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Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

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Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#21

Post by Jtsummers »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #12
armajid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say 'prevents you from writing apps' do you mean native iOS apps which (at least to my knowledge) can only be done on Macs? Or do you mean other types of applications?

Ah yes, using things like XCode and the iOS/MacOS app build toolchain (legally, anyway)

iOS/iPadOS, sure. But macOS apps can be written in any language that can compile or run on macOS, and you can cross compile from any OS assuming the compiler is available on that OS (that is, you can cross compile on Windows or Linux for macOS). It's producing and distributing iOS/iPadOS apps that Apple has kept locked down.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#22

Post by GianFabien »

In my experience hacking Linux on laptops can be a painful experience. WiFi, ACPI, GPU, etc can all be a source of pain and wasted effort. I'd much rather use a desktop and with BSD unless you have specific need to use Linux.

As a further issue with hacking, I find it best to use sacrificial desktop(s) and maintain a separate desktop for all core and admin work. There's no point in breaking my production system* because I've tried something new.

Most of my sacrificial systems are either my older systems or systems I've rescued from clients' dumpsters.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#23

Post by muzani »

nathants wrote: post #17
armajid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate?

assuming you work in software, every server everywhere is linux. knowledge you gain troubleshooting on your laptop can be reused later in production. intuition you gain on your laptop guides you in production. windows and macos servers are not a thing, so unless you work in IT, no dividends.

It assumes you go "low level" enough to work linux with servers. I've done mostly app dev the past 10 years, and haven't had to deal with linux yet. Even when dealing with servers, one can probably set up and scale a whole MEAN stack without any linux knowledge.

I don't disagree that it's useful knowledge but I guess I'm too old to be reaping the dividends on troubleshooting my laptop.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#24

Post by nathants »

muzani wrote: post #23
nathants wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

assuming you work in software, every server everywhere is linux. knowledge you gain troubleshooting on your laptop can be reused later in production. intuition you gain on your laptop guides you in production. windows and macos servers are not a thing, so unless you work in IT, no dividends.

It assumes you go "low level" enough to work linux with servers. I've done mostly app dev the past 10 years, and haven't had to deal with linux yet. Even when dealing with servers, one can probably set up and scale a whole MEAN stack without any linux knowledge. I don't disagree that it's useful knowledge but I guess I'm too old to be reaping the dividends on troubleshooting my laptop.

you already have troubleshoot your laptop. the dividends make that cheaper. would using linux mean more troubleshooting? possibly. or not. it depends.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#25

Post by muzani »

necovek wrote: post #16

Depends on your sensitivity to ergonomic issues as well. Millions of people use MacBooks happily, but I personally hate them for their glossy displays, shallow keyboards and sharp palmrest edges (perhaps related to my hand size, since edges on a 14" MBP cut into my palms). MacOS also stopped having subpixel rendering, so any non-300dpi external screen (meaning all non 8k screens in existence) will show fuzzy fonts. I…

I used to think this way too. Built in monitor (MBP) is actually really good IMO, better than the others at the price. Keyboard is poor, always the thing I hated about Apple products. But you can connect an external keyboard/mouse to it. And it beats the weird custom layouts you see on some gaming laptops that doesn't work so well for programming. A MBP is built for development.

Monitors are a problem in my experience and it does show fuzzy fonts. MacOS also has weird behaviour on some websites.

Still they're pretty good travel companions. The 2022 MBPs are light as a book and has excellent battery life - about 8 hours unplugged. I used to bring a MBP and my main Windows laptop to work, so you can put two in a backpack.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#26

Post by muzani »

nathants wrote: post #24
muzani wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It assumes you go "low level" enough to work linux with servers. I've done mostly app dev the past 10 years, and haven't had to deal with linux yet. Even when dealing with servers, one can probably set up and scale a whole MEAN stack without any linux knowledge. I don't disagree that it's useful knowledge but I guess I'm too old to be reaping the dividends on troubleshooting my laptop.

you already have troubleshoot your laptop. the dividends make that cheaper. would using linux mean more troubleshooting? possibly. or not. it depends.

I had to troubleshoot ubuntu a lot when I used it 12 or so years ago. Mac and Windows have been fairly trivial to troubleshoot in my experience.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#27

Post by nathants »

muzani wrote: post #26
nathants wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you already have troubleshoot your laptop. the dividends make that cheaper. would using linux mean more troubleshooting? possibly. or not. it depends.

I had to troubleshoot ubuntu a lot when I used it 12 or so years ago. Mac and Windows have been fairly trivial to troubleshoot in my experience.

think of all you might have learned!

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#28

Post by SamKamani »

tysehr37 wrote: post #6

Really depends what you're after. I personally have stuck with mac for the last 5 years for ease of use and build quality. After working on mining rigs, I really value all-in-one to avoid dealing with configuration issues and the like. If you're looking for that fine tuned granular control though, then mac won't ever satisfy.

Even I have stuck with mac for last 3 years. before that I mainly used windows.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#29

Post by fsociety »

Love this generation of MacBooks. I used to rice my Linux installs every few months and switch distros or wms and setup new servers. Now I just open my laptop and have at it.

My only suggestion is that you do try Linux a good amount. This can be for a variety of things and even doing this in a VM is good. Get used to the command line and understand how the system purrs.

I started this with Arch and their wiki. Their wiki is great in general even for non-Arch Linux. You could go the hardcore route and do Linux From Scratch on a VM. Or play around with a Raspberry Pi. Or buy an old Lenovo to run something on.

But otherwise my personal preference for a $2K-$4K machine is to get something I can rely on and with an easy repair path. Many won’t agree but Mac fits that book for me.

Re: Ask HN: To MacBook or Not to MacBook?

#30

Post by necovek »

muzani wrote: post #25
necovek wrote: post #16

Depends on your sensitivity to ergonomic issues as well. Millions of people use MacBooks happily, but I personally hate them for their glossy displays, shallow keyboards and sharp palmrest edges (perhaps related to my hand size, since edges on a 14" MBP cut into my palms). MacOS also stopped having subpixel rendering, so any non-300dpi external screen (meaning all non 8k screens in existence) will show fuzzy fonts. I…

I used to think this way too. Built in monitor (MBP) is actually really good IMO, better than the others at the price. Keyboard is poor, always the thing I hated about Apple products. But you can connect an external keyboard/mouse to it. And it beats the weird custom layouts you see on some gaming laptops that doesn't work so well for programming. A MBP is built for development. Monitors are a problem in my experienc…

For travel, I prefer matte screens (glare really affects me, causing headaches as I try to focus around reflected windows and lights, and especially reflected motion from myself and the environment), good keyboards and even lighter laptops: while ~300gr of difference between a Thinkpad X1 Carbon and MBP14 is not much, it adds up in your bag. It's got a full day of battery too, though more is always better :)

Not to mention soft-touch rubbery palmrest: I hope they never move away from that, it's perfect (though I don't care about it being a fingerprint magnet, which it is).

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