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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?

#581

Post by disposedtrolley »

mdtusz wrote: post #297
faizshah wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, I bought a t480 but I went with POP OS. I bought it to see if I could switch to linux. On the plus side its a solid and stable dev machine, iterm seems slower than the linux terminal. Rubymine, pycharm etc are stable. Google cloud shell freezes in browser sometimes but firefox quantum and chromium work pretty well otherwise. It also works great with my uhd monitor even tho it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics c…

Learn to love the trackpoint and when you go back to a MacBook you'll be sad it's not there.

The trackpoint is kinda crappy on newer ThinkPads. I'm not sure what they've changed, but movement is always jittery under Linux for me.

My X230 is buttery smooth. The X1 Extreme and T490 I've tried, not so much.

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

#582

Post by lvncelot »

Symbiote wrote: post #178
oarsinsync wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Happily living on the same config files for 20 years now I just wanted to draw more attention to this particular snippet. That's a remarkable achievement, and you should be proud of yourself and your working environment. Regardless that most other people (myself included) are unlikely to be able to replicate what you've done, the reality is you've done it, and it works for you. Good job.

I have a similarly low, although very important to me, set of requirements for my personal configuration. I use KDE, which has many, many, many buttons and knobs available for tweaking. I use hardly any of them: I can set KDE as I wish in about 2 minutes. I add a "Keep window above others" button to the default minimize-maximize-close set, activate "Focus follows mouse", and swap Ctrl and Caps Lock. I think I also ch…

I also use KDE and to be honest, the (deliberate?) opaqueness of the settings when not viewed through the settings app is really annoying to me.

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

#583

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#585

Post by albertzeyer »

gbtw wrote: post #468
albertzeyer wrote: post #219

I'm also interested in that and collected a list recently: * System 76 Oryx Pro (aluminium, official Linux support, US shipping, flaky hardware, poor battery) * Prostar Clevo P960 (rebadge of System 76 Oryx Pro) * Huawei MateBook X Pro (aluminium, good Linux support) * Razer laptops (aluminium, no good Linux support) * Chuwi LapBook Plus (aluminium, good Linux support, poor battery, poor CPU, cheap) * Xiaomi Mi Noteb…

Isn't it the other way around? The 76 Oryx is a rebaged Clevo BTO laptop?

Ah yes, you are right.

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

#586

Post by tekknik »

computerex wrote: post #224
stephenr wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Louis Rossmann made a video highlighting a lot of the engineering problems with Apple laptops. His whole business is about repairing Apple laptops so he has all the reasons and incentives to defend Apple and downplay their issues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDlxi8

Perhaps he should go work for Apple hardware design then and make substantially more money than he does doing repairs. Oh wait....

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

#587

Post by robabby »

I just recently tried out a 2019 Razer Blade 15", and I love it. Working with WSL in Windows 10 is very satisfying, or you can remove Windows and opt for Ubuntu or whatever Linux you prefer. The Razer Blade hardware and build quality is top-notch, and I can undersatnd why it was called the gamer's Macbook Pro.

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

#588

Post by grep_name »

nextos wrote: post #212
oarsinsync wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Happily living on the same config files for 20 years now I just wanted to draw more attention to this particular snippet. That's a remarkable achievement, and you should be proud of yourself and your working environment. Regardless that most other people (myself included) are unlikely to be able to replicate what you've done, the reality is you've done it, and it works for you. Good job.

I also have very minimal dotfiles. Less than 200 LOC in total, including whitespace. They have barely changed in the last decade. Two key things to be able to work like this were: * Moving most of my computing to 3 platforms (Emacs, Unix and Firefox). I don't use any GUI application aside from a manual tiling window manager. * Migrating to a barebones distribution, Arch / NixOS. A small half a page imperative / decla…

Are they publicly hosted? This sounds like a setup I'd like to move toward

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

#589

Post by tekknik »

pm7 wrote: post #204
chillee wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, if you're buying a higher end laptop it's worth shelling out for the on site warranty/accident protection. They'll send a technician to your location (typically within the week) and replace whatever parts needed for free. So you'll have essentially 0 time without your laptop. It's been excellent (used it twice: fixed a broken keycap, and a spilled drink), and gives me a ton of peace of mind.

> They'll send a technician to your location (typically within the week) and replace whatever parts needed for free. My Dell Latitude had included "next business day" 3 years warranty. I used it twice (to get motherboard and display replaced) and they sent technician next working day. There were a bit more failures then I would expect, but warranty was great and I happily bought 2 more years (5 years total) for equiv…

This is interesting, if an Apple laptop failed that often then passive aggressive posts would be made on HN explaining how it’s needed repair too much and the owner would like to switch to something else and would like recommendations on what to buy.

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

#590

Post by tekknik »

fortran77 wrote: post #259

Windows 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…

the problem here is the rest of the world runs nix (at least in webdev) so if I can’t make it nix then I’m the odd man out. I deploy to linux servers but I’m supposed to make them windows? or more like windows? how does this work?
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