and building up anger at the idiots who screwed it all up.

Re: Ask HN: Is the new MacBook Pro worth its value for a developer?

#120

Post by cheeze »

modells wrote: post #68
tomcam wrote: post #7

No. I bought the $3,500 version on the advice of my partner and feel cruelly ripped off. The keyboard, which I dislike, has already been replaced. The Apple Store guy tried to accuse me of getting water on the keyboard, but that is incorrect. My partner’s identical machine also needed the keyboard and motherboard replaced. He got a loaner (I didn’t) and they tried to accuse him of the same thing. I would much rather…

Lenovo Thinkpad T series laptops are built like tanks, have proper keyboards, some have water-resistance, most have easily-removable batteries. The T480 has a 30 hour runtime with dual batteries, and starts at about $800 USD. I'd try to turn that into a hackintosh or find an A1278 because it has 2x drives (optical turns into second drive bay), works with 16 GiB of RAM and the battery isn't glued in. On the latter, I'…

But the Lenovo is coming from a company who has repeatedly shown that it doesn't give a shit about user privacy. Remember superfish? Or Lenovo Service Engine?
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