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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?

#531

Post by pjmlp »

robert_foss wrote: post #333
new_realist wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“You can’t rebuild your kernel.” Are you kidding me? Apple supports the hardware it ships on day one, then provides free updates until the device is obsolete. If you must rebuild Apple’s OSS kernel, you can follow the instructions here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Da...

What about hardware Apple doesn't ship? Or support that is buggy? What about GPU support using a non Apple-only APIs (I'm looking at you Metal).

> What about GPU support using a non Apple-only APIs (I'm looking at you Metal).

My Unity projects work out of the box.

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

#532

Post by lonelappde »

paulcarroty wrote: post #406
FussyZeus wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Adding RAM aftermarket is not important. Paying a reasonable price is. If Apple didn't charge $100 per 4GB of RAM (actual retail price in absence of lock-in: $20) and just shipped 16GB on every device at a fair price, there would be no problem (except Apple couldn't soak their whales for upgrades and replacements

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

#533

Post by earenndil »

glitchcrab wrote: post #516
pfortuny wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, yours does. OK. All macs do.

Well done - a function works well on a restricted set of hardware which the OS has been tested thoroughly against. How do you expect that same thing to be achieved with the hundreds of potential laptops out there which could run Linux?

> a function works well on a restricted set of hardware which the OS has been tested thoroughly against

So--mac and linux are equal?

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

#534

Post by izacus »

dangus wrote: post #496
izacus wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple is not even close to being the only company selling laptops with soldered RAM. They were certanly the first to implement that and starters of the wider trend.

Certainly? Were they verifiably first, or is that a guess? What about ultraportables like the Sony Vaio UX series? I would argue that consumers demanding portability is not a “trend.” And the only way to deliver true portability is to combine components. e.g. smartphones.

Yes, the non-upgradability of RAM on MacBook Airs and later other MacBooks has been widely called out in reviews and media at the release of those models. You can easily verify that by going back to read those reviews.

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

#535

Post by kgarten »

morphar wrote: post #355
morphar wrote: post #19

I am seriously considering Purism Librem 13 ( https://puri.sm/products/librem-13/ ) as a replacement for my MBP. I haven't had any hands on experience with it though, so if anybody have tried it, I would love to hear about your experience. I like the privacy first approach and I think it is becoming more and more essential to have this kind of alternative.

And then this landed on HN: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Zlatan-T... Basically Zlatan Todoric the former CTO of Purism calls Purism's claims "shady" :( Too bad... I had high hopes for Purism.

Not sure I can take him too serious. I have now 3 laptops from purism (2 old 13” and one 15” ). they are great.

He’s mostly talking about the phone project (which is hard).

Don’t know about Purism, yet have friends who worked with/on Jolla and his comments sound too harsh. PinePhone is interesting, yet haven’t seen much and I doubt they will be doing better ... Jolla shipped (yes with some proprietary blobs ), but was a great product (loved their work also before on the Nokia n110 ... my first mobile internet device).

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

#536

Post by lonelappde »

dotancohen wrote: post #457
dekhn wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thank you for the feedback. What is the problem with gender-specific analogies in computing? If I'm making an analogy with relationships, and I am a man, why wouldn't I use a female for the other half?

It's not "gender specific" analogies, so much, it's "extended sexual metaphors" that are off-putting.

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

#537

Post by kgarten »

morphar wrote: post #355
morphar wrote: post #19

I am seriously considering Purism Librem 13 ( https://puri.sm/products/librem-13/ ) as a replacement for my MBP. I haven't had any hands on experience with it though, so if anybody have tried it, I would love to hear about your experience. I like the privacy first approach and I think it is becoming more and more essential to have this kind of alternative.

And then this landed on HN: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Zlatan-T... Basically Zlatan Todoric the former CTO of Purism calls Purism's claims "shady" :( Too bad... I had high hopes for Purism.

Would also argue that Purism is still better than Dell, Huawaii or any other laptop manufacturer :)

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

#538

Post by lonelappde »

dotancohen wrote: post #459
tjpnz wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the downvotes?

Another poster mentioned that is was because I used a female example in a relationship, instead of a gender-neutral example. There are very vocal people who have very strong opinions that all hypothetical relationships much be gender-neutral, to them it is horrible to "assume" that if one partner is male then the other is female.

No, it's because you drafted sex talk into a non-sex topic.

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

#539

Post by lonelappde »

cranium wrote: post #71

It saddens me that Apple used to make (almost) perfect laptops – price aside – and it's no longer the case, leaving a bunch of geeks looking for a replacement. In 2017 after searching the market, filtering on required specs and reading reviews, I came to the conclusion that there are no perfect laptop: every time there's a compromise to be made. For me, I had requirements that were previously met in the MBP: good bat…

It's a rose-tinted glasses myth. Apple had been doing recalls and class action lawsuits for broken expensive hardware forever.

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

#540

Post by lonelappde »

stephenr wrote: post #161
Jemm wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s be fair with our memory of Apple hardware. Apple had huge issues with thermal management that resulted in GPUs failing which of course Apple blamed on the user until they could strong arm a supplier to pay for a recall.

You mean the same supplier that buyers of Apple, Dell and HP laptops collectively sued? But sure, blame Apple. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2524868/apple--dell--h...

If Apple is the "same" as every other company, why am I paying them a premium?
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