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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

#131

Post by rbanffy »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #43
realusername wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Referring https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23389595 for a list of undesirable features:

* 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

I'll add a couple of my own (and be a more restrained in my opinions)

* Windows + WSL is a hybrid environment. Files are on different places depending on from where you are looking. It feels like developing within Docker containers, without the power and flexibility.

* Low observability: very few programs log things and, while there is excellent system wide plumbing for that, very few programs are using it.

* PowerShell makes some questionable choices. For instance, "curl" is a built-in command that has different switches from its Unix homonym. It'd cost absolutely nothing to have a different name for that.

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

#132

Post by michaelcampbell »

SCdF wrote: post #81

> By the way, not including the extension cord is unacceptable. This cord is not only a convenience, but it increases safety, because it's the only way to have earth grounding for the laptop. Without it, rubbing your fingers on the surface of the computer generates this weird vibration due to static. .... THAT'S WHAT THAT IS? I have wondered for _years_ why my laptop sometimes feels that way. Another mystery solved!

I had a (US) 2015 model that did that, but only in France when I used an adapter that didn't use the third prong.

My family had a faulty refrigerator as a kid with a conductive shell; if you ran your finger down the front if it really quickly (or maybe and/or wet/damp), you'd get more than the "tickle" level of electricity. Scared me. Still does. When my MB did it, I got pretty nervous.

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

#133

Post by michaelcampbell »

rbanffy wrote: post #119
humbfool2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to Windows after 5 years of Mac this month. Because I knew I will be working from home, decided to build a good workstation (Thank you Ryzen ) and I Couldn't agree more WSL is very helpful for people who like windows UI and functionalities of Linux. There are few quirks but it works great.

My Linux setup is usually like this, but inside out. When I need Windows functions (which is not often), I fire up a VM (either with VirtualBox or KVM). WSL makes Windows useful for Linux development (my software will run on Linux, not Windows), but the rest of Windows is usually a bit of a pain. I usually find the text less readable on Windows than it's on Linux or a Mac. Not sure it's an issue with Edge, my monitor…

I've tried both ways there too; at least a few years ago (may be different now) running windows as a HOST worked way better for me since Linux in a VM was way more well behaved than Windows would be.

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

#134

Post by panpanna »

fuzzy2 wrote: post #100
ubercow13 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everything is slow even though the specs are good Have you tried running without antivirus? Some parts of Windosw are still slow eg the filesystem, but the main thing making everything slow is antivirus software IME, including Defender.

Corporate IT says no. :) I don’t know what’s wrong with my work PC. Home PC also has Windows (because games) and is super fast (even with Defender, but without ATP).

From own experience this is 99% corporate shenanigans.

You should have a serious talk with your IT department. Sometimes they are not aware how much garbage they are throwing at people through Active Directory.

In my experience, the best way around such issues is to force IT to dogfood their own system instead of having special laptops for IT employees.

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

#135

Post by Ndymium »

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…

I've used two of the disaster-era 15" MBPs (one I'm still using). The trackpad makes it impossible for me to use it for any serious writing, even ignoring the terrible keyboard itself. I just can't write for more than a paragraph until it decides to hit something with the trackpad and in the worst case my keystrokes are now interpreted as shortcuts. I have no such issues with my 2014 model that has a smaller trackpad.

Maybe it's my hand positioning, but it just doesn't work for me.

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

#136

Post by vinceguidry »

cameronbrown wrote: post #39
lkramer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Because the experience is terrible for the uninitiated. And this is coming from someone who ran Arch as their primary OS since I was 10. Laptop Linux on the whole is not a fun experience for those who just want a machine to work (which was what MacBooks were supposed to be about). I just bought a Surface Laptop 3, and the machine is great. The hardware is nice, Windows on a laptop has improved tenfold since I've last…

With laptops, you need to buy hardware designed for Linux if you want a good experience with it. System76 and Purism make great machines. With Proton, Windows games run effortlessly from Steam on Linux.

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

#137

Post by dustingetz »

buro9 wrote: post #66

Just got my first MBP. Found problems with USB devices on day 1 with USB 2.0 devices intermittently freezing. Documented https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/gp5b1z/usb_20_issues_o... , and there is a workaround... do not use any hub that shows a USB 2.0 device to the Mac, find and use a USB-C hub that presents everything as USB 3.0 to the Mac even if it's USB 2.0 I believe that this is a Catalina software bug, and…

literally the reason to drop $3k on a mac is to never have to debug

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

#138

Post by technotarek »

“Sometimes, after resuming from sleep, the laptop doesn't detect its own keyboard. I can assure you, the keyboard was there indeed, and note how the dock is still the default one. This happened to me minutes after setting up the computer for the first time, before I had any chance to install software or change any settings.”

Glad to hear it’s not just me. I think I solved this by re-enabling Bluetooth (2020 MBA). The OP says he hadn’t changed any settings yet though.

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

#139

Post by michaelcampbell »

londons_explore wrote: post #41
petepete wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tri…

> 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.

Running on 2 old Dells and an Asus with no problems (Ubuntu 18.04, upgraded in place from 16.04). Your statement is absurd on its face just based on its generality.

Of the things you've listed, I can't say anything about external HDMI audio because I don't have one, and the default hibernate thing I can confirm. Every other one I've never had, much less daily.

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

#140

Post by bootlooped »

paulcarroty wrote: post #12

mbp2020 - https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-mbp.jpg air2013 - https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-mba.jpg iphonese2016 - https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-se.jpg Perfect illustration of "Apple is iphone-first company".

Having never owned a Mac, and only rarely used them, I had no frame of reference for many of the claims. The pictures were incontrovertible though. The camera is horrible. What really is the marginal cost of upgrading to whatever camera they use in a modern iPhone?
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