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MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

ryanbigg.com

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Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#71

Post by madeofpalk »

taude wrote: post #61
madeofpalk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 screen shot hard on Windows? Windows-shift-S lets you grab a region vs macbook's shift-command-3 or 4 or 5, or whatever it is (I don't currentlyy have a mac). anyway, I will say that WSL is a lot better than what we had, but it's no where near as great as terminal working on the Mac. Maybe WSL 2.0 will be better. But I do miss my Mac tooling.

> Windows-shift-S

Thanks, I didn't know about this! I'll give it a go!

I've been using Lightshot to try and make screenshot taking a bit more bearable, but its still no cmd-shift-4 drag region and have a screenshot on my desktop.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#72

Post by asdff »

piinbinary wrote: post #43

I wonder how much time Jony Ive personally spends typing. I'm betting it is a very small amount.

The man probably doesn't even own a macbook other than to look at it sitting pretty on a shelf. Steve would have thrown a mbp out of a window if it doubled a key on him. Wouldn't be surprised if Ive is an ipad + pencil only loonie. Certainly would explain a lot.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#73

Post by moksly »

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…

I sold my MBP 2018 13” i5 and the only praise it’ll ever get for me is it’s resale value. I did have the box, and it was in perfect condition, but I almost got it’s original cost when I sold it to a refurbishment place. I replaced it with a Surface Pro 6 13” i5, which I was able to pick up for the money. And what a beast that little machine has been.

I had a few worries going into it. Would it be able to sit on my lap and other laptopy places, was Windows going to be alright, what about development. Stuff like that. It can function as a laptop, in fact it’s probably the best machine I’ve ever had on my legs because the hot part doesn’t touch you. It can’t sit on your chest while you lie down, however, so it’s certainly not a full laptop replacement if you need those positions. Windows with WSL has been amazing though. The only thing I’ve missed from OS/X was iMessage integration, and that was already annoying because more and more of my connections have been switching to android. It’s probably the first device I’ve been genuinely excited about since I got my first smartphone, and ironically it feels like something Apple should’ve made. And not just the design, the ability to isolate your dev environment with suse enterprise is just so much better than containers on os/x. Probably not better than dual-booting if you need more speed, but I don’t.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#74

Post by hannibalhorn »

abtinf wrote: post #53
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"

Is that anything more than a rumor yet?

Good point - but with Apple, you're never going to have any concrete information until the day a product is officially released. Rumors are as good as we can get, and 9to5mac is pretty reputable, as far as those sites go.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#76

Post by Wingman4l7 »

tolmasky wrote: post #66
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"

Great, will they be offering free trade-ins? These are $2000 computers that have a major broken component. Not to mention, the second a computer comes on sale that doesn't have this issue, the resale value of the current MacBooks will be disproportionately affected compared to previous revisions. So a nice double whammy: a miserable experience during its use, and an unusually small resale value afterwards.

This is a company that renders many of its perfectly working phones and tablets virtually worthless via centralized cloud account locking that is easily forgotten and left on. I doubt they care about resale value.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#77

Post by spraak »

I agree that the keyboard is terrible, but I think it's weird how many people just suffer through it and don't do anything about it. I put an external keyboard on top of the built in one (with a custom made plastic plate to block the keys of the built in from getting pressed). I am stuck with the laptop but I'm not going to be stuck with a bad keyboard.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#78

Post by reb »

timfrietas wrote: post #39
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.

Also, just to throw another opinion into this dumpster fire:

I had to get a new laptop, knew I was getting a 2019 MBP, and was terrified the keyboard experience would be horrendous due to the coverage I see on the topic here.

And it isn't at all. It feels different than my 2015 model, but... definitely not worse. I may even be just slightly better because it's noticeably quieter.

Just one perspective, but yeah. The keyboard rage on here should not be taken as anything approaching absolute truth.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#79

Post by mises »

Mis-types, reliability, etc. aside, I just don't like the keyboard. Normal chiclets are bad enough, but the mac is worse. Essentially zero travel, and I find my self bottoming out each stroke and typing what is evidently much too hard. I got used to chiclets okay (though I still use a full mechanical when I can), but the mac keyboard is too much. I feel like I'm typing on a touch-screen, or worse, that I'm some how playing with a toy (rather than a machine built to do work).

I guess a lot of Apple's products give me that feeling these days. Ios 7 design probably didn't help much. Maybe with Jony Ive gone, it will get better? I like things that feel solid. These days, macs just don't. I probably shouldn't beat on just apple here, though; it seems to be a broader trend for the worse.

Re: MacBook Pro Keyboard Drives Me Crazy

#80

Post by Arathorn »

I got a July 2019 MBP after having suffered from a totally unusable keyboard in a mid-2018 MBP one. In theory the July 2019 model has a 4th generation butterfly keyboard, whereas the 2018 ones were on 3rd gen - and despite using it heavily over the last month, I haven't had problems yet... apart from the backspace & O keys getting briefly sticky (presumably due to some dirt getting underneath). However, unlike on the 2018 one, holding the keyboard upside down and blowing at close range at the keys whilst toggling them managed to rapidly fix the problem.

I also haven't had any double presses yet (which were the plague of the 2018 one - the symptoms were identical to https://www.wsj.com/graphics/apple-still-hasnt-fixed-its-mac...). So, anecdotally, so far it seems that the 2019 edition is a marked improvement. I'm pretty sure by this point on the 2018 one I was having to go back and fix typos in almost every sentence.

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