Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#201

Post by pentae » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:36 PM UTC

jstsch wrote: post #130

Just to chime in. Since the displeased are always loud. I got my maxed out TouchBar MBP 15" about two weeks ago and I'm really happy with it. It replaces a Mid-2010 MBP 17". It's light, fast and has a gorgeous screen. After a week, I even prefer the new thin keyboard versus the old. My external keyboard feels like trudging through mud. No trouble hitting the ESC-key on the touch bar. The context awareness of it is ac…

So far my Macbook Pro 13" fully loaded has done a great job of replacing my Macbook Air.

What does bug me though after spending over $2.5k (sales tax) for a brand new 'state of the art machine' I can't even play the new Civilization 6 on 1024x768 resolution and lowest possible settings without the computer fan on full blast to stop it from basically melting. It's utterly pathetic.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#202

Post by slantyyz » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:36 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #194

slantyyz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> putting it side by side with my Acer Predator Z35 (35" curved screen) The reason why you notice the difference is because of the low DPI for the screen size on your Z35. Windows fonts render badly on those screens at small point sizes. If your same screen was, say, 4K and you were running with text scaling, the fonts would look -way- better.

> If your same screen was, say, 4K and you were running with text scaling, the fonts would look -way- better. Oh, I'm sure of it. Thing is though, I picked the Z35 and not the Z34 because I also want to game on the machine and going to [almost] 4K was a no-go, even with a GTX 980. I suppose one day I might just switch to huge dual-monitor setup: one for gaming and one for everything else. Seems like quite a hassle th…

I have 2 x 27" 4K screens side by side (at 1:1 text scaling - yes, I'm crazy, but it's for work so the tradeoffs were worth it for me).

You can still play your games at 1080p on a 4K screen - the pixels divide up evenly by 4, so I don't think it would look any worse than playing on a native 1080p panel of the same size.

If you really, really want mac style text rendering on your monitor, check out an app called MacType. The text will look much closer to how Mac renders fonts.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#203

Post by artursapek » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:39 PM UTC

jjgreen wrote: post #171

artursapek wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highest end X1 Carbon, and yeah I absolutely love it.

Fantastic machines, even better Linuxed-up :-)

That's what I ended up doing! Latest Ubuntu. I sometimes still boot into Windows, but do all my development in Ubuntu.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#204

Post by bhauer » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:40 PM UTC

josefresco wrote: post #177

johnernaut wrote: post #115

I'm one of the people that switched from a MacBook Pro to the new Surface Book. The ENTIRE experience was dreadful for me. The day I went into the Microsoft store to purchase it (Black Friday), their credit card system was down, so I had to wait around for nearly 2 hours until they finally figured things out. That wouldn't typically upset me, but my brother-in-law went through something similar just 2 weeks prior. As…

Sounds like you were looking for excuse to go back to Apple.

Agreed. Though I have no idea what motivates other people, and opinions vary, so I can't say the decision to go back to Apple is wrong.

I am surprised that for all of the online ordering we do in today's society, so many people use bricks-and-mortar stores for their high-tech purchases. I had my Surface Book shipped to my doorstep like most anything else I purchase in my life. I find it unpleasant to go into Apple stores or Microsoft stores. I've had negative experiences with both and prefer to just get things shipped to my home now.

In my experience, the Surface Book trackpad is as good as any Mac trackpad. I'd say both trackpads are about 80%, if a good mouse is 100%.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#205

Post by bitmapbrother » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:40 PM UTC

If they really are switching to the Surface at "Record Rates" then why don't they provide the numbers to back up their claim instead of using superfluous headlines to prop up their ailing product? It's reminiscent of Apple's tired old line of Android users switching to iPhones in record numbers yet the smartphone OS market share reports never really seem to reflect that. I switched from Windows to a Mac about a year ago and found macOS to be a refreshing change from Windows in terms of UI, polish, usability, privacy, app quality and security. Those people switching, that have never experienced Windows, better prepare themselves for the world of hurt that awaits them.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#206

Post by gerrard00 » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:41 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #186

jimbokun wrote: post #142

No numbers, so no way to evaluate how significant this is. For the record, just played with the TouchBar in the Apple Store, and think it's super cool. Also love the humongous track pad, and believe USB-C support will explode in the near future. So I'm curious to see sales numbers for Surface vs. the new MacBook Pros. Might be more "switchers" to Surface, but also a big increase in MacBook Pro sales overall.

As a guy who uses the top bar of keys a lot, I wouldn't buy the new MBPs even for $500. IMO that was a foolhardy decision; Macs are (were?) very popular amongst designers and programmers, why limit the accessibility of the keyboard? Do you realize how many strokes on the Esc key a VIM-using dev does per day? It's as if Apple doesn't care about the professional audience anymore. They should've offered a "touch bar" an…

Most Vim users I talk to have remapped CapsLock or another set of keys to escape, since the escape key is so far away. I personally use `jk` since I rarely write anything with Dutch names.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#207

Post by lmm » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:44 PM UTC

akulbe wrote: post #143

I tried to like it. I have my Surface Book sitting here next to me. Windows 10 is much better than previous versions, and I like the direction MS seems to be moving. That said, I feel like in spite of how nice a machine the Surface Book is, QA is still sorely lacking on Windows 10. "Sleep of Death" (google it) and working in *nix 99.99% of the time is what killed it for me. Trying to make the workflow work, it's just…

> working in *nix 99.99% of the time is what killed it for me

Have you tried their Linux on Windows thing? I find that works really well, better than using nix on mac in fact: you have real apt-get and it all just works.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#208

Post by philliphaydon » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:45 PM UTC

johnernaut wrote: post #115

I'm one of the people that switched from a MacBook Pro to the new Surface Book. The ENTIRE experience was dreadful for me. The day I went into the Microsoft store to purchase it (Black Friday), their credit card system was down, so I had to wait around for nearly 2 hours until they finally figured things out. That wouldn't typically upset me, but my brother-in-law went through something similar just 2 weeks prior. As…

We don't have Microsoft stores here in Asia so I really cannot compare.

But I absolutely hate going into Apple or iStudio stores.

They try to upsell and add all sorts of crap. When I bought my 12" Macbook I ended up leaving the store and buying it online.

I just went in to the store today to buy a case for my new iPhone 7 and I wanted a flip case just so i didn't need a screen protector and the guy kept insisting on getting a screen protector. Despite me saying no a dozen times. I ended up taking my stuff and handing it to another staff member at the counter.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#209

Post by pdimitar » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:45 PM UTC

slantyyz wrote: post #202

pdimitar wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your same screen was, say, 4K and you were running with text scaling, the fonts would look -way- better. Oh, I'm sure of it. Thing is though, I picked the Z35 and not the Z34 because I also want to game on the machine and going to [almost] 4K was a no-go, even with a GTX 980. I suppose one day I might just switch to huge dual-monitor setup: one for gaming and one for everything else. Seems like quite a hassle th…

I have 2 x 27" 4K screens side by side (at 1:1 text scaling - yes, I'm crazy, but it's for work so the tradeoffs were worth it for me). You can still play your games at 1080p on a 4K screen - the pixels divide up evenly by 4, so I don't think it would look any worse than playing on a native 1080p panel of the same size. If you really, really want mac style text rendering on your monitor, check out an app called MacTy…

I'll definitely try MacType. Seen your other posts about it. Thanks.

Re: Microsoft: more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before

#210

Post by lmm » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 5:45 PM UTC

outworlder wrote: post #137

Interestingly, the Surface Book does not have USB-C. I excluded it from my search because of that. Currently, the choice at that price point is either full USB-C or no USB-C.

There are options with a bit of both - I think some of the HP Envy line?