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The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

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Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first thing I always do on a new laptop (or install) is go into Power Settings and change the Closing Lid action from putting the computer to sleep to just turning off the screen. It's surprising how many people never change the settings on their computers. Whenever I saw someone with the taskbar icons combined, I always asked them if they liked it that way, and they would say "No." So I always offered and they a…

> The first thing I always do on a new laptop (or install) is go into Power Settings and change the Closing Lid action from putting the computer to sleep to just turning off the screen. Or you can get a Mac laptop, where getting the computer to sleep when you close the lid and start again fast when you open it just works. Why would you let the laptop keep running, waste battery, risk overheating and endanger any spin…

That isn't in the cards for most people considering you can buy laptops for a fraction of the price and also that most people are getting Windows PC's from their employer

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s 2018 and I still see people walking around with Windows laptop lids open because they presumably have no confidence in Windows’ ability to sensibly preserve state after closing the lid. At my workplace it's about 60:40 Windows to Mac user ratio. Regardless of the machine, nobody closes the lid when moving in the office between desks and meeting rooms. So, I'd say it's probably not that.

Probably don't want to lose their ssh connections.

https://mosh.org

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#173
post #20
post #10

Such articles always give too much importance to the hardware (which is somewhat important, no doubt) and not enough importance to the software. Many people are looking for quality alternatives to Macbooks, Mac Mini, etc (myself included). Mac Mini hasn’t been updated for 4-5 years. So, I started setting up a Windows desktop as a Mac Mini replacement. But when it came to finding all the alternatives to the OS X softw…

Windows 10 is really annoying. Tons of notifications and random stuff preinstalled. Even on the Enterprise version. I also don't like the Edge/IE split. Now we have two half baked browsers. And on my HP blue screens are back. I thought that was a thing of the past.

I don’t understand this complaint. What notifications are you getting? The only thing I get is the notice from windows defender telling me a scan completed.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#175
post #160

People don't consider reliability as much as they should when they buy a device. The Surface line has been known for poor reliability, with nearly a quarter of customers being affected for some products. The time spent investigating an issue, arranging a repair, sending a device in, setting up on a backup device, and communicating with repairmen only to get an unfixed product back approaches a couple of days of lost…

I've had 5 Surface devices and have never had any major issues. The biggest issue I ever had with one was dropping it and shattering its screen. I didn't have coverage on it, but Microsoft replaced it all for about $300.

Good for you. However, consumer reports gave a two-year breakage rate of 25% for Surface products. Given a 75% everything-is-ok rate, that gives you around a reasonable 25% chance (.75^5) that everything is ok with 5 devices, illustrating why anecdotes are not helpful in decision making.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#176

It’s 2018 and I still see people walking around with Windows laptop lids open because they presumably have no confidence in Windows’ ability to sensibly preserve state after closing the lid. Software matters, and how it integrates with hardware. And I keep waiting for them to fix just the basics in Windows 10. Not utterly losing both the sizes and positions of all windows just because the laptop was undocked. Not fai…

I used to leave my (very old) laptop lid open not because I didn't think it would restore properly but because it took much longer than I liked to come back from suspension. My new Thinkpad X1 Carbon restore quickly (much quicker than my much more powerful desktop even).

My understanding is that window size and positioning issues on Windows are a graphics card driver issue and it's up to the graphics card maker to finally fix it. I don't know the details though, that's just what I've read. It's obnoxious for sure.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#177
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 is really annoying. Tons of notifications and random stuff preinstalled. Even on the Enterprise version. I also don't like the Edge/IE split. Now we have two half baked browsers. And on my HP blue screens are back. I thought that was a thing of the past.

I don’t understand this complaint. What notifications are you getting? The only thing I get is the notice from windows defender telling me a scan completed.

With the latest Windows update that notification had a button with something like "see fewer of these" which took my into the settings where I could turn off that specific notification.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#178

It’s 2018 and I still see people walking around with Windows laptop lids open because they presumably have no confidence in Windows’ ability to sensibly preserve state after closing the lid. Software matters, and how it integrates with hardware. And I keep waiting for them to fix just the basics in Windows 10. Not utterly losing both the sizes and positions of all windows just because the laptop was undocked. Not fai…

Mac has similar issues. Keeps losing bluetooth connections with mouse & keyboard, sometimes have to restart to recognize the display. Still does not have simple way to hide icons on desktop or to dock multiple windows and resize them without using a third party solution.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#179

It’s 2018 and I still see people walking around with Windows laptop lids open because they presumably have no confidence in Windows’ ability to sensibly preserve state after closing the lid. Software matters, and how it integrates with hardware. And I keep waiting for them to fix just the basics in Windows 10. Not utterly losing both the sizes and positions of all windows just because the laptop was undocked. Not fai…

> (“A” brings up “abc” but typing “ab” makes “abc” go away!?)

To be fair, this one happens to me with Spotlight all the time.

Re: The Surface Book 2 is everything the MacBook Pro should be

#180
I have tried both the Surface Book 1 and Surface Book 2 in order to switch from a MacBook Pro due to hardware and software quality issues.

In both SB1 and SB2 Microsoft had to swap out each version 3 times before they asked me to just return it and perhaps look for another model. Why? It would shutdown randomly, I could not enable developer mode, Windows update would just throw errors and Microsoft could not solve it. Office would reinstall itself every 2-3 reboots. All issues were reproduced at a Microsoft Retail store location.

I do feel Microsoft is headed in the right direction, but they are not quite there yet. This being said Microsoft had regained my respect over the last few years after losing it in the late 90's, early 2000's.

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