Its butterfly keyboard design has failed, but Apple has yet to admit its mistake

I do IT orders in a research institute, a MBP user wants a big memory machine to do server side data analysis, and wants to order the iMac pro 128 GB ram. He’s shocked to learn that for the same price he can get a Dell Epyc server with 512 GB ram. Guess what he still wants? The iMac, for the “ecosystem”.

I think that people underestimate the cost for most people to switch to another system.

If you use any system for years, there are many ingrained habits that are hard to unlearn. Then there are probably applications that they use that have no direct replacements on Windows or Linux (e.g. OmniGraffle). Sure, there may be applications within the same class (diagramming), but even if they are as polished, it takes time to become as productive in a replacement.

Most people who are not tech enthusiasts just want things to stay as they know them. For a normal user, switching to another OS and applications is like switching from QWERTY to Dvorak - a long, tedious process, that will reduce productivity for one or two years.

Somewhat ironically, using a unix-variant is the easiest way to stick to what you know. Windows and to some extend macOS has gone through some design fads. Apple ditches/replaces fully functional programs, such as Quicktime 7, Aperture, and iWork (it took many years to get linked text boxes back). Whereas on a unix, you can still work like it is 1979 if you want to.

Practically any laptop has a good keyboard compared to the first two generations of butterfly keyboards. I have suffered through a MacBook Pro with the second generation butterfly mechanism. Although I liked the feel of the pristine keyboard, pretty soon specks of dusts made keys get stuck/repeat regularly. I also had a can of compressed air to blow out the dust regularly.

Between the broken keyboard and only 2 USB-C port, I hated that laptop. I know have a MacBook Pro with a 3rd generation butterfly keyboard (which has the dust seals) and 4 USB-C ports. I am finally starting to like MacBooks again. So far the keyboard has been fine. Touch ID on a MacBook is absolutely brilliant, flying through 1Password and sudo prompts is awesome. The new True Tone screen is awesome. The largest downside: MacBooks have become even more expensive than they already were.

Why did I stay on a Mac? Three reasons: 1) I use a lot of Mac-specific apps (OmniGraffle, Deckset, Things) that I absolutely love. 2) macOS is still a great operating system. 3) The hardware is still simply better. The last point two points notice now that I work remotely and I Skype with my colleagues nearly daily. When I Skype with someone with a MacBook or iMac, the sound quality is great and without a lot of distortion. When I Skype with someone that uses a ThinkPad or another PC laptop, the sound quality is typically bad, their mics pick up a lot of noise, and somehow noise cancellation seems to work quite badly. Then there are OS-specific problems (which may also be Skype bugs), e.g. if someone shares their screen with me, I see the mouse pointer when they are on a Mac, but if they are on Linux there is no mouse pointer.

My company bought me a 2018 MacBook Pro about two weeks ago and so far I'm enjoying the keyboard; I like the tactile feel (I typically use mechanical keyboards whenever I'm at a desk, and so the tactile feel of the MacBook Pro's keyboard was a pleasant surprise), and there's more travel than I thought there would be. I remember trying the butterfly keyboards back in 2016 and hating them, so either something must have changed or my preferences have changed.

With that being said, I've only had this MacBook Pro for two weeks, and so we'll see if it remains reliable over the next few years.

X1 Carbon and XPS 13 are still the best hardware out there if you are using Linux.