The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics • Hacker News Board

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#21

Post by wtallis » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 5:02 AM UTC

quietsegfault wrote: post #15

x0x0 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used macs for pushing 20 years. The external monitor story remains crap. Even on a recent mbp and a $1500 LG 5k ultrawide. Plug it in and the display flickers back and forth. etc. Apple do not care.

That’s disappointing. I never had any problems with external monitors on MacOS. I have two 4k monitors. I use a Thunderbolt dock because I understand how much data 4k screens push, and how a USB dock won’t cut it. I think if you’re having flickering, you might want to try new cables?

> I use a Thunderbolt dock because I understand how much data 4k screens push, and how a USB dock won’t cut it.

To elaborate on this point: a USB-C dock that includes display connectivity needs to operate at least some of the high-speed lanes of the USB-C connector in DisplayPort Alternate mode. If you split it with two lanes for DisplayPort and two lanes for USB 3.0 signals, then you have halved the potential display bandwidth.

But it's also valid to use all of the high-speed lanes for the DisplayPort signals, limiting the USB bandwidth to the USB 2.0 signals that are carried over separate wires. This is adequate for connecting a keyboard and mouse, but not ideal if you want the dock to provide 1GbE or plan to do large file transfers to external storage devices connected through the dock.

Thunderbolt doesn't always achieve quite the same video bandwidth as raw DP Alt mode, but it allows both DP data and USB data to be multiplexed over all of the high-speed lanes of the USB-C cable, so you can be using more than half the bandwidth for displays and still have enough left over for USB 3.0.

But I don't think the above particularly matters to your use case, because Apple's hardware doesn't support DisplayPort Multi-Stream Transport so the Thunderbolt dock is the only way to drive multiple monitors from just one of the Mac's Type-C ports.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#22

Post by NoPicklez » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 6:06 AM UTC

I've been using a Macbook as my personal laptop since 2008 when they introduced the first aluminum chassis and still these things the author raises are still little quirks I wish Mac would resolve.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#23

Post by dwaite » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 6:12 AM UTC

This seems like a vehicle for complaining about a pet list of missing macOS features rather than actually being commentary about the Neo.

For instance, they are arguing that Apple is pushing users toward a Thunderbolt dock - on a computer without Thunderbolt.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#24

Post by skunkworker » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 6:28 AM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #3

I remember circa 2017 working for startups and traveling a lot. Most of the people were using macs but I had an Alienware because that way I could have a real GPU and train neural nets locally. Back then a mac worked much better with the docks I could find and monitors that had a dock plugged in. It was close to instant and "just works" on the Mac whereas the Windows computer would take 45 seconds to enumerate the do…

When Apple still had intel chips, I remember how long it used to take for external displays to be properly detected and to start working. The first time I used a M series chip, suddenly the displays were detected and started working in a second or two. I had assumed that that’s how long it always had to take, when in reality it could an order of magnitude quicker, and on a thunderbolt dock.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#25

Post by x0x0 » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 6:44 AM UTC

quietsegfault wrote: post #15

x0x0 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used macs for pushing 20 years. The external monitor story remains crap. Even on a recent mbp and a $1500 LG 5k ultrawide. Plug it in and the display flickers back and forth. etc. Apple do not care.

That’s disappointing. I never had any problems with external monitors on MacOS. I have two 4k monitors. I use a Thunderbolt dock because I understand how much data 4k screens push, and how a USB dock won’t cut it. I think if you’re having flickering, you might want to try new cables?

It's flickering during the initial negotiation. And resolutions snapping up and down. Once macos connects it works.

Windows just kinda works on this monitor. It was the same on my last setup too...

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#26

Post by cultofmetatron » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 7:07 AM UTC

most of my nonengineer friends are using laptops that are built like junk and falling apart with dismal performance. a $600 mac thats easy to repair and does the basics is such an easy recommendation for so many of them

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#27

Post by wvbdmp » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 7:19 AM UTC

tyleo wrote: post #14

I agree with the criticisms of modern macOS. However, let’s not forget their competitor is Windows. So even if they aren’t going great, it’s not like they have stiff competiton. Thats before even getting into hardware where Microsoft is even further behind. It’s unfortunate that it’s so hard to disrupt this space.

On the contrary, it’s unfortunate that this space can’t just be an island of stability, where things keep working the way they always have and new features are added unobtrusively. Instead we get surface-level change for the sake of change as well as slop and surveillance nobody asked for, and are still missing conveniences that have been table-stakes on mobile for years. It would be a a step in the right direction if Windows would simply stop disrupting itself.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#28

Post by karlgkk » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 7:29 AM UTC

dwaite wrote: post #23

This seems like a vehicle for complaining about a pet list of missing macOS features rather than actually being commentary about the Neo. For instance, they are arguing that Apple is pushing users toward a Thunderbolt dock - on a computer without Thunderbolt.

The MacBook neo is a great Mac for anyone who is fine with the built in apps, and doesn’t know what a gigabyte is.

In a refresh or two when they up it to the next a-series pro chip and 12GB ram, it’s going to be an unambiguous deal.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#29

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 9:19 AM UTC

wvbdmp wrote: post #27

tyleo wrote: post #14

I agree with the criticisms of modern macOS. However, let’s not forget their competitor is Windows. So even if they aren’t going great, it’s not like they have stiff competiton. Thats before even getting into hardware where Microsoft is even further behind. It’s unfortunate that it’s so hard to disrupt this space.

On the contrary, it’s unfortunate that this space can’t just be an island of stability, where things keep working the way they always have and new features are added unobtrusively. Instead we get surface-level change for the sake of change as well as slop and surveillance nobody asked for, and are still missing conveniences that have been table-stakes on mobile for years. It would be a a step in the right direction i…

> it’s unfortunate that this space can’t just be an island of stability, where things keep working the way they always have and new features are added unobtrusively

There are plenty of Linux operating systems that prize stability over feature richness. They work fine if that's your workflow. Most folks' workflows, unfortunately, are not that.

Re: The Neo cannot scale with macOS behind on the basics

#30

Post by _fw » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 9:52 AM UTC

It’s interesting to see the big about Virtual Desktops being surpassed by Windows here.

I still can’t get thumbnail previews of my Virtual Desktops at the top of my screen. I see the desktops but they’re blank.

And missing that context is tricky when you have four of them (: