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Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

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Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#561

Post by BonesJustice »

microtonal wrote: post #212
endymi0n wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only come to the same conclusion. Typing this on a 2018 MacBook 15 inch, and it's a disaster. I still keep accidentally hitting the Touchbar ten times per day while typing (it's not a press-bar, duh), I need a dongle for _everything and their mother_, battery lifetime isn't good, the keyboard is prone to mistyping and double clicks, the screen doesn't get bright enough sometimes, I can't get any higher spec har…

I can only come to the same conclusion. Typing this on a 2018 MacBook 15 inch, and it's a disaster. I still keep accidentally hitting the Touchbar ten times per day while typing (it's not a press-bar, duh) My favorite problem is activating Siri when I use Touch ID (yes, I know you can remove Siri from the Touch Bar). I miss the physical escape key. But the Touch Bar is great for volume control and scrobbling. Touch I…

I wish they would just offer a variant with physical function keys and a Touch Bar. They’d have plenty of room for both if they reduced the comically oversized touchpad.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#562

Post by jchw »

pimeys wrote: post #484
cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm disappointed that Apple didn't either kill the Touchbar, or commit to it fully: why is there no desktop keyboard (wireless or wired) with the Touchbar? Presumably a huge amount of Pro users (this is a Macbook "Pro", right?) plug into keyboard, pointing device, and monitor frequently...

At least Lenovo just ditched their Touchbar after the disastrous 2nd generation of X1 Carbon, never to be seen again. Also did a mistake with the 2014 series of ThinkPad by removing the mouse buttons due to a bigger touchpad, just to give them back when the users complained enough in 2015. Have to give them credit for that.

The touchbar on the 2nd gen X1 Carbons was seriously bad, but in fairness it was worse than the Macbook Pro touchbar.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#563

Post by ekianjo »

addicted wrote: post #360
WalterSear wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking into Pop OS, I found these useful links: https://pop.system76.com/docs/difference-between-pop-ubuntu/ https://www.osboxes.org/pop_os-19-04-and-18-04-vm-images-ava...

I like PopOS but that first link is terrible. It only reinforces the idea that PopOS is little more than a reskinned Ubuntu (which is not a bad thing!). The only non different default setting is the availability of a recovery partition, while the other features mentioned are basically just different defaults.

They also include better support for NVidia drivers vs stock Ubuntu. Thats very appreciable when you have a laptop with integrated and discrete GPU.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#564

Post by rbanffy »

liability wrote: post #452
FabHK wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It most definitely did not use to be.

There were hints of it even back in the Apple II and Apple III era, both of which released with inadaquate cooling.

The only 8-bit Apple that suffered from inadequate cooling was the III. An average II would never overheat. You could, of course, load your II to a limit it'd fail, but my //e was fairly loaded (320k of RAM, SSC, Grappler, Microsoft Softcard (1 MHz Z-80), AE clock, Disk II and a PAL-M board). The II+ had mostly the same configs, with 64K and a Videx 80-column card in dual-head configuration. Both ran warm-ish for about a decade before going into storage.

Both ran perfectly silent.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#565

Post by kvartz »

cletus wrote: post #125

What a clusterF is modern Mac hardware: - Keyboards with much worse action that are more prone to failure (from dust no less) and require replacing the motherboard to fix... all for a Touchbar no one wants and 0.5mm cut in thickness. - Loss (over the years) of the ability to upgrade the CPU, SSD or memory; - Display failures due to broken ribbon cables; - The USB-C clusterF; and - Loss of MagSafe (this one still hurt…

For me main indicator is that 2015 MacBooks are still selling at a rather good price.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#566

Post by vogon_laureate »

I own both a 15" Macbook Pro 2017 model with touch bar and a Dell XPS 15" 2017 model. Both have their pluses and minuses. Both needed major repairs. Dell needed logic board and screen replaced. Mac needed logic board and keyboard.

I mainly use the Mac. It's much quieter, has an amazingly vivid and bright retina display, extremely good battery life, best track pad in the industry and the best speakers on any laptop I've ever had. I like the keyboard, I even game on it. I don't get the whole dongle issue but I'm not a heavy user of peripherals. I have two USB-C port extender dongles should I ever need anything from ethernet to firewire 800. I've used them like twice in the last two years.

The Dell is fine, but I'm just not a big Windows fan. The keyboard is kinda meh, the bluetooth is poor, the screen isn't as bright or vivid and has some light bleed and the build has that cheap plastic feel about it. If it was any more reliable than the Macbook, I think I would be persuaded by the argument about the hardware, but both have had problems, both required lengthy repairs, etc. I have extended warranty on Dell and Applecare for the Mac and I needed them for both.

Laptops fail. My PC motherboard with ultra durable components also failed after two years. Heat and dust and micro-imperfections in silicon will do their thing. Sure, Apple made some questionable design choices. It's still a great machine.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#567

Post by simongr3dal »

0xADEADBEE wrote: post #547
ericabiz wrote: post #51

We repair these as part of our business, and to be clear, both the keyboards and the screens are failing on these at an alarming rate. iFixit detailed the issues with the screens, which (in Apple's unending quest for "thinness") use a thinner flex cable to connect the display to the rest of the laptop. This thinner cable is prone to breakage, and we are already seeing 2016-2017 MacBook Pros in our shop regularly for…

Not seeing anyone else mention this problem so perhaps I'm an edge case but I have a 3 month old Macbook Pro (work supplied, fortunately) and I'm getting double presses on certain keys. I've managed to ameliorate it a bit with software [0] but it's still a disgrace that this is happening on a $4K machine. [0] - https://unshaky.nestederror.com/

I've had a 13" MBP with Touch Bar since December 2016 and have had keys that felt weird, keys that repeated, keys that didn't work unless you pressed really hard, and keys that didn't work no matter how hard you pressed them.

I've had the top case replaced for free two times under warranty, and the extended 4-year warranty does make me slighty less worried. The battery is also replaced as part of the top case which is a pretty nice bonus.

Though it is still a major inconvenience to be without my main computer for a week while it's being repaired.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#568

Post by errantspark »

I would be so wildly impressed if this was any better in continuous workloads than the next model down, or even a couple models down. There's no way in hell there's enough thermal headroom for that CPU to fire on all cylinders for more than 30 seconds or so.

Re: Apple introduces 8-core MacBook Pro

#570

Post by fauigerzigerk »

deaddodo wrote: post #263
endymi0n wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only come to the same conclusion. Typing this on a 2018 MacBook 15 inch, and it's a disaster. I still keep accidentally hitting the Touchbar ten times per day while typing (it's not a press-bar, duh), I need a dongle for _everything and their mother_, battery lifetime isn't good, the keyboard is prone to mistyping and double clicks, the screen doesn't get bright enough sometimes, I can't get any higher spec har…

> I feel too old to compile my own kernel for a glitchy wifi driver, and Windows? Nah, get away... Linux hasn't had issues with the major wifi chipsets in ages. It's as plug and play as Mac and Windows are. There are plenty of reasons people might choose to avoid Linux, but drivers (outside of specialty, niche or obscure hardware) aren't really a reason anymore.

Graphics drivers are a constant source of trouble and confusion (so many driver projects and PPAs). My gf has a Linux laptop that stops working after every dist upgrade, and it's always some driver issue (or yet another Ubuntu NetworkManager bug).

Also, if the system isn't shut down cleanly, it will never just boot up again in spite of supposedly using a journaling file system. She always has to run e2fsck in manual mode (i.e confirming every single repair), specifying the address of a backup superblock.

Printing and scanning is broken as well. Not for some niche hardware but for one of the most widely deployed HP printer/scanners.

So on her particular laptop, Linux is anything but plug and play. If you're saying that Linux works well on your laptop I will believe you. It has never worked well an any laptop I owned and drivers have always been the main reason for that.

I believe you cannot simply run Linux any laptop. You have to buy a laptop specifically for Linux.

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