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

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

#311

Post by mf2hd »

I moved to OSX a couple of years ago. I was really surprised that the extra buttons on my Logitech mouse doesn't work at all, ok, I bought SteerMouse, now it works.

I use every app in full size window, sometimes two apps side-by-side. On windows it was really easy, on Mac it's painful. So I bought an app for that, Cinch.

I want a tiny calendar in the corner with the weeknumber in it, I had to download Itsycal (which is at least free).

The bar can be a real mess so I bought Bartender, worked fine, I could even hide the spotlight icon. Then I upgraded to El Capitan, and guess what, you can't hide the spotlight anymore, so I had to buy Bartender 2 because they claimed you can hide icons without disabling SIP (https://www.macbartender.com/system-item-setup/). But it turned out it's not working for spotlight... Thanks Bartender!

Ah, the mess when you plugin an external display, how fckd up is that! My carefully fullsized windows are all resized and moved around to some random position. No worries, there is an app for that! It's called Stay, it can save the position of the windows, but you have to do it for every possible screen combination. If you have one external display, you have to save the window positions three times: internal display only, external only, both. If you happen to using the same MacBook with two external displays (at work and at home), now you have to do this a total 6 times. And it stores the window position on per app basis, so usually I open everything and save them all. On Windows this whole problem just doesn't exists.

I can't turn off the internal display, there is no way to just do a windows+p and chose external display only like on windows. I have to close the lid (so now I can't use the keyboard) and wake it up because now it's sleeping. Great.

I always turn off every animation, doing this on windows is easy, but it's really painful on OSX, and every time you upgrade you have to do it again, and sometimes the same terminal commands just doesn't work, thanks Apple. And you can't turn off everything, basically this is why I don't use the fullscreen functionality and multiple desktops.

Every time I use my desktop pc, I feel like when I was a kid and we upgraded our old 300 mhz computer to a 1 ghz one with a 3d card.

After mountain lion I regret every single upgrade. So for me El Capitan is the last, my next computer will be an Alienware 13 with 32 GB ram and GTX 1060 and an OLED screen and it will be still cheaper than a MacBook Pro.

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

#312

Post by nogridbag »

hsitz wrote: post #277
nogridbag wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I purchased my Surface Book, I was told it's best to purchase it in the Microsoft physical store so I could return it with no questions asked if I encountered any problems. Whereas if I purchase it online, from a website like Amazon, I would have to deal with Amazon's customer service. Edit: The only problem I have with my SB trackpad is that I normally use two finger swipe to scroll down with my hand slightly a…

The Microsoft Store itself has online ordering, so why not order online from there. The return policy specifically allows returning an online purchase at a retail store ( see near bottom of https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/DisplayHelp... ).

I ordered at launch and it was sold out for some time.

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

#313

Post by eddieh »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #281
eddieh wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 2008 MacBook got updates until Sierra. 8 years is an excellent lifetime for a entry level laptop.

2008 MacBook airs stopped getting support in 2012 for Mountain Lion. Just 4 years of ownership until a device becomes "antiquated" is very frustrating.

Dang, yeah the early 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir1,1) had an unusually short life. Looks like the late 2008 MacBook Air (the next iteration MacBookAir2,1) would have had an 8 year life. I guess the upgraded Penryn processor and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M made all the difference.

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

#314

Post by synicalx »

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…

Funny you should mention that experience you had at an MS store, that what I THOUGHT it was going to be like but when I ended up buying myself a SB it was the exact opposite. I guess each store is going to be different, I remember when the Apple store in my city first opened - they hired younglings from similar stores nearby and for the first month or so they were really pushy when it came to upselling stuff.

Overall though I'm a huge fan of my Surface Book, I wouldn't say it's 'better' than my previous MBP but it's definitely better at different things. For example the MBP was a bit nicer to type on and the trackpad felt nicer, but it's screen wasn't as good. I've also found the pen to be a HUGE benefit for me, anything from meetings to note taking has gotten a lot easier.

Plus I'm pretty happy with Windows 10 overall, nice and easy to use and I have to say I like the aesthetics of it a little more than the current OSX.

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

#315

Post by pdimitar »

gerrard00 wrote: post #206
pdimitar wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

(1) I can remap Esc of course, but I shouldn't have to. (2) I also use F1-F12 often. Them being gone and replaced by touch interface is awful for an experienced typist.

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

#316

Post by _b8r0 »

> Microsoft still isn’t providing sales numbers, but the company claims “more people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before.”

How bad does journalism have to get before it's indistinguishable from fake news? Surely MS knows how many people are switching from Macs to surface compared to a previous period? Surely a journalist can push for figures?

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

#317

Post by youdontknowtho »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #288
youdontknowtho wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard that people were having terrible times with the surface book. its a shame. wonderful concept.

I think Microsoft is still resolving scalability challenges producing a mass-market in-house hardware line. A friend of mine purchased a Surface Book shortly after release and it had a litany of hardware and software issues, the Microsoft Store replaced it free of charge and he hasn't had issues with the new device.

That makes a lot of sense.

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

#318

Post by wlesieutre »

wlesieutre wrote: post #180
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…

Similar boat, my 13" (not maxed out) touch bar MBP arrived last week. The touch bar works really well. I didn't anticipate this, but it's really slippery. Feels almost like it's coated in teflon. Your finger just glides on it, moreso than the trackpad. Wouldn't have occurred to me, but the slightly rougher surface gives your finger a better feel for trackpad movement. On the touchbar, it's very wide and 1-dimensional…

Another thing: I'm used to this with my phone, but being able to plug stuff into the computer without checking whether the cable is oriented the right way is totally cool.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2388 no more.

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

#319

Post by wlesieutre »

derefr wrote: post #285
TruthSHIFT wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad you're having a good experience with the new MBP. However, I wouldn't plug a $.70 adapter into a $3000 computer. Maybe you should splurge and spend $10 on the Apple adapter.

This is one of those cases where it's good to know a bit of electrical engineering. If an adapter, connector, cable, etc. is both "passive" (i.e. isn't doing anything clever in there with ICs that consume some of the power sent along the line) and "digital" (i.e. has transmission semantics which moot RF interference as long as the cable is within a proscribed length and between powered switches) then it doesn't matte…

Even with passive devices, there's a risk that it's miswired and will connect things that should not be connected to each other. Most famously, earlier this year the Google engineer who reviews USB-C cables had one fry both his Chromebook and USB-PD analyzer.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds...

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

#320

Post by wlesieutre »

jstsch wrote: post #287
TruthSHIFT wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad you're having a good experience with the new MBP. However, I wouldn't plug a $.70 adapter into a $3000 computer. Maybe you should splurge and spend $10 on the Apple adapter.

Nah. USB-C to USB3.0-A is trivial. It's just a simple electrical connection, without any signalling logic (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, I like that it's just a conversion plug versus a cable: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/LAIXI-USB-Type-C-Adapter-Mal...

Just because it's trivial doesn't mean someone can't screw it up and destroy your computer: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds...
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