I’m looking at Vaio. I had a Sony Vaio about 10 years ago and I still love it. I have given up on buying a MBP because of Touchbar and the keyboard.
Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
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Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#282Thinkpad x220,IPS model, running xubuntu. Display is lacking, so I wouldn't use it for illustration work. Otherwise, it has been months since I opened my mbp.
Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#283> However, Apple has demonstrated their inability to be reliable. I bought my MBP in January of this year (2019) and tomorrow I’ll pick it up from its 3rd repair. Well, I've had 5 or so MBs and MBPs since 2003 and hardly ever needed a repair (I had to repair an iMac once). So what happened to one machine, which could have been part of a faulty production run is not necessarily indicative. In general, the fact the MBP…
I don't think OP is referring to Apple's permanent inability to be reliable, but rather the current MBP series. That keyboard is atrocious, and there is no alternative to it. Maybe the 2020 MBP design refresh will fix the issues, but there could also be another set of issues that emerge after a few months. Apple has broken their user's trust.
Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#284Huawei xmate pro running Ubuntu is a dream
Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#285Slightly OT however for what it’s worth the new 16inch MBP with a redesigned non-butterfly keyboard is supposed to be available soon. I would suggest you hold off any laptop decision until then.
The first hurdle for me is still whether it has an Escape key.
Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#286I 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…
> In a hotel (=on Mac), everything is stylish and cared for, but you have very little freedom to change things. I've heard this over and over — that Macs are locked-down, uncustomisable machines — and I don't agree with it at all. I use replacements for almost all the built-in apps. I use a custom launcher. My editor config Git repo is approaching ten years old, and my shell config Git repo is almost eight. There are…
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Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#287Not a laptop specific comment, but from a software perspective Windows 10 with WSL is a pretty awesome Dev environment. You get a full Linux subsystem, with access to the Windows filesystem and environment for testing.
Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#288I've been using an Asus ZenBook for a while and am very satisfied with it! They aren't very cheap, but Asus seems pretty innovative with their laptops. And the brushed metal finish is also quite nice.
https://www.asus.com/au/Laptops/ZenBook-Series-Home/
Not associated with Asus in any way...
Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#289I 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…
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Re: Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?
#290Windows 10 on good hardware is very, very nice. My advice is "don't fight windows". I've seen many people try to make Windows like Unix. Don't. Use Windows versions of things, not things compiled under Cygwin or MinGW. Learn to use Powershell and Powershell scripting language. I do development (C/C++/CUDA/Erlang/Python) all day long on Windows 10 and in addition use desktop applications like Microsoft Office and Adob…
WSL 2.0 is a full linux kernel powered by HyperV and is very fast with minimal overhead. Useful for using all those Linux tools directly on the same filesystem.