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Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

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Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#101

Post by pier25 »

addedlovely wrote: post #46

Recently got my Mac Book Pro nicked by a kid on a moped - mid meeting. Sadly am not impressed with the touch bar, lack of USB, keyboard failures and the hardware is definitely due an update - or a price drop. There's only so long I'll hold out and wait for an update. Am currently thinking of getting an iMac - then a chrome book for meetings (so when it get's stolen again it's not too brutal). Anyone else got other re…

> Am currently thinking of getting an iMac - then a chrome book for meetings

This is exactly what I did. It's a great combo.

The current iMac 5K is amazing value if you consider how much a 5K monitor costs.

I agree with most complaints about the Mac, except for the 5K iMac which IMO is the best Mac ever made.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#102

Post by ksubedi »

vivafrance wrote: post #82
ksubedi wrote: post #66

Like someone else said in another comment, the grass is not green on the other side. I tried every windows flagship option out there from Asus convertibles to XPS 15 (still have this) and my experience was not even close to what I had hoped for. From big issues like coil whine on the XPS 15 to little issues like battery randomly dying, it seems like no other manufacturer cares about quality control and human user exp…

Get an x1 carbon, install FreeBSD with gnome. Hardware and software blow windows and macOS out of the water. I can’t fathom how people think MacOS has angood desktop is — everything is a struggle with their os.

I have not tried x1 carbon but literally all lenovo laptops I have tried have horrible trackpads (palm rejection issues on linux, weird tracking).

MacOS is a good OS because it has a very human centric UI and it makes me very productive. Virtual Desktops that work flawlessly with trackpad, shortcuts like control command f to switch apps back and forth between fullscreen help me easily focus on task in hand, app quality is miles ahead of windows (scaling issues anyone?) and linux just doesn't have enough software available for anything other than development (video editors, graphics design etc).

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#104

Post by JoshMnem »

metabrew wrote: post #18

Mid-2012 MBP with SSD, retina, and 16gb here. I've got an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports, two thunderbolt ports, magsafe power, and a proper, reliable keyboard. I despair at the current crop of mac hardware. If this machine dies on me before some decent mac hardware arrives, I'm not sure what i'll do - but it definitely won't involve buying a new macbook with the touchbar, stupid keyboards, and no ports.

The Thinkpad T-series is much cheaper than Mac with better specs and support. Put a Linux distro on it and it's a great computer for programming. I paid $1,900 for my current laptop (T-460) with 24 GB of RAM, 11+ hours of battery life, matte screen (low glare), and a 4-year, next-day, at-home repair plan where they will drive to my home to fix any problems the next day, including accidents. That price included tax and shipping. I had considered buying a Mac, but in hindsight I'm very relieved that I didn't.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#105

Post by ropeadopepope »

slantyyz wrote: post #59
Spooky23 wrote: post #6

I sadly gave up on the Mac. My next personal device is a Dell XPS. The platform is great, and I liked the (declining) 3rd party ecosystem, but if the company doesn't give a crap about the platform, why should I? It's probably too late, but Apple needs to break the industrial design team's stranglehold on the platform. You can only focus on things that the customer doesn't care about for so long. I pulled the plug whe…

>> I sadly gave up on the Mac. My next personal device is a Dell XPS. Switching is a mixed bag. I notice (at least on HN) that there are two types of people on Mac. People who are highly sensitized to details and those who are not. If you're sensitized to stuff like touch pads, coil whine, etc., you may not find pleasure in switching to a PC, because PC makers don't spend a lot of time on those details. If, however,…

> If, however, you're not sensitized to small details, switching to PC is a pretty painless process.

There's another category to consider: Those who use mostly open source apps and those who prefer a better user experience. Switching is easy if you're the former. Not so much if you're the latter. The Mac app ecosystem is hands down the best there is. Mac apps are not just easy to use, but pleasant. Windows apps are ugly and often difficult to use. Heaven help you on Linux.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#108

Post by bnj »

zdw wrote: post #30

I think this is a combination of issues: USB-C's ecosystem was confusing and good products never materialized, or if they did nobody could find them in the sea of junk. The lack of hardware updates, which seems to have started with the 5-10% performance bumps Intel piddled out in the absence of competition from AMD from 2011-2017. Most of the CPU's and GPU's that could have been used frankly weren't much better than…

I think the low profile keyboard + touch bar combo is all about training users for what Apple sees as their new interaction model: a haptic keyboard; use your apple pencil with it, whatever, but when typing, it will give feedback similar to the low profile keyboard. A stepping stone. The touchbar serves to get people used to the idea of an interactive part to the keyboard area, get devs thinking up ways to use it.

My two cents.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#109

Post by BerislavLopac »

I've been repeating this point over and over but: if you are a software developer AND your target platform is non-Apple Unix -- in other words if you're developing for Web or Android -- there isn't a single reason to choose Mac over a solid PC running Linux. I've used Mac for years before switching to Linux, and two years ago had the chance to revisit Mac as the primary development machine for about 10 months, and my opinion only became stronger.

That doesn't mean that MacOS is not a solid system, and even Apple hardware is quite good -- I've recently bough a 2013 MacMini (the one with an optical drive) as my main home theatre and am quite happy. But as a software developer, I find using the same platform I'm developing for a very important detail.

Re: Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

#110

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #3

I know a lot of people I know have seen this coming and in the past few years have either switched to Windows (creative types) or to Linux (developer types). It's fascinating to see Apple's fall from grace. They were once considered the go to hardware vendor in nearly every market segment, are now being easily passed by their competitors.

My wife's photo business still prefers (new) Macs for editing work in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Everything is just much less hassle than with Windows, despite the reduced choice in hardware.

Also, there's no risk of Microsoft forcing an breaking update on here during her busy season.

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