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

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

#401

Post by asjw » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:07 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #251

dotancohen wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I compare the experience to living in a hotel vs. living at home This is very apt. If we've all grown out of our parents' basements when we left /., then let me share my own analogy. When SSHing into different servers I used to bring my .vimrc and .bashrc along with me, because how could you live without them? Likewise for switching computers, you bring along your config files. When a new job required me to be at l…

Hi, a little feedback from a wise person who has been on the internet for a while: while you probably thought this was a clever analogy, you would do a lot better not saying things like "I might stumble a bit and touch her in ways she doesn't like". try to avoid gender-specific analogies in computing. You may think you are being clever, but you're really just making yourself look like a cad (And not everybody will gi…

I don't think I'm wise honestly, but I know I'm not a rapist and am not overly sensitive

There are 7.7 billions people in the world, even if every American chose to not talk to me, there will still be 7.4 billion people to talk to.

Fortunately most of us don't live in the US and people are not creepy weirdos who stop talking to you for stupid reasons.

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

#402

Post by totheDude » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

I thought this was about hardware. IMHO there are alternatives, but none is chaper than the MBP. Dell hardware is crap, too many complaints online. I would like Lenovo P1. More expensive than MBP…

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

#403

Post by totheDude » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

I thought this was about hardware.

IMHO there are alternatives, but none is chaper than the MBP. Dell hardware is crap, too many complaints online. I would like Lenovo P1. More expensive than MBP…

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

#404

Post by Klonoar » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:10 PM UTC

kingkongjaffa wrote: post #301

eggsyntax wrote: post #298

I switched a few years ago from MBP to ThinkPads running Ubuntu (with Gnome). It's been an overall improvement for sure, and there are very few things I miss (iTerm2 is the big one; there's no Linux terminal emulator that has all the advanced features I loved in iTerm2 like incremental search/highlight/copy. Gnome terminal with tmux is...acceptable). And of course it's much cheaper; on both computers (P51 and X1 Extr…

This is such a strange story - my thinkpad T490 lasts all day, my MBP lasts about 4 hours. (granted it's a 2012 model but still). Battery life isn't one of the things Mac books have ever had going for them in my experience.

My MBP2015 averages 8 hours of battery still. They’re incredible.

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

#405

Post by ratsbane » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

Macbook Pro is still my primary laptop, but for the last year or so I've also been carrying and using a Pixelbook. Except for the smaller screen, it's almost evolved to the point that I'd be comfortable with it as a primary laptop.

The recent addition of Linux support is very nice and I'm looking forward to its continuing evolution: https://support.google.com/pixelbook/answer/9031351?hl=en

Perhaps the new Pixelbook Go will tilt the scales for me: https://store.google.com/product/pixelbook_go

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

#406

Post by paulcarroty » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:12 PM UTC

FussyZeus wrote: post #313

cytzol wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

People always criticize the lack of customization too as though it's an inherent flaw, like things must be customizable or not be good and I disagree. I love having my Windows Desktop to tinker on, but my Macbook is my workhorse. I don't care if I can customize it to any great degree. I've paid a lot of money for that machine and I expect it to work, without troubleshooting, and without fiddling. I akin it more to go…

> Tl;dr: Customization is highly overrated.

False. Adding 16GB or 32GB RAM makes real difference to any machine. But it's not profitable for Apple, they want you to buy new one.

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

#407

Post by baby » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

What about the last microsoft surface? I find microsoft products more and more attractive.

One of the big problem is airdrop + other macos only tools like keynote. Its hard to quit those.

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

#408

Post by mgamache » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #323

mgamache wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

me too, I purchased a 3rd party battery from amazon and so far so good... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0748BRHH4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

Going to put a blanket warning about buying battery replacements on Amazon. I bought a replacement battery on Amazon that was a Chinese knock-off. It barely holds a charge and started swelling within a few months. I don't think it would be safe to bring on a plane.

I agree... I've had some bad batteries via 3rd parties. That's why I posted the link as I've been using it for six months with no issue and about 85% capacity of the original (at a fraction of the OEM price)

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

#409

Post by _of » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

I switched from a MBP 2017 model with touch bar to a Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6 gen). I installed Ubuntu Linux and I'm happy. I do all my work on this laptop. But I've spent quite a lot of time getting the hardware to play nicely, upgrading bios + a lot of Linux config tweaking.

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

#410

Post by bluedino » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

swozey wrote: post #277

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 m…

>> The 2016+'s seem incredibly soft.

I had a 2016 13" Pro fall off the arm of a couch, in a zippered soft case, and then rivet that attaches the handle to the soft case impacted the side of the laptop near the ports on the side, it looked like a rat gnawed on it.

That's what I get for using the same (otherwise great) STM case since my Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro