Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does this link work for anyone else?
Works for me.
Seems to fail on mobile.
We Need a Better PC
331–340 of 699 posts
Re: We Need a Better PC
#332Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…
... and god help you if you ever need the Asus customer support for repairing that thing. A truely horrible experience. I can provide details of my "experience" with them, but the Internet is already full of horror stories that cover everything that is to say about that topic. And no, buying a new laptop after a year and a half simply isn't acceptable to me, even if it makes sense in your economic situation.
I don't know how things are over in the US, but here in Czech republic, my experience with them was nothing but good. When my SSD broke down after about a month of using the thing, they paid for the shipping to and from the repair shop and replaced the drive in... a week I think. I've been using it for about a year now and I've had no other problems.
Re: We Need a Better PC
#333Am I missing something? Can't you just boot Ubuntu on a Macbook if that's what you want to do? (This is a genuine question - I've always found OSX sufferable enough to not need to, and I have a fanless Acer for Ubuntu that travels with me).
Yes you can. But from the article: "However, I don't want a Mac. Apple has great design, but they sell things that are locked down, both physically and in software. You're not supposed to open them, you're not supposed to replace parts, and if they break you're supposed to take them to your nearest "Genius Bar". Not my style."
I saw that, and it's fair I guess, but isn't that increasingly the direction hardware is moving industry-wide? (thinner, lighter, sleeker).
I was strongly under the impression that other manufacturers' products were becoming less-and-less hackable by design. Am I wrong?
Re: We Need a Better PC
#334I agree with the content, but not necessarily with the headline.
If you need a Desktop PC the options are plenty, you can pick from a large set of components and build pretty much what you want, from decent formfactor to big towers with powerful and good hardware.
For high quality notebooks however I came to the same conclusion as the author. I wanted to buy a new personal notebook last year, and actually did not want to get a Macbook, as I am not that into Apple and OSX. But I could not really find an alternative, even in the same (high) price region, so I got a MBP13 and I'm happy with it. For the windows machines either the build quality is way lower, battery life is lower, screen resolution is lower, input devices suck or the price tag is even higher (X1 Carbon, XPS13. Surface book too, but it wasn't available in germany anyway).
Another thing that influenced my decision heavily was the Touchpad. On the MBP it works beautifully, and in combination gesture features of the OS it makes working on such a small screen and without an external mouse much more pleasant. On the windows machines the touchpad response is mostly somewhere between bad and mediocre, and there's no swipe between workspaces and such stuff.
Re: We Need a Better PC
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my impression too. I'm not an expert on Windows hardware/devices but from what I hear the Dell XPS 13 is an excellent machine if you don't want a MacBook. Not even mentioning Dell tells me this guy misses a few things.
> Not even mentioning Dell tells me this guy misses a few things. I fully expected to see the (2015) XPS 13 mentioned too and perhaps Microsoft's Surface Book (which could be used as a laptop 100% of the time if required). The way he talked about "Microsoft Surface" made it sound like Microsoft only made the Pro model.
I was not even aware of the surface book, and I was recently in the market for a new power user laptop (ended up getting the dell xps 13).
Re: We Need a Better PC
#336Do you like the MacBook but don't like the OS? go ahead and change it, you can have triple boot. Tiny fonts and pop ups doesn't have anything to do with the machine you are going to buy (unless you also want the website). HP makes the elitebook, magnesium construction a la thinkpad. And last but not least I would like to give this entry the RAGE post award, nomination points for What I want is a computer with: -Decen…
> Rage score 9/10. LOL. Yes, that's fair. I was frustrated with Lenovo's website for all the reasons I described. > Bonus points for calling apple website an icon of web design when it weights almost 100mb. Apple's website is an icon of web design. It's 100MB not because of needless JS & ad tracker bloat, but because of high res images. Just look at it. It's gorgeous: http://www.apple.com/macbook/
What bothered me was this paragraph:
>Apple has great design
Functional design. A lot of haters misunderstand it as style.
>but
Uh-oh
>they sell things that are locked down, both physically and in software.
OK, I guess you read that on the Internet. But you should question it.
When I bought my first Mac the first thing I did before buying it was call Apple support and check whether I could open it and upgrade the hard drive without voiding the warranty. The answer? YES. Same goes for memory, etc.
Was true then, is true today. Although for some models the options are now removed due to technical limitations put in place not because Apple is trying to offend you, but because that's how they get the battery life you like. In my experience Apple is very cool about user upgrades.
What they're not cool about is stuff like putting in third party batteries, which then explode, and then asking Apple to eat the cost for that. Um, no.
On the software side, of course Apple doesn't want to set all its users up with totally vulnerable systems that can lead to all manner of harm. But it doesn't prevent more advanced users like us from doing what we want to on our own systems. Feel free to install Linux, even though it's already a UNIX machine, whatever... So you don't have to let the software factor in to your decision about a machine.
>You're not supposed to open them, you're not supposed to replace parts
It's just normal life that some things can be replaced, and some can't. This isn't specific to Apple. If you attempt to open a lithium battery, it may burst into flames. Therefore, they are made, deliberately, to be hard to open. And you being not supposed to open them is a correct thing, not a problem.
We don't know the story behind pentalobe screws But I imagine maybe third party battery replacement businesses were getting out of control, leading to damaged phones and fires, and that little side industry needed a speed bump while it got its batteries up to snuff. Who knows. It's easy to think up legitimate reasons rather than "Apple hates your freedoms." But bashing Apple is just the cool thing to do, right?
> and if they break you're supposed to take them to your nearest "Genius Bar". Not my style.
I would encourage you to think beyond style. I build my own PCs too but the Geniuses are backed by a truly awesome knowledge base with problems, troubleshooting tools, solutions, and discretionary power to make you very, very happy when things go wrong, if you're not a dick about things.
>Also, Apple makes beautiful hardware
Functional. I'm sure beauty is also a goal but I think a lot of it comes as a side effect of the intrinsic functional nature of every detail. But yeah, it's beautiful too.
>but their software is getting worse.
You read this on the internet too. Please. Think for yourself. Of course their software has problems. All software has problems. Apple's software is taking on HUGE challenges, basically helping each person manage all their information, and responsibly, which means with security measures in place, which are there to reduce the likelihood of actual harmful real threats to their users. Yes, it's complicated.
All that being said... I agree with one thing, which is that it would be great if there were more fantastic machines out there, from more vendors. But I think to make machines really great, they would inevitably end up including some of the features that you diss when talking about Apple, like security features and tradeoffs on end-user upgradability in return for other benefits.
Re: We Need a Better PC
#337I went through a similar process recently after getting fed up with Apple's direction. I ended up getting a Surface Pro 4. The build quality seems good, battery is ok. The software/drivers are terrible - it rarely wakes up from sleep, and I don't get much delight from using Windows. Hoping Linux support improves in the near future.
Re: We Need a Better PC
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
My anecdotal evidence points the other way. My own Ho dv6 gave me a good 4 years of running. - Yes, the crapware is unavoidable. but who doesn't ship with that? - For me the system restore worked like magic. I tried it a bunch of times on my own machine and those of some friends. The machine was virgin again with just a click of a button. - It's also very easy to get into. Very helpfully labeled; tons of guides avail…
> Yes, the crapware is unavoidable. but who doesn't ship with that? Well Apple for one (unless you count their superfluous apps, but I find those much less intrusive) I think the crapware is inexcusable. If almost every car manufacturer places a fresh pile of dog poo on your brand new car seat would you be okay with it just because everyone does it?...
> Yes, the crapware is unavoidable. but who doesn't ship with that?
Microsoft's own-brand surface line, for one. Even MS has realised that the crapware situation is out of control.
Re: We Need a Better PC
#339Man, community managers for all the biggest PC manufacturers must be rubbing their hands on posts like this.
Re: We Need a Better PC
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
We bought 120 HP netbooks and had almost 90% drive failure (Seagate) and their firmware only for service contract customers has really soured me on HP. I find SuperMicro makes better servers, so I am pretty much out of HP now.
90% over how long?
2 - 3 months from the purchase