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Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

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Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#41

Post by londons_explore »

petepete wrote: post #25
lkramer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why not simply run Linux at that point?

I made the jump and it's been mostly smooth (7th gen X1 Carbon with Fedora). The one thing that is annoying is when using multiple monitors of different resolutions, Wayland doesn't seem to scale resolution on a per-monitor basis. With the laptop being 4k this is an issue when working anywhere but at home, I tend to just use the laptop screen (which is excellent btw). Stuff that worked without any extra config that i…

Thinkpad = Linux these days sadly...

Any other laptop will boot linux, but you'll end up with a lot of rough edges...

For example, on the laptop I'm typing this on (latest Ubuntu, old Acer 511G):

* Random hangs every few days - some unpatched processor bug related to sleep states.

* Wifi diconnects randomly.

* Hotkeys don't work

* Screen sometimes dims itself to zero, and since the hotkeys don't work, it's rather tricky to fix.

* Bluetooth doesn't work

* Hibernate and sleep are disabled by default and you have to go into a config file to enable them. SD card doesn't work after sleeping more than 3 times.

* Fans don't work at all. System throttles almost immediately under any load.

* There must be some issue with the SSD losing writes because even journaled ext4 seems to get data corruption after an unclean poweroff.

* External monitors don't support hdmi audio.

* of the 3 USB ports, 2 don't work for anything more than charging devices.

* webcam LED state seems random, and does not correlate to webcam usage at all.

All on one device!

Linux on Thinkpad is great. Linux on any other hardware that core kernel devs don't use day to day is almost unusable due to these thousands of rough edges.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#43

Post by C1sc0cat »

realusername wrote: post #29
paulcarroty wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-1 for WSL. If I need Linux, it will be obviously native. Also WSL doesn't solve: * forced Windows updates when you don't need them * shitload of failed updates: bricked OS, deleted user data etc * stupid non-uninstallable game icons in start menu, a lot of vendor-forever-locked garbage like cortana & one drive * bad fs performance in general

That's harsh but I agree with those points, Windows is still a consumer oriented operating system at its core, which has a lot of undesirable features for a developer.

Like ?

You probably should be using a windows pro install and not one with crapware from the manufacturer

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#46

Post by mprev »

Asuchug4 wrote: post #22

Why would you need to love a computer? It is just a tool. I don't except a new model to change my life.

If you spend hours upon hours each day using that tool to be productive, then the quality of experience it delivers does change your life.

If you're constantly fighting against a jammed keyboard, that affects your productivity, which most likely affects your happiness.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#47

Post by cerberusss »

petercooper wrote: post #5

I should note that most of this is rather subjective. It's a personal blog so that's totally fine, but I don't think it should sway you doing your own analysis. I've owned nearly every MBP release/bump since 2007 and the 16" MBP is by far the best IMHO and certainly a huge jump up from the 2016-2018 era disasters. Also as a touch typist, I was worried the huge trackpad might be an impediment, but it hasn't turned out…

Yup, owning the 16", I also have the same experience; the huge trackpad is fine. The blog writer bought the 13" though, maybe that is one part of his problem.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#48

Post by zhdc1 »

tpush wrote: post #37

"8-9 hours with all apps closed except Safari. Browsing lightly, with an occasional video, and brightness at the literal minimum. This brightness level is only realistic if it's night time. In a normally lit environment you need to set the brightness level at around 50%." "When I push the laptop a bit more, with a few Docker containers, Pycharm running, Google Chrome with some Docs opened, and brightness near the max…

My older X1 gets about 4-5 hours under relatively heavy use.

It has an OLED screen though, which is part of the reason for the not so great battery life.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#49

Post by pachico »

tpush wrote: post #37

"8-9 hours with all apps closed except Safari. Browsing lightly, with an occasional video, and brightness at the literal minimum. This brightness level is only realistic if it's night time. In a normally lit environment you need to set the brightness level at around 50%." "When I push the laptop a bit more, with a few Docker containers, Pycharm running, Google Chrome with some Docs opened, and brightness near the max…

I have an xps 13 bought 5 years ago. I'm getting also around 8-9 hours of browsing time if I occasionally open YouTube. Quite more if I only code and don't spawn docker apps like databases. Spoiler, I use Xubuntu with CPU frequency set to power save but again, I've used this laptop massively during around 5 years already.

Re: Seven years later, I bought a new MacBook. For the first time, I don't love it

#50

Post by cerberusss »

GolDDranks wrote: post #11
mister_hn wrote: post #2

why don't you return it back then and buy something better? Isn't there a money-back guarantee for the first X days?

The problem is that there isn't anything better. The author said that he hates using Windows and his experimentation with Linux wasn't an entire success. That limits him to Macs. The 2016-2018 models were a disaster. The only reasonable choice left is the choice he made.

He could've gone for the 16", but coming from the Air, that's probably not an option.
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