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

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

#121

Post by huffmsa »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #83
SCdF wrote: post #81

> By the way, not including the extension cord is unacceptable. This cord is not only a convenience, but it increases safety, because it's the only way to have earth grounding for the laptop. Without it, rubbing your fingers on the surface of the computer generates this weird vibration due to static. .... THAT'S WHAT THAT IS? I have wondered for _years_ why my laptop sometimes feels that way. Another mystery solved!

It's not really static. It's actually induction of the transformer (probably to parts of its shielding) that can't be released to ground. You can tell because it immediately disappears when you unplug it. Static electricity would take longer to build up. And generally will not build up in metal objects but rather in insulators.

You are the ground in this case.

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

#122

Post by rhn_mk1 »

petepete wrote: post #25
lkramer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why not simply run Linux at that point?

I made the jump and it's been mostly smooth (7th gen X1 Carbon with Fedora). The one thing that is annoying is when using multiple monitors of different resolutions, Wayland doesn't seem to scale resolution on a per-monitor basis. With the laptop being 4k this is an issue when working anywhere but at home, I tend to just use the laptop screen (which is excellent btw). Stuff that worked without any extra config that i…

Nitpick: Wayland doesn't define how the compositor should scale the displays.

Fedora's compositor is Mutter/Gnome Shell, which the above critique seems to be about.

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

#123

Post by modernerd »

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 second-hand XPS 15) and — unlike the author here — I'm surprised how much better it has gotten.

Having fully expected to buy a Windows laptop and just run Linux on it, I'm happy enough with the general Windows experience and the new WSL2/Windows Terminal/VS Code improvements that switching full-time makes sense for me.

The perks for me over macOS are the widely increased hardware choice, improved repairability/upgradeability, access to Windows-only software/games, better default desktop environment (window snapping/management, keyboard shortcuts for apps in the taskbar), and being able to boot real Linux images within ~1 second and work out of them comfortably.

The perks for me over Linux are the ability to run Adobe and other Windows apps, lower manual maintenance, fewer rabbit holes (I used Arch for about a year and found I was personally prone to exploring Arch instead of doing pet projects), better general integration with video cards, authentication hardware (fingerprint sensors/Windows Hello), projectors/external monitors, as well as a generally better experience with power management, wake-from-sleep, and connecting/reconnecting to Wi-Fi.

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

#124

Post by blackoil »

lkramer wrote: post #14
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.

Out of curiosity, why not simply run Linux at that point?

For me, it limits the laptops available, with Windows I am pretty confident that any reasonable config laptop from Dell or Lenovo will not give me any issues. With Linux I have to be extra cautious while buying it. Also I am used to MS Office and occasionally play Age of Empires and Minecraft.

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

#126

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

pritovido wrote: post #96

"Apple engineers, do you know who is the target audience for these machines?" I believe Apple knows who is the target audience for those machines better than this man. Pro means "Professional" and that includes Graphic and sound designers, web programmers and (specially if you spend a little time in Apple Store and just observe) entrepreneurs that need (or want and could pay for it) powerful portable machines. Not be…

"I believe Apple knows who is the target audience for those machines better than this man"

There's a substantial number of Mac users who are devs who seem like they are in an abusive relationship with Apple, and will put up with all sorts of changes that are looked at negatively by developers.

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

#127

Post by panpanna »

> When I push the laptop a bit more ... I get around 4 hours. In comparison, that figure is reasonable. Overall, it's not bad, but I expected more.

How can this be "reasonable" from a new laptop?

Maybe that's typo because I can get more from a five years old laptop under similar load.

(Although to be fair, my containers are first class citizens)

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

#128

Post by proverbialbunny »

Nextgrid wrote: post #26

I've written about my experience with macOS Catalina on an earlier thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23273467 Since then there have been new developments: Had a meeting yesterday, 5 minutes before the scheduled time (which is normally plenty of time when your tools work as expected) I start up Zoom and create the meeting. Guess what? The thing now just freezes completely and it's not just Zoom, the system…

Have you figured it out? It sounds like a hard drive issue and you have some important system file or swap located on a part of the solid state that locks up, but not enough for the hardware to mark it as bad.

If you format there is a chance the issue will go away. I had similar symptoms even after formatting on a 2015 MBP, so I formatted, wrote a 4GB file to the HDD, then after that everything worked fine. Amusingly if I tried to copy the file to a thumb drive it would time out trying to copy it. I couldn't figure out how to mark the bad sectors, so hacky solution, but it worked for me.

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

#129

Post by narrowtux »

xuki wrote: post #111
SCdF wrote: post #81

> By the way, not including the extension cord is unacceptable. This cord is not only a convenience, but it increases safety, because it's the only way to have earth grounding for the laptop. Without it, rubbing your fingers on the surface of the computer generates this weird vibration due to static. .... THAT'S WHAT THAT IS? I have wondered for _years_ why my laptop sometimes feels that way. Another mystery solved!

I’m not sure if it’s solved. I used to use the UK plug which always has 3 pins, short or long, and I still get that sometimes.

Any clue if there's a version for german plugs with ground pins (schutzkontaktstecker) for the duckhead? I like not having an additional cable going from the AC to the outlet, but not having the computer connected to ground means that there are some problems, including static noise on headphones, and this "rubbing" sensation.

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

#130

Post by Narty »

xuki wrote: post #111
SCdF wrote: post #81

> By the way, not including the extension cord is unacceptable. This cord is not only a convenience, but it increases safety, because it's the only way to have earth grounding for the laptop. Without it, rubbing your fingers on the surface of the computer generates this weird vibration due to static. .... THAT'S WHAT THAT IS? I have wondered for _years_ why my laptop sometimes feels that way. Another mystery solved!

I’m not sure if it’s solved. I used to use the UK plug which always has 3 pins, short or long, and I still get that sometimes.

Check inside the 3 pin plug adaptor. The bit that slides onto the metal disc is just plastic on some plugs and therefore isn't earthed :/
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