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Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

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Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#231

Post by eptcyka »

isatty wrote: post #22
nrclark wrote: post #5

My work gave me one of the 2016 15" MBPs as my main computer, and the keyboard is horrible. My V key double-presses about half the time, and the rest of the keys are really hard to press down all the way. Some of the keys make a weird metal rattle when I press them. Typing on that wretched keyboard for more than an hour or so literally bruises my fingers. Since I do most of my day-to-day work at a dock with an extern…

About the ESC key - if you're using vim you should be remapping it to caps lock. If you rather not remap, you can always just hit ctrl [ (and this works out of the box). I've been doing this for so long its natural to me even on a keyboard with an actual escape key.

If you're talking about escaping a non-normal mode, control+c should always work just fine.

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#232

Post by guftagu »

JoshMnem wrote: post #119

Try ThinkPad + Linux. Amazing environment for programming, $1,000+ cheaper than MBP, nice keyboards, better specs for the price, including several years of at-home next-day repair service.

But where would I find all my apps like Evernote, Skype, Numi, Tyke, Alfred etc. ?

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#233

Post by binaryblitz »

nrclark wrote: post #5

My work gave me one of the 2016 15" MBPs as my main computer, and the keyboard is horrible. My V key double-presses about half the time, and the rest of the keys are really hard to press down all the way. Some of the keys make a weird metal rattle when I press them. Typing on that wretched keyboard for more than an hour or so literally bruises my fingers. Since I do most of my day-to-day work at a dock with an extern…

I have a 2017 MBP 15 with touch bar and love it. Granted it's newer, so I haven't had any key problems yet, but the keyboard is one of my favorite of all time. (I normally use a CODE keyboard with clear switches at work.) I also really like the touch bar. I've spent some time using BetterTouchTool to customize it, and it has definitely been helpful. The escape key is always there and you don't have to specifically hit it, as the space to the left of the key also functions as escape. For other function keys, they show up when you press the Fn key, which is how I had my old MBP setup anyway. You can also set it so that they always show up instead of the "normal" touch bar functionality.

Not saying you're wrong, just giving my feedback. I'm definitely not a fanboy by any means. I used a mint linux setup for the last year before switching back to mac, and wouldn't touch an iPhone with a 10ft pole. :)

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#234

Post by awalton »

There was literally nothing wrong with the MBP2013 keyboard. This endless pursuit of making anorexic electronics by Apple will only continue inventing faults like these - there's simply a limit to how thin these things can go and maintain durability, and that's what we're seeing here.

Jobs never would have let this nonsense happen. He'd have pressed the key and thrown the machine at whomever invented this "butterfly" switch.

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#235

Post by tomduncalf »

burningcore wrote: post #154
audunw wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who the hell decided that programmers don't need a functional ESC key or permanent function keys? I'm still amazed that there are programmers that complain about this. As a programmer, I've avoided ESC and the function keys for years before the touchbar came out. Apple has even had a built-in option in Mac OS to remap ESC to Caps Lock, for quite a while now. And considering how conservative Apple is when it comes t…

>I'm still amazed that there are programmers that complain about this. You shouldn't be. Not sure about Mac. But all the big IDEs - MS Visual Studio, all the JetBrains products, Eclipse, Netbeans, etc use function keys in their default key bindings. True, functionkey row is not suitable for ergonomic typing, BUT it is not used for ergonomic typing. It's used for... well special functions!

I think that’s actually the key difference here - OS X apps very rarely make use of the function keys, instead preferring Cmd-letter combos (which to my mind possibly make a bit more sense as you can remember e.g. R means Refresh). That means that doing away with the function keys is probably a much smaller deal for Mac users than Windows users, as on the Mac they were pretty much just used as media keys anyway.

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#236

Post by pdq »

AlexandrB wrote: post #198
pdq wrote: post #190

If you own a Macbook or Macbook Pro with the new slim keyboard, do yourself a favor and buy an Uppercase keyboard protector [1]. I got dust under mine last year, had to get the Apple repair under warranty, and then bought this $12.95 insurance. It's been working great ever since. If I pull the cover off, the keyboard looks brand new. The only negative is that it leaves key impressions on the screen when you close the…

I absolutely hate these. They make laptop keyboards feel even mushier than normal and have the aesthetics of plastic-on-living-room-furniture. The fact that this is now a good idea (a requirement even!) for a premium laptop is unacceptable. I love Apple, I really do. The magsafe connector sold me on my first Macbook in 2009 and I've been buying Apple laptops ever since. However when the new MacBook Pros were announce…

Disagree here. This protector is paper thin and doesn't change the key typing feel at all. Every keyboard I've ever owned gets dirt, grime, crumbs, etc under them, and this keeps it brand new without needing to clean the keyboard.

Secondly, I liken this to getting a silicon case for your phone. You don't have to get one, but the second you drop your phone, you will be thankful you had it.

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#238

Post by FireBeyond »

gol706 wrote: post #172

Well, I'm glad it's not just me. I had my top case replaced a month ago after my 'w' key started sticking down off and on. I could swear I felt one of the keys on my new case stick once, but it hasn't happend again. I usually don't buy Apple Care, but as I look at the 1 year mark approach, I'm thinking I may need to suck it up and buy it if the alternative is a $400-700 top case replacement ever few months on my dime…

> Even if they do issue one, with my last laptop, I had to fight them to replace my main board a second time with the GPU failures because they tried to claim that since they repaired it once, it was impossible that the issue could happen a second time even though all of their diagnostic tests showed that it indeed had.

Been there, done that. Even to fix once. "Well, it fails that specific diagnostic and there's a bulletin about it, but we don't think that's the issue", even though I could repeatedly make it kernel panic due to a GPU fault merely by browsing a page in Safari (and the console spewed forth the same errors).

I know people claim Apple has uniformly excellent service and I'd agree that for the most part, they do, but there's also polarizingly bad service, too.

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#239

Post by LarryPage »

api wrote: post #224
guelo wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really just an accident of history, not intentional on Apple's part, that Macs became popular with developers. In an alternate universe Jobs isn't kicked out of Apple, doesn't develop NeXT based on Unix, and Apple continues merrily snubbing developers and not accidentally attracting them the way they did. In this alternate universe I believe more energy and funding would have been directed at Linux and it would…

Agreed. What do you think is the best Linux desktop distro these days? For hardware it seems like the higher-end Dells are the winners. I have a co-worker with one (runs Windows) and the hardware is excellent. He has some issues with the TPM and firmware but it seems like stuff that would not be a big problem in Linux.

I have Arch with Gnome on the 4K HP Spectre x360 13 inch, and everything basically just works. Even mixed-DPI with a standard HD monitor.

Re: Problems with MacBook butterfly switch keyboards

#240

Post by ibiza »

jarym wrote: post #197

Apples obsession with thin is taking liberties and no matter what they say, I know a significant number of MBP users who are sticking with older laptops - just like the genius in the article.

The previous generation MacBook Pros are still sold new on the Apple Store. Scroll down a bit: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/15-inch
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