Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro? • Hacker News Board

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

#271

Post by jnieminen » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:23 PM UTC

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #169

etatoby wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second a ThinkPad with XFCE (such as Xubuntu) as the best combination. A few things which, although obvious in retrospect, I had to learn the hard way: • Get a ThinkPad with physical buttons under the touchpad, if you like to track with your index finger and click with the thumb. I made the mistake of getting the kind where you push the entire touchpad, and it's very hard to use. Apple's was at least useable, this…

There are not many ThinkPads with Ethernet ports. T4??p or P?? are the only ones left, IIRC. Others have either no port or a difficult to use clapet.

You have also an option to use a docking station.

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

#272

Post by nixpulvis » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:24 PM UTC

My thinkpad x1 carbon is running Linux very well (better than Windows I might add). Battery is great, keyboard is acceptable, and it's significantly lighter than my old MacBooks. I've grown to like the plastic Lenovo uses.

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

#273

Post by K0SM0S » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:26 PM UTC

alexandercrohde wrote: post #258

Aside from all the bitterness about ports, touch-bars, lock-in, blah-blah, I have a sincere question. Does anybody know a comparably DURABLE competitor? I have 99% confidence I could knock my macbook air off my bed (while on) 100 times in a row with 0 consequences. I've never had a key come off, had the screen flicker, had a battery problem, had an overheat. I'd be curious if anybody thinks there's any other laptop c…

ThinkPads tends to be pretty solid. When they fall, it's not uncommon there's a dent in a wooden floor, but no scratch on the laptop itself...

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

#274

Post by lioeters » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:28 PM UTC

cipherboy wrote: post #230

lioeters wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> works well with Fedora after a couple of tweaks I'm considering this combination of ThinkPad X1 Carbon + Fedora. May I ask what kind of tweaks are necessary/recommended?

Make sure you're running an up-to-date kernel [0] because the version shipped didn't support the wifi card shipped in the 7th gen. [0]: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1733369

Thanks for the tip!

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

#275

Post by kryogen1c » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

swinglock wrote: post #99

oarsinsync wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In case you didn't notice, Windows 10 is now a tiling window manager with virtual desktops, by default, if you just learn the new keyboard shortcuts.

I make this same comment every time this topic comes up, but Sysinternal's lightweight utility Desktops is far, far better than the W10 window manager. Its orders of magnitude faster and requires fewer inputs.

I have a couple config changes i make to use W10, and Desktops and f.lux are must-haves.

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

#276

Post by city41 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

I’m very excited about Google's Pixelbook line and ChromeOS. With Crostini (Linux integration) it has the potential to become my preferred OS for doing dev work. Crostini is still in beta and does have a ways to go yet.

The Pixelbook itself is excellent hardware with a top notch screen, trackpad and keyboard.

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

#277

Post by swozey » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

alexandercrohde wrote: post #258

Aside from all the bitterness about ports, touch-bars, lock-in, blah-blah, I have a sincere question. Does anybody know a comparably DURABLE competitor? I have 99% confidence I could knock my macbook air off my bed (while on) 100 times in a row with 0 consequences. I've never had a key come off, had the screen flicker, had a battery problem, had an overheat. I'd be curious if anybody thinks there's any other laptop c…

I'm not sure about this anymore, my 2016 MBP has gotten some gnarly body dents all over it and it lives in my backpack and on my work desk. I've never actually dropped it. The 2016+'s seem incredibly soft.

You're likely talking about the internals which on mine seem ok. Except my right speaker makes crackle sounds 100% of the time. It's so distracting that the few times I've brought it on trips and used it to watch movies I've gone out of my way to find speakers and an aux cable.

My 2015 definitely seemed like a work horse.

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

#278

Post by K0SM0S » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

SyneRyder wrote: post #44

I switched from Mac to a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen, when my MacBook Pro was similarly unreliable (6 repairs through the Apple Store). The feel of the keyboard & trackpad were important to me, and the 4K display option covers 100% of the Adobe RGB color palette. I rarely use the Yoga's tablet feature, but as a Photoshop user it has sometimes been useful for photo editing with the built-in stylus. There's a built…

Same here, what tipped the X1 for me was the impossibility to buy a Surface Book with US QWERTY keyboard in Europe — the only options are country-based and that's a no for me as a dev. The alternative, buy it from the US and pay for shipping, means that I could not get service because Microsoft's warranty only works in the country of purchase. That's such a bad policy, compared to Lenovo's pro support (on-site next day etc). Microsoft is not really catering to pro users here, no international warranty from a megacorp is puzzling.

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

#279

Post by swozey » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

I'll be buying the new 13" XPS 2-n-1 pretty soon. It finally has a thunderbolt 3 port so I can plug in an egpu if I ever feel like I need an upgrade for gaming.

I am worried about the thermals, the i7 seems like it will likely throttle quite a bit.

I absolutely love the form factor though. I've been hoping for 5 years that Apple would release a convertible/2-n-1 style laptop and blow the Surface out of the water.

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

#280

Post by willis936 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

fancyfish wrote: post #248

The Dell XPS 15 is a remarkable piece of hardware and at least on par with the MBP. A nice smooth trackpad, crystal clear display that plays well with Linux drivers, and a reliable keyboard. I, too, was fed up with Apple’s rising MBP prices and flimsy design. I need a functional and long-lasting dev machine. The XPS (and probably Precision) series checked the boxes. It has ports when I need them. Easy to take apart a…

I got an XPS 15 with a 6 core CPU (boost up to 4 GHz) last year for (I think) $1000. Get baseline memory and storage, slap a 1 TB samsung SSD and 32 GB of RAM, and perform thermal mods and suddenly you have a serious piece of hardware for $1600. I don’t think Apple cares about making computers. They care about making money and their method of doing that is presenting the appearance of good computers.