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

341–350 of 567 posts

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

#341

Post by fxleach »

blunte wrote: post #294
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…

I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute…

Being a lifelong Windows users I am always baffled at comments such as these because I have never experienced any of those issues except for maybe the Windows update happening for a couple minutes when I shut down. I'm no gamer, but I am usually cramming my computers with high CPU IDEs, VMs, crypto mining software, and anything else I can fart around with. Am I doing it wrong? How can I have this terrible experience?

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

#342

Post by mehrdadn »

yardie wrote: post #335
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once there's a terminal emulator for Windows that works as seamlessly as iterm and there's no more weird hacks required like Cygwin / minTTY (I believe the windows subsystem for linux does that) I might start to consider moving; most software I use for development is cross-platform anyway (vs code, intellij, nodejs, go). But for now my 2017 macbook works well enough. I do think it's overpaid though; outside of the oc…

Windows Terminal is really good. I'm still a dedicated Mac user but the Microsoft team has advanced exponentially in their support of common, very good ideas.

Could you explain what's so good about the Windows Terminal? I've tried it multiple times and been disgusted every time. The grayscale smoothing looks ugly as hell, the font is large as if I'm elderly, you can't even right-click to get a menu in the window, and opening Settings fires up Visual Studio of all things with GUIDs that I have no idea what to do with. All I see is it has tabs which I've lived without in every single terminal. What exactly are people loving so much about it? What brilliance am I missing?

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

#343

Post by dreamcompiler »

ja27 wrote: post #312
mstudio wrote: post #283

Totally agree. After reading so many reviews panning the new MBPs, I ended up replacing my ancient 2011 MBP with a 2015 model. You can still find new/unopened or relatively unused models on eBay. I love this laptop. i7, 16GB memory, AMD Radeon R9, great keyboard with F-keys... plus, it has all the standard ports I need: USB, HDMI, Thunderbolt. All for much less money than a new machine from Apple. No complaints at al…

Exactly what I did. I loved my used 2015 but I ordered a 16" 2019 on day one. While I like it and it's my "daily driver", it was surprisingly low on wow factor. The biggest win on the 16" are the speakers. I didn't consider them at all but they've basically eliminated my use of external speakers. Touchbar is very underwhelming. USB-C is a tossup. I got to buy new dongles, chargers, cables, etc. which I actually enjoy…

The speakers really are amazing. They're good enough that the MBP can be used as a standalone cordless TV without headphones.

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

#344

Post by skummetmaelk »

blunte wrote: post #294
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…

I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute…

> I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced).

Highlighting these as issues on a machine compared to a Macbook Pro is kind of hilarious. Macbooks have notoriously bad thermals and throttling.

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

#345

Post by vmchale »

mstudio wrote: post #283

Totally agree. After reading so many reviews panning the new MBPs, I ended up replacing my ancient 2011 MBP with a 2015 model. You can still find new/unopened or relatively unused models on eBay. I love this laptop. i7, 16GB memory, AMD Radeon R9, great keyboard with F-keys... plus, it has all the standard ports I need: USB, HDMI, Thunderbolt. All for much less money than a new machine from Apple. No complaints at al…

> 16GB memory

Nice for a laptop but I wouldn't mind 32GB+... guess that's gonna be expensive though :p

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

#346

Post by grandinj »

nvarsj wrote: post #198
cameronbrown wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's simply not true. Install Ubuntu or Fedora, run Gnome 3 and everything "just works". You can't use Arch as an example here - it is intentionally very basic, and takes a lot of effort to learn as you do almost everything from scratch. While many people appreciate that level of control, it is unnecessary if you're just trying to get work done.

Not with the ongoing Wayland, Systemd, Pipewire, etc, rewrite-from-scratch work.

e.g. I don't have working VNC server at all on latest Fedora, with either X11 or Wayland, and no sign of it being fixed anytime soon.

And that is just one of many irritations with desktop linux, that simply don't occur on Windows, mostly because of MS superior QA

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

#347

Post by nnoitra »

yardie wrote: post #335
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once there's a terminal emulator for Windows that works as seamlessly as iterm and there's no more weird hacks required like Cygwin / minTTY (I believe the windows subsystem for linux does that) I might start to consider moving; most software I use for development is cross-platform anyway (vs code, intellij, nodejs, go). But for now my 2017 macbook works well enough. I do think it's overpaid though; outside of the oc…

Windows Terminal is really good. I'm still a dedicated Mac user but the Microsoft team has advanced exponentially in their support of common, very good ideas.

Laughable, to run nix commands one has to install the Ubuntu subsystem and run into a plethora of other problems.

OS ranking is pretty much: MacOS > Windows > *nix garbage

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

#348

Post by throw1234651234 »

blunte wrote: post #294
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…

I hope you like high heat, high fan noise, and thermal throttling issues (common XPS issues that myself and others have experienced). I hope you also like random Wifi failures, random freeze-the-world-while-some-app-is-having-a-network-timeout issues. macOS is getting worse, no doubt. But Windows still has multiple unacceptable problems (ungodly slow unzipping, still!, random heavy lag or freezing, surprise 30 minute…

I was going to shrug off this comment as someone trying to hate, but there is a lot of truth to it.

I prefer Windows to IoS and the XPS to MBP, but the XPS has problems - it does overheat like hell (but Dell's gaming laptops don't, so there is that). But more importantly, the screen randomly dies on random updates for me and a lot of my co-workers. So does the WiFi.

Nonetheless, we had entire teams convert to the XPS after they saw mine.

None of them regretted it...though they all installed Linux and stopped having the screen going dead problems.

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

#349

Post by nwsm »

rednum wrote: post #217

I did switch from 2012 Macbook Air to 2019 Macbook Pro a few weeks ago and I can't agree more with the article. One of the reasons I'm using Mac instead of Linux is that I make music. And the new Macbook sucks for this purpose: the same recording settings I used on my old laptop are not usable on the new one. 90% of time things work fine, but sometimes I get glitches and pops in the middle of the recording. Why? Who…

You probably want to use an external DAC or audio interface. That solved a lot of glitch/pop noises for me.

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

#350

Post by modernerd »

SahAssar wrote: post #290
modernerd wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand abstaining from a platform on principle. But it's pretty simple to opt-out of non-essential telemetry because so many people complained about it in Windows 10: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-view-and-manage-diagnosti... I set telemetry to 'basic' which means I'm comfortable with essential system data being sent in return for my system gaining updates and security patches. Microsoft does a better job…

There is no such thing as essential telemetry. There should be an option to turn it off completely.

Let's say Microsoft adds one. You tick it and what MS currently considers “essential telemetry” is turned off completely, instantly, and for real.

The risk seems to be that people who don't understand the implications of not sharing basic telemetry, when faced with a box that says “share nothing”, “share essential“, and “share essential and optional” would choose “share nothing” every time, because it just _feels_ better, right? Why would I choose to share anything at all? But they might be angry or surprised when:

- The OS and apps can't tell if you're eligible for an update because they don't know if your hardware/drivers will run the new version, because you won't tell them what hardware/drivers you're running now.

- Updates that affect performance or stability just continue to affect performance and stability because there's no data about the impact of an update, apart from what's provided by angry customers in support channels.

- Bugs and application crashes are not addressed ever or in good time because they are either never known about or not captured in sufficient detail to reproduce.

So, sure, maybe it should be an option. But there are certainly many who overestimate the risk and underestimate the value of basic telemetry (like sharing system info) for them as a user.

Post reply on HN