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

cfenollosa.com

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

#241

Post by vijucat »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #184
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.

But Nadella's a great CEO compared to his predecessors. D: But, yeah, that + stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away keeps me on Linux despite the very tantalizing promises of WSL2.

> stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away

https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu

Maybe it's been a couple of years since you tried Windows? Right now, if you go to the Windows Update part of Settings, the top 2 options are:

a) "Pause updates for 7 days" and

b) "Change active hours", which can be used to specify an 18-hour window within which, "We won't automatically restart your device during this time"

It's quite straightforward.

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

#242

Post by horsawlarway »

brandon272 wrote: post #234

I find USB-C to an almost scandalous regression in technology. Few people seem to be talking about it given how much frustration I would think there is over it. My MBP has 2 USB-C ports. That’s all. Of these ports, the options to expand off of them are slim to nil. I have not encountered a single hub or multi port adapter, including Apple’s that works properly or reliably. Essentially it is a situation where I cannot…

I don't love having to drag dongles with me, but for docks - This works for basically everything I've plugged into it

https://www.amazon.com/Elgato-Thunderbolt-Dock-Ethernet-alum...

It's not cheap, by any means, but it gives me two external monitors, keyboard/mouse, webcam, speakers, and a spare usb-c port through a single plug.

Works with my xps machine on linux and my work macbook.

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

#243

Post by benologist »

nakodari wrote: post #92

Great writeup! I am still on Macbook Pro 2013, the best 13” laptop ever build by Apple. I refuse to upgrade. All new Macbooks have disappointed me. I hope the upcoming 14” Macbook Pro will be better and without the touchbar so I can finally upgrade.

I have the 2013 13" too and it's been such a great computer but two things stifle its longevity - two cores and no upgrades. The 14" is going to have ample cores for years to come and with upgradable ram and storage it could easily serve for over a decade. But while everything is soldered on the only upgrade option is to sell the laptop back to Apple at a massive discount. I don't know if it's just resentment but it feels like a dark pattern to fuel Apple with spare parts and refurbished machines to resell. The model to buy, for me, is the one after the EU forces Apple to use socketed components.

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

#244

Post by lostlogin »

modernerd wrote: post #207
alpaca128 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. Also the automatic updates which potentially just close an open session including unsaved files is not something that helps trust. Windows has become less transparent and much more controlling, actively ignoring or overriding user preferences, and I don't know why I should use a software like that, not to mention pay for the "privilege" of being messed with.

Automatic updates interrupting work hasn't been an issue for me for a long time. You can set updates to install outside of an 18-hour window, defer updates for a set period, or disable them: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-stop-updates-installing-a...

A work mandates machines with locked down control is always going to be awful. The machine in my house that is in this category gets opened every week or two for it’s mega updates, then closed until the next batch.

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

#245

Post by michaelcampbell »

adamnew123456 wrote: post #179
michaelcampbell wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 partitio…

It was probably closer to 8 years ago, so SSD's weren't really available. Given the time I really don't remember the specifics but it was a work-from-home job so we did a lot of video conferencing pre-Zoom, and used Skype and other tools a lot. IIRC, the windows apps we used didn't like not being close to the video hardware.

Running a Linux VM was pretty friction-free, and I could use all the company mandated tools that had to be run in Windows simultaneously without performance issues. WIth a windows guest, I wouldn't run it unless I needed one of those tools, but that required a fairly long spin-up time.

Like I said... almost a decade ago so they probably aren't problems now. I'm running Linux native right now, but again for the ease of corporate support, I may go with Windows + WSL2 for my next refresh.

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

#246

Post by cercatrova »

noxToken wrote: post #215
alpaca128 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. Also the automatic updates which potentially just close an open session including unsaved files is not something that helps trust. Windows has become less transparent and much more controlling, actively ignoring or overriding user preferences, and I don't know why I should use a software like that, not to mention pay for the "privilege" of being messed with.

You can sent your Internet connection to "metered" to stop this. I hate that you can't just outright disable forced updates, but this is the working solution that MS offers.

You can, via the registry.

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

#247

Post by smcl »

carlesfe wrote: post #57
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".

Please don't post pictures of myself into a third party website :) Can you please remove the imgur post? Fixed the broken link: https://cfenollosa.com/blog/img/cam-se.jpg

Seems like something @dang could fix if the original user can't edit the comment anymore - hopefully mentioning his name summons him. If not I think you might want to flag the comment.

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

#248

Post by lostlogin »

vijucat wrote: post #241
shrimp_emoji wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Nadella's a great CEO compared to his predecessors. D: But, yeah, that + stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away keeps me on Linux despite the very tantalizing promises of WSL2.

> stuff like your OS restarting behind your back whenever you lock your screen and walk away https://imgur.com/a/qAWLzsu Maybe it's been a couple of years since you tried Windows? Right now, if you go to the Windows Update part of Settings, the top 2 options are: a) "Pause updates for 7 days" and b) "Change active hours", which can be used to specify an 18-hour window within which, "We won't automatically restart you…

Wait, you can’t set it up so that it won’t restart itself? In case it isn’t obvious, I am not a windows user.

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

#249

Post by Yizahi »

thegagne wrote: post #192
raverbashing wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be feasible to run a Windows Pro or Server version in a laptop? (or at least shut all the "windows 10" stuff and return to something that look like Windows 2000?)

Even server includes candy crush and all the junk.

I don't know about Server but my fresh Home edition installed a few months ago doesn't have Candy Crush or anything similar pre-installed. And same for my corporate laptop with LTSB - no pre-installed stuff.

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

#250

Post by ImprobableTruth »

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…

I'm surprised that you're having performance issues, since for me it's the complete opposite. I assume it's driver issues, but on my comparatively powerful machine linux still feels laggy.
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