The MacBook Neo • Hacker News Board

Re: The MacBook Neo

#281

Post by jeremycarter » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

mmcnl wrote: post #269

drnick1 wrote: post #174

> You cannot buy an x86 PC laptop in the $600–700 price range that competes with the MacBook Neo on any metric — performance, display quality, audio quality, or build quality. And certainly not software quality. I would argue the opposite: while Apple hardware is generally excellent, it is the software that leaves to be desired. Apple has also been consistently pushing the industry in a dangerous direction (walled ga…

Agreed, macOS has hardly improved in the past decade. The only improvements are about ecosystem integration, which I don't really care about. Everything else is stuck in the 2010s. UI has regressed if you ask me.

The tab key doesn't even work consistently across apps and screens.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#282

Post by AnishLaddha » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #137

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #31

IMO the consumer PC industry is near an existential crisis. The big players are just awful at marketing; too many SKUs and models - it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. The exact same specs will be in two different chassis designs. Additionally, you can’t count on the basic being correct. It takes a hour of research to know if the trackpad is not-awful, keyboard doe…

Yeah, for a while my favorite laptop was the Surface Book 2. Decent specs, does what I want it to. Then Microsoft started going through "Marketing Driven Development" for Windows and its just been downhill for my experience with that laptop. It's not just the marketing trash, the OS has gotten noticeably slow despite me keeping it pretty vanilla. It's downright insulting. As for my desktops, I just smoosh over Window…

an underrated reason for the decline in windows is that it went from a core product focus to being crowded out. I wouldn't be surprised if azure, sharepoint, office 365, devices, GH/Linkedin, bing/copilot, etc are all more important to msft leadership than windows.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#283

Post by p_ing » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

drcongo wrote: post #160

FeloniousHam wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it everyday, I love it. Native unix, great apps and ecosystem.

It's amazing how often people who post on here about hating macOS have only just got a Mac for the first time and simply can't be bothered to learn, or hate that the keyboard shortcuts are different, or desperately want their OS level adverts back or something. It's lazy.

Been using macOS for years, even main it for both personal and work. It has a LOT of UX issues and requires many 3rd party tools to "fix" it.

macOS has plenty of it's own OS adverts.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#284

Post by ribosometronome » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #93

kingstnap wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1996 is not now. This comparision makes little to no sense. I'm sure if Apple provided support for installing your own OS on their M series laptops it would be incredibly popular. And I don't need to guess at this using weird 1996 research on microkernels because Asahi Linux exists and clearly there is interest in it.

Indeed, Apple from 1996 would not released Tahoe, most likely. We don't need research because QNX, L4 and many others on embedded space do exist as well.

Apple circa 1996 would be charging for its updates and licensing out the software to Power Computing and UMAX. They were making a lot of "interesting" decisions.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#285

Post by izacus » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

thewebguyd wrote: post #167

softfalcon wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This... so much this. > too many SKUs and models - it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. And yet, I just watched a YouTube video where a "PC guy" was like, "adding the Neo just completely confuses the Apple product line. Are we heading towards having too many Apple options that confuse the buyer here?" I get it, other than price, the Neo and Air are a bit confusing p…

> "hahaha, wut, with 8 GB of RAM? lmao, lol, you Apple bot?!" And it would seem they never learn either. I saw the same comments when the M1 Air came out, then they quickly shut up when people were pushing those little base model airs well beyond what anyone thought they were capable of. The same thing is happening with the Neo now. It feels like an M1 moment all over again for the PC OEM industry. If you aren't a ga…

[flagged]

Re: The MacBook Neo

#286

Post by oompydoompy74 » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

bigyabai wrote: post #223

mikestew wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the OS is full of ads and pre-installed garbage “gaming-optimization-tool” or driver tools taking up 99% of a single core while being riddled with security holes. But inevitably, some chucklehead comes along "wut? I can get for half that! Have fun paying the apple tax, lol." Someone posted that on Ars yesterday, with a random Amazon link from Naikan, your name for quality computing. Or rather, "Naikan, your name…

> It's amazing someone can post that without the slightest hint of self-awareness. It's amazing that people attribute it to lacking self-awareness. You can spend $400 on a laptop and have a perfectly fine experience. There are damn good Chromebooks in the $200-300 territory that I can genuinely recommend to people. If you just need to do your taxes or answer a Zoom call, why would you get a Macbook Neo? macOS itself…

I have a relatively recent expensive gaming laptop from Asus for the occasional LAN party with friends. I hate it and it’s a huge piece of shit. Windows 11 is necessary for anti-cheat shenanigans. Apple could change the Mac OS wallpaper to a permanent photo of a turd and it would still be better than Windows 11. Also the trackpad and keyboard suck.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#287

Post by syntheticnature » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #117

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #31

IMO the consumer PC industry is near an existential crisis. The big players are just awful at marketing; too many SKUs and models - it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. The exact same specs will be in two different chassis designs. Additionally, you can’t count on the basic being correct. It takes a hour of research to know if the trackpad is not-awful, keyboard doe…

> it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. Don't forget, one is going to be the "Business" version and the other identical one is going to be the "Consumer" version. God help whoever buys a "business" category laptop for personal use. The world will come to an end!

Or, in actuality, the Dell business model will be designed for repairability. I tend to always advise friends who want Windows/Linux laptops to buy from the business lines, especially if a 1- or 2- year refurb will work.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#288

Post by hackyhacky » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

mmcnl wrote: post #256

officeplant wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no idea how Lenovo's ThinkPad T series differs from ... My personal rundown and how they get assigned: E - Educational / Lower office personnel spec L - Office personnel you hate spec, but don't offer the E because they might complain. T - Give this to all the technicians because they can't take care of anything and it will survive typically. P - Give this to the engineers who believe having an RTX gpu will…

This still doesn't tell me how they differ. What are the factual objective measurable differences between E/L/T/P?

Spoiler: they are all identical hardware, but marketed differently.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#289

Post by kwanbix » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #31

IMO the consumer PC industry is near an existential crisis. The big players are just awful at marketing; too many SKUs and models - it takes a paragraph to figure out how 2 Dell laptops from the same release year differ. The exact same specs will be in two different chassis designs. Additionally, you can’t count on the basic being correct. It takes a hour of research to know if the trackpad is not-awful, keyboard doe…

As much as I like the performance and the power consumption of the current apple lineaup, the problems is I can not install Linux on the Neo. I can beraly install it on the M1, M2, and M3. And not everything works. If I could install Linux and have everything working, I will buy a Macbook (not a Neo) right away.

Re: The MacBook Neo

#290

Post by Aurornis » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 7:15 PM UTC

bigyabai wrote: post #223

mikestew wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the OS is full of ads and pre-installed garbage “gaming-optimization-tool” or driver tools taking up 99% of a single core while being riddled with security holes. But inevitably, some chucklehead comes along "wut? I can get for half that! Have fun paying the apple tax, lol." Someone posted that on Ars yesterday, with a random Amazon link from Naikan, your name for quality computing. Or rather, "Naikan, your name…

> It's amazing someone can post that without the slightest hint of self-awareness. It's amazing that people attribute it to lacking self-awareness. You can spend $400 on a laptop and have a perfectly fine experience. There are damn good Chromebooks in the $200-300 territory that I can genuinely recommend to people. If you just need to do your taxes or answer a Zoom call, why would you get a Macbook Neo? macOS itself…

> You can spend $400 on a laptop and have a perfectly fine experience.

Or you could spend $200 more (or $100 more with edu pricing) and get a MacBook Neo which has significantly higher build quality, a much better screen, a great trackpad, and amazing performance.

Seeing how college students throw laptops in backpacks, that extra $100 (edu pricing) could very easily save them money in the long run.

> There are damn good Chromebooks in the $200-300 territory

Every once in a while I go looking for a Chromebook-level laptop for some extra purpose and I am never impressed by anything. The current selection is all ancient processors, bad screens, creaky build quality. If you must stick to a strict budget then these can work, but I wouldn't call them good.