Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cfenollosa.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 567 posts

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

#171

Post by exdsq »

paulcarroty wrote: post #20
exdsq wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for WSL 2. I'm a huge advocate of it at work where people are very pro-Linux. I have noticed a few issues with it that don't make sense seeing as it's meant to have a full Linux Kernel (such as sockets not appearing) but that could be Ubuntu-20.04 being the one at fault to be fair :)

-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

WSL2 is a Linux VM, what's your use-case for native over that?

- You can disable updates

- I'm on the insider version and this has never happened to me, let alone for 'normal' users.

- You can uninstall all of that stuff

- It's not that bad, I work on a decentralised database and we have similar performance across Windows and Linux. Windows was a bit tougher to do but it got there :)

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

#172

Post by MikeTaylor »

dustingetz wrote: post #137
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

Exactly! Exactly!

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

#174

Post by mattblalock »

nitinreddy88 wrote: post #153
blub wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On paper Windows is good. In practice the telemetry and the story behind its introduction and how they handled communication means that I won't consider Windows as a primary OS candidate until there's a CEO change at least. It's disappointing to see so many being ignorant about this topic.

How replacing CEO helps. Really?!

Sounds crazy to me, some kind of propaganda

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

#175

Post by mattblalock »

blub wrote: post #141
modernerd wrote: post #123

The XPS 17 will be my next “MacBook”. It should be out this month and it ticks all the boxes for me (great screen, supposedly good cooling, user-replaceable SSD/RAM, acceptable weight and size for a 17" laptop). https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257006/dell-xps-17-15-r... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyRUWM_LOPQ I've been trying Windows again after ~20 years on Macs (via a borrowed Lenovo Carbon X1 and then a s…

On paper Windows is good. In practice the telemetry and the story behind its introduction and how they handled communication means that I won't consider Windows as a primary OS candidate until there's a CEO change at least. It's disappointing to see so many being ignorant about this topic.

You sound insane

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

#176

Post by mattblalock »

fuzzy2 wrote: post #36
rafamvc wrote: post #6

Wsl 2 is incredible. Got a 1000 dollars dell desktop and it is insanely faster than my Mac. Windows has improved a lot, and Linux based development on windows is a lot easier now. 5 years ago I would have quit a job if they asked me to use windows. Macos is still marginally better but not worth the cost IMHO.

Windows (the technology) is okay. Not good, but okay. Windows (the experience) degrades every day. Everything is slow even though the specs are good. Granted, corporate “additions” like O365 ATP don’t help and aren’t part of the core system. But many users have to bear with them nonetheless. And have you looked through the diagnostic data Windows sends? That cannot be turned off without hacks? They get live notificat…

Sounds like you need new equipment or maybe meds are off

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

#177

Post by ubercow13 »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #40
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

You can set windows not to update in core hours and even then you can decline the update. I have never had a bricked OS from an windows update You know you can unpin stuff from the start menu to get rid of clutter.

If you leave some task processing overnight, that's probably not your 'core hours', unless you set it that way and not in the day. But then what if all your work is lost when an update is installed in your lunch break? It's ridiculous that there is (or was? Not sure if it's changed) no way to never automatically install an update.

Remember when Windows 10 was released and there were reports that Windows 8 would literally automatically update to Windows 10 without user intervention [1]. My mother's laptop did that and it bricked her install.

The OS taking over control of updates is totally user-hostile. 'Core hours' is just giving a little bit of that control back, it's not a solution.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/15/windows-1...

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

#178

Post by abellerose »

losvedir wrote: post #118

Very interesting post. I actually have been feeling almost the opposite lately. My work laptop is a 2017 MacBook Pro, and a couple months ago I dusted off my old personal laptop, a Mid-2013 MacBook Air to work on a side project. The thing that blew me away is the Air feels a lot snappier! I honestly don't know what it is, and think I must have done something to my work laptop. I notice it most with VSCode, which seem…

What version of macOS are you running on the mid-2013 macbook air?

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

#179

Post by adamnew123456 »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #133
rbanffy wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Curious what kinds of problems you used to run into here that made you give up on Windows guest/Linux host. I've been running my daily driver that way for the past 3 months and haven't hit any issues aside from 2 nits:

- Windows 10 basically requires an SSD to get reasonable responsiveness. You could maybe get away with putting a disk image on an SSD, but for serious use it's best to dedicate a whole disk or partition to it.

- QEMU's default display adapter started "leaking" pending IO requests at one point, which grinds the VM from full speed to a halt over the course of an hour or so. I ended up disabling the display adapter and moving to just RDP, which is basically an even trade since the RDP client can do everything the SPICE client can.

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

#180

Post by 411111111111111 »

neutronicus wrote: post #69
C1sc0cat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My employer provided workstation ( which presumably uses Pro) is still always spamming me about Teams and OneDrive.

You can disable that with local admin.

The domain admin could too, but they're mostly just there to get their paycheck, not to improve your experience so they won't bother.

Post reply on HN