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Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

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Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#131

Post by mpol »

oarsinsync wrote: post #88
mherrmann wrote: post #48

I switched from MBP to a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu. I compare the experience to living in a hotel vs. living at home [1]. In a hotel (=on Mac), everything is stylish and cared for, but you have very little freedom to change things. At home (=on Linux), you need to do the dishes yourself but there's no external agenda. It's simply yours. I'm very happy with the switch. Though I'm on (Debian+) Xfce now instead of Ubuntu…

I love this analogy, and it's remarkable at how much sense it makes when I look at the choices I make in my day to day life generally. Hotel-chic is very clean, very minimal, very sparse. Just enough to have the necessary conveniences that appeal to everyone, with absolutely nothing personalised for any individual. As of about 10 years ago, I made a conscious choice to stop customising my desktop (and then later, mob…

> I made a conscious choice to stop customising my desktop (and then later, mobile) experience away from the defaults as much as possible, as I was fed up of having to document and then re-deploy all of my customisations every time I had to reinstall for whatever reason.

I just copy my home-dir settings everywhere I go. I have a different setup on my desktop and laptop. It is mostly .config that I need. But when moving, it just moves along to a new machine or install. Happily living on the same config files for 20 years now, and I only need to adjust as I desire. I do have daily backups ofcourse.

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#132

Post by rkangel »

ceronman wrote: post #120

I'm writing this from my recently bought Thinkpad X1C7 after moving from a 2015 MPB. Here are some notes about my experience so far: The hardware is fantastic. Build quality is great, the keyboard is great, the screen is great, the selection of ports is great. It's not cheap though, price is very close to an MBP. The software part is not so great. I tried Windows for a short while, but it's just a disaster. It's slow…

My advice for people using Linux on a laptop for the first time is to use Fedora - it has the best 'out of the box' support for hardware due to shipping the most recent kernels. With Thinkpads usually everything just works (in my case that included fingerprint reader, keyboard backlight, webcam).

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#133

Post by mkl »

resonious wrote: post #113
mkl wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: my two year old Surface Pro 4 developed a battery-swelling issue, and Microsoft replaced the whole laptop right away (well, as soon as I worked out how to contact the right level of tech-support).

I think this example only solidifies gp's point. It sounded to me like they were talking about the ability to open up the laptop and actually repair it, which it seems even Microsoft can't do with their own machines. Full replacement from support is convenient, but what if I just want an extra 16GB of RAM?

They can do it with their own machines, as the replacement I got was a refurbished one (with a different model of battery installed). My original machine was irreparable as the battery expansion had damaged the screen and warped the metal of the case itself! I agree they're not serviceable by mere mortals, though, and many upgrades are impossible.

I have a Thinkpad X201 Tablet from 2010, and it's easy to take it apart and replace/clean bits. There's a serious cost to that, though: the entire Surface Pro 4 tablet takes up only about the volume of the Thinkpad's screen. The Thinkpad as a whole is about three times that thickness. This is only partly an age thing - mostly it's serviceability design.

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#134

Post by skunkpocalypse »

mherrmann wrote: post #48

I switched from MBP to a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu. I compare the experience to living in a hotel vs. living at home [1]. In a hotel (=on Mac), everything is stylish and cared for, but you have very little freedom to change things. At home (=on Linux), you need to do the dishes yourself but there's no external agenda. It's simply yours. I'm very happy with the switch. Though I'm on (Debian+) Xfce now instead of Ubuntu…

After using macs for a decade I switched back to Linux last year. I really like your hotel-vs-home analogy, that describes my experience (and motivation) quite well.

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#135

Post by Aperocky »

mherrmann wrote: post #48

I switched from MBP to a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu. I compare the experience to living in a hotel vs. living at home [1]. In a hotel (=on Mac), everything is stylish and cared for, but you have very little freedom to change things. At home (=on Linux), you need to do the dishes yourself but there's no external agenda. It's simply yours. I'm very happy with the switch. Though I'm on (Debian+) Xfce now instead of Ubuntu…

Serious question: how’s the transition trackpad wise

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#136

Post by Joeri »

rpastuszak wrote: post #61

I’d gladly switch hardware, but software is a bit of a problem: - yes, I need a *nix OS - I need to run Adobe CC (Photoshop, Lightroom) and Sketch I code for iOS occasionally (be it via Unity or XCode). I don’t mind tweaking my OS and making it mine. What I do mind is having to tweak stuff when I don’t have the time to do it, but things are broken. Did anyone manage to work with these tools efficiently here on a linu…

If you’re doing iOS dev at all you need a mac, period. The only thing you could consider is having two machines, with the mac used for iOS dev.

As far as Adobe CC, you’ll need macOS or Windows. On linux that would mean going the windows in a vm route. I wouldn’t try getting CC to run in wine, it is unlikely to work well and likely to break even if it does. Windows with wsl is an option, but the shell is never as smoothly integrated as in macOS or linux. I went the wsl way for a few years, and it was fine, but I’m on ubuntu now and it is definitely better.

I just ditched adobe’s tools altogether. My use of them was rare enough. Not everyone can do that.

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#137

Post by mobilemidget »

olex wrote: post #110
mherrmann wrote: post #48

I switched from MBP to a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu. I compare the experience to living in a hotel vs. living at home [1]. In a hotel (=on Mac), everything is stylish and cared for, but you have very little freedom to change things. At home (=on Linux), you need to do the dishes yourself but there's no external agenda. It's simply yours. I'm very happy with the switch. Though I'm on (Debian+) Xfce now instead of Ubuntu…

Our company offers Dell XPS 13 and Precision 5530 (based on the XPS 15 chassis) as Macbook alternatives for all employees. I've had my Precision for a couple years now and couldn't be happier, it's an awesome device and imho as close as it gets to the overall hardware quality and usability of Macbooks with Windows-/Linux-based devices.

An alternative or a replacement, could you still opt for a MacBook (pro)?

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#138

Post by Aperocky »

MatekCopatek wrote: post #42
Doubleslash wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X1 is a nice laptop. The problem is it's weak CPU. Apple manages to crunch a whole different tier of CPU (h(q) series vs. U series for Lenovo) in the same form factor.

The 13" MBP that is most comparable to the X1 Carbon also uses U series, while the 15" MBP is best compared to the X1 Extreme, which, you guessed it, offers the better H series CPUs. Same for Dell XPS 13 vs 15.

You can’t have your pie and eat it, in exchange for battery life having U is completely understandable. Depend on your workload (mostly just a ssh frontend), even Y is acceptable.

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#139

Post by Joeri »

wishinghand wrote: post #95
mantoto wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should use an example which actually needs a *nix OS. Adobe CC is Definitely not a good example

Ok fine, Adobe CC works on other OS's, but deploying for iOS doesn't, and neither does Sketch.

On windows check out icons8 lunacy for a free sketch alternative. It is not as good, but it might be enough.

Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

#140

Post by ratiolat »

tasuki wrote: post #62
mherrmann wrote: post #48

I switched from MBP to a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu. I compare the experience to living in a hotel vs. living at home [1]. In a hotel (=on Mac), everything is stylish and cared for, but you have very little freedom to change things. At home (=on Linux), you need to do the dishes yourself but there's no external agenda. It's simply yours. I'm very happy with the switch. Though I'm on (Debian+) Xfce now instead of Ubuntu…

+1 for ThinkPads, they just work. The XPS has super annoying fans which change their speed randomly all the time (though it's possible to override: https://github.com/TomFreudenberg/dell-bios-fan-control ). Btw, Xfce is a desktop environment while Ubuntu is a distribution. Perhaps you meant to write you're on Xfce instead of Gnome?

Thinkpads come in different flavours, and the have very different quality. Either get a T-series, or X-series (X series is basically smaller version of T). Or if it's a used one, the later A-series are good as well (A series means AMD instead of Intel). The old A - series were crap. Nowadays T and X series have AMD also (if model ends with 5, it's AMD). T and X series have MIL certification. For example there's also X1 Extreme (costs around 3000€), but quality wise it's a lot worse than T or X series, because it does not have the MIL certificate.
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