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MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

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Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#31

Post by dpedu »

madeofpalk wrote: post #22
therein wrote: post #10

> If Apple releases their new Macs with an identical keyboard, then I'm ditching Macs and will pick up a Microsoft Surface Book or something similar. Whatever it is, I'll make sure to pick a laptop that has a god damned functional keyboard. Same here, MBP keyboards are unbearable. Trying to develop on OSX has become a hassle. Gotta jump through hoops to get gdb to work. Windows with WSL on a Surface Book feels extrem…

Go give windows a try and report back. I've been using Windows for the past couple of weeks and, granted maybe I haven't really given it a chance, using it after using Macs for 10+ years is not great. Maybe developing on macOS has become a hassle (I don't see that, but sure), but doing everything on Windows is a hassle. Taking a screenshot. Opening the right file. Displaying UI at a reasonable scale . Think what you…

> Displaying UI at a reasonable scale.

It's amazing how bad Windows still is at this. In my experience, connecting monitors of different densities results in crazy things breaking, like the "maximize window" feature.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#32

Post by BinaryIdiot »

dpedu wrote: post #28
therein wrote: post #10

> If Apple releases their new Macs with an identical keyboard, then I'm ditching Macs and will pick up a Microsoft Surface Book or something similar. Whatever it is, I'll make sure to pick a laptop that has a god damned functional keyboard. Same here, MBP keyboards are unbearable. Trying to develop on OSX has become a hassle. Gotta jump through hoops to get gdb to work. Windows with WSL on a Surface Book feels extrem…

The Surface Book 2's (the model I own) keyboard is probably one of the best laptop keyboard on the market today. Proper key travel and spacing and it's even backlit. I particularly like that they volume controls are on F1-F3 since they plus the Fn key can be operated single-handedly. I just wish it ran Linux better - I find Windows unusable.

I own a Surface Book 2 and a Surface Laptop 2. Both are amazing but I find the Laptop 2's keyboard better because of the fabric on it (which sounds bizarre).

Either way, except for some Windows annoyances I really don't miss my MacBooks.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#33

Post by buu700 »

This is the sole reason I recently upgraded to a souped up 2015 MBP: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/B07WCCW4GS/R50D0AGJ5M872

I expect this to last me a decent handful of years; if Apple hasn't gotten their shit together by then, no matter how much I otherwise like their hardware, I'll have no choice but to pick something else and switch back to Linux.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#34

Post by blinkingled »

madeofpalk wrote: post #22
therein wrote: post #10

> If Apple releases their new Macs with an identical keyboard, then I'm ditching Macs and will pick up a Microsoft Surface Book or something similar. Whatever it is, I'll make sure to pick a laptop that has a god damned functional keyboard. Same here, MBP keyboards are unbearable. Trying to develop on OSX has become a hassle. Gotta jump through hoops to get gdb to work. Windows with WSL on a Surface Book feels extrem…

Go give windows a try and report back. I've been using Windows for the past couple of weeks and, granted maybe I haven't really given it a chance, using it after using Macs for 10+ years is not great. Maybe developing on macOS has become a hassle (I don't see that, but sure), but doing everything on Windows is a hassle. Taking a screenshot. Opening the right file. Displaying UI at a reasonable scale . Think what you…

> Taking a screenshot. Opening the right file

Former is PrtScn key on my keyboard. Microsoft ships Snipping Tools and lately Snip n Sketch for screenshots - never had any issues with either.

Latter - not sure what you mean - opening the right file as in setting default program to open a file? That's easy enough and it's the best experience on Windows.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#35

Post by zmmmmm »

The worst thing is, the 2015 MBP keyboard was nearly perfect. The vast majority of the time I don't even use an external keyboard even when I am working at a desk and am plugged into monitor.

It's one thing to fail at designing something because it is hard and you haven't figured it out yet. It's quite another to regress to incompetence on something you already perfected.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#36

Post by _fzslm »

AndrewBissell wrote: post #7

It's funny, I resisted an upgrade until my 2015 MBP became unusable, in part because I dreaded the keyboard. I do miss physical function keys, but I actually like the more clacky & tactile butterfly keys. Maybe I'll feel differently once I finally manage to work a crumb underneath one of them.

Yeah, the feel of the butterfly mechanism is subjectively excellent. I can type faster on it than even my mech keyboard at home, which is a very impressive feat. But my MacBook is going in for its second keyboard repair in a year soon, so...

They're apparently ditching the butterfly keyboard in the next redesign. Bittersweet as someone who loves the keyfeel, but I guess it's for the best so here's hoping.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#37

Post by tolmasky »

The worst part is that I can tell this keyboard is actually having a detrimental effect on my typing abilities. Since being on these keyboards for years now, I've noticed that my typing speed has slowed, as I spend a significant amount of cognitive energy preparing to fix mistakes. The faster you type, the more annoying it is to go farther back to fix something. I'm not sure how to quantify the focus it steals from tasks or the anxiety it gives me, but I think they are also real. Not to mention it is infuriating to see some strange spelling error that is completely the keyboard's fault in a message or email you sent, making you look like an idiot.

The thread from @getify ( https://twitter.com/getify/status/1165300052463480832 ) on having to wait 3 days for a repair, even though it is done in-store is truly infuriating. He is absolutely right that it makes no sense to have to leave a computer sitting around doing nothing, and you should just be able to be told to bring it back when your computer would be 24 hours away from being repaired. The computer isn't being shipped anywhere, but Apple must still severely hamper your productivity on a product you spent thousands of dollars on.

Their constant reference to a "small minority of users experiencing this" in light of these huge delays at the store for a super-quick and simple fix has become insulting. I won't register anywhere as someone "experiencing this issue" since I don't have 3 days to not use my computer for a fix that will probably break again in months.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#38

Post by hunta2097 »

snockerton wrote: post #6

I'm glad that others are voicing the same issues I'm experiencing. Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking crazy pills. My solution has been to place an Apple bluetooth keyboard -on top- of my 15" MBP keyboard and that seems to work pretty well, but wow, it shouldn't have come to this...

I've been fighting my MBP15 keyboard for so long. Eventually I put a USB PC keyboard on my desk with a matching keyboard map.

Abso-fucking-lute bliss! I think my productivity has gone up literally 80%

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#39

Post by timfrietas »

hannibalhorn wrote: post #25

For everyone that hasn't seen it, reports are they've already decided to change the keyboard on forthcoming models. Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20353148 Edit: added "reports are"

I really wish this was the top comment. I feel like HN is turning a little too much into an echo chamber dunk fest sometimes.
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