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Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#241

Post by NightlyDev »

yulaow wrote: post #28
skrebbel wrote: post #5

I like this writeup but I sort of expected it to contain a "Windows 10 Review from a lifelong macos user" embedded in it. I was surprised that this was just about the hardware. As a happy lifelong Windows user, surrounded by programmers who call me insane (or an idiot, even) for liking it, I was curious to learn more about what a developer who's used to Mac thinks about the Windows 10 dev experience. (notably for a m…

I always had very little sympathy for those who express very strong opinion _against_ other OSes and their users, professionals or not. In 2018 every one of the main OSes can be used efficiently for programming purposes, windows10 too especially now that it has the WLS

Not completely true. Apple sucks, and as a result of that iOS development is clearly more convenient on Mac OS.

I would also clearly prefer windows for projects supposed to run on windows servers, and Linux for projects supposed to run on Linux. Mac OS Server is utter crap and completely useless, so Apple doesn't have that going for it.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#242

Post by kelnos »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #182
deltron3030 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Razer comes close in feel.

Do they come close in build quality though? I’m legit curious; I haven’t used a Razer laptop in years, but the last one I played with wasn’t super impressive in that regard.

I have a late-2016 Blade Stealth, and the build quality is... just ok. The keyboard (coming from a MacBook Air) took some getting used to. The battery is crap and has swelled up and warped the chassis. Heat has destroyed the adhesisve on the front rubber foot, which has fallen off. The screen has a bezel that might even be larger than the MacBook Air, which is lame.

The touchpad is really good, though.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#243

Post by curt15 »

jakelarkin wrote: post #227
jordache wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How hard is it for device makers to prefect the touchpad? It should be a no brainer like mouse devices by now huh?

its probably insanely expensive/complex to revisit the cheap commodity touchpad hardware and the crappy drivers that already available. & doesn't pencil out with the razor thin margins for PC laptops

PC laptops don't cost that much less than similarly speced macbooks. Why would their margins be so much worse?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#244

Post by tudorw »

pdq wrote: post #234
grimgrin wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who has a useful trackpad anyways? An actually great one, besides Apple? I have no idea why this is the case? Patents or too expensive to justify? Genuinely curious

I've heard the Microsoft Surface is very good.

It is lovely, as is the Surface Book 2, the pen inking is sublime ;)

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#245

Post by karlmdavis »

eksemplar wrote: post #206
reacharavindh wrote: post #9

I have a Dell XPS 13 as my personal machine. It runs Linux. Everything works. But, I still find myself using my MacBook Pro (provided by work) for almost everything even at home. Two things that keep me in the Mac land. 1. Retina Display and the 16:10 aspect ratio. 2. Smooth, and usable touchpad. XPS13's display is too rectangle and I'm not watching movies in it. It feels too cramped for looking at code. GNOME out of…

This is the perfect description of why I’ll probably never leave Mac land. I want my technology to work out the box, and Mac does that. Sure I could probably setup the Linux trackpad to be Mac like if I threw plenty of hours at it, but I don’t want to waste my time like that, not anymore. I did in my youth, but now I’ll just buy the thing that works.

> I want my technology to work out the box, and Mac does that.

Same here, but with a twist: out of the box, Linux makes it easier for me to install the things I need to do my job. The display, power management, etc. issues are all frustrating, true, but ultimately not as important.

Different folks have different priorities.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#246

Post by deltron3030 »

eknkc wrote: post #36

What I'm mostly curious about these posts is, how the heck do you guys switch operating systems that easily? I guess it would work if you are already using Linux or Windows on a Mac hardware but that's gotta be rare. I mean, hardware is nothing compared to the OS.. I can switch to any other Mac and it would take me a couple hours to be comfortable. That would be it. If I'm switching to a Dell XPS, I don't really care…

> If I'm switching to a Dell XPS, I don't really care about the hardware at that point. It's all about software.

Switch to cross platform software alternatives before you switch, or don't get locked in in first place. This way you just replicate your environment on the new platform for the most part.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#247

Post by ender341341 »

tamatsyk wrote: post #101
ender341341 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do 16gb 13" macbook pros (I'm typing this on an early 2015 that came with 16gb). They don't have 32GB laptops which would be useful for some of my work though.

Oh, you are right, not sure why I was almost sure it does not exist. Good catch!

The lack of a 32GB option pops up in almost every HN macbook story so maybe from that.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#248

Post by gecko »

abrookins wrote: post #233
gecko wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would I be correct that you tried WSL in late summer/fall last year? I'm asking because WSL got a pile of new syscalls, a couple of which (if I recall correctly) fixed the unicorn issue you hit. Likewise, there are now standard GPOs you can distribute that exempt WSL from Defender. I 100% agree that running a Linux VM can sometimes be a lot better (and it's not exactly hard, given that Hyper-V has been in Windows for…

Actually, it was as recently as this very week! Running with all the latest updates on a new Surface Book 2, I ran into a variation of this open issue: https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/1982 . That was only the last and final blocking issue I ran into, after a series of minor (or at least, not serious) problems that I powered through during too many late nights. Couple of things: - Hyper-V. Was excited for this…

    Actually, it was as recently as this very week! Running with all the
    latest updates on a new Surface Book 2, I ran into a variation of
    this open issue: https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/1982.
Well that stinks. I'd swear I hit this and it got resolved with the inotify-related patches, but clearly I misremembered. Might be thinking of uwsgi or something.

Re. Hyper-V: yeah, I do a Samba mount. This in my experience actually performs a ton better than VirtualBox shared folders, but it's been a long time. I have no idea how it compares to VMware's implementation. (VMware and VirtualBox also have the ability to cleanly virtualize a graphics-accelerated Linux desktop, which is not something I need or care about, but might be a show-stopper for both WSL and Hyper-V if you do.)

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#249

Post by jbob2000 »

karlmdavis wrote: post #245
eksemplar wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the perfect description of why I’ll probably never leave Mac land. I want my technology to work out the box, and Mac does that. Sure I could probably setup the Linux trackpad to be Mac like if I threw plenty of hours at it, but I don’t want to waste my time like that, not anymore. I did in my youth, but now I’ll just buy the thing that works.

> I want my technology to work out the box, and Mac does that. Same here, but with a twist: out of the box, Linux makes it easier for me to install the things I need to do my job. The display, power management, etc. issues are all frustrating, true, but ultimately not as important. Different folks have different priorities.

What is your job? What kind of things do you install?

Kind of curious, because no matter what machine I use, every time I start fresh, it takes about a day to get up and running. Linux is even worse because of drivers.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#250

Post by Improvotter »

reacharavindh wrote: post #9

I have a Dell XPS 13 as my personal machine. It runs Linux. Everything works. But, I still find myself using my MacBook Pro (provided by work) for almost everything even at home. Two things that keep me in the Mac land. 1. Retina Display and the 16:10 aspect ratio. 2. Smooth, and usable touchpad. XPS13's display is too rectangle and I'm not watching movies in it. It feels too cramped for looking at code. GNOME out of…

The touchpad is the only reason keeping me on MacOS. If Linux had drivers for the trackpad that were on par with MacOS, I'd run Linux on my Macbook.
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