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

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

#441

Post by joeevans1000 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

cytzol wrote: post #253

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…

> 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…

The complaints usually refer to hardware customization (RAM, for instance). Now they glue components in and discourage the ability to change components whatsoever.

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

#442

Post by waterhouse » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

rsync wrote: post #417

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…

"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 standard interfaces to per-application Preferences and keyboard shortcuts. When I sit down to use someone else's Mac, I have no idea how to use it!" I run an environment, on OSX, similar to this although (I assume) much less ambi…

A coworker of mine used the X11 application (or XQuartz?)'s terminal windows for their focus-follows-mouse.

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

#443

Post by jmmcd » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

garmaine wrote: post #100

soylentgraham wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Never used macs" maybe you should try them. I'm still using a 2013 MBP, only issue is that I had to finally replace the battery about a year ago. MacBooks used to be good. Can you still buy a 6 year old thinkpad?

Are you joking or just don’t know? Google “x222 thinkpad” for an example. There’s a whole market for classic thinkpads.

Typo: x222 -> x220

I got an X260 on Ebay for ~EUR220 to replace an MBP whose screen went bad. The screen and touchpad are no match for the MBP, but it sparks joy in a way the MBP never did.

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

#444

Post by ttz » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

randomsearch wrote: post #437

If you use email a lot and don’t want to use gmail etc in the browser, your only choice is Windows. I’ve tried all the GUI mail clients on Linux, and they are all either buggy as hell, don’t support most standards, or hellish UX. Given Windows is much much worse than OS X for tech stuff, there isn’t really an alternative. Macs have gotten worse, less reliable, design is tanking, software becoming buggy, but it’s stil…

Check out Mailspring.

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

#445

Post by kls » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

whycombagator wrote: post #425

cdata wrote: post #346

Similar story to OP. The MBP I acquired in 2017 has been undergoing rapid disintegration while the 2013 model it replaced is still working just fine. After stressing over the problem that nothing seemed comparable spec-wise, System 76 released their Adder WS and after reading some testimonials from users online I made the leap back to Linux. So far, I am very pleased with the choice. Here is what I love about it: - A…

How is the chassis/build quality? IIRC they are just sager/ shells I've read varying reports of the build quality and it's one of the reasons I've not bothered with System 76 - I fear it will be inferior to a Dell/Lenovo product.

They are built off of the Clevo based systems, I personally switched from a MBP about 3 years ago. In my opinion the build quality is better than anything Dell offers, I went thru 3 high end Dell's in that time, and switched to a Sagar about 1 year ago. Now I cannot compare it to the higher end Lenovo models as I have not owned one, but my wife has had several mid level models from her work and I have been less than impressed with the issues she has had with them.

Personally I would purchase another system based off of the Clevo designs and I feel it's build quality is on par with the MBP's that I used to own.

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

#446

Post by nileshk » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

cytzol wrote: post #253

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…

> 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…

Agreed. I didn't immediately like OS X when I switched to it from Linux at home (and eventually Windows at work), but once I got the right set of 3rd party utilities (tiling app, keyboard shortcut modifiers, launcher, UNIX package manager, etc), it was a great fit.

I think it'd be difficult to get the keyboard shortcut mappings I have working even in Linux -- Emacs-style keyboard shortcuts everywhere without interfering with the more typical keyboard shortcuts.

Another thing is that if I really need something from Linux or Windows, I can either run a VM, boot into one of those OSes natively, or remote desktop to a server with good remote desktop performance. Hackintosh's are a possibility though have their rough edges, and macOS runs better in a VM these days from what I hear, but macOS is my preferred host OS anyway for things like audio/music production apps and video editing, so I'd want to run macOS natively over other OS's anyway. For the stuff I currently do, Linux and Windows run fine in a VM.

So, going with the original analogy, macOS is like a hotel where you can have your own house inside.

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

#447

Post by btrettel » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:28 PM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #157

Aperocky wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: how’s the transition trackpad wise

I moved from a MBP to a Dell XPS 13. This transition made me appreciate just how nice the trackpad on the mac is. I am no apple fanboy by any means, after my MBP died out of warranty. They wanted $700 to fix... but after some use, the XPS trackpad is a real aggravation machine. In laymen terms, it is like the MBP knows when I am typing and reduces the sensitivity of the trackpad. On the Dell, it surely seems like the…

I started having the exact same problem when I bought my latest Dell laptop. This was infuriating at first, but slowly I got better at avoiding the problem. (Still somewhat infuriating at times.) Periodically I'll disable the trackpad entirely via xinput if it screws up my typing too much.

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

#448

Post by thesquib » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

dangus wrote: post #419

paulcarroty wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Apple is not even close to being the only company selling laptops with soldered RAM. All the popular competitors to the MacBook Pro have soldered RAM including the XPS 13 and ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Really the truth of the matter is that for 95%+ of people, RAM requirements have completed plateaued in the last 5-8 years or so.

No, they just suffer through a sluggish experience and don't know any better.

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

#449

Post by grumpy8 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

tinus_hn wrote: post #387

asjw wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except you are paying 150 $ for a dinner and they are serving you a very over priced average meal and you can't even add anything to it to make it better. Do you want some oil on it(ram)? It's 80 euros because you have to ask the chef assistant (apple store) Do you want different kind of pasta which is the standard for that receipe? (Nvidia GPU) You can't So what are you really paying for? The forniture? I go to a mu…

In an expensive restaurant adding salt or oil to your meal is an insult to the chef.

Somehow I imagine that the same people who hate macbooks probably also hate fancy restaurants where adding salt is an insult to the chef

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

#450

Post by tbronchain » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

I have been facing the same issue and eventually went for the Thinkpad X1 Extreme - and I'm quite surprised to not seeing it mentioned here.

I was afraid of the 15" being too big but as I'm not using much external screens anymore, this is the perfect size - the laptop is also very light and portable, given it's a 15"...

The GeForce graphic card is awesome. So are the 2x pcie and additional RAM slots. Bonus for the mate screen.

Small minus to the battery life, who averages to 5-8hrs (max). Otherwise it's an amazing, durable, efficient machine that does the job, at probably replaces well a MBP. Also, Windows 10 isn't perfect but I'm finding it pretty good after all. I use HyperV Linux VMs for dev and the overhead is totally acceptable.